For Immediate Release: September 29, 2005
Media Contact: Amy Masterman, Allens Lane Theater, 215.248.0546

Poor Grandma Peggy, dead after tripping over her lover's wooden legs in a seedy motel in Winters, Texas. Which is a blessing, because if she could see what's going on at her funeral, it would kill her. Her sister has quit smoking, her daughters are feuding over her mink stole, her neighbor is on a crime spree, her son is dressed up like Tammy Wynette and her grandson is coming out of the closet with a vengeance. Big hair, big hearts, and big laughs abound in what director Eric Singel calls a "Southern-fried black comedy about white trash."

Playwright Del Shores may best be known as the writer/producer of the cable TV show Queer as Folk. Most recently, he wrote and directed the Showtime movie The Wilde Girls. Other plays include Daddy's Dyin', Who's Got the Will? (also a movie), Cheatin' Daughters of the Lone Star State, Southern Baptist Sissies and The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife. Shores also wrote and directed the film version of Sordid Lives, which starred Beau Bridges, Delta Burke and Olivia Newton-John.

Director Eric Singel has been involved with Allens Lane Theater (ALT) since the mid-1980s when he starred in Amadeus. Last year at ALT, he performed his original, award-winning monologue, The Wedding Consultant, which is in further development for 2006 production. He has been an actor or director in many Philadelphia-area productions including Crucible, The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me and The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told. Also a talented writer, Singel's director's notes for Sordid Lives include a comical, annotated recipe for his grandmother's oven-fried chicken recipe ("now ya'll gotta understand, this ain't no dried-up, crunchy chicken-from-a-bucket, this here is honest-to-goodness, run-down-yer-chin, call-the-preacher-cause-I-think-I'm-a-goin'-to-heaven Grandma's fried chicken").

The cast includes Sara Judge (Bitsy Mae Harling), Doug Greene (Ty Williamson), Cynthia Angst (Sissy Hickey), Mary Pat Walsh (Noleta Nethercott), Loretta Zullo (Latrelle Williamson), Donna McFadden (LaVonda Jean DuPree), James Reese (Odell Owens), A.J. Kelly (Wardell "Bubba" Owens), Steve Lippe (G.W. Nethercott), Catherine Mary Moroney (Dr. Eve Bollinger) and Eric Singel (Earl "Brother Boy" Ingram).

Sordid Lives opens at Allens Lane Theater on October 7 and runs through October 22. Show times are Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 6pm. There will be an opening reception following the performance on October 7. Tickets are $15. Reservations for general seating are encouraged.

Season Subscriptions are still available for $60 for five plays. In addition to Sordid Lives, the season includes Shadow of a Gunman by Sean O'Casey (a co-production with the Irish Repertory Theatre of Philadelphia), Psychopathia Sexualis by John Patrick Shanley, Eyes of the American by Samm-Art Williams and The Beginning of August by Tom Donaghy. Subscriber benefits include saving $15 off individual ticket prices for the season, entering the house ten minutes earlier than non-subscribers (there is general seating), and receiving discounts on other performances at Allens Lane.

Audience members are invited to bring dinner, desserts and beverages to enjoy before the show. Free off-street parking is available. Allens Lane Theater is located at Allens Lane and McCallum Street in the West Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. For more information or to make reservations, go to www.allenslane.org or call 215-248-0546.

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