Bisexual Sadness

Bisexual Sadness

Opening Nights September 28th & 30th, with Sunday Talkbacks!
Written By India Kotis
Directed By Carlyle King
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BISEXUAL SADNESS is about what it sounds like. Faye is getting married to a man, and though she really truly loves him, she wishes he was a woman. She’s not a closeted lesbian. She’s just sad that she’ll have to fight harder to be part of the queer communities she’s always found home in. BISEXUAL SADNESS is about the specific loneliness of being a bisexual woman in love with a man, while staring down the barrel of a lifetime of feeling that way. It takes the meme of the “Sad Bisexual” and treats it with curiosity and respect to interrogate questions of belonging, identity, cultural migrations and kinship. It poses the question: “why do so many people seem to find bisexual women so irritating?” and dares you, the audience, to answer.

Vincent Cast
FAYE – Tiffany Wolff
GENEVIVE – Alaska Jackson
ALEX – Brian Graves
MIRANDA – Karrie King
NAOMI – Gloria Ines
LILLIAN – Andrea Flowers

Roxane Cast
FAYE – Liz Fenning
GENEVIVE – Bex Taylor-Klaus
ALEX – Philip Smithey
MIRANDA – Amy Tolsky
NAOMI – Naomi Rubin
LILLIAN – Samira Beija

Performance Dates
Please check back for specific cast performance dates.

India Kotis is a playwright and anthropologist, chiefly interested in why and how the meanings of things change. She is currently a member of the BMI-Lehman Engel Libbretist’s workshop, where she is developing a Roller Derby Musical with composer Sabrina Halavi; the Women Playwrights Circle @ Speranza Theatre, and is under commission with The Truth, of Radiotopia. Plays include PHILIA; THE TANGIBLES; HERE BE MONSTERS; and THE SECRET LIFE OF BICYCLES, among others. Her work has been published by Playscripts, Inc., and developed/produced at The Blank, The Tank, The Road, Young Playwrights Inc., Manhattan Repertory Theatre, G45 Productions, Rascal Arts, The Drama Bookshop, The Alliance for Jewish Theatre, and Downtown Art. Her academic research, most recently a study of sex and gender categories in Umayyad Iberia, has been published in The Macksey Journal, of Johns Hopkins University, and The Lambda Alpha Journal. Kotis was the 2020 recipient of Robert L. Baker Prize in History and The Margaret Mead Award for Excellence in Anthropology, and the 2019 recipient of the Muriel B. Kahrl Award for studies in American Women’s Culture and the James E. Michael Prize in Playwriting, as well as several research grants. She recently completed a Collections Fellowship at the Museum of the City of New York. Her research on the American mid-century poet Edna St. Vincent Millay can be read in Rapture and Melancholy: The Diaries of Edna St. Vincent Millay, edited by Daniel Mark Epstein and currently forthcoming from Yale University Press. Kotis graduated from Kenyon College with distinction and highest honors in Anthropology in 2020. She is a member of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honors Society, and the Dramatist Guild of America.

Photo credit: E. Dalton Powell

Carlyle is a member of the Artistic Board of the Road Theatre Company.

Road credits acting: Beth in Mud Blue Sky (various awards) & Understudy Grace “As White As O”

Road credits Directing: After Orlando, Onassis and Hello Kitty Must Die

Off-Road as an actor: National Tours: Don’t Drink the Water, Macbeth, Duchess of Malfi (John Houseman) Seattle: You Never Can Tell and The Importance of Being Earnest

Local theatre: Theatre 40, Katselas Playhouse, Zephyr, Odyssey, etc.

Off-Road as a director: Marilyn Monroe Theatre, WACO Theatre,Katselas Theatre, Theatre 40, Greenway Court, Zephyr Theatre, regional theatre, etc.

Off-Road as a playwright: The Goddess, Abby Normal

Off-Road as a teacher: USC, South Coast Repretory, creator of Kid Shakespeare after school Shakespeare program from the ages of 6-12.

Training: MFA USC, Kim Stanley, Milton Katselas

Playwright – India Kotis
Director – Carlyle King
Producer – Danna Hyams
Producer – Barbara Muller-Wittmann
Producer – Ray Paolantonio
Project Coordinator/Technical Director – Darryl Johnson
Production Stage Manager – Maurie Gonzalez
Lighting Design – Derrick McDaniel
Scenic Design – Katrina Coulourides
Sound Design – Christopher Moscatiello
Costume Design – Jenna Bergstraesser
Props – Scottie Nevil
Assistant Director – Liz Herron
Casting Consultant – April Webster

