HALF STRADDLE BAND Performs at Union Hall on June 10

Half Straddle, experimental theater company, performs favorite songs from their recent productions in an all-girl band line-up at Union Hall in Park Slope, 702 Union Street at 5th Avenue on Thursday, June 10 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $8 at the door. The Half Straddle "band" includes Chris Giarmo, Eliza Bent, Julia Sirna-Frest and special guests -- Kate Marvin and comedian and singer Glennis McMurray (from I EAT PANDAS) with music by Giarmo and lyrics by playwright/director Tina Satter.  For more information visit http://unionhallny.com/calendar.php.  

Half Straddle's work attempts to portray the unexpected, sometimes unsettling ecstasy that emerges in the everyday. The hilariousness and heartbreak lurking under the tiny ways we try to communicate. Through lyrics, music and design, Half Straddle frames this language in an attempt to create a transcendent celebration of the feminine voice, the queer voice, and the joy of performing. 

HALF STRADDLE is a New York-based company that makes plays, performances, videos and music written and directed by Tina Satter. The company includes composer Chris Giarmo, designer Zack Tinkelman, and performers Jess Barbagallo, Eliza Bent and Julia Sirna-Frest. A number of additional performers and artists including Erin Markey, Joseph Keckler and Heather Christian, among others, have joined Half Straddle in creating their shows and performances.  For more information, visit www.halfstraddle.com.

Since 2008, Half Straddle has staged two full-length shows in New York City, FAMILY (Ontological-Hysteric) and The Knockout Blow (HERE Arts Center, Ontological-Hysteric). Additionally, they have been invited by various venues to show several works-in-progress and shorter pieces which include Nurses in New England, Sliding Whores, FOOTBALL and Girl Detective Agency. All of these pieces include original songs with lyrics by Tina Satter and music by Chris Giarmo.

Half Straddle will also be seen upcoming as part of the 2010 Ice Factory festival at the Ohio Theatre. The Artist include: TINA SATTER (ARTISTIC DIRECTOR) is a playwright and director based in Brooklyn, New York. Tina attended the graduate playwriting program at Brooklyn College with Mac Wellman. She has shown work at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, HERE Arts Center, Dixon Place, and the CATCH! performance series. Her show FAMILY was named a Top 10 show for 2009 by Time Out New York. She received a B.A. in English from Bowdoin College and an M.A. in Liberal Studies from Reed College.

CHRIS GIARMO (RESIDENT COMPOSER) is an artist based in Brooklyn. He has composed original music for all of Half Straddle's productions and is also a founding member of NY-based performance group, The Red Terror Squad. He has performed and toured internationally with Brooklyn-based Big Dance Theater since 2005, and will perform in and compose music for their upcoming production of Alkestis, translated by Ann Carson, which will premiere at Theatre de Chaillot in Paris in 2011, followed by a NY-premiere at BAM. He is also currently performing in Witness Relocation's 5 Days in March at LaMama. Chris has a BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts' Experimental Theater Wing and is currently pursuing his Masters of Science for Communication Design at Pratt Institute.

GLENNIS MCMURRAY has been seen all over the NY comedy scene for years and has made a name for herself as a feisty, loud and fabulous singer/comedian. She helped form the musical improv group I Eat Pandas (TONY Critics Pick, Off-Broadway's DR2 Theatre) and the hit show "Dream Role", currently running monthly at Comix NY (www.dreamrole.net). Glennis lends her vocal talents to many radio and TV spots including the much-publicized E*Trade "Girlfriend" spot in which a baby named Lindsay ruffled Lindsay Lohans feathers and prompted a law suit. (Glennis can't wait to meet LiLo in a dark alley one day and pound the living daylights out of her for all the residuals she caused her to miss out on.) Glennis co-starred & wrote promos for Showtime's The Tudors (www.poptudors.com), has made appearances on Conan O'Brien and The New Electric Company and loves watching true life medical dramas where people lose limbs. Glennis runs a stand up show in Brooklyn called Supercream Supreme! where she helps foster a positive environment for female comedians because lord knows there ain't enough of that going around. www.glennismcmurray.com.

KATE MARVIN (PERFORMER) Recent sound design, musical direction, and composition includes Target Margin's The Really Big Once, Old Comedy, Pullman Car Hiawatha. Other Recent: Hamlet (Paradise Factory), Stuck Elevator (Pearl), Mountain Shouting (Ontological), The Deluge (Bushwick Starr), Babes In Toyland (Ice Factory), A Brief Midmorning's Journey Into Early Afternoon (The Centrifuge), The Penitent Hours/Home Birth (Bushwick Starr). Kate has also worked with Lincoln Center Theater, the Goodspeed Theater and Nine Circles Chamber Theater.

ELIZA BENT (PERFORMER) Half Straddle: Family (Ontological), Sliding Whores (Dixon Place), Nurses in New England (Catch!), The Knockout Blow (Ontological and HERE). Other New York credits: Babes in Toyland (Ice Factory 2009), The Less We Talk (Hoi Polloi), The Three Sisters and Clocked (Columbia University). Readings and workshops with Target Margin, Clubbed Thumb and New York Theatre Workshop. Her adapted play, She of the Voice, had a sold-out run at the undergroundzero festival at PS 122. Upcoming: Asleep at the Wheel a musical about her boss.

JULIA SIRNA-FREST (PERFORMER) is a founding member of Half Straddle and performed in The Knockout Blow (Ontological and HERE) and Amazing Miracles, or Nurses in New England as part of the Catch Series. Other recent credits include: Rocky Philly (The Bushwick Starr), Babes in Toyland (Ice Factory 2009), She of the Voice (PS 122), The Deluge (The Bushwick Starr), Lies I Wish I Told You (Dixon Place), Church (The Public). With Target Margin: Aria Da Capo (The Chocolate Factory), The Beautiful Pooper Scooper (The Ohio), The Boar Hunt (The Kitchen), Public Spirited (HERE). She has also performed in readings and workshops at New Dramatists, Soho Rep and The Soho Think Tank.