Christina Morelli Brings UNPACKED To Camden Fringe
UNPACKED tells Morelli's story through the eyes of an Aging Ballerina facing the pressures that come with her Hollywood audition for the role of "Perfect Woman."
UNPACKED is a new one woman show. Christina Morelli's raw, unfiltered love letter to the cruel voices in her head explores the truths about living with body dysmorphia, aging in Hollywood, and facing the mirror that's haunted her since her first plié.
UNPACKED tells Morelli's story through the eyes of an Aging Ballerina facing the pressures that come with her Hollywood audition for the role of "Perfect Woman." As the spotlight illuminates her every wrinkle and dimple, Aging Ballerina reflects on the heartache, the loss, the fantasy and the reality of what it means to be an imperfect human in today's flawed and filtered world.
For Morelli, a former dancer and fitness instructor who grew up in front of mirrors, early memories of being taunted about her weight were fuelled with embarrassment and horror. Raised on the toxic body and diet culture of the 80s/90s and the Italian-American mindset that food cures all, a smorgasbord of bullies, eating disorders, shame, and depression filled most of her teen years. As an adult this manifested into abusive relationships, career fails, and an addiction to traveling to escape her problems. The best way to cope was clearly a la Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love," right? When she moved abroad to London to start a whole new life and career at 35, things were finally looking up. Until four years later, when her UK visa expired just as COVID was shutting down the world, leaving her quarantined in Los Angeles, of all places. A city where you're considered geriatric by the age of 30. The birthplace of body dysmorphia itself.
Directed by Fringe veteran Kathryn Gardner, UNPACKED marks the first time the LA-based writer/producer will perform her own work. The show was workshopped at Hen & Chickens Theatre in September 2023, with audiences noting it was "fearless, poignant, relevant, and very funny." Morelli first cut her teeth penning plays in NYC and went on to graduate with a Masters from London Film School in 2017. In addition to London, she has also called New York, Nashville, San Diego, Florence, Istanbul, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Baltimore, and Los Angeles "home." Her company, Little Red Suitcase Productions, aims to showcase real stories from real women that she's encountered in her travels around the world.
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