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Episode 1: "Welcome to Sappho"
Written by: Jess Barbagallo Robbie is kidnapped by a troubled married couple on her way into North Hampton to meet with a Zapatista coffee grower, Ellie has her hands full trying to stop Bailey Donovan from fooling around with underage Francesca, Jane reveals a crush on Officer Jill, and Bea discovers that her daughter Dire has been "knocking boots" with Lacey in the storage closet of Cream. Episode 2:
Written by: Laryssa Husiak Robbie suffers from symptoms of post-traumatic stress after being kidnapped by a deranged straight couple, Bailey mourns the loss of Francesca to boarding school, Lacey and Dire have a "relationship talk," and Jane becomes jealous when Janine makes advances towards Jill – advances which the good-natured cop seemed all too willing to accept. Episode 3:
Written by: Laura Berlin Stinger Lacey becomes suspicious that Dire is attempting to rekindle the flame with Ellie, Bailey develops a crush on new-comer Cadie, Julie introduces herself to the gals at Cream, Grace makes a surprise visit to the coffee shop, and Jane – still smarting from Jill's rejection –finds herself making eyes at Portia. Episode 4:
Written by: Jess Barbagallo The Bearded Goat, a local organic dairy farm owned and operated by transmen, is served an eviction notice by councilwoman Brandy Rogers – triggering a chain reaction of surprising events. Dire is thrown into the slammer for assaulting Rogers, causing Lacey to make a last-minute appeal to the hardened councilwoman, Grace and Bea decide to throw a bake sale with the help of Cadie and Portia to raise funds to buy back the farm, Bailey befriends Willow, and Julie Jaspers reveals her feelings for Oak. Episode 5
Written by: The Dyke Division Lacey attempts to cast a love spell on Dire with the help of Grace, but her plans backfire when Dire falls for Julie, Cadie's film is abruptly shut down, leading to a fall-out with Portia, Robbie re-emerges a changed woman from her time in the woods, Bailey and Willow go shopping for soft packs, Jill finally confesses her secret love for Jane and a mysterious stranger arrives at Cream after finding Bea unconscious on the side of the road. Episode 6: "Arisen"
Written by: Brooke O'Harra Ellie is shaken when lost love Tahira re-surfaces as a man, Dire and Lacey tend to Bea as she recovers from her attack, Robbie and biker pal "Dad" do a little interior decorating of the SM variety, Bailey and Willow go cruising for tricks and stumble into a mysterious night owl named Esmerelda, and Jane and Jill finally consummate their love. Tragically, the union is cut short when Bailey finds Jill – bloody and dead on the outskirts of town. Episode 7: "Chained and Bound to You"
Written by: Brendan Connelly The Cream crew mourns the recently slain Jill, Jane steals her deceased lover's ashes and meets a mystic who might be able to make contact with the dead, Robbie, "Dad" and Dire drunkenly plot to capture Jill's murderer, Bailey goes out looking for a trick and gets more than she bargained for, Julie attempts to seduce Lacey by tying herself up to an XP8000 Vertical Rackmeister at Progressive Pussies, and Ellie is thrown into even greater turmoil by Tahira's cryptic warnings of the evil which threatens to consume Sappho. Episode 8:
Written by: Laura Berlin Stinger Robbie's drinking problem causes more trouble at home with Ellie who is becoming increasingly distracted by Tahira, Grace receives a phone call from a mysterious woman from her past, Lacey catches Dire and Cadie in a compromised position, a distraught Cadie takes off into the woods only to be entrapped by a sexy vampire known as the Mother who convinces her to kidnap Bailey as ransom for Jill's ashes which Jane still desperately clings to. Episode 9: "My Finger on Your Trigger"
Written by: Jess Barbagallo The gang heads off to the woods in hopes of finding Bailey who has been kidnapped by vampires, Tahira reveals to Ellie that she suffers from acute respiratory distress disorder, and Jane goes to a nunnery in search of spiritual guidance. Unbeknownst to her rescue party, Bailey is actually being held captive by the Mother – the head vampire – back at Cream where she learns why the Mother killed Jill, and just when it looks like Bailey might become her next victim, FBI agent Steph makes her move, saves the day and reveals herself to be Grace's long-lost adopted daughter. Episode 10: "Here Pussy, Pussy"
Written by: Laryssa Husiak and Brooke O'Harra To celebrate a return to normalcy in Sappho, Robbie decides to host an open mic night at Cream, Dire confesses that she misses her mother, Bea, who is still away on silent retreat with Cadie, Grace and "Dad" surprise the gang by revealing their burgeoning love affair, Tahira becomes well enough to leave Ellie and return to Pakistan, Jane makes some new friends at the nunnery, becoming particularly close with the Mother Superior, Lacey begins to dabble in drug use to Julie's chagrin, and Bailey is re-united with Francesca, who has finally returned from boarding school. Episode 11: "Field of Queers"
Written by: Jess Barbagallo What starts out as simple softball game at Grace's farm, becomes a dramatic day for the sisters of Sappho, Ellie becomes nervous when she discovers Robbie plans to pop the big question, Bailey must decide whether or not she still wants to lose her virginity with Francesca after she discovers her younger girlfriend has already done it, Dire intervenes when it appears Lacey's drug use is spiraling out of control, and the Mother Superior struggles to come to terms with her feelings for Jane.
