Valerie David To Return To Scranton Fringe With BAGGAGE FROM BAGHDAD

Award-winning performer/playwright Valerie David is staging her internationally acclaimed, autobiographical solo show, Baggage From BaghDAD: Becoming My Father's Daughter, at the Scranton Fringe Festival this month. She is thrilled to return for the second time. Previously, she performed The Pink Hulk: One Woman's Journey to Find the Superhero Within, her award-winning show that chronicles her empowering journey of kicking cancer to the curb three times.

Performances will take place on Friday, September 26 at 8 pm, Saturday, September 27 at 3:30 pm, and Saturday, September 27 at 8 pm.

Venue
The Workshop, 334 Adams Avenue, Scranton, PA 18503
Runtime: Approx. 60 minutes. Mature content.

Tickets: $15

Baggage From BaghDAD: Becoming My Father's Daughter is a gripping, award-winning solo show that mirrors today's growing intolerance of race and religion. Due to religious persecution during the 1941 "Farhud pogrom," writer and performer Valerie David's paternal Middle Eastern Jewish family was forced to flee Iraq and build a new home in America.

This play highlights her family's struggle to immigrate to a new land and transcend their harrowing past, so that love and the importance of family triumph. It's not just a Jewish story, but a narrative that anyone can relate to, with having to immigrate to another country, being forced to evacuate during wartime, suffering bullying, and the ramifications of having to adapt to a foreign culture that's not so welcoming.

Baggage From BaghDAD finds humor and hope, even in the darkest of times. It recounts how this painful legacy shaped Valerie's own life and her evolving relationship with her father, uncovering a story of survival, identity, and ultimately, reconciliation.

Her poignant storytelling offers both historical education and emotional resonance. Through vivid characters, humor, and heart, she invites audiences to examine today's refugee crises, rising prejudice, and the intergenerational impact of war and displacement. Her family's personal narrative mirrors broader global issues, from the struggles of Ukrainian and Gaza refugees, the Gaza/Israel conflict, and the current resurgence of Anti-Semitism and religious discrimination worldwide. Directed by award-winning director Karen Carpenter with Sound and Projections by award-winning designer Andy Evan Cohen.

Philadelphia Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

1. CATS (Shawnee Playhouse)

17% of votes

2. INTO THE WOODS (The Milford Theater)

5.9% of votes

3. NEWSIES (Viviana Theatre)

3.8% of votes

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