ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING Comes to Sierra Madre Playhouse
An ageing woman receives her Medicare card and is expected to don a cloak of invisibility,
in the marginalization that Society will expect her to accept. She'll have none of that. She's still vital and more than ready to deal with whatever she may encounter. She has been reading a pamphlet called the Activities of Daily Living.
In this episodic, mostly autobiographical presentation accompanied by original animation, writer-performer Joanna Lipari presents in 27 fast-paced scenes a life fully lived, with all of its triumphs, mistakes and hopes.
In Catholic School, Joanna confronts her nun. Joanna experiments with girl power in her first foray into entrepreneurship. In college in the Sixties, she joins protest movements. As a single woman in New York, she breaks a young man's heart. Coming to Hollywood, she finds love and a long-term marriage, which will ultimately dissolve. Picking up the pieces, she goes to Sicily to explore the roots of her paternal family and, while there, experiences a miracle of human kindness. Returning to Los Angeles, she discovers there is still more kindness to be found.
The title? Activities of Daily Living refers to a Geriatric Assessment, a measurement by professionals of what they consider are older people's capabilities in regards to their capacities for conducting their ongoing daily lives. If you're a senior, you may find the ADL and the very notion of it to be a bit insulting.
Joanna Lipari is the writer-performer. She was trained by Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where a troupe she co-founded, The Cracked Tokens, was in residence at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Early roles off-Broadway and in regional theatres led to her coming to Los Angeles and joining the cast of General Hospital. Several roles in feature films and much work in television followed, notably the recurring role of The Director on Persons Unknown (NBC). She received a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine and did a post-graduate Fellowship at UCLA. She has served on the faculty of both institutions. She is the mother of an adoptive daughter.
Beth Dunnington is the director of Activities of Daily Living. A graduate of Emerson College, she is based in Hawaii, where Activities of Daily Living had its World Premiere and where Dunnington recently directed Company and The Last Five Years. For six years, she was Artistic Director of Two Islands Theatre (Manhattan and Bermuda). She has written extensively for animation television (Batman, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Steven Spielberg's Tiny Toon Adventures).
Animation director: Anna Bron. Animation producer: Ron Diamond. Sound design: Christopher Moscatiello.
The Sierra Madre Playhouse engagement marks the show's West Coast Premiere. It had its world premiere in Hawaii and was workshopped earlier at Pacific Resident Theatre.
If you're a senior who refuses to be invisible, or are a younger person who wishes to be a vibrant and vital senior one day, then Activities of Daily Life is the show for you.
WHEN: February 7- February 23, 2020
ADMISSION: $25 general; $20 seniors (65+); Youth (21 and under) $15.
RESERVATIONS: (626) 355-4318.
ONLINE TICKETING: http://sierramadreplayhouse.org
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