All Out Arts to Open 2017 Fresh Fruit Festival with CUSTODY This July

CUSTODY opens the 15th annual ALL OUT ARTS Fresh Fruit Festival on Monday July 10th at 8pm at The Wild Project NYC, festival headquarters.

I love you just the way you are ... if you were just like him!

In CUSTODY, by award-winning playwright Patrick Thomas McCarthy, three men pursue one woman... and each other ... for CUSTODY of their memories, photo albums, and their children. CUSTODY depicts the hot-button topic: straight women who love gay men and the straight men who love the straight women but try to be more like gay men to get the straight women to love them back. CUSTODY asks the question of who's in or out of the closet.

Award-winning playwright Patrick Thomas McCarthy returns to the Fresh Fruit Festival with another season opener (Fresh Fruit Festival Outstanding Playwright 2012 for PRIDE RIVER CROSSING & 2013 for sExtOrtiOn).

CUSTODY is directed by Patrick Aran (Pride River Crossing, Lysistrata, The Wonder Years, A Canticle For Leibowitz, 42nd St, The Lears, 12th Nighted) with costume design & coordination by Susan Cook (Broadway Wardrobe: Warpaint, Disaster, The Visit, Of Mice & Men, Lucky Guy, Seminar, Bring It On, Coast of Utopia, Romeo & Juliet) and media design by Katherine Hammond (The Death Of Edison-Nyc Fringe, Warehouse of Theater, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, FFF Award Winner for Production Design for The Lears) and stage management by Casey Ecker.

CUSTODY's cast includes: Sam Durant Hunter (University of Vermont, Fringe NYC, The Duplex) as Brendan; Anne Pasquale* (The Actors Studio, L.A.M.B.D.A., BOB, 12th Nighted) as Shannon, Keith Herron* (Mr. Robot, Boardwalk Empire, NYC Fringe, 12th NIGHTed) as Peter; Drew Bolander* (North Carolina School of the Arts, The Lears, Varied Lives) as Ted. Melly Lou, created by Chris Fields, as Melly Lou, also makes dramatic appearances. *Appears courtesy of AEA Actors Equity Association in this AEA Approved Showcase

Performance schedule: Monday 7/10, 8pm; Thursday 7/13, 7pm; Sunday 7/16, 4pmCUSTODY opens the 15th annual ALL OUT ARTS Fresh Fruit Festival on Monday July 10th at 8pm at The Wild Project NYC, festival headquarters. The Fresh Fruit 15th Anniversary Begins, at The Wild Project, 195 East 3rd Street. Tickets at web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/527.

Established in 1991, All Out Arts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit devoted to bringing together the diverse artistic, organizational, political and financial resources of the LGBTQ community in order to fight intolerance. All Out Arts fulfills its mission by supporting arts organizations within the community through fiscal sponsorship, events, contests, collaborations, networking events for emerging artists, and by sponsoring productions, concerts and exhibitions of visual arts. We confront homophobia through the humanizing influence of the arts, and the Fresh Fruit Festival is the primary expression of the All Out Arts mission.

The Fresh Fruit Festival is presented by All Out Arts to celebrate the LGBTQ community's unique perspective, creativity & diversity, and to build links between the LGBTQ artistic communities, be they local or international.

CUSTODY has a Hatchfund campaign. To learn more, click here.