A History of Fried Meat
Out There on Fried Meat Ridge Rd. is Keith Stevenson's hit comedy that took Pacific Resident Theatre by storm in the spring of 2012. It immediately became a cult hit among fans and ran for over six months to tremendous popular acclaim.
FRIED MEAT re-opened that same winter with Stevenson's holiday sequel A FRIED MEAT CHRISTMAS. And, in the summer of 2014, Stevenson thrilled audiences yet again with an unforgettable third episode of the series, THE UNFRYABLE MEATNESS OF BEING.
The three plays then re-opened that winter as THE FRIED MEAT TRILOGY, playing for the first time ever in a Triple-Header performance with all three episodes of the much-loved hillbilly comedy series. The saga returned to Pacific Resident Theatre the next December (2015) to delight fans with its fourth consecutive holiday season of THE FRIED MEAT TRILOGY.
In January of 2017, a British-cast production opened at the White Bear Theatre in Southeast London, with Stevenson still at the helm. The show enchanted English audiences, just as it did American, and the production reopened, running through May of 2017, at Trafalgar Studios 2, in London's West End.
FRIED MEAT re-opened that same winter with Stevenson's holiday sequel A FRIED MEAT CHRISTMAS. And, in the summer of 2014, Stevenson thrilled audiences yet again with an unforgettable third episode of the series, THE UNFRYABLE MEATNESS OF BEING.
The three plays then re-opened that winter as THE FRIED MEAT TRILOGY, playing for the first time ever in a Triple-Header performance with all three episodes of the much-loved hillbilly comedy series. The saga returned to Pacific Resident Theatre the next December (2015) to delight fans with its fourth consecutive holiday season of THE FRIED MEAT TRILOGY.
In January of 2017, a British-cast production opened at the White Bear Theatre in Southeast London, with Stevenson still at the helm. The show enchanted English audiences, just as it did American, and the production reopened, running through May of 2017, at Trafalgar Studios 2, in London's West End.
The Plays
OUT THERE ON FRIED MEAT RIDGE RD. The very first installment of the FRIED MEAT saga!
Mitchell answers an ad for a roommate and finds himself in a West Virginia countryside motel with JD, an affable hillbilly of mysterious origins. Soon JD’s neighbors – curmudgeonly Flip, meth-head Marlene, and her hot-headed boyfriend, Tommy – have all but taken over the tiny room and Mitchell finds himself in a hopeless situation. Hopeless… But for the power of dance?
Mitchell answers an ad for a roommate and finds himself in a West Virginia countryside motel with JD, an affable hillbilly of mysterious origins. Soon JD’s neighbors – curmudgeonly Flip, meth-head Marlene, and her hot-headed boyfriend, Tommy – have all but taken over the tiny room and Mitchell finds himself in a hopeless situation. Hopeless… But for the power of dance?
A FRIED MEAT CHRISTMAS
Everyone's favorite characters are back in the hilarious FRIED MEAT holiday sequel! JD tries to prepare a special Christmas dinner for Mitchell, but chooses the wrong cookbook, bringing a troubling new friend out of the woodwork. And, for the first time in his life, JD experiences a crisis of faith.
Everyone's favorite characters are back in the hilarious FRIED MEAT holiday sequel! JD tries to prepare a special Christmas dinner for Mitchell, but chooses the wrong cookbook, bringing a troubling new friend out of the woodwork. And, for the first time in his life, JD experiences a crisis of faith.
THE UNFRYABLE MEATNESS OF BEING
The third installment of the FRIED MEAT saga! Hard times have fallen upon the Mohigan Arms and the West Virginians are crazier than ever. Flip dodges the fire inspector, Marlene struggles to pay Tommy's back-rent and a mysterious man thinks JD may be just the opportunity he was looking for…..
The third installment of the FRIED MEAT saga! Hard times have fallen upon the Mohigan Arms and the West Virginians are crazier than ever. Flip dodges the fire inspector, Marlene struggles to pay Tommy's back-rent and a mysterious man thinks JD may be just the opportunity he was looking for…..
