Award-winning The Pink Hulk: One Woman's Journey to Find the Superhero Within, written and starring professional actor and playwright Valerie David, will have performances Nov. 9, 11, 12 and 13 as part of the fifth annual Charm City Fringe Festival in Baltimore.
David, who has been cancer-free since 2015, wrote the autobiographical The Pink Hulk to express the empowerment she felt being able to find humor and superhero inner strength going through two bouts of cancer. She raises money through The Pink Hulk performances for domestic and international cancer organizations.
"I hope this play inspires anyone facing any sort of adversity in their life-not just cancer. I want people to know hope and humor exist in even the worst of circumstances," David says. "My family is from Annapolis and I've lived in northern Virginia, so I'm very excited to bring this show to a part of the country I know and love."
Single gal in the city Valerie David is ready to date again after a breakup and about to start a new career in 2014. She stops in her tracks when she feels a lump. Having had Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1999, she is now diagnosed with breast cancer. Valerie's devastation turns to determination and her "hulk-like" strength, along with her family and friends, inspire her resolve to find the superhero within and conquer her insecurities from breast cancer's impact on her womanhood.
At its world premiere in the Planet Connections Festivity Theatre Festival in New York City this summer, The Pink Hulk was nominated for Best Performance of a Solo Show, Best Overall Production of a Solo Show, and won Best Director of a Solo Show. It was also awarded a Congeniality Award and Planet Activist Award, raising funds and awareness for Mary's Place by the Sea, a nonprofit cancer organization in Ocean Grove, NJ.
In October, David performed The Pink Hulk in New York City and Providence, Rhode Island. After Baltimore's Charm City Fringe, she will bring the show to the SaraSolo Festival in Florida in January, 2017.
IF YOU GO:
The Pink Hulk: One Woman's Journey to Find the Superhero Within
Written and performed by Valerie David; Directed by Padraic Lillis
Length: 60 minutes
Venue: St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 1900 St. Paul St., Baltimore
Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 11, at 7:45 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 13, at 2 p.m.
TICKETS: $10 at https://charmcityfringe.ticketleap.com/the-pink-hulk/dates
VALERIE DAVID (Writer and Performer) is an actor and playwright. A graduate of James Madison University and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, her credits include the Off-Broadway production of A Stoop on Orchard Street, Cookie in Rumors and Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life. Films: How I Became that Jewish Guy, which premiered at a November 2015 NYC Film Festival, and Bridges and Tunnels. Memberships include the League of Professional Theatre Women, AEA and SAG-AFTRA. She also performs improv throughout New York City with improv groups Faceplant, Cronuts and Cherub. Valerie played the role of Maxine in Abraham's Daughters by Emma Goldman-Sherman and directed by Lorca Peress in the Lady Liberty Festival on 9/11, and will reprise her role in December. She wrote and starred in the one-woman musical Bring On a Man!; and both cowrote and starred in the two-person show Wanted: A Few Good Men and Two-mur Humor: He's Malignant; She's Benign.
Padraic Lillis (Director) is the founding Artistic Director of The Farm Theater. He was awarded Best Direction of a Solo Show for Valerie's The Pink Hulk solo show at Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. Padraic has also been awarded the NY IT Award for Outstanding Director for Lindsay Joy's Rise and Fall of a Teenage Cyberqueen, Overall Excellence Award from NY International Fringe Festival for Lee Kaplan's Bully, Best Overall Production of a Solo Show and Planet Advocate Award for his solo show addressing suicide awareness Hope You Get To Eleven or What are we going to do about Sally?, and is a member of the Indie Theater Hall of Fame. He is a published playwright with Dramatist Play Services and Indie Theater Now. His film Hand Over Hand, which he wrote and directed, was awarded Best Short Film at the Milan International Film Festival. He is a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company and a lifelong Yankee fan.
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