June 04, 2014

In Entertainment & Arts Management Professor Brannon Wiles’ class, students have the unique opportunity to produce a one-woman show starring actor, comedian and writer Lauren Weedman, a Critics’ Choice nominee for her performance on HBO’s series Looking. Weedman will perform Well I Think You’re Beautiful Philadelphia at the Adrienne Theatre’s The PlayGround (2030 Sansom Street), on Friday, June 6 (8:00 pm), Saturday, June 7 (2:00 pm) and Sunday, June 8 (7:00 pm). Tickets are $15-25 and can be purchased here. A 20% discount is available to Drexel faculty and staff by using the code DREXEL20.  

In a riotous series of one-woman plays, Weedman has garnered a cult reputation for razor-sharp wit. She has traveled across the country to produce improvisational works created specifically for the location where the work is being performed, including New York City, Seattle, Aspen and Los Angeles. In creating her shows, Weedman spends a week in a city collecting characters and moments while trying to understand the intricacies of each locale, often within the framework of whether she should relocate from LA. Professor Wiles, who is Executive Producing the show, has engaged his “Producing for Live Entertainment” class in this hands-on, professional production at an off-campus venue with a nationally recognized artist.

“The management students have experienced first-hand the enormous collaborative effort it takes to put on a ‘simple’ one-woman show – and in this case, because the show is not even written yet, they have been part of Lauren’s process and have come to understand the importance of the relationship with the artist in good producing. This has allowed us to get to the 'stuff’ of producing that can’t be taught or replicated through classroom hypotheticals,” Wiles says.

Weedman will spend the week prior to the performances in Philadelphia and at Drexel, discerning if the city is “the answer to all of her life questions” and developing a narrative, from the traumatic to the entertaining, about life here. This new work will mark her Philadelphia debut.

Weedman made her television debut as a featured correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and in addition to playing Doris on HBO’s Looking, has made television appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm, True Blood, Reno 911, and Hung. Her writing has been featured in Women Playwrights: Best Plays of 2002, and she was an Alpert Award in the Arts recipient for Playwriting.

Professor Brannon Wiles is a Broadway and Off-Broadway theatrical producer and general manager whose credits include That Championship Season 2011 revival starring Kiefer Sutherland; Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash; and the Tony Award-winning Elaine Stritch At Liberty, amongst many others.