Grindr Mom - Full Length by
In an attempt to better understand her openly gay son, a conservative Mormon woman opens her own Grindr account and she winds up learning things she never wanted to know.
Ronnie Larsen
Ronnie Larsen
Ronnie Larsen is an actor-director-playwright-producer whose work has been seen in every major city in America, as well as in Canada, Australia, Italy and London. Twelve of his plays have been produced and five have been seen Off-Broadway in New York City. He has also made a documentary, Shooting Porn, that had theatrical runs at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, Cinema Village in New York City and the...
Ronnie Larsen is an actor-director-playwright-producer whose work has been seen in every major city in America, as well as in Canada, Australia, Italy and London. Twelve of his plays have been produced and five have been seen Off-Broadway in New York City. He has also made a documentary, Shooting Porn, that had theatrical runs at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, Cinema Village in New York City and the Laemmle 5 in Los Angeles as well as showings at numerous film festivals in America, England and the Berlin Film Festival. His plays and projects include: Scenes From My Love Life, Making Porn, 10 Naked Men, Peep Show, All-Male Peep Show, A Few Gay Men, Girl Meets Girl, Shooting Porn: Live On Stage!, Sleeping With Straight Men, My Boyfriend the Stripper, Cocksucker: A Love Story, Charlie the Sex Addict, Two Dead Clowns, The Vagina Talk Show, The Penis Talk Show, Sex and Violence, A Good Marriage.
Plays
The Actors by Ronnie Larsen
Recommendations: 1··Cast:5Genre: biography, comedy + 4 more·Keyword: familyGenre: biography, comedy, dark comedy, drama, faith-based, farceKeyword: familyA man grief-stricken by the death of his Mother hires actors to come to his house a few times a week and be his family but things don’t go quite as he planned.
The Actors won The Hive inaugural production contest and it was the first production in their new theater in Provo, Utah.
This play can be done be any theater group of any age. There is no sex, swearing or adult content of any kind.Grindr Mom - 10 Minutes by Ronnie Larsen
Recommendations: 3··Cast:1Genre: adventure, comedy + 5 more·Keyword: MormonGenre: adventure, comedy, drama, faith-based, horror, mystery/thriller, tragedyKeyword: MormonThis short play (monologue) is about a middle-aged Mormon woman who discovers and explores the gay hook-up app Grindr.A Dog's Life by Ronnie Larsen
Recommendations: 4··Cast:3Genre: comedy, drama + 5 more·Keyword: deathGenre: comedy, drama, farce, movement/physical, romantic comedy, tragedy, young audiencesKeyword: deathA Dog's Life is a 10 minute play about a couple, Honey and Babe, and their dog. This play has three roles that can be played by any gender, race and age. It's important that Honey and Babe are a believable couple but they can each be any gender without needing to change a word. It is written to be performed for any age group. Enjoy!Cocksucker: A Love Story by Ronnie Larsen
·Cast:5Genre: comedy, drama + 3 more·Keyword: Sex, gay + 6 moreGenre: comedy, drama, political, romantic comedy, tragedyKeyword: Sex, gay, love, pornography, military, bisexuality, drag, Transvestism"Cocksucker: A Love Story is Larsens' most personally revealing play to date, and its 95 minutes are packed with comedy, drama, romance, sex, satire, tradgey, and social commentary. All in all , it's quite a feat." BAY AREA REPORTER
"Cocksucker: A Love Story!" is a play about people looking for anonymous sex and the extreme lengths they go to find it. Truck..."Cocksucker: A Love Story is Larsens' most personally revealing play to date, and its 95 minutes are packed with comedy, drama, romance, sex, satire, tradgey, and social commentary. All in all , it's quite a feat." BAY AREA REPORTER
"Cocksucker: A Love Story!" is a play about people looking for anonymous sex and the extreme lengths they go to find it. Truck stops, porn theaters, strip clubs, a military base and even the White House are backdrops in this funny and touching play about strangers looking for sex, connection, intimacy and maybe even love.Sleeping With Straight Men by Ronnie Larsen
·Cast:8Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 5 more·Keyword: gay, love + 4 moreGenre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, farce, romantic comedy, satire, tragedyKeyword: gay, love, Sex, celebrity, fame, televisionReviews:
"Sleeping With Straight Men, having its premiere in the Theatre Rhino Studio, is another successful step by Larsen to reach beyond the reputation of his Making Porn et al. oeuvre. The first step came with A Few Gay Men last year, and this new play reinforces the developing notion that Larsen is a writer and director to be reckoned with."
