FROM SHIP TO SHAPE Sails Home To The Hamptons

Following his sold-out, extended Off- Broadway run, solo performer and award-winning radio personality Walker Vreeland will bring his musical autobiographical monologue FROM SHIP TO SHAPE back to Bay Street Theatre on June 10th. The monologue made its world premiere there in 2016. Under the direction of Academy Award and Emmy Award winning producer and director Milton Justice, FROM SHIP TO SHAPE is the winner of two 2017 United Solo Theatre Awards, (Best One-Man Musical and Best Direction), and a 2018 Sarasolo Award (Best Actor.)

When 23-year-old performer Walker Vreeland took a job as a lead singer for Norwegian Cruise Lines in 2003, he could never have imagined the voyage that lay ahead. Boarding the Bermuda-bound ship would precipitate a mental breakdown so severe, he would wind up months later at Johns Hopkins Hospital's Mood Disorder Psychiatric Ward. FROM SHIP TO SHAPE is a tragicomic autobiographical monologue about one young man's struggle with mental illness in today's world. It's about losing your mind while chasing your dreams, the relentless pursuit of healing and how a cruise ship can push you over the edge.

"FROM SHIP TO SHAPE is a humorous cautionary tale," says director Milton Justice. "The good news is, Walker is standing in front of us on stage so we know he did okay. And what he's recounting for the audience is the journey that got him to okay."

Developed with Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominated director Scott Schwartz, FROM SHIP TO SHAPE made its world premiere at Bay Street Theatre's New Works Festival in 2016. Schwartz described the monologue as "entertaining and thought provoking, [an exploration of] our dreams and aspirations: how we achieve them and what it does to us when we can't."

Since its New York run, FROM SHIP TO SHAPE had toured the east coast extensively, including several special performances at mental health organizations. Of the monologue, Vreeland has said: "It's a story I began telling as an act of survival, a way to make sense of the experience. Today, I look forward to spreading its message of hope and resilience, once audience at a time."

Walker Vreeland is an award-winning monologist and radio personality, producer, writer, actor, singer and voice over artist. As a radio personality, he is best known for having hosted The Afternoon Show on 102.5 WBAZ-FM on Long Island, and as the creator and host of the podcast Interview with the Artist where he has interviewed such stars as Cyndi Lauper, Joy Behar, Betty Buckley, David Brenner, Sally Struthers, James Frey, Paula Poundstone, Cheech Marin, Sandra Bernhard and Jane Krakowski. He's also been heard on 92.9 & 96.9 WEHM on Long Island, 103.9 WFAS in Westchester, NY, 96.7 'The Coast' in Norwalk, CT and WEBE 108 in Bridgeport, CT. As an actor and singer, Walker has worked extensively in theater, film and television. Off-Broadway: FROM SHIP TO SHAPE (2017 United Solo Awards for Best One-Man Musical and Best Direction of a Musical). Other New York theater credits include: Little Women (with Deborah Gibson & Elaine Stritch), Just So Stories (Theaterworks USA), and the award- winning musical revue Our Life & Times (Winner of 1999 MAC and Bistro Awards). Touring: FROM SHIP TO SHAPE, Just So Stories, A Christmas Carol, Phantom. Films: Sex Farce, Thinking Out Loud, and A Beautiful Mind. TV: Beat (Amazon Prime). Graduate of Walnut Hill School for the Arts, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and Connecticut School of Broadcasting. From 2013 to 2016, Walker was voted #1 Personality in the Hamptons (Platinum Award) by Dan's Papers.

Milton Justice is an Academy Award and Emmy Award winning producer and director. Broadway Producer credits include: Tennessee Williams' Vieux Carre (world premiere). Off Broadway: Vanities (with Kathy Bates), Das Luscitania Songspiel (with Sigourney Weaver). Film: Down and Out in America (Academy Award for documentary), Losing Chase (dir. by Kevin Bacon and starring Helen Mirren) Television: The Bob Hope Show, Nobody's Child (starring Marlo Thomas) Wanted: the Perfect Guy (with Ben Affleck) and the documentaries When Women Kill and What Sex Am I? for HBO. Los Angeles directing credits include: O'Neill's A Long Day's Journey Into Night, Shaw's Misalliance, Vaclav Havel's A Private View, Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloan, Beckett's Waiting for Godot, and The Day I Stood Still. The Company's efforts were rewarded with seventeen Los Angeles Local Critics' Awards and national GLAAD nomination. A celebrated acting teacher, Milton was mentored by the legendary Stella Adler who selected him to be Artistic Director of the theatre company, based out of her Los Angeles Conservatory. Milton has taught at Yale, NYU/Tisch, Unitec in Auckland, New Zealand and for a year he was Dean of the Institute of Creative Arts in Seoul, Korea. His former students include Mark Ruffalo, Sean Astin, Kyra Sedgwick, Chris Carmack, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek - to name a few. Currently he's teaching at Five Towns College.

TICKETS: baystreet.org

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