The 16th Season of the Fresh Fruit Festival promises to be a great one and already began at the top of the year! Powerful nights of staged readings, discussions, and poetry events have been added to All-Out Arts’ Festival of works celebrating the diversity of the LGBTQ Community through live performance. All tickets $18 unless otherwise stated and available at OvationTix https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/527

The 2018 Fresh Fruit Festival MainStage, its 16th Season at The Wild Project, 195 East 3rd Street presents the world premiere of . . . Where You Eat by Dennis Bush
Thursday 7/19 8:30 pm, Friday 7/20 7:30 pm, Saturday 7/21 4 pm.

Does our sexuality define us?

Does it enhance us?

Is our sexual expression limited by society, the people in our lives, or by us?

Dennis Bush gives us eight men and women (straight, gay, and up-for-anything) combine and uncouple in this edgy comedy about sex, love, and identity. Bush is the profestic and prolific writer behind the acclaimed, Fresh Fruit Award-winning play (MARY)TODD.

Tell us about yourself as an artist, Dennis? 

A reviewer once said that my work, “lives at the intersection of hilariously funny and heartbreakingly tragic.” My plays are provocative, edgy and compelling. My characters are real, flawed, and experiencing life moments that have consequences – whether the characters realize those consequences or not. And, even in the darkest moments, laughter is not far away.

Very nice! OK so we got Nudity; so we got Adult Situations. Let’s really press-on … share with us a little something about your play that we WON’T see in the press release.

The various degrees of nudity exhibited by our incredibly talented actors will pale in comparison to the characters’ naked emotion and candid intimacy.

Did you write that? It sound like something out of Jay Michaels’ mouth.

Nope, it’s mine.

How does your play resonate today? Feel free to be blunt. Y’know, give us an Adult Situation. 

It explores the concept of, “say whatever you have to say to feel however you need feel.” Does a hookup app profile define us for other people or does it validate an image we want to believe is true? How can we find meaning in our interactions with other people, if we’re only interacting with veritable avatars that don’t truly represent us? Does compartmentalizing sexual encounters leave us unable to be whole, even with ourselves? Are our greatest truths revealed in our mundane experiences?

And …Where You Eat explores all those things in the framework of a comedy with dialogue that is frankly funny and almost absurdly candid.

Why did you choose Fresh Fruit Festival for your work? 

My first experience with Fresh Fruit Festival was with my play (Mary)Todd in 2014. The audiences were energized, engaged and enthusiastic. Winning festival awards for Outstanding Playwriting, Outstanding Direction (Lester Thomas Shane) and Outstanding Actor (Xavier Reminick) was the icing on an already marvelous cake. We were thrilled to be invited back in 2015 for the festival’s first-ever encore run. And, just like with the original production, the audiences for the encore run were amazing. The All Out Arts organization and the team that produces the Fresh Fruit Festival create a wonderful environment for performers and audiences. The support they provide for participants is unparalleled.

Golden Nugget Theatrical and director Meggy Lykins, along with an obscenely talented cast, are going to take audiences on a funny, edgy, sweet, sexy, adult comedy adventure! 

Where do you see it going in the future? What’s the next step?  

We did a well-received reading in early May that was the first step of this process. We’re looking forward to sharing the play with the Fresh Fruit Festival audiences, including some wonderful industry colleagues and connections. 

Aside from …Where You Eat, I’m currently working on two new plays and two screenplays, along with my work as a script/dialogue consultant. Later this summer, I have a new play and a new monologue collection being published and available for performance licensing. This pair of releases mark my 39th and 40th published theatrical texts, which I’m very excited about, proud of, and grateful for the support of my publishers and other reps.

Final thoughts? 

Thank you for your support and for advocating for the arts. Don’t hesitate to be in touch with Jay or me, if you have follow up questions or need additional information.

Gladly!