BAY AREA REPORTER
...Reviews:
"Sleeping With Straight Men, having its premiere in the Theatre Rhino Studio, is another successful step by Larsen to reach beyond the reputation of his Making Porn et al. oeuvre. The first step came with A Few Gay Men last year, and this new play reinforces the developing notion that Larsen is a writer and director to be reckoned with."
BAY AREA REPORTER
"Torn from the headlines, but a lot more entertaining, "Sleeping With Straight Men" may turn out to be this summer's surprise hit play. The 90-minute romp had the audience at Friday's opening cheering at the end."
SF CHRONICLE
"...all characters are granted more depth than one might anticipate at first, and dialogue is quite well honed to deftly reveal contradictory, potentially land-mined personality traits. Sans intermission, well-paced tale has an arrow-like narrative trajectory that gradually becomes less comic and more tragic as it goes on...show should repeat its local success in upcoming remounts."
VARIETY
"What distinguishes this production is the real-life familiarity of the
characters’ behavior, even as their circumstances approach burlesque. In addition to his clever way with words, Larsen is a director with an eye for nuance, as well as choreographed episodes, and his jokes often find a second wave of laughter through their staging."
BAY AREA REPORTER
Shooting Porn: Live On Stage! by Ronnie Larsen
·Cast:6Genre: adaptation, comedy + 3 moreGenre: adaptation, comedy, drama, parody/spoof, satireStory: “When Making Porn was playing in LA the first time, I met a bunch of porn stars so I decided to make a documentary about their lives and the process of shooting porn movies. The movie was NOT a film adaptation of my play, Making Porn, it was an actual documentary. After the movie came out I wanted to see if I could actually stage the movie and then turned it into a play. To the best of my knowledge...Story: “When Making Porn was playing in LA the first time, I met a bunch of porn stars so I decided to make a documentary about their lives and the process of shooting porn movies. The movie was NOT a film adaptation of my play, Making Porn, it was an actual documentary. After the movie came out I wanted to see if I could actually stage the movie and then turned it into a play. To the best of my knowledge no one had ever made a documentary and then turned it in to a stage play, so in a sense the whole thing was just a big experiment for me.” Ronnie Larsen
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"Jubilant crowds are offered a bawdy, hilarious, thought-provoking, shocking, touching, and altogether exhilarating theater piece.”
LES SPINDLE, FRONTIERS MAGAZINE
“An evening of good, dirty fun.”
SANDRA ROSS, LA WEEKLY
“Surprisingly entertaining and too, too funny.”
WENZEL JONES, BACKSTAGE WEST
“The most entertaining and fun show in Los Angeles this Fall.”
BILL KAISER, THE PURPLE CIRCUIT
“Illuminating, insightful, and thought-provoking.”
MARK ARIEL, FAB!
“Uproariously funny! Beyond hysterical!”
BILLY MASTERS, GAY AND LESBIAN TIMES
“Tight, fun, and lively.”
DAVID SPIRO, ODYSSEY MAGAZINEGirl Meets Girl by Ronnie Larsen
·Cast:6Genre: comedy, drama·Keyword: gay, bisexuality + 5 moreGenre: comedy, dramaKeyword: gay, bisexuality, pornography, women, feminism, college, photographyStory: The story focuses on Anita, a magazine editor who’s turning 40 and fed up with her job. Her friends throw her a surprise birthday party, and that evening Anita meets a woman who sweeps her off her feet. The play explores the journey of this wild relationship and the affect it has on the circle of friends.
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Reviews:
“A four-star crowd-pleaser…...Story: The story focuses on Anita, a magazine editor who’s turning 40 and fed up with her job. Her friends throw her a surprise birthday party, and that evening Anita meets a woman who sweeps her off her feet. The play explores the journey of this wild relationship and the affect it has on the circle of friends.
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Reviews:
“A four-star crowd-pleaser…the most thoroughly satisfying lesbian comedy since the award-winning "Valsetz" (1997). This highly agreeable romantic sitcom is a wise and witty view of girl-to-girl courtship in the modern age,”
FRONTIERS MAGAZINE, LOS ANGELES
“This is a delightful and quirky celebration of womanhood.”
BEST BET, NITELIFE
“Girl Meets Girl has been a success in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Now at Denver's Phoenix Theatre, the romantic comedy gives lesbians a version of themselves. The erotica infused throughout is nicely conducted, with real intimacy between the players.”
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
“The women of "Girl" waste little time shedding clothing…but "Girl" raises some important issues.”
