Marigny Theatre
1030 Marigny Street at St. Claude Ave.,452-5515
April 9 – 25, Thursday-Saturday at 8PM; free preview performance Wednesday, April 8.
Regular ticket prices:  $15
Note: Thursday, April 16 will be a fundraiser performance for NO AIDS Taskforce.  This performance starts at 7PM and benefit tickets will be $25.

    Local writer, actor, and sketch comic Frederick Mead is mounting a production of Jerker.  Frederick is currently nominated for a Big Easy Theatre Award for “Best Actor in a Comedy.”  Jerker will be the third San Francisco work he’s developed in New Orleans. 
Set in San Francisco in 1985, Jerker concerns two lonely men in the Castro who are terrified by reports of “the gay cancer.”  Reaching out for human contact, the men begin a series of phone-sex calls that soon transform into a meaningful and even healing connection. 
Jerker is now 25 years old.  And even with age, the play remains both an educational and a wake-up call.  For younger men and women today, as well as the larger public, this time in history seems to be largely forgotten.  We can only be better by remembering that time before AIDS had a name; especially when our civil rights remain in jeopardy and equality remains non-inclusive.  While documenting a forgotten time in contemporary history this play resonates, I think, with humanity and with love.  So long as gay civil rights remain in balance in the midst of the ongoing war to either legalize or continue demonizing gay marriage while demanding through policy the existence of second-class citizenry, such human work should continue to be celebrated.   
The playwright, Robert Chesley, said Jerker is a “pornographic elegy with redeeming social value in 20 telephone calls, most of them dirty.”  In the late 80s, after excerpts from this two character play aired on a California radio station, the FCC rewrote its rules governing the broadcast of “questionable” works citing Jerker as the test case.
You can and should see Jerker at the Marigny Theatre.

April Theater Listings

 Anthony Bean Community Theater
1333 South Carrollton Ave.
862-7529
www.anthonybeantheater.com
The Member of the Wedding
Directed by Janet Spencer
March 6-29
An American classic by Carson McCullers

The Backyard Ballroom
3519 St. Claude Ave.
473-6819
Bourbon Street – A Family History
March curtain TBA.
An original burlesque soap opera; the serial began in January with new installments monthly.  Call for info!

Le Chat Noir
715 St. Charles Ave.
518-5812
www.cabaretlechatnoir.com
All Kinds Of Theatre presents:
Jamie Wax’s Goin’ to Jackson
May 8 – 22, & May 24
Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM;
Sundays at 6PM
Call for prices and reservations
Jamie Wax and his acclaimed one-man comedy with music; premiered in Baton Rouge in 1991, Goin’ to Jackson has been performed throughout the country to critical praise and ovations.

Le Petit Theatre
61 St. Peter St.
522-2081
www.lepetitetheatre.com
The Little Dog Laughed
April 17 – May 10
Fridays & Saturdays at 8PM, Sundays at 2PM
Douglas Carter Beane’s hillariously funny comedy follows the adventures of a young film star, Mitchell Green, who may be about to make it big. Trying to help him navigate Hollywood’s choppy waters is his devilish agent, Diane, who’s doing all she can to keep him away from the cute rent boy who has caught his eye.

Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts
801 N. Rampart St.
529-3000, 800-881-4459
www.neworleansopera.org
New Orleans Ballet Association presents: Diavolo
May 9
Los Angles-based dance company Diavolo returns to New Orleans to close New Orleans Ballet Association’s 39th season.  The one-night only performance will be at 8PM.

Southern Repertory Theatre
Canal Place, 3rd Floor,
522-6545
www.southernrep.com
The Regional Premiere of:
Altar Boyz
April 10-19
This Outer Critics Circle Award Winner for Best Musical, off-Broadway is a foot-stomping, rafter-raising musical comedy about a fictitious Christian boy-band on the last night of their national “Raise the Praise” tour. Produced by FourFront Theatre.