FERTILE Earns Fringe Nomination, Award, and Extension

Just like she did in 2015, Heather Dowling took Hollywood Fringe by storm this past June with her critically acclaimed sold out run of her world premiere Fertile, earning a Best Solo Show nomination and an Encore Award. Now audience will have two more opportunities to see it as Dowling will play special engagements on July 11 and 13 at 8 p.m. at the Lounge Theater.

In Fertile, we meet Jenny, a woman with a plan...a plan to get pregnant. Everyone keeps telling her that time is running out; she just turned 35, after all. So, when those urine tests keep coming back negative, Jenny decides to take action and fix the problem. That's when she runs into real problems...and real questions about fertility and motherhood. As Jenny faces the world of "mom options" - egg freezing, in-vitro, adoption, and more - the conversation about the expectation of procreation really begins. In a sea of outside opinions from her friends, her doctors, a beloved neighbor, and even God, Jenny must ultimately look within to discover what motherhood means to her, what it means to be fertile.

Fertile came from the successful two-year run and national tour of Dowling's debut solo show Unemployed. Finally., which premiered at the 2015 Hollywood Fringe, earning awards. Driven by the heartfelt audience response to her stories of struggle with fertility, Dowling decided to share her story more completely and interviewed dozens of women (and men, too) to discover, uncover and encourage a conversation about procreation as an empowered choice.

"One of the motivations for writing this show was the fact that no one was talking honestly about this issue," Dowling said. "Only when I would 'go first' and talk about the problems I ran into with my fertility would all of these private stories come out from the women in my life. There seems to be a whole world of shame and embarrassment wrapped up in the subject of procreation that leaves all of us left to face it alone...at least, we think we're alone. And that sucks! So, this will be a conversation that most people have never had a chance to explore or see told in a truly open way."

Dowling said she was excited to be among five nominees in the jam-packed solo show category at this year's Fringe (there were 101 solo shows) and she's thrilled to get a chance to bring her personal, touching and very funny show to even more theatre patrons.

"I knew I was in some pretty exceptional company," she said. "Solo is a very specific aspect of theatre craft, and to be one of the five performers recognized for exceptional work is humbling. This tells me that my desire to share a story that really connected with people, engaged people truly got fulfilled with Fertile."

For tickets and more information, visit www.fertileconversation.com.

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