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINERA Few Gay Men by Ronnie Larsen
·Cast:9Genre: biography, comedy + 3 more·Keyword: Sex, love + 2 moreGenre: biography, comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, periodKeyword: Sex, love, gay men, bisexualityReviews:
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"A Few Gay Men" is reminiscent of the techniques of Anna Deavere Smith as filtered through the lens of Moises Kaufman ("The Laramie Project"). It explores some tough questions -- about AIDS, safe sex, gay misogyny, religious intolerance and a bracing variety of sexual practices -- with fascinating frankness.”
...Reviews:
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"A Few Gay Men" is reminiscent of the techniques of Anna Deavere Smith as filtered through the lens of Moises Kaufman ("The Laramie Project"). It explores some tough questions -- about AIDS, safe sex, gay misogyny, religious intolerance and a bracing variety of sexual practices -- with fascinating frankness.”
LOS ANGELES TIMES
"Writer and director Ronnie Larsen likes to talk about sex. No shock if you're familiar with his "All-Male Peep Show" or "Making Porn." While in New York, he placed an ad in search of men to talk about sex and found 100 eager participants. These interviews are the basis of Larsen's new show, "A Few Gay Men"...The material is by turns intriguing, erotically charged and poignant. This isn't a show for the timid or homophobic. And if you're looking for gratuitous nudity, this isn't for you either. Sex acts are simulated, and a few shirts are doffed, but the men remained clothed--it's their sexual souls that are naked.
LA WEEKLY
Somehow, Larsen got many in the audience to admit they had spent time in jail, and of the few women in the house, one confessed she had recently fellated her boyfriend. All of which lead into writer-director Larsen’s staged docudrama based on interviews with NYC gay men....and behind all the hot talk and posturing emerges a savage loneliness and yearning for connectedness that alternates between piquancy and poignancy."
BACKSTAGE WEST
"It's heartening to see Larsen spreading his wings so felicitously. In its finest moments, his labor of love lifts up and soars."citously. In its finest moments, his labor of love lifts up and soars."All-Male Peep Show by Ronnie Larsen
·Cast:9Genre: comedy, farce + 5 more·Keyword: Peep show, gay + 5 moreGenre: comedy, farce, musical, parody/spoof, period, romantic comedy, satireKeyword: Peep show, gay, Sex, hookers, prostitution, money, straightPLAY LOOKS BACK AT SEEDY SIDE OF BIG APPLE
South Florida Gay News
by JW Arnold
http://southfloridagaynews.com/Theatre/play-looks-back-at-seedy-side-of-the-big-apple.html
Anyone who has visited Times Square in New York City can attest to the power of corporate America. Disney reigns at the Broadway box office as busloads of tourists crowd “The Lion King” and “...PLAY LOOKS BACK AT SEEDY SIDE OF BIG APPLE
South Florida Gay News
by JW Arnold
http://southfloridagaynews.com/Theatre/play-looks-back-at-seedy-side-of-the-big-apple.html
Anyone who has visited Times Square in New York City can attest to the power of corporate America. Disney reigns at the Broadway box office as busloads of tourists crowd “The Lion King” and “Aladdin.” Giant flashing billboards advertise big brands like Sony and Calvin Klein. Retailers from The Gap to Toys R Us operate mobbed flagship stores.
Turn back the clock just a few years and Times Square was a very different place, lined with seedy movie theaters where prostitutes worked the corners as nervous tourists hurried through to the theater district.
This was the New York City playwright Ronnie Larsen discovered as a young college student in the late ‘80s. It was also the New York City he quickly grew to love and immortalized in his play, “All-Male Peep Show,” opening next weekend at Empire Stage.
“New York used to be crazy. It was very exciting. I think it’s sad all that stuff went away. It was exciting to be harassed by the hookers. (Mayor Rudy) Giuliani took a piece out of New York when he shut all that down,” Larsen recalled. “How do I say that without sounding creepy?”
Larsen is best known for his play, “Making Porn,” a satirical look at the porn industry that has been produced around the world, including South Florida. But it was a chance encounter with a woman who “performed” behind the glass in one of those Times Square peep shows that inspired this rarely produced play.
“She was so glamorous, sitting there behind the glass taking these men’s money.
It wasn’t like ‘Magic Mike,’ there was no art to it at all, but I was fascinated by the people who worked in these sex shops,” he said.
The original version featured female characters, but soon Larsen began to question whether he was reaching the right audience. He rewrote the play with a cast of male characters and had a hit, especially after he cast porn legend Jeff Stryker.
“You couldn’t get a ticket,” boasted Larsen.
Unlike “Making Porn,” “All-Male Peep Show” had a relatively large cast and cumbersome set, making it impractical to tour the play. According to Larsen, the play sat for nearly 10 years when Empire Stage producer and friend David Gordon suggested the play be revived in Fort Lauderdale.
