In Mrs. California, ACT’s next production, playwright Doris Baizley has taken a ”socio-comic” look at pre-feminism in the 1950s. A long-running Los Angeles hit, Mrs. California is a brightly satiric comedy that takes place at a 1955 homemakers’ contest in a Los Angeles hotel. The winner will embody the epitome of the 1950s ideal woman: "a happy, good and beautiful homemaker." The play will be directed by Lee Shallat — a former Seattle actress who made her professional debut in ACT’s presentation of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds in 1972. She is now a successful and prolific director of stage and screen in California. Among her television credits are the popular "Family Ties" and "Newhart."

Mrs. California deftly satirizes the plight of the 1950s housewife by placing her in the Mrs. California homemakers’ contest. And as funny as the contest scenes are, the play also seriously considers the role of women at that time.