James Vasquez News

Twist book & lyrics by Gila Sand; music by Paul Leschen directed by James Vasquez Diversionary Theatre San Diego through August 9

Diversionary Theatre will produce the new musical Twist as the first show of its 2009-2010 season, running July 9-August 9. Set against the backdrop of Victorian England, Twist re-imagines Oliver Twist as a lonely, attractive young man searching for love, and discovering an outrageous London underworld.

Diversionary Theatre will produce the new musical Twist as the first show of its 2009-2010 season, running July 9-August 9. Set against the backdrop of Victorian England, Twist re-imagines Oliver Twist as a lonely, attractive young man searching for love, and discovering an outrageous London underworld.

Diversionary Theatre's 2009-2010 season of two gender-bending musicals and four provocative plays includes two West Coast Premieres, dynamic local actors and directors, and a reading of a new queer opera. The six-show mainstage season includes: the new musical Twist by Gila Sand and Paul Leschen, based on Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, directed by James Vasquez; Bent, the seminal play by Martin Sherman, in a co-production with ion theatre company; Paul Rudnick's big gay comedy The New Century, directed by Igor Goldin; same-sex marriage gets a comic nod with The Marriage Bed by Nona Shepphard, directed by Rosina Reynolds; laugh out loud with teenage angst in Speech and Debate by Steven Karam, directed by Jason Southerland; and filled with melancholy and lust, the musical play Moscow, by Nick Salamone and Maury R. McIntyre, rounds out the season.

Stage and film actress Carrie Preston will make her debut as a film director with the festival hit 29th and Gay, which will also feature songs written and performed by Malcolm Gets