Larsen reworked the book, cut some characters and a more manageable set was designed. The cast includes familiar South Florida actors, along with several fresh faces. A friend of Larsen, a Los Angeles-based casting director, actually cast many of the actors via Internet.
“I really like the cast. All the strippers are kind of novices, but they’re like their characters in the play,” he said, pointing out there is full frontal nudity in the show. Not all the performers are gay, either, just like many real life sex workers who are “gay for pay.”
In addition to “All-Male Peep Show,” Larsen is also bringing “The Penis Talk Show” to Empire Stage for two performances on Wednesdays, March 11 and 18. Unlike the play, this show is largely improvised and Larsen serves as the “emcee.”
Three men will be seated naked on the stage with a curtain that covers their faces and protects their anonymity. The audience is then invited to ask the men just about anything.
“They’re not actors, just regular guys,” he explained. “Nothing is scripted and I can’t believe the shit people ask. Eventually, the audience ends up divulging their secrets, too.”
In Empire Stage’s intimate space, there’s nowhere to hide, but he promises the show is always funny. Just don’t be too shy.
Ronnie Larsen’s “All-Male Peep Show” will be presented March 5 – April 12 at Empire Stage, 1140 N. Flagler Dr. in Fort Lauderdale. Tickets are $30 at EmpireStage.com.Peep Show by Ronnie Larsen
·Cast:12Genre: dark comedy, docudrama/historic + 2 more·Keyword: Peep show, women + 6 moreGenre: dark comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, musicalKeyword: Peep show, women, Times Square, prostitution, money, Sex, sleaze, heterosexualStory: The play, Peep Show, is basically a day in the life of a Times Square peep show. The play begins in the morning with the arrival of the dancers and ends late at night when they turn off the lights and go home.
The set is an actual peep show with sex booths made to swivel around so the audience can see what goes on behind the closed doors. Its a very visual piece but its also a character...Story: The play, Peep Show, is basically a day in the life of a Times Square peep show. The play begins in the morning with the arrival of the dancers and ends late at night when they turn off the lights and go home.
The set is an actual peep show with sex booths made to swivel around so the audience can see what goes on behind the closed doors. Its a very visual piece but its also a character study of the people involved in the world of Times Square peep shows.
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April 14, 1998, Tuesday
New York Times
THE ARTS/CULTURAL DESK
THEATER REVIEW; So What's A Nice Guy Like You . . .
By LAWRENCE VAN GELDER
Like those XXX-designated movies that wrap their feverish quest for titillation in the cool veneer of sociology, ''Ronnie Larsen's Peep Show'' mingles raunch and research.
And thanks to its flawless cast and the smooth direction of Mr. Larsen, his 90-minute intermissionless excursion behind the scenes of peep parlors that beckon in places like midtown Manhattan adds up to a good time. The characters in the show at Actors' Playhouse are engaging; the humor is winning; the conflicts are genuine, and the music lively. Partial nudity, uninhibited language and sexual scenes, simulated and sanitized to a degree but leaving little to the imagination, seem unlikely to please the blue-nosed as ''Peep Show'' goes behind the brightly lighted signs to introduce its audience to the women who work behind the glass partitions of the 25-cent booths, the manager of the place and the dark-suited businessmen who patronize it.
In introducing the attractive, loving wives of two of the businessmen, ''Peep Show'' asks why men like Mike (Josh Aaron McCabe) and his colleague and pal, Bradley (Mark T. Leneker), repeatedly patronize the place. But the true focus of the evening is the women who work the peep show, and its expatriate Pakistani manager, Ameer (Steve Hunneshagen). The willing workers are Rhonda (Deborah Berman), a good-humored fleshy lesbian who attracts sadomasochists; Sherry (Pia Glenn), a black woman succumbing to her craving for heroin, and Jennifer (Joanna Keylock), a pretty young woman who got pregnant at 14 and is happy that her earnings enable her to support her 8-year-old son.
Along the way, the audience meets Deidre (Eliza Pryor Nagel), the Alice in Wonderland innocent who begins work at the peep show; Katherine (Laura Frenzer) and Susan (Cloud Michaels), the wives of Mike and Bradley, and three of the businessmen who are peep-show regulars. Under their suits, one is a cross-dresser; another, a tough guy who favors chains and pierced nipples, and the third a boyish fellow who prefers vinyl and boasts of his sexual conquests.
As writer and director, Mr. Larsen, whose previous work includes ''Making Porn,'' a 1996 comedy about the gay porn film industry, is ably abetted by the scenic design of Gerard MacMillan, the lighting of Brian Aldous and the costumes of Bosco DuChamp. All bring to their work a sensitivity to reality and an air of wit and style that matches the playwright's.
