Tara Handron, The Unified Scene Theater present One-Woman Show, DRUNK WITH HOPE

The Unified Scene Theater and Tara Handron are proud to present "Drunk With Hope: A One-Woman Comedy About Recovery and Recovering" for five shows in April and May (April 27th and 28th, May 5th, 6th, and 7th), at The Unified Scene Theater, located at 80 T Street NW in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, DC.

It's the first collaboration between Tara Handron, one of the area's most gifted and respected comedic actors, and The Unified Scene Theater, a brick-and-mortar theater space that privileges improvisational comedy, sketch comedy, and premise, formatted and genre-based improv comedy shows since it first opened in September of 2015. It's also the second "scripted" theatrical production that The Unified Scene Theater, which normally acts as a space for improvisational comedy, is co-producing at its theater, and, according to TUS Artistic Director Shawn Westfall, is something he hopes to have more of at the space, which he co-founded with his wife, Kathy Baird Westfall.

"Drunk with Hope" discards clichéd depictions of recovery and relies on stories with depth, poignancy, and humor to expose the raw emotions and experiences so many alcoholic women face. Tara portrays a woman named Hope, as well as many other female alcoholics (some sober, some not-so-sober) of various ages, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds. At times poignant, at times dark, but at all times (darkly and lightly) comic, Tara's exploration of the numerous personalities and experiences faced by women in recovery will leave you both gut-punched and laughing, and, of course, filled with hope.

The production evolved out of Tara's master's thesis research of female recovering alcoholics, comparing their experiences in traditional face-to-face 12-Step recovery meetings to online meetings. The play is a fictional compilation of many women's stories alongside Tara's observations, experiences, and imagination, but also deeply personal. "One thing you can't help but notice about female alcoholics is how not only how strong and resilient they are, and have to be," Handron says, "but also how simultaneously vulnerable, self-effacing, and hilariously funny they are." That dichotomy, plus the irony with which they approach their own situations, "resulted in a unique set of voices that I felt compelled to capture," says Handron.

"'Drunk With Hope' is precisely the kind of show we hope to have more of here at The Unified Scene Theater," said Westfall, "and speaks to one of the reasons we opened it: to give space and opportunities to performers who don't normally get a hearing in traditional theater spaces. There are annual festivals here in town and elsewhere that invite a theatrically non-traditional production or avant garde-esque performers and performances to their venues for a few weeks out of the year. Our attitude is that this kind of thing should be happening year round. And, at The Unified Scene Theater, it will, and it does."

The show will run for five performances in Late April/Early May. For more information, visit www.unifiedscenetheater.com and www.tarahandron.com.