Gay author David Parr gets a taste of Texas with his world premiere
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| PARR FOR THE COURSE | David Parr says his style is between comic and dramatic — ‘quirky,’ he calls it. |
THEY CALL HER MIMI
Addison Theatre Centre, 15650 Addison Road.
Through Sunday. For tickets and festival information,
visit WaterTowerTheatre.org.
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David Parr has learned first-hand the benefits of recycling. And not by being environmentally green.
The New York-based playwright was commissioned to write a Twilight Zone-like short play in his hometown for a festival that never happened. All that work, and nothing to show for it.
Until the weekend.
Last year, Parr — who is best know for his regionally-produced play Slap & Tickle, about the politics of HIV from the ’80s to the present — began collaborating with a Dallas-based composer on a musical when he heard that Addison’s WaterTower Theatre was soliciting short plays for its Out of the Loop Fringe Festival. So he dug out Mimi at the 44th Parallel, dusted it off and mailed it in.
"I submitted it two days before the deadline," he says from the lobby of the theater where it will get its world premiere this weekend — a few years after intended.
The Loop production has a pedigree reminiscent of The Twilight Zone: The director and actress for whom the show was written are both onboard here. It’s almost a bit of time travel, not unlike the non-linear storytelling in Parr’s work.
The play deals with a man who thinks he has tracked down the father who abandoned him before he was born. "The trail leads to a lounge in Ontario, where he meets the man" and falls for his woman, Parr says. But not all is what it seems.
Parr admits the short-play format is "somewhat new to me," which may account for why he’s already working on expanding Mimi two two-act status. Until then, his Mimi is living la vie boheme in Addison.
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Queer at the Loop: Final weekend
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My First Time,about people’s first experiences with sex, from the hilarious to the tragic. Saturday at 8 p.m.
Power Lunch. American Beauty and True Blood writer Alan Ball tackles the combative relationship between a man and a woman, pictured. Saturday at 11 a.m., Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
I Sing! An Avenue Q-style musical with a plot that includes a gay man (Angel Velasco) who doesn’t realize he’s gay. Saturday at 2 p.m.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 12, 2010.