Brett Singer & Associates, LLC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
Madeline Walter in Association with The
Strollers Presents
MARY BRIGIT
POPPLETON IS WRITING A MEMOIR
July 17, 2007
The New York
International Fringe Festival, The Strollers, and Madeline Walter will present
the New York premiere of Madeline Walter's MARY BRIGIT POPPLETON IS WRITING
A MEMOIR from Friday, August 10th
through Sunday, August 26th.
What happens when a teenage
girl from Ashtabula, Ohio decides to write a memoir? At the tender age of
seventeen, nothing much has happened to her so far. But Mary Brigit Poppleton knows what to do. Not wanting to pull a James Frey and
fictionalize her story, she decides to fictionalize her actual life. Her first move? Faking her own pregnancy.
She attempts to convince her Catholic family that she is in fact
pregnant, then runs away from home, landing on Long Island with the help of a
misdirected, well-intentioned Catholic “Planned Parenthood” volunteer. On the Island, Mary Brigit learns a thing or
two about truth, literature, and finding memoir-worthy stories in her own
(real) life. A “Virgin Mary” story of imaginary conception, it may not be
divine, but it will be hilarious. The play, with a cast of ten, will be
directed by Heidi Handelsman. First performed at the Elizabeth Price
Kenan Theatre in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, it received the 2006 Sam Selden Award,
the highest honor for playwriting at the University of North Carolina.
Originally from Maplewood, New Jersey,
Madeline Walter recently graduated with highest distinction from the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. One of 30 recipients of the Duke/UNC Robertson
Scholarship, she also took classes behind enemy lines at Duke University. At
UNC she was selected as one of 12 creative writing honors students, completing
a book of short fiction for her senior honors thesis under the supervision of
award-winning author Randall Kenan. An
avid documentary filmmaker, Ms. Walter has done documentary film work in
Kentucky, China, and South Africa. Her film about anti-coal mining activists,
"Loud and Clear: Voices of Kentucky’s Mountains" was featured in the
2004 Ms. Films Festival and the Documentary Happening Festival in Durham, North
Carolina. In September, 2007, Madeline
will return to Chapel Hill as the first-ever Robertson Fellow, a Robertson
Scholar graduate position for program development. A Rhodes Scholar finalist
for 2007, Madeline likes to believe she wasn’t selected because she’s destined
for stardom instead—who needs Oxford when you’ve got Broadway?
The cast features Allison Altman, Daleelah
Sada Johnson, Russell Johnson, Julie Marcus, Alyson Morgan, Doug Roland, Evan
Silverman, Patrick Stewart, and Isaiah Tanenbaum. The director will be Heidi Handelsman, who most recently directed
Courtney Lauria’s On The Surface in the Samuel French Festival. The design team is Melissa Casciano, Heather
Cohn, Jeffrey Collier, Matt Farabee, and Ben Greene.
MARY
BRIGIT POPPLETON IS WRITING A MEMOIR will be
performed as part of the New York International Fringe Festival, which will
begin performances on August 10th.
Tickets will be $15.00 and may be purchased by calling 212.279.4488 or 1-888-FringeNYC. For
more information, visit www.fringenyc.org or www.marybrigit.com
.
mary brigit poppleton is
writing a memoir
Written by Madeline Walter
At The Connelly Theater, 220
East 4th Street (between Avenue A & B)
Schedule: Sat 8/11 @ 1pm, Sun
8/12 @ 9:45pm, Mon 8/13 @ 9:45pm, Thur 8/16 @ 3pm, Fri 8/17 @ 9:45pm
TICKETS: $15.00; Call 212.279.4488 or visit
www.fringenyc.org.
# # #
311 West 43rd Street, Suite #1107 Phone:
(212) 307-7181
New York, NY 10036 FAX: (212) 813-9162