THE DEEP THROAT SEX SCANDAL Makes West Coast Premiere at Zephyr Theatre, 1/24

The Deep Throat Sex Scandal, a new play by David Bertolino about the making of the famed, groundbreaking, 1970s pornographic film "Deep Throat" and the subsequent controversy the film ignited, will have its West Coast Premiere at the Zephyr Theatre for a six week engagement, beginning performances January 24, and opening January 31, 2013.

The production is directed by award-winning adult film writer-director Jerry Douglas, and will have different guest cast members every week: Amber Lynn and Bill Margold (Preview week January 24-27); Sally Kirkland and Bruce Vilanch (January 31-February 3); Nina Hartley and Christopher Knight (February 7-10); Georgina Spelvin and Ron Jeremy (February 14-17). Adult film stars Veronica Hart and Herschel Savage are part of the on-going, eight-actor company.

In The Deep Throat Sex Scandal, the true story will be revealed: In 1972, a hairdresser from the Bronx made a little movie that grossed over $600 million (possibly the most profitable film of all time) and ignited the sexual revolution. The Deep Throat Sex Scandal takes audiences behind the scenes, into the secret world of adult filmmaking and introduces them to the legendary Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems. The play follows the bizarre journey from the creation of the movie, through the raids, arrests and the banning of the film, to the political fallout of the ensuing courtroom drama, which helped expand the career of high-powered attorney Alan Dershowitz.

Bertolino said of the trial, "Anyone who claims to value freedom of speech, but then believes sexual expression isn't protected, has now violated the most important principle of this freedom, which is that no man should be allowed to determine the fare chosen by another man for his personal consumption. This trial wasn't just about sexual free speech, but rather the slippery slope of censorship that starts with Nixon banning pornography because of its putative effects on society, and quickly escalates to Nixon silencing his political enemies under the cloak of protecting some other societal need."

The Deep Throat Sex Scandal contains adult themes and nudity; no one eighteen and under will be admitted. Tickets are available online at www.deepthroattheplay.com or by calling 800-838-3006. Special Guilty Pleasures premium-priced packages are also available. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 7 p.m.

The first half of The Deep Throat Sex Scandal deals with the human drama and humorous making of the film. The second half details the lengths to which the film and in particular, one of its performers, was prosecuted or more accurately "persecuted" in the sanctimonious name of decency. When an overly zealous United States government went after the movie, and Harry Reems became an innocent victim of society's guilty pleasures, only a few liberal-minded souls -- including Oscar winners Warren Beatty, Tony Bill, Richard Dreyfuss, and Jack Nicholson -- rose to his defense; as they were realistically fearful that "The Inquisition Against X" would eventually be exacted upon all the other letters in the entertainment alphabet.

The Deep Throat Sex Scandal took five years to bring to the stage – and in 2010, when it opened Off-Broadway, David Bertolino's play had been through 14 drafts, 24 backers who invested close to $700,000 to mount the show, and featured a professional cast willing to strip to nothing.

Bertolino, a Boston-born costume salesman and developer of Spooky World (a Halloween fright park in Boston) was at an adults-only trade show in 2007 selling his costumes from a booth, when he happened to talk with the salesman of the nearby Arrow Productions booth. The Arrow rep was interested in selling Bertolino's sexy nurse uniform with Linda Lovelace's name printed on it. Bertolino immediately said, "We can't do that, we'd be sued," to which the Arrow rep countered with, "My boss owns the rights." And in fact, Arrow Productions owned the rights to Deep Throat, among many other classic adult titles. Bertolino then met Raymond Pistol, owner of Arrow, and Bertolino began to realize there was a play about the most famous sex movie of all time and the First Amendment.

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