Best-Selling Novelist to Bring BLUFF to the Thespis Theater Festival

By: Jul. 18, 2016
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Can coma victims hear or sense what's happening around them?

This is the question at the heart of bestselling novelist and playwright Leonore Skomal's new play, BLUFF, opening August 2nd for three performances at the Thespis Theater Festival at the Hudson Guild Theatre in New York City.

Based on her bestselling novel, also titled BLUFF, this is the story of Jude Black, a 40-year old woman who mysteriously falls off a bluff behind her home and ends up in a coma. To the surprise of her friends and family, it is discovered that Jude is pregnant, a condition that is remarkable given that she is a lesbian. Adding to this mystery is the unknown identity of the father or his relationship with Jude.

In this twilight state, the story brings us to Jude herself, who is grappling with her own life-choices and the outcomes that are playing all around her and which are now out of her control. "I wanted to push the envelope and explore not just the idea that a comatose patient could hear, but much more," says Ms. Skomal. "I wanted to know what it might be like to be trapped in one's body, with no visible means of communication. And not just be trapped, but forced to face the decisions you've made and live with those outcomes while not being able to defend or explain yourself. My protagonist, Jude Black, finds herself in that position. And as she lies there, immobile, some strange things happen."

Ms. Skomal tackles many issues including suicide, alcoholism and mental illness and she has researched her material meticulously. A story teller dedicated to the most accurate portrayal of the events that unfold in her play, BLUFF promises to be one of the standout productions of this summer's Thespis Festival.

BLUF runs Tuesday, August 2, 2016 @ 9pm, Wednesday, August 3, 2016 @ 6:15pm, and Saturday, August 6, 2016 @ 6pm at The Hudson Guild Theatre, 441 West 26th Street (between 9th & 10th), New York, NY, 10001. Tickets on BrownPaperTickets.com ~ www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2549494.



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