Looking for Good Theater? Be Sure to See "Jeffry"

Oh Asheville, do we have a treat for you!  When you started printing "Keep Asheville Weird" stickers, and "Love Local" decals, we met you more than half way.  The immergence of the theater group Different StrokesPerforming Arts Collective has invited Asheville to partake of professional theater on a very provocative and intimate level.  By engaging the audience with plays evoking issues with racism, sexual identity, aging, and other social hot buttons , Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective is making theater that makes a difference.

 

"Jeffry" is not your usual "gay-man-with-relationship-issues" type of play.  Set in the 1990s, "Jeffry" looks from the personal perspective of a gay man whose community has been plagued by AIDs.  On the surface, Jeffry is exploring his option to become celibate to stay safe, but as we go deeper into Jeffry's psyche, we start to discover this is more about whether or not to love someone you know is going to die.  Heavy stuff ...for a comedy. 

Rodney Smith, assistant-director with Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective, asks "How often can you say, 'Oh, this is about death and love and dying,' and then laugh about it?"

But there's more: When the curtain goes down, the show is not over.  Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective invites the audience to continue to think and re-evaluate their views on what they have just seen in the play.  During the "Talk Back Session," some of the actors come back to the stage and discuss with the audience the issues brought up.  The audience also meets and talks with the beneficiary of the play's proceeds.  You see, Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective is a non-profit organization.  Each production has one, and sometimes two, beneficiaries. The audience gets to learn about the recipient organization and how we all work together as a community to make a difference. 

For "Jeffry," the beneficiary is WNC AidsProject. 

If you are looking for something unique, memorable and stimulating  to do this weekend, check out the new performance of "Jeffry," running April 18- May 4, 2013 (Thursday-Saturday 7:30 pm) at ACT/35below - 35 Walnut St. in Asheville.  Contact Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective for tickets through Event Brite