Desert Rose Playhouse
The Mission of Desert Rose Productions, Inc. and The Desert Rose Playhouse is to produce and present quality plays, musicals, and attractions. While the primary goal of the company is to serve the local and tourist LGBTQ communities, we produce and present a wide variety of productions that also attract the “gay-friendly” population who love and appreciate good quality intelligent and adventurous theatre.
We actively produce plays, musicals and cabaret productions at The Desert Rose Playhouse in Rancho Mirage, CA. We re-purposed a former restaurant known as The Commissary into an intimate New York-style showroom and opened the Southern California premiere of the hit San Francisco revue DIRTY LITTLE SHOWTUNES! on July 21, 2012. The positive reaction to our production enabled us to produce the show for a 24-week run of performances, setting a longevity record for a local non-profit theatre company. Subsequent productions have earned outstanding reviews from local and regional press and significant recognition from The Desert Theatre League STAR Awards.
Our Company’s nine seasons have featured our annual Gay Heritage Production showcasing landmark plays from gay theatrical literature. Gay Heritage Productions have included the 50th Anniversary production of Robert Patrick’s THE HAUNTED HOST, LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!, ANGELS IN AMERICA, Part One, Millennium Approaches, and The View UpStairs. In addition, we produce a wide spectrum of comedies, dramas and musicals reflecting LGBTQ issues, characters and lifestyles. We have premiered several new shows including David Pevsner’s one-man musical play MUSICAL COMEDY WHORE, Dan Clancy’s searing drama POSTER BOYS, the award-winning cabaret revue VITAMIN Q and JUNK by Michael Penny, which has recently been made into a full-length movie starring our own Artistic Producing Director, Robbie Wayne!
Aside from our main stage productions, we present Guest Artists in a variety of theatrical and cabaret events. These have included: actor/writer Luke Yankee in two solo shows DIVA DISH! and DIVA DISH 2 – THE SECOND HELPING, lesbian humorist Dorothy Kirk in two different monologue productions, HOLD STILL! I CAN’T SEE MYSELF and I CAME OUT IN A DARK ROOM, lesbian comedian Shann Carr’s SWEET SWEET LAUGHTER, acclaimed singer/actress Francesca Amari’s Gilda Radner tribute YOU MAKE ME LAUGH!, Tym Moss’s one-man show TYM MOSS (A)LIVE!, and CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY, a sure-to-sell-out show by Steven Fales.
We have a varied program of productions and presentations that addresses many aspects of our world in a positive, thoughtful, and entertaining way and incorporates literary classics as well as new plays that examine changing roles and issues in our global society.
OUR COMMITMENT TO OUR COMMUNITY
In addition to producing and presenting theatrical entertainment, the company is an active member of the LGBTQ community, providing the playhouse for rental or selected usage by local non-profit LGBT and gay friendly organizations. We work as an active member of the Coachella Valley Theatre Community by cooperating with other area theatre companies to promote and advocate widespread awareness of talented local theatre artists. We were honored as “2014 Organization of the Year” by Palm Springs PRIDE.
We regularly donate complementary theatre tickets to The Desert AIDS Project for the benefit of their clients who could not otherwise afford to attend our productions. This donation is valued in excess of $10,000 each season. We have also donated Season Ticket packages as fundraising tools to local charities like Bloom in the Desert Ministries “Broadway in Bloom” cabaret, The AIDS Assistance Program’s “Evening Under the Stars” gala, the annual Steve Chase Awards benefiting the Desert AIDS Project, and events benefiting the Palm Springs Gay Men’s Chorus, among other charities.