As its characters go about their work and play out their fantasies, ''Peep Show'' is without a dull moment until Ameer tidies up the place and closes it down for the night.
RONNIE LARSEN'S PEEP SHOW
Written and directed by Ronnie Larsen; assistant director, Toni Marie Davis; sets by Gerard MacMillan; lighting by Brian Aldous; costumes by Bosco DuChamp. Presented by Caryn Horwitz. At the Actors' Playhouse, 100 Seventh Avenue South, off Sheridan Square, Greenwich Village.
WITH: Deborah Berman (Rhonda), Laura Frenzer (Katherine), Pia Glenn (Sherry), Steve Hunneshagen (Ameer), Joanna Keylock (Jennifer), Mark T. Leneker (Bradley), Josh Aaron McCabe (Mike), Cloud Michaels (Susan) and Eliza Pryor Nagel (Deidre).
10 Naked Men by Ronnie Larsen
·Cast:10Genre: comedy, drama + 3 more·Keyword: gay, Hollywood + 6 moreGenre: comedy, drama, parody/spoof, romantic comedy, satireKeyword: gay, Hollywood, Sex, hustling, prostitution, money, nudity, nakedStory: Ronnie Larsen’s comedy about prostitution in Hollywood. Set in Hollywood, California, 10 NAKED MEN focuses on ten individuals: three hustlers, two producers and two agents, one banker, a single photographer, and a lone actor. All 10 MEN are involved in the entertainment industry; all are wrapped up in the quest for fame, fortune, and happiness. And yes, they all get naked!
There is a 2...Story: Ronnie Larsen’s comedy about prostitution in Hollywood. Set in Hollywood, California, 10 NAKED MEN focuses on ten individuals: three hustlers, two producers and two agents, one banker, a single photographer, and a lone actor. All 10 MEN are involved in the entertainment industry; all are wrapped up in the quest for fame, fortune, and happiness. And yes, they all get naked!
There is a 2 act version and a 90 minute version. There is a version for an overweight lead actor and another version for a thin lead actor.
10 NAKED MEN is inspired by Ronnie Larsen’s personal experiences while living in Southern California and is another Larsen "take" on the world of entertainment. The play had a six-month run Off-Broadway, a three-month sell-out run in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, and also played for a limited run in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Diego, Detroit, Ft. Lauderdale.
Making Porn by Ronnie Larsen
·Cast:6Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic + 6 more·Keyword: Sex, pornography + 2 moreGenre: comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, farce, parody/spoof, romantic comedy, satire, tragedyKeyword: Sex, pornography, gay, hitMaking Porn explores the lives of 6 people involved in the gay pornographic film industry.
"Uninhibited comedy! Street level exuberance!" New York Times
"Porn is good dirty fun." Backstage
"Deftly chisels a tale of desire and power." SF Weekly
"Hilarious crowd-pleaser...unexpected poignancy." Variety
...Making Porn explores the lives of 6 people involved in the gay pornographic film industry.
"Uninhibited comedy! Street level exuberance!" New York Times
"Porn is good dirty fun." Backstage
"Deftly chisels a tale of desire and power." SF Weekly
"Hilarious crowd-pleaser...unexpected poignancy." Variety
"A delicious and daffy look at the x-rated movie business." Boston Globe
"Delightful, funny, poignant, cleverly written, well directed, and impressively acted." SF Bay Times
"Making Porn is made well…light and comic, even tender." Chicago Sun-Times
"Two quick hours of wrenching laughs." Detroit Free Press
"Hilarious writing…Larsen’s script is cutting and bright." Washington Blade
"Wicked humor and touching performances." Pittsburgh Tribune
"Unequivocally the best new gay play we’ve seen in a long time." Dramalogue
"Witty humor, satiric sex simulations, and unexpected tenderness." Next Magazine
"A fascinating combination of sleaze and sentimentality...Remarkable." LA Weekly
"Smash hit! Delivers all the entertainment gay theatre should give." Gay and Lesbian Times
Scenes From My Love Life by Ronnie Larsen
·Cast:9Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic + 3 more·Keyword: Sex, gay + 7 moreGenre: comedy, docudrama/historic, parody/spoof, romantic comedy, satireKeyword: Sex, gay, cruising, phone sex, love, dating, sex club, monogamy, HIV/AIDSScenes From My Love Life explores the lives of nine gay men searching for sex and love in San Francisco.
"Plays out like an erotic dream...invigorating, entertaining and insightful...demands to be seen." Chad Jones, Bay Area Reporter