WEST HOLLYWOOD — Opening Minds and Working Stage Theater are presenting “Surfing DNA,” a one-woman show written and performed by actress/filmmaker Jodi Long and directed by Frank Megna, at Working Stage, 1516 N. Gardner St., West Hollywood.
“Surfing DNA” is a journey of self-discovery and an exploration of the imprinted forces — genetic, cultural and emotional — that steer us through life. Born in a trunk to vaudevillian parents on the Chop Suey Circuit, Long hilariously and poignantly surfs on a trek from “The Ed Sullivan Show” to medieval Japan to the Scottish Highlands. All the while she is undeniably guided by the forces embedded in her DNA and compelled by the evolutionary power of self-creation.
Showtimes: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m. until Sept. 29. Tickets are $30 each or $100 for four.
For more information, call (323) 521-8600 or visit http://workingstage.com/.
Long currently co-stars as Ok Cha in the TBS hit comedy series “Sullivan & Son,” which just ended its second season and will be back next year. She is a veteran of stage, film and television whose regular series work includes co-starring with Valerie Bertinelli in “Cafe Americain”; playing Margaret Cho’s mother in “All-American Girl”; and playing Alicia Silverstone’s secretary in “Miss Match.”
Long has had recurring parts on “The Cosby Show,” “Michael Hayes,” “Eli Stone” and “Law and Order: LA.” She is also known as Patty, “the power lesbian,” in an episode of “Sex and the City.”
Her film work includes “Beginnings” with Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer; Paul Schrader’s “Patty Hearst” (as Wendy Yoshimura); Mike Newell’s “Sour Sweet”; “Striking Distance”; “Rollover”; and “The Hot Chick.”
In 2006, “Surfing DNA” was produced at East West Players in Los Angeles and garnered Long an Ovation nomination for best solo performance. She went on to write and co-produce a documentary about her vaudevillian parents, “Long Story Short,” directed by Christine Choy. The film played numerous film festivals, including the 2008 Hawaii International Film Festival, and won the 2008 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival’s Audience Award for Best Documentary. In 2008, “Long Story Short” was voted one of the top ten documentaries by UCLA’s Asia Institute.
Long made her Broadway debut at age 7 in “Nowhere to Go But Up, directed by Sidney Lumet, the first of five Broadway shows in which she would appear. As an adult, she has starred in “Loose Ends” with Kevin Kline; “The Bacchae” with Irene Papas; Stephen Sondheim’s “Getting Away with Murder”; and the recent revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Flower Drum Song,” a performance for which she won an Ovation Award at The Mark Taper in Los Angeles.
Numerous off-Broadway productions include Wendy Wasserstein’s “Old Money” (Lincoln Center), Chay Yew’s “Red” and Philip Gotanda’s “The Wash” (Manhattan Theater Club), David Henry Hwang’s “Golden Child” and “Family Devotions” (Public Theater); and “The Tooth of Crime” (LaMama). Long has also performed in the world tour of Phillip Glass and Hwang’s 90-minute solo piece “1000 Airplanes on the Roof.”