September 23-29, 2004

artpicks

All-Star Game

theater

This Monday night, a host of Philadelphia theater's creme de la creme will assemble on a single stage. And they won't be found in one of Center City's big venues—instead, look for them at the tiny and enchanting Hedgerow Theatre in picture-perfect Rose Valley (near Media).

The troupe: director Frank Anzalone and actors Jeff Coon, Matt Daugherty, Ben Dibble, Grace Gonglewski, Jona Harvey, John Lumia, Dan Olmstead, Ian Merrill Peakes, Greg Wood and Russ Widdall. (Whew!)

The reason they're there: a new play by Mike Conley, called Jeb and Dash: A Diary Of Gay Life, 1918-1945.

The title may sound academic, but the source material is anything but. The real-life Jeb Alexander wrote 50 (!) volumes of diaries that describe his life in Washington, D.C., In those years before Stonewall, this was a life of codes and inner circles; of hidden rendezvous in the shadow of national monuments; of love affairs conducted on the down-low; and of remarkable wit and strength that kept a whole population going during some very dark times.

It's a history all of us should know.

Best of all, admission to this reading is free (though donations to Hedgerow's terrific new play program are encouraged). But get there early—the tiny space fills up fast!

Jeb and Dash, Mon., Sept. 27, 7:30 p.m., Hedgerow Theatre, 64 Rose Valley Rd., Rose Valley, 610-565-4211.

—David Anthony Fox