Kipling Hotel 

Talk about an identity crisis. Don Reed spent time in the shocking-pink world of 1980s Hollywood with a pimp for a dad. He tried various routes to finding himself: gigolo, stripper, college student. One that stuck (for a while) was a waiter in what he calls a “retirement hotel,” where he dealt with elderly residents, vagabond co-workers, and “drug-addicted dreamers.” What’s the name of this intersection of misadventures? Kipling Hotel. And if it’s anyone we trust to make comical sense of it all, it’s Reed. The writer, actor, and director chronicled his childhood in 1970s Oakland in East 14th, which ran more than two years. Kipling Hotel is Reed’s second act -- and it's back for its own second act, after running last fall -- picking up with our hero moving south in 1981. Reed has experience writing for film and TV as well as theater, and there's talk of him signing onto a new sitcom on Fox. Guess he learned something in Hollywood other than how not to dress. — By Keith Bowers

Price: $20-$50