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.

Ashlie Atkinson (Lillian): Ashlie is an Arkansas native, a graduate of Hendrix College and the Neighbourhood Playhouse, and a Theatre World Award winner for originating the role of Helen in Neil LaBute's Fat Pig. New York theatre audiences may also know her from The Ritz (Roundabout), The Butcher of Baraboo (Second Stage), or -- most recently -- as Phoebe in As You Like It / Juno in The Tempest for Sam Mendes' world-traveling The Bridge Project. Film and television include: Compliance, Rescue Me, Louie, Inside Man, My Best Day, Bored to Death, Eat Pray Love, All Good Things, The Invention of Lying, Hungry Years, Another Gay Movie, and all three of the New- York-based Law & Order series. MTV fans may know her as her hip-hop alter ego, "Chunky Pam", a plus-size rap diva - and YouTube viral phenomenon. Ashlie is a proud original skater for Gotham Girls Roller Derby, for whom she still announces bouts on New York's NYCLife (Channel 25).

Brian Silliman (Gordon): The Particulars marks the third time Brian will be working with JorDana Williams, after working with her on Advance Man (Kip) and Control Room (Grouper). He just completed a run as Alfred Doolittle in My Fair Lady at the Summer Theatre of New Canaan, where he has performed for six seasons, with highlights includingHenry IV (Falstaff), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bottom), and Twelfth Night (Sir Toby). Other credits include H4 (Falstaff) at New York's Theatre Row, Much Ado About Nothing (Dogberry) with American Globe, and the National Tours of The Comedy of Errors (Egeon, Nell, Courtesan, Officer) and The Iliad: Book One(Agamemnon) with Aquila. Original plays include Savior (Comic Book Theatre Festival, 2011, directed by JorDana Williams), The Magic of Mrs. Crowling(Kraine Theatre, 2007, published by Original Works Publishing), as well as many others that have been produced throughout New York. He starred in, co-wrote, and associate produced the short film Anniversary Dinner, which will be hitting the film festival circuit this summer. He is a graduate of Ithaca College.

Esther Barlow & Dustin Olson (Artistic Producers): As founding members and co-Artistic Producers of the Bridge since 2005, Dustin and Esther have produced and developed 11 productions, 15 workshops and countless readings of new work by Canadian playwrights, including Ken Cameron, David Carley, Trevor Ferguson, Kate Hewlett, Marcia Johnson, David West Read, T.J Dawe, Oonagh Duncan, Michael Rubenfeld, Jennifer Lane, Daniel Karasik, Nicolas Billon and Matthew MacKenzie.

Esther was born and raised in Toronto and has been working in theatre for over 15 years. A graduate of Queen's University in Canada and The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, her Canadian credits include Claudia Dey's Tricycle; Craig Walker's adaptation of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake; Wimbs, Shaieb & Lord's Go-Go Beach: The Musical and Tom Robertson's Napoleon vs. The Turk. US credits include Law & Order: SVU; touring productions of Athol Fugard's My Children! My Africa! (A Mixed Co.) and Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses (Weston Playhouse); and two New York runs as Helena in Mac Rogers' Universal Robots at Manhattan Theatre Source (New York Innovative Theatre Awards nominee, Best Ensemble). Dustin was born and raised on the Canadian Prairies, and has been actively performing and producing throughout Canada and the US since 1999. In addition to his work with the Bridge, Dustin is an active member of the Drama Desk Award-winning Godlight Theatre Company – also based in New York City – performing lead roles in their recent adaptations of George Orwell's 1984 and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. His film-work has been featured at both the Tribeca and AFI film festivals, among others. His television work includes featured roles on Boardwalk Empire (HBO), Louie (FX), Law & Order: C.I. (NBC), and Hometown Heroes (Comedy Central). Dustin is a graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.