About the Play:

The Cake is a full-length dramatic comedy by Bekah Brunstetter. Della makes cakes, not judgment calls – those she leaves to her husband, Tim. But when the girl she helped raise comes back home to North Carolina to get married, and there is not one bride, but two, Della's life gets turned upside down. She can't really make a cake for a lesbian wedding, can she? For the first time in her life, Della has to think for herself.

The Cake is about gay-marriage controversies centered on a wedding cake. What happens when someone or something suddenly throws the belief system you have held your entire life into question? Della's North Carolina bakery is legendary for baking mouth-watering cakes – she's even won a spot on the Great American Baking Show! So she's overjoyed when Jen, the young woman she helped raise, returns home to Winston-Salem and requests a wedding cake. Della, a sweet-natured Christian, is tickled pink to honor her wish – until she discovers that Jen's intended is actually another woman. A sweet-natured Christian, Delia is forced to re-examine her deeply-held beliefs, as well as her own marriage. Moral quandaries, faith, family loyalty, and lots of frosting collide in this paradigm-shifting comedy told with generosity, humour, and more than a few surprises by Bekah Brunstetter, the Emmy Award-winning writer/producer of the hit TV series This is Us.

The Cake premiered in 2017 at the Echo Theatre Company in Los Angeles. Since then, the play has been produced off Broadway at Manhattan Theater Club (MTC) and has been performed in regional, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 3 female, 1 male

What people say:

"Deeply personal, delightfully down-home." — Stage and Cinema

"The play's tight narrative construction is apparent from the opening scene, which immediately seduces us with Della's bubbly charm... What's refreshing and heartening about The Cake is its characters' willingness to face their differences and limitations head-on... This is us as we could be, if we'd all just try a little harder." — Los Angeles Times

"Recommended... Stage Raw Top 10... a singularly savory dramedy that crystallizes a contentious issue and, with empathy for both sides, portrays it in an edifying and insightful way... I left the theater feeling moved and enlightened." — Stage Raw

"Brilliant... Powerful and meaningful... great writing... great direction... abundant wit and humor." — LA Post-Examiner

"Wow! ...puts a deeply personal, delightfully down-home face on the Gay-Wedding-Cake Wars... I cried, I learned, I loved." — StageSceneLA

About the Playwright:

Bekah Brunstetter is an American playwright and screenwriter. Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and educated at UNC Chapel Hill (BA) and the New School for Drama (MFA in Dramatic Writing), she currently lives in Los Angeles. Her plays have been performed Off-Broadway in New York and leading regional theatres in the US. As a TV writer and producer, she has written for Switched at Birth, American Gods, This is Us, and Maid.