Glamour stars on Mother’s Day with Gateway’s one-woman show

When movie stars Isabella Rossellini and Laura Dern toured The Gateway during its Haunted House event with Dern’s best friend Bellina Logan last fall, an idea for a Mother’s Day show was pitched.

“It was Isabella’s idea,” said Gateway executive artistic director Paul Allan of “Confessions of a Mulatto Love Child.”

The Gateway show on May 12 is Logan’s biographical, funny one-woman show about her gorgeous British mother. Logan, who is biracial, plays several roles and emphasizes the close bond they had through affection and trials. Rossellini, as host, will add quips from her famous mother, Ingrid Bergman. Dern, as co-host, will discuss her famous mother, actress Diane Ladd.

You can meet all three after the show on The Gateway grounds outside, for an extra fee, with wine and hors d’oeuvres.

It’s a great way to honor moms, nurturers and others, and support two not-for-profits.

The idea morphed into reality when Dern and Logan headed out to Rossellini’s home after the writers’ strike demonstrations.

“Isabella’s always trying to figure out ways to help The Gateway succeed,” said Paul Allan. “She’s always gracious, and there’s a component for her nonprofit.”

There’s been an ongoing collaborative effort between the two, pointed out director of development and public relations, Scot Patrick Allan. “She’s looking to us on how to run her event as a nonprofit,” he said. “The Mother’s Day show and post-show gathering is an interesting thing to do that day. Except for brunch or dinner, what do you usually do that day? Also, Laura grew up with Bella’s mother. They were best friends.”

Logan is a 25-year stage veteran, who has appeared at The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, and the New York Philharmonic, among many other theaters. She has starred in recurring roles in a roster of television series and is currently featured in “Palm Royale” on Apple TV.  Her show is directed by Maggie Soboil, who was born in South Africa and became that country’s leading female satirist. As an actress, she won an Obie Award in New York for her performance in “Poppie Nongena” and starred in her own TV  special for the BBC. She’s directed theater in New York and Los Angeles.

A fixture in the community, Mama Farm is a 28-acre farm in Brookhaven hamlet protected by a conservation easement overseen by executive director, Elettra Wiedemann.

Wonderfully diverse and family-friendly events have taken place there over the years, while the farm adheres to organic practices, farming, and provides an animal sanctuary as well as partnerships with local schools and its neighbors, Center for Environmental Education and Discovery and the Post-Morrow Foundation.

It’s been an ardent mission of Rossellini’s, who grew up in Rome, where agriturismo farms abounded, and now Wiedemann, Rossellini’s daughter, is carrying the gauntlet.  It also hosts a bed-and-breakfast.

“We established a Mama Farm Foundation last month to garage the survival of the farm beyond me,” said Rossellini, who elaborated in an email about the designation. “Right now, the farm is vastly financed by me. The bed-and-breakfast brings some money in, but the costs of running it are high. We are at the first steps, and the collaboration with The Gateway is our first fundraiser. The money will be shared 50/50.”

For tickets, call 631-286-1133, or click on www.thegateway.org.