Jeffrey Solomon's MOTHERSON Set for Theatre Project, 8/14-17

Jeffrey Solomon's award-winning solo play MotherSON will have its Baltimore premiere August 14 - 17, 2014, at Theatre Project, 45 W. Preston Street, Baltimore.

Mother/SON charts the delicate, layered and changing relationship between a Jewish gay man and his mother. It is an honest and poignant autobiographical exploration brought to the stage with delightful precision, imagination and understated power by Jeffrey Solomon. The work is witty and moving; familiar and yet enlightening. Mother/SON is a beautiful journey of acceptance and celebrates what is possible when someone becomes open to change.

Jeffrey Solomon's award-winning solo play was inspired by his mother's poignant, and often hilarious, journey out of the closet as the parent of a gay son, within the context of a tightly knit Jewish community. The story traces her evolution from grief stricken mother turning up at a support group for parents of gays, to marching with her son in a pride parade.

Solomon captures brilliantly the sort of involvement his mother had in his life, the incessant questions, directions and probing which inevitably led to tensions and frustrations and his shock revelation over the phone.

Solomon said "I really wrote the play to explore what the coming out journey taught both my mom and me when I came out in 1990, aged 23, I wanted to capture the essence of the way we communicated, our sense of humour and also the annoying dynamic that goes on between mothers and sons, particularly Jewish mothers and sons."

Mother/SON premiered Off Broadway at HERE Art Center in New York and has toured widely in the U.S. including engagements at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles and at Chicago's Bailiwick Rep where Mr. Solomon's performance was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award. Internationally, the play has been seen in India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines and in the U.K. on London's Off-West End at the New End and Oval House Theatres as well as the Leeds International Jewish Performing Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe. Mother/SON won the Audience Favourite Award at the U.S. National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival and Mr. Solomon won the Awards for Best Playwriting and Best Male Solo Performer. In Dublin, Ireland his performance won the award for Best Performer in a Leading Role at the 2010 Absolut Gay Theatre Festival.

Jeffrey Solomon's other solo play SANTA CLAUS IS COMING OUT ran Off Broadway at the Kirk Theatre and has played engagements at the Bailiwick Rep in Chicago, the Coast Playhouse in West Hollywood, the Diversionary in San Diego and the Warehouse Theatre in Washington D.C. The play received the Best of the U.S. National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival.

Jeffrey is the co-Artistic Director of Houses on the Moon Theater Co. in New York, which tours his ensemble works including DE NOVO, TARA'S CROSSING and BUILDING HOUSES ON THE MOON. Mr. Solomon wrote the pilot for Jim Henson's CITYKIDS, which received an Emmy nomination for Best Children's Television Special and an Ollie Award for Excellence in Children's Programming. He was a staff writer for the series of the same name on A.B.C. and penned a CityKids novelization for young adults published by Random House. He was a staff writer on Davis Rules (Carsey-Werner/ABC-TV) and has also written for Tribeca (Tri-Star/FOX) and Gullah Gullah Island (Nickelodeon.)