The Book of Liz

By: 
Amy & David Sedaris
Directed By: 
Ryan Case
November 27, 2011 - November 30, 2011
December 4, 2011 - December 7, 2011
Cast: 
Ed Desiato - Reverend Tollhouse, Visil, Duncan Trask
Karyn Czar - Sister Elizabeth Donderstock, Brother Hesikiah
Patrick Martin - Brother Nathaniel Brightbee, Yvone, Donny Polk, Rudy Bruton
Melissa Rae Wilkeson - Sister Constance Butterworth, Oxana, Cecily Cole, Sophisticated Visitor, Doctor Barb Ginley, Ms. Yolanda Foxley

The Book of Liz by Amy and David Sedaris celebrates social, ethnic and religious diversity while taking a satirical look at American clichés. The play has been successfully produced throughout the US and abroad, and has proven to attract a wide range of audiences. Liz is a challenging comedy with actors playing multiple roles.

Play synopsis:

Sister Elizabeth Donderstock is Squeamish, who makes cheese balls that sustain the existence of her entire religious community, Clusterhaven. However, she feels unappreciated and decides to try her luck in the outside world. Along the way, she meets a Cockney-speaking Ukrainian immigrant couple who find her a job waiting tables at Plymouth Crock, a family restaurant run almost entirely by recovering alcoholics. Things are going great for Liz. Meanwhile, back at Clusterhaven, Liz's compatriots just can't seem to duplicate her cheese ball recipe, and it's going to cost them their quaint, cloistered lifestyle. They are panic-stricken and desperate. Will the cheese balls ever taste good again? Will Liz go back to save the Squeamish?

"I have read a very few scripts that made me laug h out loud as much as this one… It is about people, extremely eccentric people , the kind of people I like the most."  Mike Brown, Director Costa Mesa Playhouse

 

Ticket Price: 
$15 General Admission
$10 Student
About The Playwright: 

An alumna of the Second City and Annoyance Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

Runs a cupcake and cheeseball business out of her Greenwich Village apartment when she is not acting.

Occasionally works as a waitress at Mary's Fish Camp in the West Village.

Wrote the play, "The Book of Liz", with her older brother, David Sedaris.

She uses the money she gets for appearing on "Late Show with David Letterman" (1993) to buy a new pair of shoes for her next appearance.

Amy keeps a free-roaming mini-rex rabbit named Dusty, which she adopted from a rabbit rescue. Dusty's "bunny condo" was designed by her friend, designer Todd Oldham. Amy named her baked-goods business after her first rabbit, Tattletail, a Netherlandish dwarf. ("Tattletail Industries" has since become "Amy's Cupcakes.") She is active in a NYC rabbit rescue and shelter, and is an honorary educator of the House Rabbit Society.

Failed first grade.

Idolized her brother David Sedaris when she was a child.

Of all her relatives, she was closest to her father.

Enjoys playing characters who "like themselves".

Is of Greek descent.

Collects decorative cupcake picks.

She is best known for her grotesque yet strangely endearing character "Jerri" from "Strangers with Candy" (1999).

Raised Greek Orthodox.

She was nominated for a 1993 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actress in a Revue for "Truth, Justice or the American Way" at the Second City Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

Tags: 
play
Sedaris
Ryan Case
2011-2012
Liz