EDINBURGH 2017: BWW Q&A- Katie Kopajtic

Confessions of a Personal Trainer is a true story(ies) about my job as a therapist, doctor,, dominatrix, personal trainer. Go behind the scenes of a luxury fitness club in the heart of Manhattan, meet my bizarre clients, laugh at my colleagues, and witness first hand the flowering of a classic lesbian love affair.

You'll hear the story of why I stumbled into the job of a luxury personal trainer. You will hear other peoples' stories from the gym along the way, some including marathoner with a mortality complex, a rich woman with mommy issues, a battered but tough elderly woman, and an Irish woman with the patience of a teaspoon. You'll hear the story of how I met the love of my life in the swimming pool where I was working, training somebody, and where she was swimming. Overall you will get a coming of age tale that embraces what we have to do to get by.

Confessions has been in the works for two years, ever since I started writing "my story" and my clients' stories down. During this time I fell in love with my partner, Monica, who was then a gym member. Then, after a year of performing the show in small venues around New York City, I lost a close client to suicide. The settling of my relationship with Monica combined with my grief over my client, added an emotional bloodline to the piece that pushed it from niche-subject comedy to theatre for all.

We live in an age where it is necessary to work two or more jobs in order to work that third or fourth career as an artist. This is a show that does not ask the audience to see the performer as the artist. This is a rare show that asks the audience to see the performer as their survival job. It is a celebration of the barista, the server, the temp, or in my case the personal trainer. I hope that, in addition to serving up 45 minutes of quality entertainment, I can help other people enjoy or at least accept their (sometimes) complex relationship with the other, perhaps less glamorous, hats that they wear.

Fringe performers and fellow artists/ many-hat-wearers. Anybody who has dipped their toes, to watched from the sidelines, to gone full out Fitness Freak in today's health and fitness world. Anybody who enjoys character sketches and storytelling. Anybody who believes that celebrating a life lost to suicide is the antidote to grief. The LGBTQ+ community. Personal trainers!

Timings and ticket information for Confessions Of A Personal Trainer are available on the edfringe website.