Inspired by true life stories, SUGAR & SH*T combines the memoirs of two very different women during their journeys to self-fulfillment. Written and performed by Lenny Langley (Sugar) and Lori Hoeft (Sh*t), these two performers really “let it all hang out” as they draw the audience into their lives, warts and all. The production is directed by Hoeft “with Dwight Kennedy.” Presented as part of the 2021 Hollywood Fringe Festival, SUGAR & SH*T is a Hudson MainStage Theatre offering for their summer in person/live stream event.
The production begins with a bang when the totally nude Lenny Langley shares her experiences as a sex worker named Sugar with an unsuspecting audience. In a reverse strip tease, Sugar slowly begins to adorn herself in peekaboo trappings which might make even Secret Victoria blush. From see-through lace to bouncy pink feathers, Sugar lets you know In no uncertain terms what her world is all about as she slowly unwinds her torso from her make-up vanity to a shadowy barred cage. Yet somehow this bare sex kitten doesn’t quite bare her soul to the spell-bound audience. Off-stage, Langley is a queer writer, dancer, model, and performer currently living in Los Angeles.
From the languid, shapely icon of raw sex, SUGAR & SH*T moves on to the second strikingly different tale about SH*T, a woman who was adopted as a child and felt unloved and unwanted ever since. Especially by a mother she never really understood. Even as a high school cheer leader and prom queen, Lori Hoeft lacks the confidence to assert her own needs and, in fact, sees herself as “Sh*t.” Telling her own story, Lori Hoeft is a Clio Award-winning disabled writer, director, and producer based in Los Angeles.
It was not until Hoeft and Langley happened upon the Creativity Salon that they both realized that they too had important stories to tell. Featuring storytellers James Nave and Allegra Huston, the Creativity Salon is based in New Mexico. But Nave and Huston are brought live right into the Hudson Theatre after the performance through the miracle of modern technology. The two “cyber-visitors” offer a quick writer’s workshop for interested audience members.
SUGAR & SH*T is definitely not for the younger set, what with adult language, explicit topics, and nudity. The production is geared for members of the LGBTQ+ community, trauma survivors, recovering Catholics, sex workers, exotic dancers, and creative writers among others.
SUGAR & SH*T will appear for three performances only at 1 p.m. on August 8, 21, and 29, 2021. All shows and post-performance activities are available to be live streamed. The Hudson Theatre Main Stage is located at 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90038. Tickets are $10. For information and reservations, go online.
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