New Show About Cancer Warms The Heart And Even The Funny Bone At Jewish Women's Theatre

Jewish Women's Theatre (JWT) will present two performances of Living After, a new show that illuminates the heart and heartbreak of cancer, during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, on October 26 and 27.

Living After is a moving, funny, and poignant collection of stories and songs that illuminate what it is like to live with and after cancer. It stars Monica Piper, comedienne, Emmy Award-winner, and Not That Jewish writer/performer who tells her own story; AJ Meijer of Heathers:The Musical; Jasmine Curry, actor/producer; and Rosie Moss of The Connors.

A portion of the proceeds from this touching and humorous show will be donated to Sharsheret, a non-profit organization that supports young Jewish women and their families with breast cancer or a genetic predisposition to the disease.

Performances of Living After will be held on Saturday, October 26 at 8 pm and Sunday, October 27 at 2 pm at The Braid, JWT's art and performance space in Santa Monica. Tickets are $35 pre-sale and $45 at the door and are available at: www.jewishwomenstheatre.org.

Living After audiences will see a story by Cynthia Freeman about the life and death of her sister Abby, who died of breast cancer in 2014. Abby's life and many contributions will be commemorated by JWT and her parents, Jack and Isabel Freeman, after the matinee on Sunday, October 27, when JWT's Artists-in-Residence program is renamed in her honor.

Los Angeles favorite Monica Piper will also tell her own story about a mammogram that can't help but make you chuckle, and her journey through ultrasound, needle biopsy, and a successful lumpectomy while thinking, "I was supposed to live and be a burden on other people!"

JWT patrons will also meet a startled granddaughter whose grandma asks her to test whether the edible marijuana she has been prescribed is defective, and will learn how a game of catch in a hospital courtyard could help young boys connect with their dad, even after he is gone. They will also meet a "shabbos goy" who helped Orthodox Jewish hospital visitors with tasks that are forbidden on the Sabbath, and who was rewarded by the hospital chaplain, a rabbi who showed compassion and kindness to her dying sister.

There are also stories about merrily eating pastrami despite doctor's orders to fight cancer with healthy organics, about how parent/child relationships can change with a cancer diagnosis, how a daughter kept her mother's honey cake in her freezer for two years so she could still "taste her mother," and what a golden retriever can teach us all about death.

Living After will be performed at The Braid, JWT's art and performance space, 2912 Colorado Ave., #102, Santa Monica, on Saturday, October 27 at 8 pm and Sunday, October 28 at 2 pm. The 2 pm performance will be followed by a reception in honor of Abby Freeman and the new Abby Freeman Artists-in-Residence Program. Tickets are $35 presale or $45 at the door, and can be purchased at www.jewishwomenstheatre.org

JWT, which has been voted one of the "Best Live Theatres on the Westside" three years in a row by The Argonaut, stages and displays traditional and contemporary works and educational programming that provide a forum for the development, performance and showcasing of Jewish artistic talent. Now celebrating its 12th anniversary, JWT's salon theatre of original dramatic shows, each written to a specific theme, displays the diverse and eclectic community of writers, artists and creators who celebrate Jewish life, one story at a time. Learn more about JWT at www.jewishwomenstheatre.org.