Amy Oestreicher to Bring Solo Show to MITF

From Coma to Comedy: Inspirational Survivor Brings One-Woman Musical to the Midtown International Theatre Festival

HuffPost Columnist/Award-Winning Actress & Inspirational Survivor brings one-woman autobiographical musical comedy to the Chenango River Theatre in Greene, NY on June 13th at 7:30pm

Following sold-out runs at theatres nationwide and headlining international conferences, TEDx Speaker and award-winning actress Amy Oestreicher will bring her hit one-woman musical Gutless & Grateful to the Midtown International Theatre Festival on August 8 at 8:30 p.m.

Amy Oestreicher shares a powerful message that it's possible to overcome physical and mental health obstacles through interwoven song and dialogue in a primal piece of live storytelling.

One bad stomach ache after noshing on a little too much matzah at Passover Dinner changed the course of her life forever.

After an unexpected blood clot caused her stomach to literally explode at 18 years old, Oestreicher is a survivor of 27 surgeries, a coma, organ failure, six years being unable to eat or drink, and the PTSD that comes from ten years of trauma. She is also a survivor of sexual abuse.

Now a PTSD peer-to-peer specialist, artist, author, speaker for RAINN, writer for The Huffington Post, health advocate, actress, and playwright, Amy eagerly shares the lessons learned from trauma through her writing, performance, art and speaking.

Gutless & Grateful
part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival
August 8 at 8:30 p.m. at the Workshop's Main Stage, 312 W. 36th Street, NYC

"When I woke from a coma, months later, doctors told me I had no stomach anymore, I couldn't eat or drink, and they didn't know if I'd ever be able to again."

Amy takes audiences on an adventure of 42 field trips to the CT SCAN room, hitting-on doctors, a surprise visit by William Finn at my very own high school graduation in the surgical ICU, and a song David Friedman and Kathie Lee Gifford wrote especially for me after being on The Today Show, all in a 70-minute musical comedy.

The show has been a critic's darling for 4 years and a favorite of Jewish mothers all over, earning a NYC Bistro Award, Woman of the Year in 2014 and a Best Theatre Debut nomination by BroadwayWorld. The story has been featured on CBS, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, and more.

This is no ordinary one-woman show, but an inspiring powerhouse production that leaves audiences in tears and laughing hysterically.

While the skyline currently glitters with theatre festivals, there was a time when the Midtown International Theatre Festival was one of only two! John Chatterton has helped set the gold standard for presenting new and exciting independent theatrical works in New York. This year - with a booming variety section, a prominently-placed Short Play Lab, a burgeoning Short Film Lab, nearly 60 productions - with a record number of musical presentations (including an opera) - as well as an astounding number of international works, the 17th Annual Midtown International Theatre Festival once again proves itself to be one of the best reasons to stay in New York in July!

www.midtownfestival.org