AMERICA'S NEXT TOP Begins 8/22 at FringeNYC

TMI Project presents Julie Novak in her tour de force solo show AMERICA'S NEXT TOP: One Top's Take on Life, Love, Tools and Boxes as part of the 2015 New York International Fringe Festival starting Saturday August 22ndat Under St. Marks Theater. Eva Tenuto directs.

At the age of three, Julie Novak walked up the driveway of her home carrying a heavy Craftsman tool box. When asked by her mother where she got it, her only thought was "shouldn't I always have had this toolbox with me?" And so it went that throughout her adolescence Julie found herself as not really having a defined position on the gender spectrum. America's Next Top is her incredibly humorously told, sometimes painful journey of coming out and fearlessly displaying her androgyny to others while taking the risk of eliciting their confusion and leaving them fumbling for the right pronoun...Ah Sir? Ma'am?... Sir? It's also a showcase for her abundant comedic talent, infectious energy, charisma and skill as a singer, impersonator and all around dynamic performer.

"Novak has a divine ability to make every person feel at ease and alive. Her rare sense of humor collapses false barriers, opens the hardest hearts, and even makes my grandma feel intoxicated. Seeing her perform should be on your bucket list." -Jacinta Bunnell, author of the feminist coloring book "Girls Are Not Chicks"

America's Next Top debuted in Provincetown MA during Women's Week in October 2014 and then played two sold-out performances at the Rosendale Theatre. It premiered in New York at Dixon Place in January of this year where it played to another sold out house.

Julie Novak has been performing in and around the tri-state community for the last fifteen years sharing her signature brand of humor with audiences. She studied comedy and improv at Second City in Chicago and at NYC's Upright Citizens Brigade. She has performed stand-up in Chicago, New York and Washington D.C. She recently participated in the in the Serious Laughs Comedy Festival in Kingston NY along with comedians Lewis Black and Kathy Griffin and headlined Queerstock, a gay and lesbian cabaret inWoodstock NY. Some of her theater credits include The Producers, The Vagina Monologues and an all female version of Glengarry Glen Ross.

Eva Tenuto, co-writer of America's Next Top and its director, is the founder of TMI Project, a non-profit organization offering transformative memoir workshops and performances that invite storytellers and their audiences to explore new perspectives. In the last five years she's brought the organization to a host of performance spaces, colleges and the United Nations. She's the editor and director of multiple solo shows including TALES FROM GERIASSIC PARK - On the Verge of Extinctionthat wonBest Comedic Script of 2014 at the United Solo Festival.

America's Next Top opens at Under St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st and 2nd Avenues) on Saturday August 22nd at 5:15PM. The performance schedule is Saturday Aug. 22 at 5:15PM, Mon. Aug. 24 at 8:45PM, Thu. Aug. 27 at 3PM, Fri. Aug. 28 at 5:15PM and Sat. Aug. 29 at 7:15PM. Running time is 55 min. Tickets are $18 plus surcharge. Advance Tickets can be purchased online at www.FringeNYC.org or by going directly to FringeCentral at City Lore (56 E. 1st St. bet.1st & 2nd Aves.) from 2PM to 8PM. For more information visit www.julienovak.com.