59E59 Theaters Kicks Off 2015 EAST TO EDINBURGH Festival Today

59E59 Theaters presents its 2015 EAST TO EDINBURGH festival, beginning today, July 7 for a limited engagement through Sunday, July 26. The performance schedule varies. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets to each EAST TO EDINBURGH show ranges from $10 - $20 ($7 - $14 for 59E59 Members). Tickets can be purchased by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or online via www.59e59.org.

Each July, 59E59 Theaters hosts an abundance of innovative US productions en route to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world. Created as a way to help shows get on their feet before flying off to Scotland, EAST TO EDINBURGH simulates the same production constraints that all shows experience during the Festival, while giving them a clean, comfortable and nurturing space to fine-tune their productions. This whirlwind three-week festival, featuring 19 productions, reflects some of the most adventurous theater from around New York and across the US.

---

The 2015 EAST TO EDINBURGH line up is:

SPLITFOOT, written by John P. McEneny and Vasile Flutur, directed by John P. McEneny

With Annie Meek Montgomery, Aaron Novak, Annie McCoy, Anne Windsland, Vasile Flutur

Produced by Piper Theatre Productions

Performance schedule: Tuesday, July 8 & Tuesday, July 14 at 8:30 PM; Sunday, July 12 at 7:30 PM

Ticket Price: $18 ($12.60 for 59E59 Members)

Crack, snip, smot. By cracking their bones, the Fox sisters convinced thousands that they could communicate with the dead. Set in post Civil-War America, a haunted veteran, in thirst for spiritual meaning, strives to tell the tale of the infamous Fox sisters.

THE AMERICAN SOLDIER, written by Douglas Taurel, directed by Padraic Lillis

With Douglas Taurel

Produced by Cyclops Productions

Performance schedule: Wednesday, July 8 at 6:30 PM; Thursday, July 9 at 8:30 PM

Ticket Price: $15 ($10.50 for 59E59 Members)

This solo show reveals the struggles American soldiers face at war and their internal struggles to come home. Based on real stories and accounts from soldiers' letters written from the American Revolution to current day Afghanistan.

BETTE DAVIS AIN'T FOR SISSIES, written and performed by Jessica Sherr, directed by Antony Raymond

Produced by Velvet Fox Productions

Schedule: Wednesday, July 8 - Friday, July 10 at 7:15 PM; Wednesday, July 15 - Thursday, July 16 at 8:30 PM; Tuesday, July 21 at 8:30 PM

Ticket Price: $20 ($14 for 59E59 Members)

An Edinburgh Fringe audience favorite! It's the 1939 Academy Awards; young Miss Davis is nominated for Best Actress, and the LA Times LEAKED the winners EARLY! "Vivian Leigh will take home the Oscar for Best Actress". Witness Bette's most defining moments as a tenacious young starlet. With humor and unabashed frankness Jessica Sherr journeys into Bette Davis' battle to win freedom from the grip and control of the Hollywood studio moguls, studio executives and mother Ruthie. See what happens when someone who always wins...loses.

RECLAIMING VIETNAM, written and performed by Kim Chinh, directed by Elizabeth Browning

Performance schedule: Thursday, July 9 at 6:30 PM; Saturday, July 11 at 4:30 PM

Ticket price: $20 ($14 for 59E59 Members)

After rejecting her Vietnamese identity, a woman travels to Vietnam, the birthplace of her father. As she discovers the beauty of her roots, she is forced to combat demons of her past, and learn the power of forgiveness.

COSMONAUT, written and performed by Ryan Good

Produced by Lucy Tafler Presents

Performance schedule: Thursday, July 9 - Saturday, July 11 at 9:15 PM

Ticket price: $15 ($10.50 for 59E59 Members)

Ryan Good (award-winning show: Sex With Animals, and New York Neo-Futurist alum) brings a world premiere show exploring broken hearts, male feminists, and what happens when Cosmopolitan magazine becomes your guide in love.

