Based on Lorees Yerby's award-winning one-act Save Me a Place At Forest Lawn, the play concerns the lives and loves of two elderly women who sit in a cafeteria and plan their funerals. Co-author Yankee, who will direct the reading, originally optioned Yerby's work and adapted it into a full-length play as a vehicle for his mother, the late Eileen Heckart, who won an Emmy for her performance in a PBS-TV version of the one-act in the 1960s. A director and producer who has worked on Broadway and throughout the country, Yankee is a former artistic director of the Long Beach Civic Light Opera. Bontempo has written several screenplays, has taught at the U.S.C. School of Theatre, and appeared in the Broadway production of A Chorus Line.
The reading of A Place at Forest Lawn will take place at 7:30pm on October 7 at the Promenade Theatre, located at 2162 Broadway (at 76th Street). Admission is free but reservations are required; phone 212-629-2034 to reserve.
