MOTHER –– Do you think life comes with a playbook on how to raise your child? There’s no book telling you how to be a perfect mother.

AUNT MURIEL –– Barbara, there’s a whole section at Barnes and Noble.

---

It’s been said those involved in the theatre see the stage as a mirror held up to life. Playwrights and their actors reflect the human experience back to their audience. The theatre is as much entertainment, as it is a poignant snapshot of humanity, with all its’ comedy and ordinary reality.

---

Cell Phone Funeral (I’ll Text You When I’m Dead),
a new original work by Los Angeles based playwright John Trapper
(Wide Stance Productions), offers just such a reflection.

---

Trapper, who was recently diagnosed with a serious illness and had contemplated his own funeral, writes the play from the point of view of the main character, Peter, a gay man who unexpectedly finds himself crushed under the weight of an SUV. Throughout the play, Cell Phone Funeral explores the question of love, loyalty and acceptance through a farcical, and ultimately bittersweet, portrayal of who would attend a Peter’s wake when his socially repressed, long–distance family is charged with planning the funeral celebration.

---

Gay and lesbian oriented productions have a long and rich history in our country – beginning with the drag troupes of the 1940’s and 50’s and continuing through to today’s modern theatre production companies that work to create their own communities, and to foster a sense of the community at large.


Many active theater companies, including John Trapper’s
Wide Stance Productions, are collectives in which actors, directors, and playwrights collaborate on all aspects of a production. The end result is a memorable entertainment experience brought to life through the hard work and dedication of these independently spirited creative craftsmen.

Interviews and Script Excerpts with Synopsis available upon request

---