La MaMa E.T.C.

Room for Cream Season Two performance dates:
February 28, March 14 , March 28, April 11, April 25, May 9, May 23, June 6

Ellie's flown the coop and Robbie's in a tizzy. Julie's gone workin' girl and Bailey's gone power dyke. Dire's on the path to adulthood and Lacey's barely on the wagon. Top that off with a healthy dose of good old-fashioned retired nun sex, some late-life BDSM play and a killer community theatre production of The Killing of Sister George and you've got... ROOM FOR CREAM.

The drama thickened when Sappho newcomer Wendy Dooley hosted auditions for a community theatre production of "The Killing of Sister George." Tensions were high and the competition was hot between Beatrice Owens and Grace Tanning. Meanwhile, back at Cream, Dire Owens finally locked lips with sexy barista Cadie Bosch, but hopes of romantic bliss were dashed when Cadie decided she needed a break from sapphic highjinks and hit the road. But she did leave Dire something - a check for the errant landscaper to start the business of her dreams. A bittersweet parting to be sure - and the heartache didn't stop there. Francesca Beam received word that Bailey Donovan left town to find herself, Dr. Jane O'Boyle and ex-nun Meghan called it quits, and Roberta Charles and Ellie Meeker finally parted ways after a year of intense upheaval. How long 'til their souls get it right? Creamed, crazed, and all cried out (we hope) ... this is Room for Cream.

Episode 3 "Hired Guns"
by Brendan Connelly

Ellie drops a bomb...or two! With a bright new look on life, Ellie decides to sell Cream. What!? Yes. But why? To have a baby! Yikes. Everyone's thrown for a loop, particularly Dire who's been sitting on a fat check that Cadie slipped her before disappearing. Julie Jaspers is at the end of her financial rope waiting for Dire's landscaping business to get off it's ass. In the meantime she takes to more transgressive means of employment: phone sex! We also find Lacey a little lost, a lot lost. That is until Portia, Cadie's old film partner, returns to Sappho and sparks fly. Portia's back in Sappho with two furry dicks in tow, both hired by to solve the mysterious case of Cadie Bosch. Nothing really comes of it, except a lot of static electricity. And then there's the evolving case of local community theater director Wendy Dooley who seems to really take to her new acting star, the not quite legal, Francesca Beam. What happened to our sleepy little hamlet of Sappho?

Francesa Beam is legal! The crew of Cream throws her a bash and it's a blast ... until her crazy mother ruins the all the fun. Thank goodness Office Ruffins is on hand to take her to task for a pile of unpaid parking tickets. Meanwhile Dr. Wendy Dooley can barely catch a break between servicing the entire population of Sappho with theraputic advice. Lacy and Portia get racy with a little camp director/camp counselor fantasy... caught on tape! And finally, all of Dire's dreams seem to be falling into place with Trimmin' Twats set to open anyday. But is her heart really in it or is it just another one of this handywoman's half-baked schemes?

Lacey Chambers and Portia Morrison continued to get hot and heavy in the most inappropriate places, therapist Wendy Dooley struggled with her desire for younger patient Francesca Beam, Julie Jaspers pursued a dangerous love connection with mysterious newcomer Bella, and Dire Owens grappled with the possibility that Cream might close its doors for good. She finally gained some courage from mother Bea to use her inherited cash to save the flailing business and Ellie was thrilled - except that the expectant mother is leaving town to pursue the simple life. And leaving her business in the hands of former Cream barista Bailey Donovan, freshly back from a trip down south to find her evangelical parents. Will Lacey and Portia finally get a room? Will Wendy be able to control her all-consuming crush? Will Julie realize she's flirting with danger before it's too late? And finally - will slackers Dire and Bailey ever be able to get Cream back on its feet? All this and more - next time on Room for Cream.

