Marga Gomez 'Pound's it at Dixon Place's Hot! Festival

On July 10, GLAAD Award-winner and Drama Desk nominee Marga Gomez returns to New York City with her new show, "Pound," commissioned by Ellie Covan of Dixon Place for their 24th Annual Hot! Festival.

Written and performed by Marga Gomez and directed by David Schweizer, "Pound" is a hilarious journey in which Gomez plays herself and a delicious coterie of cinema's most notorious lesbians. Facing unwanted celibacy, Gomez scours dating sites and fortuitously opens a portal to a cloud-based female-loving Bermuda Triangle where notorious lesbian cinematic archetypes (plumbers, showgirls, murderers and school teachers) hook up in spectacularly "meta" ways.

EDGE sat down with our old friend Gomez to discuss her career, her new show, and the bevy of lesbians she'll play.

EDGE: It's been a long time since you played the likes of Dixon Place in NYC. How has your career changed over the past 10 years?

Gomez: Even though I don't live in New York I still play Dixon Place about once a year. Not always full court press but the bartenders know me.

How has my career changed over the past 10 years? I'm way cooler now. No more blazers. I still do jokes, characters and overshares but I get more into it now. I'm very honored to have "Pound" commissioned by Dixon Place this July. It's an opportunity that fell in my lap like a dancer.

EDGE: Tell us a bit about "Pound." What inspired it?

Gomez: "Pound" is part lesbian sexual fantasia and part obscure lesbian cinema fan fiction. When I was a kid I believed that mannequins socialized after Macy's closed. "Pound" is how I imagine misunderstood, tragic and lecherous lesbian film characters might interact in a data cloud.

EDGE: Who are some of the 'coterie of notorious lesbians' that you will portray?

Gomez: Some of my ladies will only be familiar to fans of obscure lesbian movies. But you don't have to know the specific movies to laugh. I play stand-alone lesbian stock characters from the 1960s till 2006: the extortionist, a chicken farmer, an alleged ice-pick murderer. In other words, smoke a joint before you go.

EDGE: Tell readers a little about this portal of cloud-based, female-loving Bermuda triangle that you posit.

Gomez: I play a celibate celesbian involved in a fisting mishap that shoots me through a vaginal portal to another mystical world, a world like Xanadu without roller skates. But "Pound" also has some family stuff like my gay nephew Mikey, a twenty-something Abercrombie and Fitch-wearing Latino. I do a really good sassy gay man.

EDGE: You've been awarded a GLAAD Award for Theater and "Best Comedian" awards all over San Francisco for years. How's it feel to be the best?

Gomez: Hot!

EDGE: Why is it important for the LGBT community to support Dixon Place and Ellie Coven's mission there?

Gomez: Dixon Place is the only theater I know of where we can enjoy original, thought-provoking new work by rad performers and drink fancy cocktails with said performers after the show. I support Ellie and Dixon Place because they don't just make theater, they make family. And I do like seeing all the queers coming through for the festival.

EDGE: What else will you do while you are in NYC for the show?

Gomez: I'll be playing Dixon Place for three weekends -- so I have lots of days off in between. I can actually hang out with everybody in New York. I will hang out with as many people as I can. You want to hang out?

"Pound" will play from July 10-25 at Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie Street. For tickets or information, call 866-811-4111 or visit www.dixonplace.org.