For immediate release
Contact: Heidi Riegler Communications
718.340.3018 or hrarts@earthlink.net
Joanna Rush’s fierce and powerful
one-woman show, asking for it,
At new york’s international fringe festival
August 14,17,18, 23 & 24, 2007, Cherry Lane THEATRE
“….incredible dramatic scope and humor…” —WBAI Radio
“Finding the truth of one’s life in a culture of lies…” —BBC Radio 4
July 9, 2007 (New York, NY)—Actor/writer Joanna Rush performs her hilarious, irreverent and moving one-woman show, Asking For It, as part of the New York International Fringe Festival. Asking For It will play August 14, 7:30pm; August 17, 9:15pm; August 18, 12:15pm; August 23, 6:30pm and August 24 at 2:30pm at the Cherry Lane Theatre, located at 38 Commerce Street off of 7th Avenue. Tickets are $15 and $10 for senior citizens (65 years or older). Call 212.279.4488 or 1-888-FringeNYC. For more information, log on to askingforitonline.com.
Asking For It follows the evolution of Bernadette O’Connell as she puddle-jumps through the primordial slime of American culture to personhood. An “Outstanding Catholic Youth of the Year”, piety draws her to a life in the convent, but passion takes her to the chorus line. At seventeen she takes up residence at New York’s Port of Authority, and her innocence is soon brutally interrupted by the nefarious “Brooklyn Bobby”. The cops tell her she was just “asking for it”. Riddled with shame, but full of determination, she picks herself up and goes to an audition at Radio City Music Hall and launches her
-over-
-2-
theatrical career as a Rockette. Suddenly this confused and vulnerable girl has 35 “sisters” to help shield her from the dangerous tension of sexuality being maligned from the pulpit and glorified on the covers of porn magazines.
Bernadette marries, bears a son, divorces
and lands on Broadway. But alas, as time passes, bum knees and a kid to
support, force her to settle for a slew of raunchy roles from pregnant
burlesque queen to star of the filthiest show Off-Broadway. She fears her
sexuality and she flaunts it but it takes a long journey of courage, and some
hilarious new age workshops, before she can own it. No one would have expected
what she finally asks for. And gets.
As directed by Tony nominee Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Asking for It is a zestful kaleidoscope of faith and femininity, repression and redemption, humor and humility, joy and terror, spiced with song and dance. Rush takes us along for a darkly humorous tour of her larger-than-life experience. She peoples the stage with an eccentric cast of characters that range from uptight clerics to sexy chorines, to growing boys of all ages. Hilarious, irreverent and moving, Joanna Rush’s Asking for It leaves audiences, male and female and of all ages, invigorated, inspired, and, strangely, healed.
Joanna Rush has appeared on Broadway in Pousse Café with Charles Durning, Shirley Maclaine at the Palace, A Chorus Line (Shubert, Los Angeles), and both off-Broadway and regionally in numerous plays, including Daughters with Marisa Tomei and the original Grandma Sylvia’s Funeral. Her recent film and TV credits include the award-winning short film On the Cliffs, the soon-to-be released Saying Goodbye, and an unforgettable role in the pilot Straight No Chaser as the brashly inappropriate mother of Bronson Pinchot. She co-wrote the feature screenplay, Irish Whiskey, which won “Best Screenplay” at the Temecula Valley Film Festival, and has performed her new solo play Asking For It at the NY Society for Ethical Culture, The Kirk Theater on Theater Row, Stocker Arts Center in Ohio, and Peter Jay Sharp
-over-
-3-
Theater at Playwright’s Horizons. Her proudest accomplishments include a great marriage, raising a happy, sane son, married to the daughter-in-law of her dreams with three fabulous kids, Gus, Max, and Tess.
Lynne Taylor-Corbett, director, has been nominated for two Tony awards and a Drama Desk award for Broadway’s Swing! and received two American Theatre Wing “Star” nominations for its national tour. She has choreographed the Broadway hits, Chess and Titanic. Off-Broadway she directed the acclaimed 20th Century Pop, “Theda Bara and the Frontier Rabbi”, co-directed “Cookin’” and the US premiere of “Women on the Verge” by Marie Jones. She also developed and directed and Disney’s new “Lion King” in China. Regionally she has directed at the Old Globe Theater, Hartford Stage, The George Street Playhouse. Her show, “Hats!” is currently running in Chicago, has played New Orleans and will soon be in Vegas. Choreography for feature films include Footloose, My Blue Heaven and Bewitched; her dances have been performed all over the world including by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. She is a member of the SSDC and very proud mother of actor, Shaun Taylor-Corbett.
Asking For It
Written and performed by Joanna Rush
Directed by Lynne Taylor-Corbett
New York International Fringe Festival
August 14, 7:30pm
August 17, 9:15pm
August 18, 12:15pm
August 23, 6:30pm
August 24, 2:30pm
Cherry Lane Theatre
38 Commerce Street
New York, NY
Tickets: 212.279.4488 or 1-888-FringeNYC
$15 and $10 for senior citizens (65 years or older)
www.askingforitonline.com
July 9, 2007