The Cake

Produced by the Echo Theater Company as part of its 20th anniversary season, "The Cake" introduces audiences to Jen, who lives in New York but always dreamed of getting married in her small North Carolina hometown.

So, in this world premiere play from play- and screenwriter/producer Bekah Brunstetter (most recent work: NBC's hit show "This Is Us"), Jen heads down South with her partner and asks Della, her late mother's best friend, to do the honors of making her wedding cake. Della, whose cakes are legendary - she is a recent contestant on the "Great American Baking Show" - is overjoyed at Jen's request. Then she realizes there's not just one bride, but two. Can she really make a cake for such a wedding? Della has to re-examine some of her deeply-held beliefs, as well as her own marriage and, in the process, think for herself.

Brunstetter hails from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and currently lives in Los Angeles. Her plays include "The Cake" (Ojai Playwrights Conference), "Going to a Place Where You Already Are" (South Coast Repertory), "The Oregon Trail" (Portland Center Stage Fall 2016, O'Neill Playwrights Conference; Flying V) "Cutie and Bear" (Roundabout commission), "A Long and Happy Life" (Naked Angels commission), "Be A Good Little Widow" (The Old Globe), "Oohrah!" (Atlantic Theater, Steppenwolf Garage), "Nothing is
the end of the World (except for the end of the world)" (Waterwell productions), "House of Home" (Williamstown Theater festival) and "Miss Lilly Gets Boned" (Ice Factory Festival). She received her B.A. from UNC Chapel Hill and her M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from the New School for Drama.

The play was written as Brunstetter grappled with communication and understanding. "Whenever I'm trying to figure out how to have a conversation, I write a play about it. Plus, I love baking shows, I love eating cakes and baking cakes," says Brunstetter. "This play is my attempt to humanize conservative values. I feel there's a lack of empathy, especially in our liberal pocket, a sense of dismissiveness toward people we don't agree with. There are people in my life who have these values, who I love, who I am always trying to understand."

According to Brunstein, "This play was born in the Echo Theater's Playwright's LAB and wouldn't be what it is without their support. I rewrite a lot during the rehearsal process for a first production, so it's also wonderful to premiere the play in the city where I live and work."

The proverbial icing on "The Cake?" Echo Theater has cast Debra Jo Rupp as their leading lady - the mom from "That '70s Show - in the role of Della. Rupp has had more than 300 television and film roles, though she's still best known as doting mom Kitty Forman. The cast also includes the voice of Morrison Keddie as the host of the "Great American Baking Show."

Rupp feels most at home on stage. "When I came to L.A., I came with one mission and that was to make enough money to earn my car and home and to come back with some kind of name, so that I would get hired in theatre. That was always the plan. I just didn't count on a job that would last eight
years... I think of myself as a storyteller, that's what I to do and maybe I just like the stories in theatre better," says Rupp.

Echo Theater's production of "The Cake" runs Saturday, July 1, though Sunday, August 6, at the Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Avenue in Los Angeles. For tickets and more information, call 310.307.3753 or go to echotheatercompany.com