February 25 – March 13, 2010 Written by Kate Moira Ryan & Linda S. Chapman Tickets $20-$40
“The Beebo Brinker Chronicles pries open the closet door and reveals the characters trapped behind it.” – BackStage Adapted from Ann Bannon's groundbreaking, award-winning pulp novels of the 1950s and 1960s, Beebo Brinker Chronicles follows the lives and loves of four friends in pre-Stonewall Greenwich Village. Beth and Laura, secret lovers in college, still pine for each other. Before they can reunite, they find themselves entangled in a web spun by Beebo Brinker, a butch denizen of the underground bar scene, and Jack, a flamboyant fop with caustic wit.
“Although [Ann Bannon is] hardly known outside lesbian literary circles today, Kate Moira Ryan and Linda S. Chapman's hilarious dramatization of her Beebo Brinker series persuasively argues that there's gold in that dime-store pulp...far from being a simple sepia-toned snapshot of the past, this colorful portrait of gay life in the Village startles with the truths it flashes amid the one-liners and melodramatic confrontations.” - New York Magazine (Critics' Pick)
Ann Bannon has been called “The Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction” for her landmark “Beebo Brinker Chronicles,” a series of five original paperback novels. The books tell the stories of young lesbians in the gay Mecca of pre-Stonewall Greenwich Village. In the intervening years, Ann’s books have become something more than ardent and engaging tales; to a new generation of readers, they provide historical insights into gay life in those faraway days.
In 2004, the process of translating three of the novels into an award-winning theater piece began. Written by playwrights Kate Moira Ryan and Linda S. Chapman, “The Beebo Brinker Chronicles” stage play had two successful runs in New York in 2007 – 2008, produced first by Hourglass Group, and then by Harriet Leve, with executive producers Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner.
Friday, February 26, 6:30–7:30 pm: Private reception before the performance. Tickets $15 Sunday, February 28, 1:00–2:30 pm: Ann will have a conversational interview before the performance, with Brava Theater Artistic Director Raelle Myrick-Hodges at the theater’s second stage. The event will be a tea party. Tickets $15 Thursday, March 11, 6:30–7:30 pm: Private reception before the performance. Tickets $15
Thursday, February 25, 8pm: $20 Preview Friday, February 26, 8pm:$35 Opening Night* Saturday, February 27, 8pm:$30 Sunday, February 28, 3pm:$22 Monday, March 1, 8pm:$20 Industry Night (Pay What You Can) Thursday, March 4, 8pm:$25 Friday, March 5, 8pm:$30 Saturday, March 6, 8pm:$30 Sunday, March 7, 3pm: $22 Thursday, March 11, 8pm:$25 Friday, March 12, 8pm:$30 Saturday, March 13, 8pm: $35*
*Opening Night includes one free drink with purchase of a ticket. There will be an opening night and closing night party after the production with a band, drinks and food. Everyone is welcome to stay!
Originally Produced Off-Broadway at 37 Arts by Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner, Harriet Newman Leve, Elyse Singer, Jamie deRoy, Pam Laudenslager and Douglas Denoff, Double Play Connections, and Associate Produced by Ric Wanetik, Jennifer Isaacson, and Greg Hall.
The world premiere of The Beebo Brinker Chronicles was produced by the Hourglass Group (Elyse Singer, Artistic Director) at The Fourth Street Theatre, a project of the New York Theatre Workshop Jonathan Larson Lab.
