Co-written by Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood, 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche goes well beyond French breakfast food.

“There are very strong themes about feminists and finding your true identity and all of that in the play,” director Reuben Albaugh said. “But I really think at the heart of it, it’s all about friendships and about finding community and supporting one another through hard times.”

The Fort Wayne premiere of the PG-rated show will be presented by First Presbyterian Theater beginning Friday, Jan. 24, and running through Sunday, Feb. 2, at First Presbyterian Church.

‘Finding your tribe’

Premiering in Chicago in 2011, the 2012 recipient of Best Overall Production at the New York International Fringe Festival takes us to a 1956 meeting of the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein.

As the “widows” are awaiting the winner of their annual quiche breakfast, atomic bomb sirens are heard outside. From there, “the closet doors blow open as secrets, repressed desires, and an insatiable hunger for quiche are released,” a description of the show reads.

Following a leadership shakeup at First Presbyterian Theater, Albaugh was called upon to direct the show.

“They called me up and I said, ‘I’d love to. I think it’s a very funny play and I’d be very interested in directing it,’ ” he said.

According to him, it’s the relationships of the ladies and comedy that drew him in.

“It sort of grew out of an improvisation,” he said of the play. “It’s very funny. Just lots of puns and a little bit of double entendre. 

“For me, what I really gravitate to when I’m looking at a show are strong relationships between the characters. 

“There’s clearly some dynamic friendships between these ladies. It’s really sort of about community and finding your tribe, for lack of a better word. I think that’s what I gravitated to most in the play.”

Tight-knit cast

Albaugh said this will be the third production he’s done with First Pres, and the five-member cast will be his smallest.

“It’s been a great time to bond and connect with everybody,” he said. “I’ve worked with all but one of the actors before in productions I’ve directed or been in. So, it’s been fun to get to know Kalee McCullar (Dale). Then to work with Janet Higgins Howard, who’s playing Vern, and Gloria Minnich, who’s playing Lulie, they’ve been great friends for a long time. I’ve known Gloria for more years than I care to comment on. We’ve known each other since we went to college at IPFW together in the theater department.”

And some of the actresses came in with familiarity with one another.

“I think some of them have been friends for a while,” he said. “I know Janet Howard and Jenna Boese, who’s playing Ginny, they’ve been in several productions together and have a great friendship. 

“That translates real well to the characters they’re playing. They have a very strong bond.”

Kelsey Kreger, who plays Wren, fills out the cast that Albaugh helped assemble in late November.

“They’re all unique individual characters,” he said of his process during auditions. “I was just looking for that — people who are not afraid to have fun and be silly and have a good time.”

Getting in on act

While there will be only five characters on stage, Albaugh said there may be another, less conventional, one.

“The audience is very much another character in the show,” he said. “They are often referred to by name. They get some character names when they arrive. They are attending the quiche breakfast. So, they are a part of the sisterhood, too — men and women alike. So, they are talked to and interacted with in that way. 

“No one’s asked to come on stage or do anything. You get to stay in your seat, but you are spoken to.”

Attendees will also get the feeling that they’re back at a family reunion or pot luck in the basement of a church, because, in essence, they will be.

“We’re actually doing the play in McKay Hall here at First Presbyterian Church,” Albaugh said. “It’s their fellowship hall really. It’s where they have fellowship after church on Sundays. They have luncheons and dinners. Actually, during one of our rehearsals, they were set up for a school program that was happening the next day.”

The intimate space will also help keep you warm during those northeast Indiana nights in late January and early February. And while you’re there, you may as well have a laugh.

“This time of year, with the gloom and the cold, if you’re going to go out, you want to have a good time and chuckle,” Albaugh said. “We will have plenty of those for you.”

Plenty of chuckles … and a positive message, of course.

“It’s the idea of being there for fellow humans I’ll say, but being there for women as women,” he said. 

“It’s about supporting each other as opposed to sometimes seeing the catfights. This is really about supporting one another and being there for each other as human beings. These characters happen to be women, but I think it’s a universal theme.”