Check out OffOffOnline review!! Check out OffOffOnline's interview with Brooke and Jess! Join us every other Saturday as we follow the espresso-laced exploits of dykes in distress, lesbians in love, queers in … well, you get the point. So get your ass off the couch, put down that Autobiography of Alice B. and come on over to LaMama Experimental Theatre Club. Starting January 5th. Make some room … for cream. Ever think about … getting out of the City for awhile? Just you and the girls? Uh huh. Yeah. That’s what we thought. Welcome to the wilds of western Massachusetts, home of the Bershires’ favorite Sapphic haunt - Room for Cream. Where the coffee’s hot and the drama’s even hotter. Meet Cream’s co-owners: Ellie Meeker and Roberta Charles – two ladies in it for the long haul … if temptation doesn’t get the better of them. Dire and Beatrice Owens – a handywoman with a full toolbelt, empty pockets, and a wisecracking mother she just can’t seem to shake. Lacey Chambers – toy technician at the local sex shop, Progressive Pussies. She’s smart, funny … and certainly has a knack for fitting into tight places. Doctor Jane O’Boyle – a gifted teacher in film and feminism, this professor might just need a little schooling of her own. And Bailey Donovan – a high school drop-out with a sharp tongue … who’s just learning how to use it. 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month... 1/5, 1/19, 2/2, 2/16, 3/1, 3/15, 4/5, 4/19, 5/3, 5/17, 6/7
OffOffOnline.com interview with Brooke & Jess Brooke O'Harra and Jess Barbagallo are members of the Dyke Division of Theater of a Two-Headed Calf. O'Harra is directing the division's new live lesbian soap opera, Room for Cream and Barbagallo wrote the pilot episode. O'Harra, co-founder and director of Two-Headed Calf, recently directed productions of Chikamatsu's Drum of the Waves of Horikawa and George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara. She will start teaching acting and directing at Mount Holyoke College later this year. Barbagallo graduated from NYU's Experimental Theater program and is now getting her Master's in playwrighting from Brooklyn College. She also works with another theater company, Red Terror Squad, for which she's developing a radio play. Her past projects include The Other Here with Big Dance Theater and Grey-Eyed Dogs. How would you describe the show for those who didn't see the premiere? BO: It's like self-referential queer fun. We're really embracing our community, while poking fun at ourselves. We're indulging in being out and being a lesbian, and being the goofy people we are. JB: It's like a soap set in the least soapy place you can imagine. As a premise, I think what's fun is that it's happening in Berkshires and we're trying to tap on little tiny things that happen outside of the city. Delightfully crunchy things happen there, which isn't hip in the city, but that's why this project is fun to do it lets us indulge in our cornier impulses. What would you say is an advantage to doing a live serial? JB: One thing that's really fun is the mistakes you can make and how you can feed off your audience and directly know what's working. If they like what we're saying, something vocal will happen. If a joke falls flat or if our politics are bad, we'll know that too. To be able to come back and return to characters over and over was exciting to all of us as writers, to go back to the space and build an audience. Who or what are your influences? BO: Definitely Japanese theater and a lot of contemporary artists. Lately, I've been feeling very influenced by David Lynch. He wrote these sitcoms that are amazing and very quirky. They're the way I think the soap opera should become: strange and twisted. It was too out there and strange and perverse for America â�� I was obsessed with them while living in Japan. I want Room for Cream to go there- I want stranger and stranger, more high arty. In my mind, if I would write an episode, it would be like a David Lynch sitcom. Maybe I'll write one, you never know. I'd never acted before the premiere, so maybe I'll write! JB: I feel like soap operas like this draw from pop culture, but I feel like writers have to divorce themselves from pop culture to write a different kind of play. Sam Shepard is one of my favorite playwrights since I started college. I love drama and all its clich�©s: people having arguments and pulling their hair out. I really like all the classical tenants of drama and not necessarily the use of post-modern techniques to achieve an effect. I'm old-fashioned. What about the types of theater or entertainment you seek out? JB: It's hard to balance making theater and seeing enough theater. I loved No Dice. It was a thoroughly entertaining three and a half hours. The performers were engaging and seemed really ego-less in a way that was exciting to me. The actors were being guided by the text, which is nice, and had really great onstage chemistry. They'd stop talking about something and then spend ten minutes on a topic and abruptly switch, which gave the audience a feeling of wanting more all the time. I could've heard a million of those. Could you tell me about any future projects? BO: We'll probably do a season two of Room for Cream. For Two-Headed Calf, we're working on Macbeth at Soho Rep. Jess is playing Macbeth. We're only going to do scenes of two people with intimate moments and power struggles, like Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Who's more manly? Things often have to do with sex and power dynamics or attraction and disappointment. There may be this big bloodbath, but the nature of the play is how power is connected to sex. Jess just plays Macbeth as very androgynous. It's not drag, but we're just not thinking about sexes - it doesn't matter whether or not she's a man or a woman. It's about the person and the physical chemistry between two kids of people.
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