Santa Barbara writer, professor, and stand-up comedienne Elaine Gale brings her hilarious and heart-warming one-woman show, One Good Egg, to Center Stage May 5-7. What began as a memoir about Gale’s experiences with trying to start a family has evolved into a comic, yet earnest theatrical illustration of the more universally relatable topic of handling life’s profound disappointments with grace and humor. “When I was on this journey of trying to have children, I read all these books, and everyone got the baby in the end,” Gale said of her inspiration for the show. “But I thought: What if you don’t get the baby? What happens when you have to live with that brokenness?” Gale, whose sense of humor is smart and self-aware, explores how people cope with shifting priorities after expectations aren’t realized. With elements of dramatized memoir, comedy, and oral storytelling traditions, One Good Egg is a retrospective of bushwhacking through adversity.
Directed by Rod Lathim, One Good Egg has also partnered with several philanthropic bodies. The Friday evening show is a benefit for Direct Relief Women, an organization that provides maternal and child health and safety services, and Hospice of Santa Barbara. Gale is excited to connect with Santa Barbara audiences looking to celebrate life’s challenges, and she is gratified that her creative offering can also provide advantage to people at the very beginning and very end of life. Catch One Good Egg at Center Stage this weekend; it’ll crack you up, and crack you open.
411: Elaine Gale performs One Good Egg Friday-Sunday, May 5-7, at Center Stage Theater, 751 Paseo Nuevo. Call (805) 963-0408 or see centerstagetheater.org.