Ashlie Atkinson Stars in Bridge Theatre Company's THE PARTICULARS at FringeNYC, Now thru 8/26

The Bridge Theatre Company presents the American premiere of Canadian playwright Matthew MacKenzie's The Particulars, as part of the 16th annual New York International Fringe Festival – FringeNYC. The Particulars marks the third consecutive year at FringeNYC for the Bridge Theatre Company, following last year's production of Nicolas Billon's Greenland, winner of the Fringe Festival Award for Overall Excellence in Playwriting, and 2010's critically acclaimed production of The Swearing Jar, by Kate Hewlett.

Performances are Today 11 @ 2:30 Sun 12 @ 7 Tue 21 @ 9 Thu 23 @ 4:45 Sun 26 @ 4 at The Cherry Lane Theater (38 Commerce Street between Bedford & Barrow Street. Tickets are $15 in advance ($18 at the door) at 866-468-7619 or www.FringeNYC.org.

Fresh off of two premieres at the Sundance Film Festival (Compliance and My Best Day), Bridge Theatre Co. founding member Ashlie Atkinson (Neil LaBute's Fat Pig; Broadway's The Ritz) makes her FringeNYC debut as Lillian, a youth minister struggling to reconcile her faith with recent experiences in the Congo. Brian Silliman (Mac Rogers' Advance Man; Control Room) plays Gordon, an insomniac and member of Lillian's congregation whose recent pest problem threatens to compromise his tragically methodical existence.

Director JorDana Williams returns to FringeNYC after directing Mac Rogers' Viral in 2009 (FringeNYC Winner: Outstanding Production of a Play) and Hail Satan in 2007 (FringeNYC Winner: Outstanding Playwright). She recently completed direction of Rogers' Honeycomb Trilogy, a trio of plays about an alien invasion hailed as a critics' pick in the New York Times. Jordana is a founding member of Gideon Productions and part of the groundbreaking "BFG Collective" a 6-month-long residency at Long Island City's The Secret Theatre between Gideon and two other top New York indie theatre companies, Boomerang Theatre Company and Flux Theatre Ensemble.

Canadian playwright Matthew MacKenzie's first play, SIA, received a New York workshop directed by Jenn Thompson as part of the Bridge Theatre Company's 2010-2011 season and premiered as part of the inaugural Preview of the Arts Festival at Joe's Pub. SIA was subsequently produced as part of TACT's 2011 newTACTics festival. The Particulars was first presented at the 2011 SummerWorks Festival in Toronto and has toured to rave reviews across Canada.

Matthew MacKenzie (Playwright): Matthew is a graduate of the playwriting program at The National TheatreSchool of Canada where he was the winner of the Lieutenant Governor's award for excellence and community involvement. His play, The Particulars received a workshop production at Toronto's SummerWorks Festival in 2011, where it was cited by NOW Magazine as Best New Play. His play SIA won the 2010 Alberta Playwriting Competition's Grand Prize Category, received its world premiere production in Toronto as part of Cahoots Theatre Company's 2011-12 season, and was workshopped in New York City by both the Bridge Theatre Company and The Actors Company Theatre (TACT). Matthew's other plays include: Tick (Toronto Fringe, 2011), Me Happy co-written with Amy Lee Lavoie (SummerWorks, 2010). Winner of the Urjo Kareda Emerging Artist Award, Matt is currently an Artist in Residence at Toronto's Tarragon Theatre.

JorDana Williams (Director): Jordana has directed many plays by Mac Rogers, including Sovereign, Blast Radius, Advance Man, Viral(FringeNYC 2009 Outstanding Production of a Play, FringeNYC Encore Series, 2010 ITBA Oustanding Off-Off Broadway Show), Hail Satan (FringeNYC 2007), and three seaons with Vampire Cowboys' episodic, genre-bending Saturday Night Saloon (The Control Room, Mother Sacramento, and Asymmetric). Jordana has directed a number of strange and wonderful projects for such companies as Flux Theatre Ensemble, Boomerang Theatre Company, Piper McKenzie, GroundUp Productions, kef Productions, Impetuous Theater Group, The Brick Theater, The 24-Hour Plays and The One-Minute Play Festival. She is the lyricist of the musicals Fleet Week (Outstanding Musical- FringeNYC 2005), Air Guitar (FringeNYC 2006) and The First Annual St. Ignatius Chanukah Pageant(which she also directed), and a founding member of Gideon Productions.

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