Emerson Collins of “Sordid Lives” and “Southern Baptist Sissies” to Star in Popular Comedy
By Johnathan Tollins
Coyote StageWorks is pleased to present the most talked about comedy of the year, “Buyer & Cellar,” from March 27 through April 5, 2015 at the Helene Galen Performing Arts Center. Obtaining the rights to the hysterical show while it was still playing Off-Broadway was a huge coup for the young award-winning theater company, currently in its sixth season.
An outrageous comedy about the price of fame, the cost of things, and the oddest of odd jobs, “Buyer & Cellar” is part truth and part fiction, inspired by Barbra Streisand’s “My Passion for Design.” As detailed in the 2010 book, Streisand has a shopping mall in the basement of her Malibu home featuring a doll shop, an antique clothing store and a sweets shop, complete with a frozen yogurt machine. Playwright Jonathan Tolins takes the wackiness a step further as he imagines a man who is hired to work in the mall, with Streisand as his only customer. The show tells the story of Alex More, a struggling Los Angeles actor who takes a gig working in the basement mall and develops an unlikely and hilarious friendship with Streisand.
Starring in the one-man show is award-winning actor and producer, Emerson Collins, current star of Bravo TV’s newest hit “The People’s Couch.” Collins produced and starred in “Southern Baptist Sissies,” the film of the play by Del Shores, which won 15 film awards from Stillwater, Oklahoma’s Red Dirt International Film Festival. He also co-produced and played “Max” in “Sordid Lives: The Series” on Logo TV, and has earned numerous acting awards for his theatre work in Los Angeles. Collins’ production of the world premiere of the Del Shores play “Yellow” earned the LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Production.
“The New York run of ‘Buyer & Cellar’ won multiple awards for best solo show and performance, so we were thrilled to obtain the rights to this popular show and to secure Emerson Collins as its star,” exclaimed Chuck Yates, Founding Artistic Director of Coyote StageWorks. “We are enthusiastic about our beautiful new home at the Helene Galen Performing Arts Center, and are extremely grateful to our sponsors and the community for continuing to support high-quality theater in the Coachella Valley.”
The production of “Buyer & Cellar” will be Coyote StageWorks’ first performance in its new home at the Helene Galen Performing Arts Center, a state-of-the-art theater at the recently opened Rancho Mirage High School. Tickets for matinees, scheduled at 2 PM on Saturday and Sunday, are $45 – $55 per person, and 7:30 PM evening performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday are $50 – $60 per person.
Twice voted “Best Live Theater” by Desert Magazine in 2013 and 2014, Coyote StageWorks received fifteen Desert Star Awards from the Desert Theatre League in 2013, and was awarded twenty at the organization’s 2014 gala.
Coyote StageWorks is a nonprofit, 501(c)3 company dedicated to advancing theatre as a vital art form in the desert communities of the Coachella Valley. It is their mission to provide a forum for thought-provoking, entertaining, and culturally significant works in an environment that nurtures the creativity of the individual and the enrichment of the community.
For more information about Coyote StageWorks and its 2015 season, please visit coyotestageworks.org. Group sales: 760-318-0024. To purchase individual tickets or subscriptions, call 760-202-6482 or visit hgpac.org.
