Best Medicine Rep, Gaithersburg’s professional theater company, is proud to announce the lineup for its third season: Helen on Wheels by Cricket Daniel, The Crater Sisters’ Christmas Special by John Morogiello & Lori Boyd, Comedy of Venice by John Morogiello, and The Fifth Date by Lori Boyd. All four comedies will run from September 2019 through May 2020, in their theater space at the Lakeforest Mall.
“We’re very happy with this season,” declares Artistic Director and playwright John Morogiello. “We’ve got two world premieres, one revival, and a play that was chosen by our audience when it was developed as part of our reading series. We’ve come a long way since season one.”
1: Helen on Wheels
Helen on Wheels, the first production, is about a feisty granny in Oklahoma who keeps getting in trouble with the law. Her son wants her to move into a home, but she refuses to go. The script has been produced a number of times on the West Coast, from where author Cricket Daniel hails. Best Medicine Rep developed the script as part of its reading series last season. The production will be its DC-area premiere. The play will run from September 13 through October 6, 2019, and will be directed by Kelsey Yudice.
Playwright Cricket Daniel lives in Bend, Oregon but hails from California. Daniel holds a theater degree from UC Santa Barbara and studied Shakespeare in Cambridge, England. She has an extensive background in improv, stand-up and theater. Says Daniel, “I happened to be in the audience watching a play the same night as the playwright and ended up watching him more than the play. By the end of the evening I thought, ‘I wanna be that guy!'” Her other plays include The Lost Virginity Tour, Couple Dating, and The Night Before the Night Before Christmas.
Director Kelsey Yudice will be familiar to Best Medicine Rep audiences from her work as assistant director of last season’s hit Play Date, and from performing in The Texas Homecoming Revolution of 1995 in season one.
2: The Crater Sisters’ Christmas Special
For the second production of the season, Best Med plans to revive last season’s hit musical The Crater Sisters’ Christmas Special by John Morogiello & Lori Boyd. The play is about a sister act trying to salvage their career by hosting a television special. “We had a lot of patrons ask us to bring the show back,” offers co-author Lori Boyd. “The songs are so catchy, we’re thinking of adding a new one.” The production will run November 29 through December 15, 2019.
3: Comedy of Venice
John Morogiello’s Comedy of Venice will enjoy its world premiere in the third slot of the season, from January 31 through February 23, 2020. Like many of Morogiello’s plays, Comedy of Venice is a period piece with a literary focus. It concerns the true story of the rivalry between two 18th-century Italian playwrights, as they battled for the soul and the future of Italian comedy. The script received an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council and was developed at Constellation Theatre in Washington, DC.
Playwright and Artistic Director John Morogiello has had a number of plays produced at Best Medicine Rep, including Engaging Shaw, Play Date, and The Consul, The Tramp, and America’s Sweetheart. His work has been produced at some of America’s premier regional theaters, including Old Globe, American Players Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Abingdon Theatre Company off-Broadway.
From April 3 through May 3, 2020, the season closes with the world premiere of Lori Boyd’s The Fifth Date. The play is a funny, romantic look at a thirty-something couple trying to overcome their inner selves to find love. The play will be directed by Lynn Sharp Spears.
Lori Boyd is familiar to Best Med audiences from her performance as Mary Pickford in The Consul, The Tramp, and America’s Sweetheart, as well as her talents as co-author of The Crater Sisters’ Christmas Special. Director Lynn Sharp Spears is a DC-area veteran, who has worked extensively with WSC Avant Bard and Toby’s Dinner Theatre.
Subscriptions to Season 3 are available through Best Medicine Rep’s website: bestmedicinerep.org. Purchasing a season pass will save patrons 25% off the general admission price. Tickets to individual productions are also on sale now. They are currently available through BrownPaperTickets.com.
Now entering its third season, Best Medicine Rep is a nonprofit theater company that specializes in new comedies. It is dedicated to the artistic, educational, and cultural development of the Gaithersburg and Montgomery Village area. For more information about the company, please visit bestmedicinerep.org.
