JAW Play Reading: The Sugar Hole
By Virginia Baeta and Amy Driesler
A rent increase for a legendary lesbian bar threatens its existence, and Darcy has a plan to save it. Is the 90's-themed Lesbian Pageant she dreams up as a fundraiser the answer? Or do the lesbians around her have different ideas about what needs to be saved? The Sugar Hole skips through time and space—real and imagined—exploring what it means to be a lesbian in a lesbian community, the importance of spaces for queer people, and what makes someone feel they belong. Part zany comedy, part pageant, and fully heart-filled, The Sugar Hole speaks directly to what makes a community, a community.

Virginia Baeta (she/they) has been committed to the theatre for almost 30 years. Much of Virginia's stage work was with The Queen’s Company (of which she is Associate Producer), an all-female classical theatre company, playing male characters from fops and fools to ill-fated kings. Through this work with The Queen’s Company, Virginia began creating new plays that challenge gender expectations and put strong female and queer characters on stage. Her first play, Damaged Goods, was produced by The Other Side of Silence (TOSOS) in 2017. Her play Icarus was presented to much acclaim in the Hysteria Festival of Women’s Work at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto. Other plays are hiding on her hard drive.

Amy Driesler (she/her) is an actor and writer. She’s honored to be a part of JAW 2025. She received a RACC Arts3C Grant (Spring 2023) for The Sugar Hole’s workshop in January 2024 (directed/dramaturgy by Tamara Carroll). As a performer, she has worked with Third Rail Repertory, Island Stage Left, Portland Center Stage, Profile Theatre, Book-It Repertory, Harlem Shakespeare Festival and many others. Up next: Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the inaugural season of Shakespeare Under the Stars in Walla Walla, WA. She is a proud member of Equity. Thanks to my friends and family; special thanks to Sarah. Art is Resistance.
Portland Center Stage is committed to identifying & interrupting instances of racism & all forms of oppression, through the principles of inclusion, diversity, equity, & accessibility (IDEA).