SEX WITH STRANGERS COMES TO FRINGE!

South City Players Guild takes a very intimate look at desire, attraction, ambition and the struggles we
face when the past prevents us from reinventing ourselves in this classic and controversial work.

LOS ANGELES – When it comes to what we desire most in our lives, there are two important
questions that we need to answer: How far will we go to get what we want, and will we be the
same person if we do?

Those issues are at the heart of the passionate, poignant and nationally acclaimed Sex With
Strangers, produced by the South City Players Guild at the Stephanie Feury Theater this June as
part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
In Sex With Strangers, failed novelist Olivia meets Ethan, a celebrated (and much younger)
writer made famous by his sexcapade tell-all blog, at a snowbound bed and breakfast, and
their mutual attraction quickly gets hot and heavy. As a weekend tryst develops into a long-
term romance, their personal and professional lives collide. Ethan seeks legitimacy,
dismissing his bad boy reputation as nothing more than an invented character. Olivia has her
doubts, but craves for the literary fame Ethan can offer her. Ambition, identity and trust are
in play when online personas clash with real world expectations in this smart, steamy take
on modern love.

“We live in a very complicated time for dating, where a person is only a swipe or click away,”
said Jake Ferree, producer and one of the show’s lead actors. “We live in the age of information
and the mystery and spontaneity of dating is not quite what it used to be. Relationships have
never been easy for me and they take a great deal of passion, trust, and work. Something tells me
I’m not the only one to feel this way with our modern sensibility.”
It’s that familiarity and the realness of the characters and their struggle that drew Ferree to
presenting this play at Fringe. A St. Louis native who has performed in theatre across the nation,
Ferree now mainly works in film and television, including work in a new show streaming this
fall and his feature film They’re Inside, which was just picked up for distribution by Epic
Pictures and Amazon. His co-star is Melissa Center, a working stage and screen actor with an
impressive credits list and work with ABC, NBC, HBO and Showtime. To helm the production,
he’s brought in Natalie Avital, an accomplished filmmaker, director and documentarian.
Sex With Strangers has seen its share of acclaim since debuting in 2015. For Ferree, the beauty
of the work comes down to the relationship.
“These characters are not living in a bubble of science-fiction they are you and I in our most
vulnerable, real, and honest selves,” he said. “This show is a mashup of ambition, sex, and love.
It is the reflection of a modern relationship between two people who will stop it nothing to get
what and who they want. I hope the people that see this show find a moment to reflect on their
own relationships in this modern era and see themselves in Ethan an Olivia. We are not perfect
people and our relationships can be messy, but love is a rare and powerful thing that is worth
trying and messing up if only once in a lifetime.”

Calendar Listing Request:
Sex With Strangers
Written by Laura Eason
Directed by Natalie Avital
Starring Jake Ferree and Melissa Center

SYNOPSIS:
In Sex With Strangers, failed novelist Olivia meets Ethan, a celebrated (and much younger)
writer made famous by his sexcapade tell-all blog, at a snowbound bed and breakfast, and
their mutual attraction quickly gets hot and heavy. As a weekend tryst develops into a long-
term romance, their personal and professional lives collide. Ethan seeks legitimacy,
dismissing his bad boy reputation as nothing more than an invented character. Olivia has her
doubts, but craves for the literary fame Ethan can offer her. Ambition, identity and trust are
in play when online personas clash with real world expectations in this smart, steamy take
on modern love.

DATES AND TIMES:
Part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival
Friday, June 7 – 5:45 p.m. (*preview)
Thursday, June 13 – 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 22 – 7 p.m.
Wednesday, June 26 – 12 p.m.
Sunday, June 30 – 11 a.m.

LOCATION:
Stephanie Feury Theater
5636 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90038
TICKET PRICES:
$12
*$10 if you use the promo code “SEX19”
FOR TICKETS AND MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/5932

PRESS CONTACT INFORMATION:
Jake Ferree
(314) 757-5321
[email protected]