COMEDIES COMING TO A STAGE NEAR YOU

J.W. Arnold

‘I WANT TO F@#KING TEAR YOU APART’ AT ISLAND CITY STAGE

Samantha and Leo are a team – best friends, roommates, allies against the world – until a new friend enters and upends their co-dependent world of mutual self-loathing and “Grey’s Anatomy” marathons.

Playwright Morgan Gould set out to write a comedy about “the nature of friendship in all of its f@#ked up forms, with a special shout-out to the kind of love that sometimes looks like a lot of rage.”

Gould wrote the play as the thesis for her graduate degree in 2015: “It was due in 36 hours. At the time I was directing a play and if I didn’t file my thesis I’d have to do another year. I consulted with my adviser who pointed out that I always write satires. He asked me what I would come up with if I wrote a real play that wasn’t a joke.”

She drew on her own experiences with her gay bear roommate to whip out the first draft – after procrastinating with her roommate by binge watching several episodes of “American Horror Story: Hotel.” She later sat down on the floor of her bathroom (“It’s boring and I can focus in there,” Gould said), and 32 hours later hit save on her laptop.

Audiences might perceive the show as a sarcastic Millennial take on the stereotypical “Will & Grace” premise.

“I really dove into the love for my gay male friend and the complications of having a chosen family. Regular people have best friends and I have my gay,” Gould explained. “I hope audiences see it goes beyond the surface of why fat women and gay men are friends … just grittier and darker. It’s an amazing blessing and a curse.”

The play, which hasn’t changed much from that first hurried version, served as a launching pad for the writer, who was dying to work on television.

“I’m obsessed with TV. I always wanted to break into TV writing and now I do,” Gould concluded.

Island City Stage, 2304 N. Dixie Hwy. in Wilton Manors, presents Morgan Gould’s “I Want to F@#king Tear You Apart,” March 2 – April 2. Tickets start at $40 at IslandCityStage.org.

‘THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS, QUEEN OF HEAVEN’ AT LESBIAN THESPIANS

Over the centuries, various communities have envisioned God and Jesus in their own images – as a Black man, a woman, a blond-haired and blueeyed white man. But what if Jesus had been born a transgender Black man?

After a couple of years of improvisation exercises, short plays and spoken word productions, the Lesbian Thespians will tackle their first full-length play, Jo Clifford’s “The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven,” March 17 – 19 in the Our Fund Foundation Auditorium at ArtServe in Fort Lauderdale.

According to the group’s new managing director, Jill Bellak, the play has “gotten both rave reviews, and picketers, hate mail and even a comment from the Archbishop of Glasgow saying ‘It’s hard to imagine a greater affront to the Christian faith.’”

Lesbian Thespians has thrived since being founded by Carol Wartenberg during the pandemic, offering a safe space for South Florida queer women to connect and express themselves through the arts.

And they’re not shying away from the timely subject matter: “It’s incredibly controversial, especially in the current political climate here in South Florida,” Bellak pointed out. “You can see why we’re anxious to get the word out about this award-winning play as soon as possible!”

Lesbian Thespians presents Jo Clifford’s “The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven,” March 17 – 19 at ArtServe, 1350 E. Sunrise Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale. Tickets start at $20 at LesbianThespians.com.