HAPPY FAMILY Comes to the Toronto Fringe Festival

A social worker, a business exec, and a guy who lives in the basement, all walk into a park. Their mom is missing, and they all want to get her safely back to the seniors' home ... or do they?

As Lindsay, Vann and Roland begin the search for their mom, they learn that the identity bracelet she had been wearing to keep her safe since her last independent adventure has been cut from her arm. The mystery of Mom's disappearance is complicated by the tensions among her offspring and the difficulties in each of their personal lives. We find ourselves wondering if one or more of them may have been the wielder of the scissors (or worse.)

The playwright, Shelley M Hobbs, had her 2016 Fringe hit, A Good Death, short-listed for Best New Play of the Fringe 2016. Ms. Hobbs is also co-creator of the 2009 Best of Fringe and Patron's Pick Hipcheck: the Musical. Ms Hobbs has recently retired from her position as a lawyer for a government agency that protects the rights of incapable adults to devote more of her time to writing. She lives with her wife in Leslieville.

"Happy Family" is directed by Bryn Kennedy, HBA Theatre and Drama Studies, U of T and Diploma in Acting, Sheridan. Ms Kennedy directed Beneath the Bed by Gabe Golin and Overtones by Alice Gerstenberg, both at the Beck Festival. Lighting designer and stage manager John CJ Murphy was the Production Manager for 2017 Dora nominated Tough Jews (Storefront Theatre) and Stage Manager for Ismailova Theatre of Dance and the 2016 Fringekids hit Downtown Jay.

"Happy Family" stars Adele Power as Lindsay, the eldest of three siblings, a compassionate and hyper responsible social worker jaded by too many sad stories; Kristi Woods as Vann, the middle child business executive with an ex-husband, twin boys and a gambling problem; and Leonard Scott-Collins as Roland who never left home, loves birds, but is baffled by both his sisters. Ms Power is an award winning choreographer as well as a commercial actress seen on TV. She played the lead in her last Fringe Show about the infamous casting couch. Ms Woods sang as a featured soloist with Soundcrowd at Carnegie Hall for Total Vocal III, Catch A Break: the Musical and playing M'Lynn in Steel Magnolias with Plain Stage. Mr Scott-Collins has worked on The Laramie Project and with Marion Abbot productions Confidential Musicals series.

Tickets on sale June 8th, 2017 online at fringetoronto.com, 416-966-1062, or in person during the festival at the main box office at the Fringe Club at Scadding Court - 707 Dundas Street West.

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