Coming to the Capital Fringe Festival: ‘LapBand Texas’ by Patrick DiBattista

“When we say let’s put on a show,” we mean it. Once we drove through a snowstorm with a bed strapped to the roof of van to perform at the Kraine Theatre as part of the Frigid Festival in New York. The day we were late for a performance, we were grateful for the snow that had shut the city down, because it provided a snow bank into which we slid the van as we rushed into the theater to make our curtain time. Last year a hurricane that threatened to flood the subways of New York shut down our last performance at the Frigid Festival as part of the the New York Fringe Festival. Hurricane in New York? No big deal. We were ready to peform. We had brought 22 people to New York for 2 weekends to do the show.

We usually start our shows at Capital Fringe and then try to take them to a venue in New York. We have done this with our first two productions. The first “Uncorseted” about lesbian, bare-breasted sword fighting at the Columbia Exhibition in Chicago in 1896 and the second, “The Miss Teen Jesus Pageant” a 2 hour musical, about. . .well, about Miss Teen Jesus.

Our show for this year’s Capitol Fringe – LapBand Texas – has been 2 years in the making. It involves a man, playing a woman, and wearing an anotomically correct female fat suit – cue the nude scene. It also involves a dream sequence in which Mamma Cass and Karen Carpenter discuss their differing perspectives on food. The fun aside, the play takes a serious look at body image, our relation to food, and the relationships between sisters and their mother. The plot of LapBand Texas races through a Thanksgiving Day heart attack, theft, and a fry daddy fire that proves to be a source of redemption.

LaGoDi, our “company,” has made it a point in the past to only use amatuer actors–because we consider ourselves a tribe. This year we have been lucky enough to add cast members, who though part of our tribe, have substantial theatrical experience.

Venue: Warehouse

Purchase tickets here.

1 COMMENT

  1. Great writing and all the players were fantastic! Always enjoy DC’s Black Box theatre’s and look forward to more!

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