Sunday, October 1st
Q&A with Playwright, Director and Roxane Cast
Sunday, October 8th
Discussion with LA Bi+ Task Force
Panelists: Mike Szymanski, Ross Hunter, Eric Von Beck, Denise Penn, Mimi Hoang
Sunday, October 15th
Discussion with Minnie Goode, AMFT, APCC – Clarity & Growth Center for Psychotherapy and Marissa Marqusee, Program Manager – Essential Access Health
Minnie Goode is a bisexual associate marriage and family therapist who specializes in couples and people who identify as bi/plurisexual. She is currently co-facilitating BiAF, a therapeutic bi-monthly group experience that is both healing and community building, that celebrates your strengths and gives you a space to share your story and struggles with other bisexuals who can support, validate, and understand you. Bisexuals make up the largest portion of the LGBTQ+ population (almost 60%!), yet often feel the most isolated, excluded, and misunderstood, belonging neither to the gay/lesbian community nor to the heterosexual community. Minnie spent much of her life feeling like she had no one to talk to about her bisexuality and didn’t realize how deeply she was impacted by that sense of isolation. During grad school, she dedicated her research to understanding the connection between bisexuality, mental health, and the impact of living in a monosexist society. Her findings were published in a thesis entitled The Bisexual’s Ever-Revolving Closet Door: Identity Formation in a Monosexist Society. She is dedicated to improving the lives and mental health of bisexuals through education and the creation of a meaningful, safe, and inclusive community space for bisexuals to feel seen, heard, and known by other bisexual/plurisexual people. To learn more and apply to join the group or to inquire about her other offerings as a therapist, please go to bit.ly/BiAF or reach out to Minnie directly.
Sunday, October 22nd
Discussion with Emiko Kenderes, LMFT – Equity Health Manager at LA LGBT Center and Sequoia Thompson, LA County Lesbian, Bisexual & Queer Women’s Health Collaborative
Sequoia Thompson
“As a Senior Trainer for the Los Angeles County Lesbian Bisexual and Queer Women’s Health Collaborative, Sequoia has experience facilitating interactive dialogue about intersectionality, racial equity, gender identity, and has spoken on international panels including Opportunities for a more Inclusive Higher Education with the former Dutch Minister of Education, Jet Bussemaker at Universiteit Van Amsterdam. She incorporates storytelling to humanize the difficult discussions that individuals and society at large are not having. This pairing of storytelling and administrative decolonizing creates a powerfully impactful ambiance for transformational and sustainable change. Sequoia graduated from UCLA with her Bachelors in Psychology and LGBTQ+ Studies and is an ardent advocate for mental health and incorporates her journey through Major Depressive Disorder to empower those who may not have the resources to understand the condition and thrive through and with it! She is passionate about social justice and QTBIPOC advocacy and wants to continue to be a part of healing the hearts of those affected by systemic racism, challenge the institutions that overtly and/or covertly perpetuate it, and continue to challenge ourselves so we don’t perpetuate this systemic plague that separates us.”

Emiko Kenderes (she/her) is the Health Equity Manager at the Los Angeles LGBT Center and is also a licensed marriage and family therapist who has worked at the Center as a mental health clinician for the past 8 years doing individual, couples, and group therapy.

 

 

Sunday, Oct 29th
Discussion with Sunitha Menon (she/her/hers) is the Managing Director of Operations of Equality California and Silver State Equality and Erin Arendse (she/they) is the Program Director at Equality California
Sunitha Menon (she/her/hers)
Managing Director of Operations of Equality California and Silver State Equality. She is responsible for setting a vision for and leading the organization’s human resources, talent management, development, and programmatic functions. As a first-generation queer person of color, Sunitha has seen how inequalities and discrimination have affected the health, safety, and well-being of marginalized communities. She has spent her career working to support these communities and address inequalities through direct action, support services, and education. Prior to joining Equality California, Sunitha founded and managed the consulting services department at RAINN, which provided tailored solutions to the ways in which sexual violence impacted organizations of all kinds. Sunitha received her Bachelors in Sociology from UMASS Amherst, and her Masters in the Science of Social Work, from Columbia University. In her free time, she enjoys spending quality time with her family (especially her nieces and nephews), international travel, hiking, and doing anything by the ocean. Sunitha lives in Long Beach with her wife, a Los Angeles County Fire Department Captain, and their beagle-mix.
Erin Arendse (she/they)
Erin Arendse (she/they) is the Program Director at Equality California, leading the organization’s programs aimed at reducing disparities in LGBTQ+ health and well-being, empowering LGBTQ+ leaders, and increasing civic participation within the LGBTQ+ community. She also oversees the organization’s grants fundraising strategy. Prior to joining Equality California, she was the Senior Manager for Grants and Compliance at the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and worked as a freelance and volunteer grant writer for a number of organizations. She graduated from California State University Long Beach with an M.A. in English and is a former English professor.