Open Stage Launches 2010 FLYING SOLO FESTIVAL, Runs 6/3-26

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Open Stage of Harrisburg, the capital area's professional regional theatre will present its 2010 Flying Solo Festival from June 3 to 26. A month long festival of theatre, Flying Solo features a cavalcade of solo performances including playwright and performer Dorea Schmidt, Sirius/XM radio host Seth Rudetsky, stand-up comedian Jennifer Blaine, and YouTube sensation Miranda Sings.

Dorea Schmidt's intriguing work in progress at water's edge: confessions of an obsessive mind will premier June 3 and 4. According to Schmidt, her inspiration for her new play is Tennyson's poem The Lady of Shalott. The play focuses on a woman separated from the man she loves. She tries to pass the time waiting for his return only to be plagued by the fear of trusting in love.

Seth Rudetsky is back by popular demand in DECONSTRUCTING THE BRADY BUNCH VARIETY HOUR, June 10, 11, and 12. Rudetsky, the Broadway Host from Sirius/XM radio, is presenting a night doing his favorite thing: Deconstructing. For this show, he'll be focusing on the short-lived but mind-boggling series: The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. The show debuted in 1977 and was (not suprisingly) cancelled the same year, but there are nine delicious episodes that merit severe analysis. You will explore: The bedazzled outfits, the horribly executed dance steps, the swimming pool (ripped off from Donny and Marie's Ice Skating Rink), the disco song medleys including "Shake Your Booty" and the hot, budding romance between Alice the maid and a real estate agent played by... Rip Taylor. Plus, a special section focusing on the moving sub-plot of Greg moving out of the house (in his mid-twenties) and Carol Brady's ensuing depression...all enacted in song. Finally, most shockingly, you will see the singing and dancing fake Jan!

Philadelphia-based comedian Jennifer Blaine does her take on parenting in OUT OF CONTROL, June 17, 18, and 19. "Motherhood," say Jennifer Blaine. "the most important job in the world. Yet there is no test to pass. You'd think there'd be something. A ring toss perhaps. Now I am a mother. Truly it is like overnight I have been indoctrinated into a secret society, where I am on the most challenging and rewarding rollercoaster ride. Why didn't anybody tell me?! In this show I spill the beans on everything from baby naming and nursing, to sex and dating, to how in the world we raise a child in our modern world when we have no idea what we're doing."

Jennifer has been performing voice-overs, classic and contemporary plays, and her original characters for 10 years. She has performed all over America and Europe. Jennifer has performed with such comedians as Chris Rock, George Carlin, and shared a Broadway stage with the English film actress-turned-politician, Glenda Jackson.

You will not want to miss this lipstick-wearing, epileptic-eyebrowed, crooked-smiling beauty, Miranda Sings, in her debut in Harrisburg, June 24, 25, and 26! Miranda is an internet sensation - the videos on her YouTube channel have been viewed over 6 million times! Expect onstage voice lessons, fashion makeovers, dramatic readings of hate mail, and special guests!

Miranda Sings is a character created by California-based comedian and singer Colleen Ballinger and her videos have gone viral via YouTube with over 6 million downloaded views. The character satirizes increasingly common YouTube videos featuring mediocre or even bad, but egotistical, singers who film themselves singing as a form of self-promotion, and who ignore the realistic or cruel comments of "haters" commenting on their videos. Miranda Sings is supposedly from Tacoma, Washington. She sings comically off-key, is self-absorbed and has a sassy attitude. She responds to viewers who take the videos seriously with the catchphrase "Haters back off!" telling her critics that they are "just jealous" and that "haters make me famous". The character includes facial tics, particularly unusually active eyebrows, a crooked smile and pronunciation quirks. In place of lyrics that she cannot remember, the character "scat" sings. She also wears lipstick drawn beyond the borders of her lips, dresses in mismatched and out-of-style clothing and often dances stiffly to the music she is performing.

For advanced ticket reservations, call 214-ARTS (2787) or visit www.openstagehbg.com. Subscribers and groups call 717-232-OPEN. Tickets may be purchased at the door starting one hour prior to curtain. Regular ticket price is $25. Discounted ticket price is $21 for seniors age 60 and over and students with ID.

Pay-What-You-Will Thursdays for Flying Solo are June 3, 10, 17, 24. PWYW tickets are subject to availability and go on sale in the Open Stage lobby one hour prior to performance

Open Stage, 223 Walnut Street, is located on the street level of the Walnut Street Parking Garage in downtown Harrisburg. The theatre lobby opens one hour prior to performance.
Curtain is at 8 p. m. for all performances.

Visit our web site at www.openstagehbg.com. This production is funded, in part, by the Cultural Enrichment Fund, the capital region's united arts fund. Open Stage of Harrisburg is a Constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for American theatre.

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