Mae West: Sex & Naked Stage

NEWSDAY [13 January 2008] reported a collaboration between MAE WEST and The Naked Stage in Suffolk County on Long Island, where the play "SEX" will be presented next month.
• • According to columnist Aileen Jacobson, The Naked Stage is a 8-year-old troupe — — a theatrical collective that stages readings of plays with established actors but without scenery or costumes. Already flourishing at East Hampton's Guild Hall, where it's been in residence since 2002, the group is branching out to communities where, especially in winter, there's generally not much to do.
• • In her column "On the Isle" Aileen Jacobson interviewed the founder: "I think of myself as a cultural warrior," says Josh Perl, 47, who started The Naked Stage in 2000 at Southampton College, where he taught dance in the theater department while enrolled in the creative writing program. Formerly a dancer with Pilobolus Dance Theatre, he teaches English at Suffolk County Community College.
• • Josh Perl says he hopes to spread the readings to more East End communities where live theater is rare or nonexistent. The company's committee of six readers looks for works that are new, rarely revived, or otherwise worth a look, and audiences are invited to give feedback after performances. It's easy, he says, to get well-known actors involved. "Actors like to work, and they will work with relatively unknown people just to do an interesting play," he says.
• • Mercedes Ruehl has participated at Guild Hall, and Harris Yulin acted in Chekhov's "The Seagull" at a test run (to gauge audience interest) at Montauk Library in February, says Perl.
• • The series at Guild Hall is already running strong. Josh Gladstone, artistic director of the John Drew Theater there, is his partner at the East Hampton venue, Perl says. Guild Hall's next offering, on Tuesday, 15 January 2008, is Marsha Norman's 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning "'Night, Mother," with Sloane Shelton and Kate Mueth. Coming up at rapid clip — — two or three a month — — are works by such big names as MAE WEST, Woody Allen, and some non-marquee local writers.
"'Night, Mother" Tuesday, short comedies by Jonathan Wallace of Amagansett and by Woody Allen Jan. 29, "Sex," by Mae West on Feb. 12, 2008, and more — — at 7:30 p.m., Guild Hall, 158 Main St., East Hampton, NY 11937 — — free, call 631-324-0806 or visit guildhall.org.
— — Source: — —
• • Newsday — — www.newsday.com/
• • Byline: Aileen Jacobson | On the Isle
• • Published on: 13 January 2008
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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