Lee Brady's WHAT ABOUT BEN? to be Featured in San Francisco Women’s Theatre Festival, 3/8-4/1

Lee Brady is a playwright and woman of many theatrical hats, including actor, professor, and critic. Her What About Ben? will be the only play in the current 3Girls Women's Theatre Festival to have been previously produced. The one-character play won an International Playwriting Award in 2003 when it was produced in San Jose, Costa Rica.

What About Ben? is the story of Coralynn, a one-named folk singer and feisty widow who travels from bad times in Oklahoma to good times in the Berkeley Hills. Inspired by real-life folk singer, LaWanda, the tale takes off when

Coralynn's architect-husband, Ben, dies and a sexy tree-trimmer named Jose enters her life. Can she move him into the house that Ben built? Marie Shell* stars in this one-woman show, accompanied by guitarist Eric Lenchner.

The show is directed by Suze Allen. Original songs and music are by Marie Shell, with additional lyrics by Lee Brady.

*Member, Actor's Equity Association. What About Ben? is an Equity Approved Project.

3Girls Theatre co-founder, literary director, and resident playwright Lee Brady does indeed wear several hats. She recently acted in Paula Vogel's The Oldest Profession at Brava Theatre; she is a resident playwright/literary director for the Fearless Minds Production Company in Carmel Valley, California. She is a producer and founder of Fresh New Works in San Francisco; an Adjunct Professor at Monterey Peninsula College; and a theatre critic who has reviewed for the Pacific Sun Newspaper and the Scotsman in Edinburgh, Scotland. Lee, however, is first and foremost a playwright. Her work has been produced in Edinburgh, Scotland and San Jose, Costa Rica (where she picked up an International Playwriting Award for her one-person musical drama WHAT ABOUT BEN?)

She has been produced in regional theatre in the Midwest and South, as well as in the Southwest and several California cities. Most recently a collection of her plays, Brady's Shorts, was produced in a sold-out production at the Cherry Center for the Arts, Carmel, California.

Lee lives and works in San Francisco where she has won awards for Home for the Wedding, a regional comedy, and Southern Lights, a country-western musical.

What About Ben will perform at the Thick House theatre on Potrero Hill, 1695 18th Street in San Francisco. SUNDAYS - MARCH 18, APRIL 1 (7:00 p.m.) and THURSDAYS - MARCH 22, MARCH 29 (7:30 p.m.).

Tickets are $30 and can be purchased at www.brownpapertickets.com or www.3girlstheatre.org.