The Team
Keith Stevenson, Playwright
Writer and actor Keith Stevenson hails from Keyser, West Virginia, the hometown of the actual Fried Meat Ridge Road. In 2012 he opened the first play of his cult-hit comedy series, OUT THERE ON FRIED MEAT RIDGE RD., , for which he received an Ovation Award nomination for "Best Playwriting for an Original Play." That same winter he wrote (and starred in) the holiday sequel, A FRIED MEAT CHRISTMAS, which then played for four consecutive holiday seasons, through 2015. He next opened the third installment of the series, THE UNFRYABLE MEATNESS OF BEING, in the summer of 2014. Beginning that winter, it was added to the saga to make up the first ever Triple-Header performance of the FRIED MEAT TRILOGY, which was published in 2016 by Steele Spring Stage Rights. In January of 2017, Stevenson re-opened the Original at the White Bear Theatre in London, England.
THE UNFRYABLE MEATNESS OF BEING marks Stevenson's sixth collaboration with Director Guillermo Cienfuegos, with whom he produced CONCEALING JUDY HOLLIDAY, ALL THAT GLITTERS and Vince Melocchi's JULIA, which transferred to 59E59 Theaters Off-Broadway in NYC after a successful five-month run at Pacific Resident Theatre. Stevenson also co-wrote a screenplay (that was later optioned) of Melocchi's LIONS, in collaboration with both Melocchi and Cienfeugos.
Stevenson and FRIED MEAT co-star Neil McGowan previously co-founded the production company Wee Small Films (weesmallfilms.com) and have created several festival shorts including IN THE A.M. OF DEC. 26TH AT MICKEY'S (AT THE CORNER OF CUNNINGHAM & KONGOSAK IN BARROW) and ALL THAT GLITTERS, as well as LIKE OLD TIMES and TRIP AND SLOAN, both of which were nominated for Best Short Film at the Austin Film Festival. Stevenson has also written the screenplays LONACONING and THE MAGIC PALACE PRESENTS THE AMAZING JOSHUA ‘PRESTO’ SHAPIRO.
Stevenson has been a member of Pacific Resident Theatre (the home of the FRIED MEAT TRILOGY) since 1998. In 2013, he directed PRT playwright Shanti Rheinhart's BLUNT FORCE at the theater, as well as McGowan's LONE-ANON. The latter then moved to re-open at Rogue Machine Theatre and was named one of LA Weekly's Top 10 Plays of 2013.
In addition to his FRIED MEAT series, Stevenson’s performance credits include Berenger in Eugene Ionesco's RHINOCEROS, MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN ALIEN! BY KEITH DEFACTO (written by McGowan), JULIA, LIONS, THE HASTY HEART and ORPHEUS DESCENDING at Pacific Resident Theatre; and THE STEWARD OF CHRISTENDOM at the Pittsburgh Public Theater.
Guillermo Cienfuegos, Director
All three FRIED MEAT plays are directed by Guillermo Cienfuegos, who has received much recognition for his work at
Pacific Resident Theatre and elsewhere, including his 2017 production of RHINOCEROS, starring Stevenson. His production of SAFE AT HOME: AN EVENING WITH ORSON BEAN won the LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Solo show and was named one of the "Top Ten Shows of 2016" by the Los Angeles Times. His 2015 production of Harold Pinter's THE HOMECOMING won four Broadway World Awards including Best Production and Best Director and received three Stage Raw Award nominations including Best Revival. In 2014, he won both an Ovation Award and an LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Director for his critically acclaimed production of Shakespeare's HENRY V. THE HOMECOMING and HENRY V were both named "Best of the Year" by KCRW and listed as LA Times Critic’s Choice, LA Weekly GO! and Ovation Recommended. Cienfuegos also directed DUTCH MASTERS at Rogue Machine Theatre, which was named LA Times Critic's Choice and "Best of the 2016" by KCRW. He is currently directing Ionesco's RHINOCEROS on PRT's mainstage, which has also been named LA Times Critic's Choice, Ovation Recommended and Stage Raw Top Ten.
