In November of 2019 I premiered my 100% straight play The Last Word in Los Angeles. After a show a group of lesbians came up to me and asked me if I’d consider turning the play into an lgbtq script and bring it to LA.  Within weeks I decided to tweak it and, yes, take the story and make it The Last Chapter, the story of Samantha (Cathy DeBuono) and Jane (Constance Brenneman) and Marie (Monica Young) with best friends and real life married couple Doug (Adam Huss) and Jimmy (Adam Bucci).
To bring you up to speed, this is a story about an award winning novelist whose wife always anonymously finished the last chapter of each book. After nearly twenty years together, her wife is out of the picture…or is she? Its a story about moving on! Saying all the things we wished we’d said, spilling our guts and finding the possibility of new love.
Is the new version completely different than the first? Well, yes and no. Taking it from straight to lgbtq pointed out something we should know but maybe not everyone knows. Love, loss, moving on, the whole relationship  thing knows no sexual orientation. Ta Da!  People have asked me how I “gayed it upâ€. Funny thing is that the more I thought I’d have to do that the more I realized I didn’t have to do that at all. Sure there are references to things like an Olivia cruise that I know my parents would not go on, but other than that kind of stuff, it’s a love story filled with laughter and tears.I also realized that the strides we’ve made in getting our lesbian stories out in film has not been as prolific on the stage. Wikipedia lists only 167 plays with an lgbtq theme. Not very many in all these years. Adding The Last Chapter to that list is thrilling. And boy would we love to bring it to towns all over. Live theatre is amazing.
It also points out what we say so often. Love is love is love.  To that add loss is loss and moving on is universal. Lesbians don’t cry any differently than their straight neighbors when their partners leave, die or disappear.  Lesbians don’t move on any slower or quicker than their straight friends. So when people wanted me to “gay it up†they sort of missed the fact that though we may sleep with girls, we are just like everyone else because, hmm, we are people.
The Last Chapter is written by Jan Miller Corran (Snapshots) and directed by Kate Johnston (Tru Love). It opens March 28th at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre in Los Angeles and runs through April 12th. Tickets are available at www.onstage411.com
