Becoming Wilkinson Meet Terry Ray... actor, writer, playwright, producer-director & managing director of Palm Springs' new gay theatre- "The Bent Theatre"! Be sure to see his two plays returning in February: "The LINCOLN DEBATE" (was Abe gay?) and "Electricity".
Jan 29, 2023
27:00
In the words of Terry Ray:
"I can't remember not wanting to be an actor. To be fair, I can barely remember having hair, but still. It's a passion I've fought hard to nurture and a dream I've never given up on, even when it defied all odds and all logic... and believe me, it usually did...
Then one day I decided to quit waiting for the phone to ring for that one line as the theater manager on 7th HEAVEN (of course I used an example that I booked) and create my own opportunities by adding the hyphenates writer-producer to the acting thang. I teamed with Larry LaFond and we amazingly hit a home run our first time at bat (look at me with the sports metaphors) with the incredibly successful little short film GAYDAR, which was in over 120 film festivals, won a ton of awards and was recently named by California Independent Film Festival as one of the 20 Best Comedy Short Films of all time. Larry and I also made a short film called THE COST OF LIVING, a way too timely comedy about life after global co-starring Jim J. Bullock, Molly Hagan & Greg Mullavey. (More film festivals and awards).
I'm the creator, writer and star of HERE TV's first original sitcom FROM HERE ON OUT (available on Amazon Prime) with Juliet Mills as well as the co-creator-writer-producer-star (sharing that "co" with Wendy Michaels) of MY SISTER IS SO GAY (Amazon Prime) with Loni Anderson as my mother. I got to co-star in 5 seasons of Michael Vaccaro's star-studded comedy CHILD OF THE 70s. I wrote and co-created the game show MODD COUPLES now playing on Hulu, I co-wrote the 2017 TV movie LOVE UNPLUGGED. My new show, TV THERAPY features a different classic TV character (played once again by the original actor) in a therapy session today (with me as the doctor) with all the issue they would currently have...
Since 2016 I've been starring in ELECTRICITY (my debut as a playwright)....Mel England as my co-star we became the longest running play in Palm Springs, performing in two venues at the same time: as an immersive theater experience inside a real Palm Springs hotel room and also on stage as Oscar's Bar & Cabaret Theater and then moving to The Desert Rose Playhouse as our final venue and we prepare for an Off-Broadway run.
I'm the first instructor at the famed Actor's Lab's new Palm Springs branch of their acting school. Maybe my master plan is starting to work"!
-Terry Ray
Epilogue: Terry's latest play is THE LINCOLN DEBATE which explores the possibility that Lincoln was actually gay. It premiered in Palm Springs in December 2022 and will be returning in the Spring of 2023 at The Bent Theatre- Palm Spring's newest and only gay theatre. Terry is also the managing director of The Bent.
See Terry's full bio and other fun info at: http://www.terryray.tv
Photo: Copyright Wilkinson/2023
Opening and closing music courtesy the very talented Zakhar Valaha via Pixabay.
To contact Wilkinson- email him at BecomingWilkinson@gmail.com
"I can't remember not wanting to be an actor. To be fair, I can barely remember having hair, but still. It's a passion I've fought hard to nurture and a dream I've never given up on, even when it defied all odds and all logic... and believe me, it usually did...
Then one day I decided to quit waiting for the phone to ring for that one line as the theater manager on 7th HEAVEN (of course I used an example that I booked) and create my own opportunities by adding the hyphenates writer-producer to the acting thang. I teamed with Larry LaFond and we amazingly hit a home run our first time at bat (look at me with the sports metaphors) with the incredibly successful little short film GAYDAR, which was in over 120 film festivals, won a ton of awards and was recently named by California Independent Film Festival as one of the 20 Best Comedy Short Films of all time. Larry and I also made a short film called THE COST OF LIVING, a way too timely comedy about life after global co-starring Jim J. Bullock, Molly Hagan & Greg Mullavey. (More film festivals and awards).
I'm the creator, writer and star of HERE TV's first original sitcom FROM HERE ON OUT (available on Amazon Prime) with Juliet Mills as well as the co-creator-writer-producer-star (sharing that "co" with Wendy Michaels) of MY SISTER IS SO GAY (Amazon Prime) with Loni Anderson as my mother. I got to co-star in 5 seasons of Michael Vaccaro's star-studded comedy CHILD OF THE 70s. I wrote and co-created the game show MODD COUPLES now playing on Hulu, I co-wrote the 2017 TV movie LOVE UNPLUGGED. My new show, TV THERAPY features a different classic TV character (played once again by the original actor) in a therapy session today (with me as the doctor) with all the issue they would currently have...
Since 2016 I've been starring in ELECTRICITY (my debut as a playwright)....Mel England as my co-star we became the longest running play in Palm Springs, performing in two venues at the same time: as an immersive theater experience inside a real Palm Springs hotel room and also on stage as Oscar's Bar & Cabaret Theater and then moving to The Desert Rose Playhouse as our final venue and we prepare for an Off-Broadway run.
I'm the first instructor at the famed Actor's Lab's new Palm Springs branch of their acting school. Maybe my master plan is starting to work"!
-Terry Ray
Epilogue: Terry's latest play is THE LINCOLN DEBATE which explores the possibility that Lincoln was actually gay. It premiered in Palm Springs in December 2022 and will be returning in the Spring of 2023 at The Bent Theatre- Palm Spring's newest and only gay theatre. Terry is also the managing director of The Bent.
See Terry's full bio and other fun info at: http://www.terryray.tv
Photo: Copyright Wilkinson/2023
Opening and closing music courtesy the very talented Zakhar Valaha via Pixabay.
To contact Wilkinson- email him at BecomingWilkinson@gmail.com