Site design by Noah Diamond
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Life Lessons, and Lesions, on Stage
LOS ANGELES, April 2008 -- The Immediate Theater Company is pleased to announce the West Coast debut
of the uproarious solo comedy HERPES TONIGHT!, coming to the Lounge Theatre in Hollywood beginning
June 5.
HERPES TONIGHT! began with the experiences of writer/actor Corey Moosa – experiences he had not seen
dramatized elsewhere.
Moosa, whose acting credits include several noted productions in New York, explains that “every day,
thousands of people are diagnosed, and sometimes misdiagnosed, with sexually transmitted diseases. It’s
really scary. Also really funny.”
Originally entitled Herpes: A Corey Story, the show had a successful premiere in 2007 at downtown Manhattan’
s HERE Arts Center. Hailed as “a touching and hilarious one-man exploration of the diagnosis that changed
everything” (nerofiddled.net), the show was embraced by audiences inside and outside the STD self-help
community.
During the course of the eighty-minute performance, Moosa plays more than a dozen characters, including his
Iraqi father, several members of a New York herpes support group, and Kurt Cobain. In addition to the wealth of
medical information conveyed in the show, Moosa shares the advice of doctors good and bad (“He told me to
Google it,” he says in astonishment, recalling the initial diagnosis), and the wisdom of personal experience (“I’
m here to tell you it is possible to adjust your opinion of yourself and the world you live in to accommodate any
number of viruses”). Arriving at the conclusion that “shame is not an STD,” he wrings pathos from comedy and
comedy from pathos.
“Now, I’m not an expert in much,” Moosa tells his audience at the top of the show, “but I’m pretty smart when it
comes to this stuff. I’m also really knowledgeable regarding popular television of the past forty years, which is
totally unrelated to herpes, but crucial to my personal history.” Indeed, HERPES TONIGHT! is laced with
references to the pop culture universe in which Moosa grew up. He explains the behaviors of viruses by
comparing them to Star Trek characters, and identifies his ex-girlfriends as “Kathie Lee Gifford” and “Kelly
Ripa,” to protect the innocent.
Moosa credits his collaborators with making the show work. Playwright Brian Shoaf, who co-wrote HERPES
TONIGHT! with Moosa, helped him weave his experiences into drama. Shoaf’s previous plays, which have
been seen at UCLA’s New Play Festival and the Seattle Fringe Festival, include Joist Wrote Ulysses and Girder
Wrote Faust and This is Calm. Shoaf’s Conspirators was produced by the Immediate Theater Company, under
the direction of José Zayas, who staged HERPES in its original incarnation.
The Immediate Theater Company (Best Theatre Company, 2005, New York Press) has won acclaim for such
productions as The Germans in Paris and Strom Thurmond is Not a Racist, and Zayas was named one of
nytheatre.com’s “People of the Year” in 2007. The sound effects and slide projections used in HERPES were
designed by Noah Diamond, another frequent Moosa collaborator, who cast him in the political satires Burning
Bush: A Faith-Based Musical and Moral Value Meal.
HERPES TONIGHT! A breakout comedy. Performed by Corey Moosa. Written by Corey Moosa and Brian Shoaf.
Lighting design by Matt Richter. Sound, graphics, and direction by Noah Diamond. Original direction by José
Zayas.
HERPES TONIGHT! runs June 5th through June 28th, 2008. Preview is June 5th, with opening night June 6th.
Performances are at The Lounge Theatre at 6201 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood, Thursdays, Fridays and
Saturdays at 8 PM. Tickets are $20 (preview night $15). Running time is 80 minutes with no intermission.
Concessions available. Allow time for street parking.
For reservations, call (323) 960-7776
or RESERVE ONLINE: www.plays411.com/herpes.
Contact: Leigh McLeod Fortier or Sandra Kuker (323) 960-7779
Email: pr4plays@plays411.com
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