Episode 6 "It's So Nice That You Can Share That With the World"
by Laryssa Husiak

Former FBI agent Steph kicks it off her comedic talent with mixed results at Gertie's Grab Bag. Back at Cream, new owners Dire and Bailey bring Cream back to life! But instead of ordering coffee they're spending most of their energy watching the home sex videos that Lacey made with new fuck buddy, Portia which are posted on the internet. Everything would be gay as rain except Lacey didn't know the videos were all over the world wide web. A major violation of privacy. It turns out it wasn't Portia who posted the videos, so who? On the other side of town, as Bella and Julie continue their strange romance, it seems Steph also has some romantic feelings towards Jane O'Boyle. Francesca, getting in shape for volleyball with a 5K literally runs into and on top of her therapist Dr. Wendy Dooley, which only inflames the doctor's unprofessional feelings towards Francesca. As if this isn't enough for Wendy to handle, Francesca barges in for an impromptu session confessing that she indeed has feelings for an 'older woman'. In the end, the sex video saga is finally solved. Bella confesses that she posted the videos to get back at Portia for betraying her back in San Fransisco and Lacey doesn't care anyway because Sex Tour Curator Gertrude Fingerton see's Lacey's videos online and invites her to perform with them doing a dem lec! Everything in Sappho seems to be set straight, except the characters! Enjoy the next gay episode of Room For Cream!

The local residents of Sappho were acting up and out! First, Francesca Beam, that wily teenager, tried to jump the bones of the alluring Officer Ann Ruffins...much to the officer's dismay. While stalking Francesca, inappropriately lovesick therapist Dr. Wendy Dooley saw the whole thing! Francesca's wasn't the only one getting fresh. Grace attempted to lure Ruffins to her lair by plying her with wine -- but to no avail. And Grace's daughter, Agent Steph, continued her awkward attempt to seduce local film professor Jane O'boyle. Jane almost took the bait...after all, she is feeling a a little low after local fuck buddies Lacey and Portia stumbled into to Room for Cream in a drunken stupor and made Jane the butt of their verbal assault. Their unwarranted abuse of the beloved professor was devastating enough, but it was even more heartbreaking watching Lacey fall so hard off the wagon after 9 months of sobriety! Julie and Bella, the new regular item in Sappho, witnessed the whole ordeal. But does Bella have something up her sleeve? She's one strange cat. Speaking of strange...Benny disappeared! That vampire, Esmerelda, was involved in a plot to sneak Benny away to a coven in queens, but the plan was foiled when Agent Steph burst in to arrest Benny, a.k.a. Lenore Eugene Perlin -- a wanted radical activist from from the seventies. The whole town of Sappho came to Benny's defense, with the help of Steph's other mother, and and dissuaded Steph from making an arrest. But, boy, now everyone sure thinks Agent Steph is an asshole! If that wasn't naughty enough -- Wendy, seeing an opportunity to curb the competition, put in a rather unfortunate phone call to Sappho Police Headquarters. Creamy. Crafty. Criminal. This is Room for Cream.

ELLIE MEEKER: Proprietor of Room for Cream and ex-Peace Corps volunteer. Has been with Roberta for three years, but when Robbie asked for Ellie's hand in marriage, Ellie hit the road.

ROBERTA CHARLES: Proprietor of Room for Cream and partner of Ellie Meeker. Poet and spoken-word artist. Harbors a secret desire to have children; this dream is not shared by Ellie.

BAILEY DONOVAN: Eighteen-year old high-school drop-out and barista at Room for Cream. Caught having an affair with JV volleyball star Francesca Beam, who was promptly sent away to boarding school.

DIRE OWENS: Local handywoman who ekes out a living doing odd jobs and pruning bush. Still lives at home with her mother, Beatrice. Has had a number of run-ins with the law.

LACEY CHAMBERS: Runs the local sex-shop, Progessive Pussies. Always up for a good time, provided the environment is safe and sane.

DR. JANE O'BOYLE: Professor of film studies at U-Saph, with a special focus on queer cinema. Once a bookishspinster, she's been stepping out in all kinds of ways.

JULIE JASPERS: Gender studies major at U-Saph and student of Dr. Jane O'Boyle. Possesses a fondness for the trans community and likes to learn new things – specifically, role-playing and light BDSM.

BEATRICE OWENS: A feisty senior with a penchant for soy milk and a gift for withering asides. Bea spends her retirement playing gin Rummy and complaining about Bailey's skills behind the espresso machine.

GRACE TANNING: An earth mother type, prone to emotional outbursts and fainting spells. Practicing Wiccan

CADIE BOSCH: Brooklyn-based video artist. Straight, she has a boyfriend back home, but has just started to explore her Sapphic leanings.

OffOffOnline.com interview with Brooke & Jess
by Samantha O'Brien
read it online

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.

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.

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.

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 Ã¢ï¿½ï¿½ 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 clichÃ�Â©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.

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.