Cienfuegos has directed seven other World and West Coast Premieres for Pacific Resident Theatre, including MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN ALIEN! BY KEITH DEFACTO, I TAKE YOUR HAND IN MINE, the cabaret hit RANDOM ACTS, CONCEALING JUDY HOLLIDAY by Wendy Johnson, and WELCOME TO SANTA by Vince Melocchi. After a successful run at PRT in 2011, his production of Melocchi’s JULIA (which was nominated for three LA Weekly Theatre Awards, including Best Director), transferred to New York’s 59E59 Theaters, Off- Broadway. LIONS, his first collaboration with Melocchi, was nominated for an Ovation Award after enjoying a five-month run at PRT in 2009. It was later published by Samuel French and optioned as a screenplay, which he co-wrote with Melocchi and FRIED MEAT creator Keith Stevenson. Cienfuegos has also directed for the Chalk Repertory Theatre, the Blank Theatre Company and Nom De Guerre, a theatre and film collective, which he co-founded.
'Guillermo Cienfuegos' is actually the nom de plume of actor Alex Fernandez, who plays Tommy in the first two plays of the FRIED MEAT TRILOGY and who was also seen as Jean in RHINOCEROS, The Chorus in HENRY V, Lopahkin in THE CHERRY ORCHARD (PRT) and as Uncle Nick in LUKA'S ROOM at Rogue Machine Theatre. He was also seen performing in PRT's Gala reading of ART with Kurtwood Smith and Julian Sands. was also seen there in the Gala reading of ART, with Kurtwood Smith and Julian Sands. Fernandez has performed at numerous U.S. regional theaters, including The Old Globe, the American Conservatory Theatre and the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. On television, Fernandez has appeared on over 75 series and pilots – most recently BLUE BLOODS, TIMELESS, LUCIFER, TRUE DETECTIVE and DALLAS. In 2014, he starred as Texas Ranger Luis Zea on ABC’s KILLER WOMEN and recurred as Pablo Ruiz on Lifetime’s DEVIOUS MAIDS.
Elspeth A. Weingarten, Producer
All three plays of the FRIED MEAT TRILOGY are produced by Elspeth A. Weingarten, who has collaborated with director Guillermo Cienfuegos on these and many other shows at Pacific Resident Theatre. This includes SAFE AT HOME: AN EVENING WITH ORSON BEAN, which won the LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Solo show and was named one of the "Top Ten Shows of 2016" by the Los Angeles Times, as well as LA Times Critic's Choice. It also includes the 2015 mainstage production of Harold Pinter's THE HOMECOMING, which won four Broadway World Awards including Best Production and received Stage Raw nominations for Best Revival, Best Comedy Ensemble and Best Fight Choreography. Weingarten also received Ovation and Stage Raw Award nominations for "Best Production" for the critically acclaimed hit HENRY V, which ran for five sold-out months at Pacific Resident Theatre in 2014. The show received an Ovation Award and an LA Drama Critics Circle Award for "Best Director," along with a Stage Raw nomination for the same category. THE HOMECOMING and HENRY V were both named named LA Times Critics Choice, Ovation Recommended, LA Weekly GO! and later "Best of the Year" by KCRW.
Weingarten previously produced WHAT THE BUTLER SAW at Sacred Fools Theater Company and A NEW WORLD WAR with Padua Playwrights. She has stage-managed with companies throughout Los Angeles, including L.A. Theatre Works, the Actor's Gang, Malibu Stage Company, Elephant Stageworks and The Hayworth Theatre, which she subsequently managed throughout 2011. In 2010, she shared in Elephant Stageworks' LA Weekly Award for "Best Production" for BLOCK NINE.
As an actor, Weingarten was recently seen at Pacific Resident Theatre as Dessa in TONGUE OF A BIRD, Geoffrey in THE LION IN WINTER, her namesake in MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN ALIEN! BY KEITH DEFACTO, Montjoy in HENRY V and starring as the grande dame Olga Knipper in I TAKE YOUR HAND IN MINE. She was also seen in PRT and Rogue Machine Theatre's 24-Hour and Around the Clock plays. Performance credits include THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES (a co-production between the V-Day Los Angeles Valley and the Los Angeles Derby Dolls), THE ELEPHANT CALF of Bertolt Brecht's A MAN'S A MAN (Arena Stage, Washington, DC) and THE TEMPEST (Rochester Shakespeare Players). She has performed on various improv teams at Westside Comedy Theatre in Santa Monica and in a number of independent films. and plays banked-track roller derby with the LA Derby Dolls, with whom she has won three Championship titles. She also appears skating in Gavin DeGraw's newest music video, FIRE.