Donna/Madonna set for Lounge Theatre in Hollywood

Rizzo 39 Productions has announced a limited engagement of Donna/Madonna at the Lounge Theatre in Hollywood. This new solo show, written and performed by John Paul Karliak, is directed by Tiger Reel and Matthew Craig. Donna/Madonna is set to open on Wednesday, July 6 and play a limited engagement through August 10 only.

In this autobiographical one-act, writer/performer John Paul Karliak wants desperately to be the perfect son for his adopted mother, a doting Catholic housewife from Scranton, PA. But realizing he will never be the ideal local boy, he seeks answers from a very different source: his fashion-writing, married-to-a-British-pop-star birth mother. Donna/Madonna is a tale of motherly love and finding acceptance, told through stories, songs and characters like Darth Vader, Carol Channing and John Paul's unforgettable mothers. Hilarious and poignant, this cross-country journey from Scranton to Los Angeles shows that sometimes you have to meet a "Material Girl" to truly appreciate "America's Sweetheart." Donna/Madonna was the winner of the Best One Man Show Award at the 2010 United Solo Theatre Festival in New York.

John Paul Karliak's recent film projects include Dante's Inferno, Little Black Dress for AFI, L.T.D. (web series), and Delusions of Grandeur (TV pilot). LA theatre credits include The Mistakes Madeline Made, The Girl, the Grouch & the Goat, Into the Woods, Inherit the Wind, Women and Wallace, Whatever, and Sexual Perversity in Chicago. A graduate of the USC School of Theatre, iO West and Second City Training Center, John Paul has written numerous short films and plays produced in locales around the country, including Donna/Madonna, which is his first full-length solo production.

Between them, co-directors Tiger Reel and Matthew Craig boast impressive credits in both theatre and television. Reel is the Founding Artistic Director of the Action! Theatre Company, where his directing credits include Slaughterhouse-Five (West Coast premiere), The Tempest, and Inherit the Wind, among others. He has also directed regionally and internationally. Craig has performed nationwide with The Second City Touring Company, and most recently has appeared on episodes of According to Jim, Mobbed, and The Office. He is currently a writer for Saturday Night Live.

Proceeds from Donna/Madonna will benefit Kinship Center, a California non-profit agency dedicated to the creation, preservation and support of foster, adoptive and relative families for children who need them. Since 1984, Kinship Center has helped create and support families for thousands of children of all ages. Kinship Center is headquartered in Salinas, California, with facilities and services in eleven Southern California, Central Coast and Northern California counties.