Joanna Rush's KICK to Open This Month at St. Luke's Theatre

Yonanda Productions & Piccolo Productions, in association with Wendy Taucher Dance Opera Theater, present KICK, a darkly comic solo play written and performed by Joanna Rush. Directed by Tony Award nominee Lynne Taylor-Corbett, KICK opens at St. Luke's Theatre, 308 West 46th Street, NYC on Sunday, October 25th at 7 PM for an open-ended engagement.

On her way to Radio City Music Hall to audition for The Rockettes, Bernie O'Connell is tricked into a car and attacked in a vacant lot off the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. KICK follows Bernie from Radio City to A Chorus Line to Hollywood and back as she picks up the pieces and finds the glue to put herself back together.

Director Taylor-Corbett said: "We follow this ex-Rockette through a decades-long roller coaster ride in this story about faith, relationships, sexuality and spiritual awaking. From raped teenager, through the age of AIDS and homophobia, to empowered Interfaith Minister and grandmother of three, Joanna Rush entertains and weaves a tale with such wisdom and humor. I am so proud that this play has opened a conversation with many men. A young college guy stood up after a performance and said, 'You've made me laugh and cry but you also made me realize that I have committed date rape.' We need this conversation. It is a positive antidote, not only to a misguided young guy like this, but to media stars who feel protected by their celebrity."

KICK, originally called Asking For It, won rave reviews and four stars from Time Out when it was presented at the 2007 New York International Fringe Festival. It has played the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center and was developed at the NY Society for Ethical Culture, The Kirk Theater on Theater Row, Stocker Arts Center in Ohio, Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons, Becket Arts Center, The YardArts Festival, Martha's Vineyard, Gloucester Stage, Newburyport Actors Studio, and the All For One Festival at the Cherry Lane. Sections of KICK were chosen by the U.N. Council for the Empowerment of Women and The Hunger Project to be performed at the International Women's Day (NYC) in March 2008. Prior to the off-Broadway engagement, KICK was performed at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland State, as well as the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

In addition to KICK, Joanna Rush's other theatre playwriting credits include Home Sweet Homeland, (Lynne Taylor- Corbett, director) which was work-shopped at Stocker Arts Center, Ohio, Best New Play Series readings at Gloucester Stage. Her screenplays include Irish Whiskey (co-author, "Best Screenplay" winner at the Temecula Valley Film Festival,) Mothers Day, a historical drama. Joanna's Broadway acting credits include Pousse Café, Shirley MacLaine at the Palace. A Chorus Line (Shubert Theater, Los Angeles.) Off-Broadway she has appeared in Daughters, Inside Out, Grandma Sylvia's Funeral, Broadway Scandals of 1928, and regionally in Beyond Therapy, Fifth of July, Freedomland, Little Mahagony, Great White Hope, Women Who Steal (WHAT), concert versions of Two by Two, and Minnie's Boys at Jewish Rep. Joanna's film and TV work includes Sunburn, On the Cliffs (winner Best Short Comedy 2004, Ohio Ind. Film Festival) Saying Goodbye, Shannon, Archie Bunker's Place, A Killing Affair, Cagney & Lacey, and the pilot Straight no Chaser as the inappropriate mother of Bronson Pinchot. KICK is based on her book, ASKING FOR IT.

Director Lynne Taylor-Corbett was nominated for two Tony Awards and a Drama Desk Award for her direction and choreography of Broadway's Swing! She also choreographed Chess and Titanic on Broadway. Off-Broadway she directed and choreographed Wanda's World for which she won the Callaway Award and was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award. Her production of My Vaudeville Man garnered a Drama Desk Award. Cougar the Musical, for which she was director and contributing writer, ran off-Broadway for almost two years and is licensed worldwide. She co-wrote and directed "Out of the Shadows," the Good Housekeeping benefit for The National Women's History Museum featuring Meryl Streep, Glenn Close and Jane Alexander at City Center. Her adaptation of The Lion King is in its seventh year at Disney Hong Kong. Her film choreography can be seen in the classic "Footloose", "My Blue Heaven" and "Bewitched." She directed "Real to Reel" a film-live action event developed in China and later presented at the Edinburgh Festival. She and special effects genius, Doug Trumbell, collaborated on a film shot for the Osaka World's Fair which combines table top scenery and blue screen action. Ms. Taylor-Corbett has choreographed for numerous dance companies including American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and New York City Ballet, most notably "Seven Deadly Sins" starring Patti LuPone. Her work has been filmed for "Live From Lincoln Center" and "Great Performances". This year she wrote and directed, "Hibari" in Tokyo, a homage to the Japanese icon, Hibari Misora.

KICK has scenic design by Dean Taucher ("Law and Order, SVU", "Miami Vice", "Sopranos"), lighting by Brant Thomas Murray (Ping Chong + Company, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, Bodiography Contemporary Ballet Company), sound design by Joachim Horsley (orchestrations/arrangements for John Legend's "All of Me" Tour, has scored over 25 independent films) and costume design by Keili Camille Murray (Bodiography Contemporary Ballet, Asking For It at the Cherry Lane Theatre). General Manager is Robert Levinstein/22Q Entertainment.

KICK opens Sunday, October 25th at 7 PM at St. Luke's Theatre, 308 West 46th Street, NYC and continues an open-ended run, playing Sundays at 7 PM. Tickets at $39.50 and $59.50 are available via Telecharge.com or at the St. Luke's Theatre Box Office. For more info visit: www.KickThePlay.com.