United Solo Theatre Festival Presents Its Seventh Season at Theatre Row
Solo performers from around the world will perform their shows on New York's 42nd Street this fall, presented by United Solo. This season marks the seventh anniversary of the world's largest solo theatre festival, a resident company at Theatre Row. Beginning September 15, each day will feature several shows. The festival will close with an awards ceremony on November 20, 2016.
United Solo offers a diverse program of subject matter, genres, and styles, featuring well-regarded performers and emerging talents; original pieces as well as adaptations and revivals; newcomers and Encore artists invited back to United Solo after successful performances in past seasons. Artists whose work is featured in this year's United Solo shows include Tony, Obie, Emmy, and Drama Desk Award winners.
Contributors will compete for a variety of festival awards, including Best Production, Best Script, Best Director, and the Audience Award.
Original shows include "Hey, Hey, LBJ!" by David Kleinberg, Vietnam War press correspondent and editor of the SF Chronicle; "My Life in 3 Easy Payments" by Dale Guy Madison, based on his experience as a QVC television host; and "Bubble Trouble" by Jeff Boyer, a family-friendly show all about bubbles.
Shows exploring political issues relevant to this election year include Sharon Abreu's "The Climate Monologues," a treatise on climate change; "Pregnant Pause" performed by Amie Cazel, a collaboration between pro-life and pro-choice women theatre artists; and "Who Will Sing for Lena" performed by Vanessa Adams-Harris, a show about Lena Baker, Georgia's only woman to be executed by electrocution, wrongfully convicted of capital murder.
International participants include Rebecca Crookshank with "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot," a true story of a former Royal Air Force female pilot confronting sexual harassment in the army; and "What is the Scandal? The Ignored Cry of an Immigrant" by Venezuelan soap opera star Eliana Lopez, who immigrated to the U.S. to marry a San Francisco politician.
The Encore category will feature the winner of United Solo's 2015 Best Non-Fiction Show, "3 MEN" by Mike Folie; the 2015 Best Dramatic Script, "Move on the Cha-Cha's" by Diane Ripstein; and "Namely, Muscles" by Claire Porter, which won the 2015 United Solo Award for Best Poetry Show and was featured in the 2016 United Solo Europe, the festival's overseas presentation, whose fourth season took place earlier this spring in Warsaw, Poland.
"An actor performing solo is like an athlete running a marathon. Talent and stamina aren't enough. It takes months, sometimes years of preparation," said Omar Sangare, founder and artistic director of United Solo. "I'm thrilled that our unique event unites solo performers from all over the world, who come to celebrate the discipline of solo theatre.”
In total, United Solo will present over 120 productions during its ten-week season this fall. Tickets are $20.25 (including a $2.25 theatre restoration charge) and are available at the Theatre Row Box Office, by phone at 212.239.6200 and online at www.telecharge.com. A full schedule and more information about the festival can be found at www.unitedsolo.org.