New GHOST KINGDOM Play Premieres During National Adoption Awareness Month

A new play exploring the complexities of the adoption 'ghost kingdom' debuts online in a dynamic virtual reading at the Adoption Knowledge Affiliates (AKA) 2021 Conference. The Austin playwright, the director, and one of the lead actors are adoptees living in the US and UK.

The play, Betwixt & Between, premieres as part of the conference line-up on Friday, November 5 at 6:30pm CST. Non-conference attendees wishing to participate can purchase a separate ticket. A talkback with members of the cast, the playwright, and the director follows the 50 minute virtual reading.

Playwright Maggie Gallant also wrote the critically acclaimed play Hot Dogs at the Eiffel Tower, about her search for her French Papa. She performed the show at the 2015 AKA Conference. It went on to performances in Canada, including the Winnipeg International Fringe Festival, followed by a 5-week run at the Hyde Park Theatre, Austin.

For Betwixt & Between, Gallant asked JMTC Theatre Artistic Director, playwright and adoptee rights advocate, Suzanne Bachner to direct the show. Bachner, from New York City, is adopted and wrote about her experience in the award-winning play, 'The Good Adoptee'. Bachner and Gallant are joined by British actor, playwright and founder of Motormouse Productions, Karen Bartholomew. Bartholomew's adoption reunion play, 'Giving up Marty' was selected for the 2020 Vault Festival in London and was nominated for the People's Choice Award.

Rounding out the cast is Austin actor Genevieve Schroeder-Arce, who plays thirteen-year old Eloise, and Bachner's partner in JMTC Theatre, actor Bob Brader, who narrates the play.

The Design Team includes Graphic Design by Erik Niells of Square Bear Studio in Austin, and Video Design by Broadway Projection Designer Chris Kateff.

Recorded live across three time zones, the play is set in New York City on January 15, 2020, the day that New York adoptees gained the right to obtain their original birth certificates.

Lucy, played by Gallant, unwittingly steps into the liminal space between knowing and unknowing, aka The Gap'. There she is confronted by her fantasy self, Eloise, and the Caseworker assigned to help them both. When Eloise pushes too far, Lucy must grapple with who she is, who she was, and who she might have been.

The Ghost Kingdom is a term coined by Betty Jean Lifton, an adoptee and influential psychologist who specialized in adoption therapy and fought for adoption reform. The Ghost Kingdom describes the hypothetical world adoptees enter when imagining their birth relatives.

The two-day AKA Conference is open to anyone connected to the adoption and foster care community, including adjacent communities such as donor conceived individuals and people with DNA discoveries; therapeutic practitioners, social work professionals, and reform advocates. Attendees receive knowledge, skills, support, and networking opportunities.

Conference information at:
https://www.adoptionknowledge.org/fall-conference-2021.html

Ticket purchase for Betwixt & Between at:
https://www.flipcause.com/secure/event_step2/MTIyMzAy/133236

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