“I STAND BEFORE YOU NAKED,” STARTING JULY 11 AT EAST THEATER AT THE COMPLEX
 
WHAT: “I Stand Before You Naked.” A play.
WHO: Written by Joyce Carol Oates. Directed by Eddie Kehler. Produced by Krysten Klein and Layla Alexander. Executive producer: Eric Chambers.
           Presented by Moment 2 Moment Productions. Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. Choreography by Rachel Bowman.
WHERE: East TheatER at The Comples, 6468 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90038.
WHEN: July 11- August 17, 2008. Fri. & Sat. at 8, Sun. at 6:30.
ADMISSION: $25.
RESERVATIONS: (323) 960-5773.
ESTIMATED RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes.
CONSUMER ADVISORY: Adult content. Brief nudity.
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           This play, with one of the most commercial titles in theatrical history, debuted in London in 1992. It’s been years since it’s had a major production in Los Angeles.
           There’s a little nudity in the show (more on that in a moment). What the show is really about is one of the recurring themes of the playwright, Joyce Carol Oates: the paradoxical vulnerability and perseverance of women.
           Two scenes with the ensemble bracket a series of mostly monologues in which the female characters expose themselves emotionally.
           There’s a young woman, the morning after a night of hot passion with her man that’s left her with a sore lip; a substitute teacher who’s tried to seduce a teenage boy; the wife of a serial killer; an anorexic-bulimic;  a mental patient obsessed with the notion of nuclear holocaust; an exotic dancer (there’s the nudity) who chooses a fellow to date who is just so wrong; a wealthy philanthropist who loves her gun; a woman with an aversion to feminists whose own face is disappearing;  a woman who fears that her relationship with her man is disintegrating; an unwed mother-to-be whose feisty fetus is talking to her from inside the womb, really, really loudly.
           Oates, one of  America’s most prolific novelists, short-story writers, and playwrights, has occasionally been labeled a feminist, partly for writing material like this play. It’s a severe oversimplification. Her voluminous writing has explored every corner of human experience. Her writing about men has some affection: her book-length essay “On Boxing” has won her admiration, and she has commented on the sport in 6 episodes of ESPN Sports Century. She enjoyed a 45-year marriage to Raymond Smith, with whom she published The Ontario Review, a literary journal, until his death in February of this year. Her works spans a gamut from Gothic horror to biography to children’s books, and even includes a series of popular mystery novels written under the pseudonym Rosamond Smith. The winner of the National Book Award and other prizes, she has for three decades been a professor at Princeton. Prior to her residency in an Ivy League town, she lived for a decade in the Detroit area, which influenced her to prominently write about violence as part of American life.
           Eddie Kehler, trained at the Actors Studio, directs the current production of “I Stand Before You Naked.”
           The cast includes, alphabetically, Layla Alexander, Deborah Austin, Marie Broderick, Cindy D’Andrea, Krysten Klein, Amanda Mayen, Shyla Marlin, James Rejent and Cecelia Specht.
           Sound design: Gary Chambers. Lighting design: Kathi O’Donohue. Set design: Alethea Root. Production stage manager: Henry Lide.
           Upon examination of “I Stand Before You Naked,” it’s not difficult to discern why Oates enjoys popular and commercial success. Women are attracted to the show by its politics and drama. Men come to look at its women.
           “I stand before you naked,” says each of the women. It’s like a mantra. The second line of the mantra consists of the words, “….waiting to be loved.”  It’s what connects all of these women to whom you will be drawn to watch.