ICT Celebrates 25 Years
By Chris Carpenter
This year marks a significant milestone for International City Theater (ICT), the resident professional theater of Long Beach. The acclaimed, nonprofit company is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Founded in 1985, ICT’s first production was “A Quiet End,” a play about five men dealing with AIDS. The general public did not know much about AIDS at the time and remained fearful of it. The play’s world premiere was a well-attended critical success that inspired important community discussions. It also helped put ICT on the map, locally and nationally, as a courageous, risk-taking company.
Since then, ICT has performed such LGBT-friendly plays and musicals as Larry Kramer’s “The Destiny of Me,” Ken Ludwig’s “Lend Me a Tenor,” Joe Orton’s “Loot,” Kander & Ebb’s “Cabaret,” and the 2009 productions “The Threepenny Opera” and “Facing East,” which focused on an upstanding Mormon couple grappling with the recent suicide of their excommunicated gay son.
ICT General Manager Caryn Desai told the Blade, “First, I want to say we are excited about celebrating our 25th season. Just the fact that we have made it to 25 years, considering our lean-and-mean status of operating — out of necessity, of course — is something to celebrate. But more importantly, we have managed to maintain quality with entertaining, yet educational and enlightening, selections,” she continued. “Because that is theater’s role in society, and we are firmly committed to fulfilling that role in our community.”
ICT has been honored with numerous awards throughout the years, including the L.A. Drama Critics Circle’s prestigious Margaret Harford Award for sustained excellence in theater. “As to our [LGBT] theatergoers, we have something for everyone,” Desai said. “Good theater has universal appeal regardless of someone’s sexual orientation, race or religion. If you are drawn to musicals, we have two new ones based on two Silver Screen icons.”
The season’s opening production, “Backwards in High Heels” (see the review in this issue) is about actress-dancer Ginger Rogers and features original songs, music by George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, as well as portrayals of Fred Astaire, Jimmy Stewart, Ethel Merman and Katharine Hepburn.
The second musical is “When Garbo Talks,” a world premiere inspired by the dramatic life of actress Greta Garbo. It finishes ICT’s 2010 season with performances from Oct. 12 – Nov. 7. In between these shows will be productions of “How the Other Half Loves” (April 27 - May 23); “A Shayna Maidel,” (June 8 - July 3), and the Pulitzer Prize finalist “The Clean House,” (Aug. 24 – Sept. 19).
ICT has long partnered with LGBT organizations and businesses throughout Southern California. This will continue long past its 25th anniversary. “We always want to encourage participation in the gay and lesbian community,” Desai said. “We relish the opportunity to bring our diverse community together for a shared experience where we can all laugh together or weep together, and where we all share what makes us human. We encourage inclusion — whether it be as a valued subscriber or patron, as a board member or as a volunteer.”
The production company also has partnered with The Gay and Lesbian Center Greater Long Beach to offer a discount on ticket prices. ICT also has group rates and will work with other LGBT and nonprofit organizations to assist in fundraising.
All of ICT’s productions are performed at the Center Theatre at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. Affordable subscriptions for the 2010 season are still available. Contact ICT at (562) 436-4610 or www.internationalcitytheater.org.