Mary Brigit Poppleton to 'Write a Memoir' at FringeNYC

The New York International Fringe Festival, The Strollers, and Madeline Walter will present the New York premiere of Madeline Walter's Mary Brigit Poppleton is Writing a Memoir from Friday, August 10th through Sunday, August 26th.  

"What happens when a teenage girl from Ashtabula, Ohio decides to write a memoir? At the tender age of seventeen, nothing much has happened to her so far.  But Mary Brigit Poppleton knows what to do.  Not wanting to pull a James Frey and fictionalize her story, she decides to fictionalize her actual life.  Her first move?  Faking her own pregnancy.  She attempts to convince her Catholic family that she is in fact pregnant, then runs away from home, landing on Long Island with the help of a misdirected, well-intentioned Catholic 'Planned Parenthood' volunteer.  On the Island, Mary Brigit learns a thing or two about truth, literature, and finding memoir-worthy stories in her own (real) life. A 'Virgin Mary' story of imaginary conception, it may not be divine, but it will be hilarious. The play, with a cast of ten, will be directed by Heidi Handelsman. First performed at the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, it received the 2006 Sam Selden Award, the highest honor for playwriting at the University of North Carolina," state press notes.

Madeline Walter recently graduated with highest distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. An avid documentary filmmaker, she has done documentary film work in Kentucky, China, and South Africa. Her film about anti-coal mining activists, "Loud and Clear: Voices of Kentucky's Mountains" was featured in the 2004 Ms. Films Festival and the Documentary Happening Festival in Durham, North Carolina.  In September, 2007, Walter will return to Chapel Hill as the first-ever Robertson Fellow, a Robertson Scholar graduate position for program development. She is a Rhodes Scholar finalist for 2007.

The cast features Allison Altman, Daleelah Sada Johnson, Russell Johnson, Julie Marcus, Alyson Morgan, Doug Roland, Evan Silverman, Patrick Stewart, and Isaiah Tanenbaum.  The director will be Heidi Handelsman, who most recently directed Courtney Lauria's On The Surface in the Samuel French Festival.  The design team is Melissa Casciano, Heather Cohn, Jeffrey Collier, Matt Farabee, and Ben Greene.
  
The production will be performed as part of the New York International Fringe Festival, which will begin performances on August 10th.  Tickets will be $15.00 and may be purchased by calling 212.279.4488 or 1-888-FringeNYC. For more information, visit www.fringenyc.org or www.marybrigit.com.  

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