By Mary Damiano

	Stuart Meltzer, the only local playwright featured at the 5th annual Lavender Footlights Festival, April 10-15 in Miami photo: Mary Damiano

There are many theatre companies in South Florida that present gay plays, but only Creative Arts Enterprises is dedicated to gay plays and gay voices.  At this year’s edition of the organization’s signature event, the Lavender Footlights Festival, April 10-15, staged readings of more than a dozen plays by gay writers and with gay themes will be presented.

Ellen Wedner, co-founder of Creative Arts Enterprises, says that this year is about continuing the success of last year’s festival.

“We continue to expand on the model,” says Wedner.  “This year we have added two extra days, the Pridelines performance, and an additional full length play to the roster.”

Lavender Footlights is continuing it outeach to gay youth by partnering with Pridelines, an organization of gay youth based in Miami.  The festival’s first night of Lavender Footlights is “Coming Out /Staying In Stories” a performance piece that has been created by the kids in Pridelines during an eight-week workshop with facilitators Miriam Kulick and Ryan Capiro.

Wedner is proud of Lavender Footlights’ partnership with Pridelines.

“I think it is the fact that we, with our very tiny theater company, can help the Prideline participants think about who they are, give them an opportunity to reflect on their personal situation and history and hopefully contribute to a growing sense of self and self esteem,” Wedner says.

	Ellen Wedner

Lavender Footlights received more than 200 submissions for this year’s festival.  Wedner says that there was an increase in submissions from the Midwest this year, and the plays that were chosen are from all over the country.

Better Than Damned Good, a comedy by Stuart Meltzer, a director and teacher at New World School of the Arts, will be featured on Wednesday, April 11.  Meltzer, who lives in Davie, is the only local playwright to have a piece in Lavender Footlights.

“I was thrilled,” Meltzer says of having his work chosen for the festival.  “I was driving when I found out and nearly drove off of the road.”

Better Than Damned Good is about a woman in her late 40s the day her divorce is final and how her gay best friend tries to make it a day of celebration as opposed to a day of sadness.  Meltzer’s plays have been staged before.  As an undergrad at New World, Meltzer wrote, directed and performed a solo piece in order to graduate. The play, I Love You Forever, was about John Hinkley Jr. an hour after he shot President Reagan. The play was also produced a year later at Tobacco Road by the Trap Door Theatre, Carbonell nominee Erik Fabregat playing the part of Hinkley, and Carbonell nominee Meredith Lasher as producer.

That experience heightened Meltzer’s interest in writing, and later, his play And the Moonlight Sonata was selected for New World's New Playwrights Festival.  Directed by Roberto Prestigiacomo, the cast featured Cote de Pablo, who now appears on the CBS show NCIS.

	A moment from one of the staged readings at last year’s Lavender Footlights Festival Photo: Mary Damiano

“That was a long time ago and since then my primary focus has been on directing,” says Meltzer.  “I played around with writing but never finished anything until last summer. I live with a playwright and I guess it's rubbing off.”

Meltzer, who rarely acts, will appear in Melt, the world premiere play by Meltzer’s partner, Michael McKeever, at New Theatre in Coral Gables beginning April 5.

As their special guest performance this year, Lavender Footlights will feature Tony Abatemarco form Los Angeles, who will perform Cologne, or The Ways Evil Enters the World.

“This is a powerful hard-hitting one person show written and performed by Tony Abatemarco, an autobiographical piece of an incident that happened on Long Island to Tony as a boy,” Wedner says. “It is extremely well written and Tony has performed it in New York City as well as Los Angeles.”

The Lavender Footlights roster also includes and evening of short plays on Friday, April 13, and two full-length plays, The Mission by Jules Tasker of Pennsylvania on Thursday, April 12 and The Lake by Robert Caisley of Idaho on Sunday, April 15.  Cocktails will be available before and after each performance.  And while there is a suggested donation of $10 for each evening, Wedner stresses that no one will be turned away from Lavender Footlights for lack of funds.

Meltzer, who has directed readings at past Lavender Footlights festivals, enjoys the experience.

	Ryan Capiro, a board member of Creative Arts Enterprises, and one of the facilitators of the workshops with Pridelines    Photo: Mary Damiano

“It’s so much fun and there is no pressure,” says Meltzer.  “It's a celebration.”

Wedner sees Lavneder Footlights as serving an important function in the theatre community.

“We are very proud that each year this festival expands in a way that brings more entertainment to the community, that we are able to continue to expand the educational opportunities yearly,” she says.  “Hopefully can begin to look at building a real marketplace of works so that more GLBT themed plays are produced here in Florida.”

Lavender Footlights runs April 10-15 at DotFiftyOne Gallery, 51 NE 36 Street, Miami Design District.  For more information, visit caemia.org.

Lavender Footlights Schedule

Tuesday, April 10, 7:30 p.m.
Coming Out/Staying In Stories
Created in a unique series of workshops with Pridelines Youth, Inc.

Wednesday, April 11, 7:30 p.m.
Better than Damn Good, written and directed by Stuart Meltzer, Davie, Florida
It’s the big day:  Leigh’s divorce. The zany happenings when her best friends, Aaron and Ted, along with friends and family, plan a surprise party for her-but Leigh has some surprises of her own.

Thursday, April 12, 7:30 p.m.
The Mission, by Jules Tasca, Spring House, Pennsylvania, directed by Ricky J. Martinez.
A suspenseful dialogue between a prison chaplin and Joe, in jail for killing his brother’s murderer. Joe works to unmask the priest’s real motives, but what is the true story?  Who is really gay?

	Tony Abatemarco

Friday, April 13, 7:30 p.m.
Lavender Shorts: Six Short Plays
A Gay Thing  by Joshua James, Iowa
A Kiss Is Just A Kiss by Jonathan Kronenberger, New York City
Christmas by Monica Trasandes, Los Angeles
In A Perfect World by Jay D. Hanagan, Geneva, New York
Postcards From a Dead Dog by F.J. Hartland, Cresson, Pennsylvania
Secret Identity by Wayne Peter Liebman,  Los Angeles

Saturday, April 14, 7:30 p.m.
Cologne, or The Ways Evil Enters the World, by Tony Abatemarco, Los Angeles
An autobiographical monologue written and performed by Tony Abatemarco, previously performed in Los Angeles and New York.
Curtain Raiser: Sloe Gin Fizz by David-Mathew Barnes, McDonough, Georgia

Sunday, April 15, 7:30 p.m.
The Lake by Robert Caisley, Moscow, Idaho, directed by Barry Steinman.
Old friends, old romances and a cabin by the lake are the ingredients of this sensitive, contemporary drama.
Curtain Raiser: Me  by Maia Akiva, Los Angeles