Andrea Martin to Hold Dramatic Reading for TD Canadian Children’s Book Week, 11/22

On Sunday, November 22nd, Tony Award winner and Broadway star AndRea Martin will be live in the National Arts Centre Theatre in Ottawa to read aloud Mordecai Richler's classic children's story, "Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang" for one special afternoon. The reading, abridged by David S. Craig and presented in association with TD Canadian Children's Book Week, is part of the NAC English Theatre's Family 3 series. An exciting event for families, as parents will take pleasure as they watch their children enthralled with Ms. Martin exciting reading as young Jacob is brought to life.

AndRea Martin, performer of stage, screen and TV, is possibly best known for her years with the popular SCTV comedy program, where she received two Emmy Awards, has also received much critical acclaim for her stage and screen work, including the hit movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding and receiving Tony nominations for Young Frankenstein, Oklahoma!, Candide and winning a Tony Award for her performance in My Favorite Year.

Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang is the Canadian children's classic of a little boy who has to say everything twice in order to be heard by his older Brothers and Sisters. But when he finds himself imprisoned by the dreaded Hooded Fang, Jacob learns that small does not mean helpless.

Mordecai Richler, besides being one of Canada's most famous authors, was an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and essayist. A leading critic called him "the great shining star of his Canadian literary generation" and a pivotal figure in the country's history witnessed through some of best known works The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Barney's Version and the Jacob Two-Two series.

Martin, the oldest of three children, was born in Portland, Maine, of Armenian heritage, in 1947. Her father ownEd Martins, a grocery store. Her early success was found in Canada. Two of her first prominent roles were in 1973's Cannibal Girls and then as the bookish sorority sister Phyllis in Black Christmas, another Canadian slasher film from 1974. Two years later, she joined then-unknowns John Candy, Dave Thomas, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Harold Ramis and Joe Flaherty on the Canadian sketch comedy television series, SCTV, which was set at fictional television station "Second City Television", or SCTV, in Melonville. Martin most notably portrayed leopard-print-wearing station manager Edith Prickley, whose dealings with the staff, including president/owner Guy Caballero, clueless newscaster Earl Camembert, and washed-up actor Johnny LaRue, helped to provide much of the show's humor. Her other memorable characterizations included repressed sexologist Dr. Cheryl Kinsey, insecure self-affirmation guru Libby Wolfson, pidgin-tongued janitress Pirini Scleroso, tone-deaf children's entertainer Mrs. Falbo, Texan curio pitchwoman Edna Boil, and impossibly tight-jeaned Melba, the Disco Queen. Her talent for impersonation was key in her humorous portrayals of such luminaries as Barbra Streisand, Ethel Merman, Arlene Francis, Sally Field, Sophia Loren, Beverly Sills, Lynn Redgrave, Linda Lavin, Bernadette Peters, Liza Minnelli, Connie Francis, Mother Teresa, Alice B. Toklas and Indira Gandhi.

Her early stage work was with the improvisational comedy troupe The Second City. In 1992, she made her Broadway debut in the musical My Favorite Year, for which she won the Tony Award, Theatre World Award, and Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Additional Broadway credits include Candide (1997) and Oklahoma! (2002)-both of which brought her Tony nominations-and Fiddler on the Roof (2005). She recently performed in Young Frankenstein as Frau Blücher, a role for which she received another Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a musical. Martin left the cast on July 6, 2008, and was replaced by Beth Leavel. Martin is currently starring alongside Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon in the Broadway revival of Exit the King which plays at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre from March 7 to June 14, 2009.

She wrote and performed in the critically acclaimed one-woman show Nude, Nude, Totally Nude in Los Angeles and New York City, where she garnered a 1996 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One Person Show. Her lengthy theater credits include the leads in The Rose Tattoo and Betty's Summer Vacation, both produced at The Huntington Theatre in Boston. Martin has played Wanda the Word Fairy in numerous short segments on Sesame Street. She starred as the special guest on the famous children's tv show "Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show" featuring Sharon, Lois & Bram. She appeared in one episode from Season 5 (1988) titled "UNICEF". Star Trek fans may recognize her as one of two actresses to play Ishka, Quark's iconoclastic mother on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. For her role, she was made up to appear as an older woman although in reality Martin is less than three years older than Armin Shimerman, who played Quark. She only played the role of Ishka once - finding the prosthetics involved to be uncomfortable Martin declined to return, and Cecily Adams was hired to play Ishka in all future appearances.

Tickets can be purchased directly from the National Arts Centre Theatre website. For more information, visit the TD Canadian Children's Book Week at www.bookweek.ca.