KITTY'S BOUND FOR BROADWAY, written and performed by Kerry Miller, directed by Susie Keating, with musical arrangements by Stephen Brown

Performance schedule: Friday, July 10 - Saturday, July 11 at 6:30 PM; Sunday, July 12 at 2:30 PM

Ticket Price: $15 ($10.50 for 59E59 Members)

Everyone has a dream. And Kitty Adler is no exception. Fifty-something Kitty just won the lottery, the Broadway Lottery: a chance to compete for a spot on a theater stage in the coveted theater district on Broadway, New York. KITTY'S BOUND FOR BROADWAY is a 40-minute, 11-song, one-woman show entirely written and performed by Kerry Miller from Nova Scotia, Canada. Lighthearted, engaging, you'll be "bound" to be drawn in as you follow the path right along with Kitty as she worries, frets, sings and encounters a few colorful characters who help on the road to her dream.

FUTURE HONEY, created by The Pack, directed by Jenny Reed

With Rachel Berger, Brittany Costa, and Samantha Sheppard

Produced by The Pack

Schedule: Friday, July 10 - Saturday, July 11 at 8:30 PM; Sunday, July 19 at 4:30 PM

Ticket price: $20 ($14 for 59E59 Members)

When a technological disruption incites a confusing mess of regurgitated personal histories, three women are thrust into a surreal game world in search of truths. They embark upon a cryptic quest, navigating a variety of obstacles, nonsensical riddles, deep-seated fears, and an omniscient Neil DeGrasse Tyson. FUTURE HONEY is a devised theatre project that investigates how humans are physically and emotionally shaped by the use of connection technologies. The show imagines a near-distant future through the use of dark humor, game structures, and playful physicality.

BLACK MAGIC: SONGS UNCHAINED, written, directed and performed by Katt Tait

Produced by Experience Katt Tait

Performance schedule: Saturday, July 11 at 2:30 PM; Sunday, July 12 at 4:30 PM

Ticket Price: $18 ($12.60 for 59E59 Members)

BLACK MAGIC: SONGS UNCHAINED is an a cappella journey through the birth of the Negro Spiritual in the call & response style of the music itself. Each song is a vignette, a reply to a snapshot of history. Katt Tait employs the songs in their original form to conjure their potent power. The music is the magic.

TAR BABY, written and performed by Desiree Burch

Performance schedule: Saturday, July 11 - Sunday, July 12 at 4:15 PM

Can Americans only dream in black & white? Huffington Post 'Favorite Female Comedian' Desiree Burch decides in this funny, inclusive and insightful solo show about the scary and divisive topic of race. Burch brings 'kinetic showmanship' (NY Times) and a few carnival games to her perspective on America's growing majority of minority experiences.

GARY BUSEY'S ONE MAN HAMLET AS PERFORMED BY DAVID CARL, co-created by David Carl and Michole Biancosino, written by David Carl, after William Shakespeare, directed by Michole Biancosino

Produced by Project Y Theatre

Performance schedule: Saturday, July 11 - Sunday, July 12 at 7:15 PM

Ticket Price: $20 ($14 for 59E59 Members)

Having triumphed in Celebrity Big Brother, survived Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, taken on Meatloaf and Donald Trump, Keanu Reeves' favorite co-star now undertakes his biggest challenge yet: performing all the parts in Hamlet at the East to Edinburgh, followed by the Edinburgh Fringe, with songs and homemade puppets. **** "It's crazy hilarious!" (Time Out NY, Critics' Pick)

LUCIE POHL: CRY ME A LIVER, written and performed by Lucie Pohl, directed by Jessi D. Hill

Produced by Great Pretender Productions

Performance schedule: Thursday, July 16 - Saturday, July 18 at 6:30 PM; Sunday, July 19 at 7:30 PM

Ticket price: $15 ($10.50 for 59E59 Members)

LUCIE POHL: CRY ME A LIVER is Lucie Pohl's hilariously bizarre collage of New York characters looking to define themselves in a world where definition is nothing more than a hash tag.

MAGDALEN, written and performed by Erin Layton, directed by Julie Kline

Produced by Uncompromising Artistry Productions

Performance schedule: Friday, July 17 - Saturday, July 18 at 8:30 PM

Ticket price: $15 ($10.50 for 59E59 Members)

Long silenced voices spring to life in this singular, compelling multi-character solo performance about the true but concealed lives hidden behind convent walls. Unwed mothers, prostitutes, orphans, flirts, and disabled children are told they can scrub away their sins in one of Ireland's commercial laundries run by orders of nuns.

