How many lesbians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
The answer to that and other mind-blowing questions may well be answered in the new comedy at Stageworks Theatre in Tampa. Opening Aug. 10, 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche brings together the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein for an eggs-istential probe into the meaning of life, identity and gender. And all sorts of other stuff.
It takes place in 1956, when people — much less a group of wacky widows wearing Easter dresses, gloves and pillbox hats — rarely talked about such things.
“It’s about a particular group of women in a particular time period where women were not allowed to take charge this way,” observes director Jorge Acosta. “And I find that interesting about this play, in that we get to witness that — while we’re laughing our heads off.”
5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche was the breakout hit of Stageworks’ 2015-2016 season. According to Producing Artistic Director Karla Hartley, who plays Vern in the show, that made it something of a no-brainer for the theater’s traditional re-mount. “We try to find something that we really liked to do, and that did well for us, to come back for a couple weeks in the summer,” she explains. “To serve as a bit of a kickoff for next season.”
How appropriate, then, that the upcoming season, which begins Sept. 22 with the Hartley-directed The Marvelous Wondrettes, celebrates “The Year of the Woman.”
Four of the five actresses from the original production of 5 Lesbians were available for the return engagement. To fill in that one last role, Hartley tapped Nicole Jeannine Smith, well-known to Fringe Festival audiences, and an Artistic Associate across town at Jobsite Theatre. She plays Dale.
That casting choice sat well with Jaime Giangrande-Holcom, who returns as Wren. “I said well, the only other person I would be able to make out onstage with would be Nicole Smith!” she says. “She and I have worked together before. It’s a different dynamic, and I like it — the way we’re playing it now is a change, in a good way. I feel like it’s more raw now.”
There’s not a lot of rawness in the 90-minute laugh-o-rama by Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood, although things do take a turn for the visceral in the latter part of the show.
“For me, this play is about community, and embracing who you are,” Hartley says. “I mean, the plot is zany and silly and ridiculous – as it should be. But where I come from, part of the process is: What is the play about, and how can we make it clear to the audience that’s what we’re talking about?”
It’s certainly a journey of self-discovery. In a convoluted, eccentric and wholly unpredictable manner.
“I saw the show last year as an audience member,” says Smith. “Unfortunately, I didn’t know I would eventually be in it, so I had quite a few drinks. I was just enjoying myself!
“The fact that the play’s called 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche, you walk in saying ‘Oh, OK, these are lesbians.’ It’s not like there’s a big reveal halfway through.”
“The reveal,” interjects Acosta, “isn’t for the audience. The reveal is for the characters.”
Ginny (Emily Belvo) has a particularly erotic moment with the onstage foodstuffs.
Adds Giangrande-Holcom: “The audience is on the ride with us, and they’re laughing at the situation that we’re in. They’re not laughing at us, they’re laughing with us. And that’s what’s important to us.”
For Kari Goetz (Lulie), there’s been another sort of big reveal, and it’s profound. “This is the only show I’ve ever done where there’s no laugh at the female expense,” she says. "And that’s huge.
“We all have played comedic characters where we are the foil for the male characters — that’s how we generate our laughs. Constantly having to accept our secondary classification. And in this show, there is none of that.”
One element of the story now has a profoundly different meaning for the cast.
“Context is everything,” Hartley observes. “When we did the play before, we had a fairly liberal president in the White House. Life for LGBT people was progressing in very helpful and positive ways. And that’s changed a lot over the past eight months.”
Still, one can either look for a message or choose to simply enjoy the ride.
Acosta — who’s been designated an Honorary Lesbian by his cast — thinks the Susan B. Anthony Society is, all in all, a great bunch of gals.
“They’re zany enough that I’d like to get drunk with them,” he laughs. “But they’re not so crazy that I’d be afraid to get drunk with them.”
This article appears in Aug 10-17, 2017.
