Experience the power of theater and the impact of giving.
For three nights only — May 14, 15 and 16 — experience “Fear” by Matt Williams, creator of “Roseanne” and “Home Improvement.” This award-winning play has been reimagined as a site-specific theatrical event inside a transformed warehouse space.
Presented as a special fundraising event for the Palm Springs Young Playwrights Festival, this production blends immersive staging with a national mission: to mentor emerging young playwrights and bring their original stories to life through professional collaboration. “Fear” will provide audiences with a creatively mounted intimate theatrical experience — one that blurs the line between performer and spectator.
The play stars Desert Theatre League Award winners Chuck Yates and David Youse and is directed by Desert Theatre League Award winner Keith Hoffman. Sierra Barrick serves as stage manager.
“Chuck Yates and I performed ‘Fear’ last year for Desert Ensemble Theatre,” said Youse, PSYPF’s president and executive director. “It was part of their reading series, and the people who attended just flipped over it. It went on to win five out of six Desert Theatre League Awards in the stage reading category: best actor, best supporting actor, best writing, best director and best stage reading. So, I thought, ‘Let’s make it interesting as a fundraiser.'”
Youse said the experience — including the staging of the play — will be unique.
“The play takes place in an abandoned shed in New Jersey. So, we’re using two warehouse spaces at the Cathedral City Business Park. When you arrive, your drinks and appetizers will be in one warehouse with cocktail tables, and when the play begins you walk next door to the other one. It’s really in-your-face theater, very immersive. We don’t talk to the audience, but you are up close. There’s not a bad seat. There will be one row of chairs in a circle, and all the action takes place in the middle of this warehouse. It will be very exciting.”
The evening will begin at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails hors d’oeuvres, followed by the performance at 7:30 and a light dinner and community celebration after the show.
All proceeds support the Palm Springs Young Playwrights Festival, a nonprofit in its ninth year, dedicated to mentoring young writers, bringing their original plays to life on stage and empowering the next generation of storytellers.
The Cathedral Canyon Business Park is located at 35-688 Cathedral Canyon Boulevard in Cathedral City.
For more information or to purchase tickets for “Fear,” visit psypf.org.
As philanthropy editor at The Desert Sun, Winston Gieseke writes about nonprofits, fundraising and locals who give back, like his beloved rescue dog Ernie Banks, who volunteers at the local cancer center. Reach him at winston.gieseke@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Experience ‘Fear’ and support the next generation of playwrights
Reporting by Winston Gieseke, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