RAFT, written by Emily Kitchens, directed by Jenna Panther

With Emily Kitchens, Lisa Kitchens, and Paul Kite

Produced by The Group Lab

Performance schedule: Saturday, July 18 at 2:30 PM; Wednesday, July 22 at 8:30 PM

Ticket price: $10 ($7 for 59E59 Members)

Faith. Home. Kin. This is the slanted tale of two sisters adrift, journeying away from the chaos of modern life. With folksongs, rough rapids, nighttime wonderings, and a yearning for "home", this sparse, poetical play is a newfangled American folktale.

NOMAN'S LAND, written by Natasha Noman and Veda Kumarjiguda, directed by Veda Kumarjiguda

With Natasha Noman

Produced by Knave Productions

Performance schedule: Saturday, July 18 at 4:30 PM & Sunday, July 19 at 2:30 PM

Ticket price: $18 ($12.60 for 59E59 Members)

NOMAN'S LAND is an autobiographical one-woman comedy about Natasha's experiences as a gay, female journalist in Pakistan, centering on a lesbian Tinder date in Karachi. The meeting takes an odd turn when the date, Jamal, brings her own complications: her father was recently kidnapped by the Taliban.

DERBY DAY, written and directed by Samuel Brett Williams

With Jake Silbermann, Malcolm Madera, Robert M. Foster, and Teresa Stephenson Produced by Camisade Theatre Company

Performance schedule: Tuesday, July 21 - Wednesday, July 22 at 6:30 PM; Saturday, July 25 at 4:30 PM

Ticket price: $20 ($14 for 59E59 Members)

It's Derby Day and the Ballard boys are in town for their father's funeral. Over the course of one long day they destroy everything and everyone in their way, including the innocent and kind hearted Becky; a waitress at Oaklawn Park Race Track in Arkansas who has the deep misfortune of waiting on the recently bereaved party. As tensions rise and egos swell, the day begins to unravel, revealing family secrets that might just tear them apart forever. "The most combustible fraternal rapport since Sam Shepard's True West." (Los Angeles Times)

TRANS SCRIPTS, written by Paul Lucas, directed by Linda Ames Key

With Calpernia Addams, Starla Benford, Jay Knowles, Bianca Leigh, and Gail Winar

Produced by Paul Lucas Productions

Performance schedule: Thursday, July 23 - Friday, July 24 at 6:30 PM; Saturday, July 25 at 8:30 PM; Sunday, July 26 at 7:30 PM

Tickets: $18 ($12.60 for 59E59 Members)

The struggles and triumphs of six transgender women unfold with honesty, intelligence and wit in this groundbreaking exploration of gender and identity by Fringe First and Herald Award-winning producer Paul Lucas. Created from actual interviews, TRANS SCRIPTS provides a rare and intimate glimpse into the lives of people embracing their authentic selves, and offers testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

THESE TROUBLES TIMES, by Troy Diana, directed by Jennifer Ortega

With Miguel Belmonte, John Curtis, Troy Diana, Shawn Mahoney, and Marchelle Thurman

Produced by Monarch Theater Company

Performance schedule: Thursday, July 23 - Friday, July 24 at 8:30 PM

Ticket price: $15 ($10.50 for 59E59 Members)

THESE TROUBLES TIMES is a comedic and irreverent exploration of homophobia, religion, and the meaning of family. When an openly gay man babysits his niece and nephew, he gets more than he bargained for. 'Humorous writing and excellent performances!' (TheatreScene.net)

FERDINAND, written and directed by Heather Bagnall

With Luke Tudball

Produced by Tasty Monster Productions

Performance schedule: Saturday, July 25 - Sunday, July 26 at 2:30 PM

Ticket price: $18 ($12.60 for 59E59 Members)

Inspired by the classic children's tale by Munroe Leaf about the biggest and strongest bull that wouldn't fight but just wanted to smell the flowers, FERDINAND is the heartwarming story of Tom, a single dad who just wants to raise his son Ferdinand with love and empathy in a world determined to make him fight. A growing up story for the whole family.

BUG BITE, written and performed by Lizabeth Sipes, directed by Christine Renee Miller

Produced by Tasty Monster Productions

Performance schedule: Saturday, July 25 at 6:30 PM; Sunday, July 26 at 4:30 PM

Ticket price: $18 ($12.60 for 59E59 Members)

BUG BITE is the true story of one woman's discovery that healing is an endlessly surprising struggle to save her family and accept that everything is exactly as it should be. Brave, funny, poignant and brutally honest.