PARTHENOGENESIS Coming to FringeNYC

Inspired by true events, PARTHENOGENESIS is the story of three generations of women who, by choice or circumstance, all approach motherhood differently. It starts on the frozen water of Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, Massachusetts where Theresa (Kathryn Neville Browne), as a 4-year-old child, is abandoned by her father. Tonight, her father wishes to return to her life, to tell her about why he left.

It is also the story of Ginny (Karen Lynn Gorney, "Saturday Night Fever," "All My Children," "The Sopranos"), Theresa's aunt, who, at 19 years old, felt she had no choice but to take custody of Theresa and raise her as her own. Though she raised Theresa, she never allowed her adopted child to call her "Mother."

To complicate things further, April (Sophie Walker), Theresa's daughter by artificial insemination, a woman haunted by the voice of the sperm donor who is her father on an old cassette tape, is returning from college, 8 months pregnant by her college professor, who is meeting April's family for the first time. A mixture of genetic science and family dynamics combine on an evening that blows apart a family's many secrets that were thought to be left behind

PARTHENOGENESIS is written by Boston-area playwright Patrick Cleary, who has had work produced all over the country and is published by Baker's Plays and JAC Promotions & Publishing. It is directed by Ashley Marinaccio, a League of Professional Theatre Women Lucille Lortel Women's Visionary Award recipient for her artistic direction of Girl Be Heard, a theatre company that brings global issues affecting girls center stage by empowering young women to tell their stories. STARRING: Kathryn Neville Browne, Sophie Walker, Karen Lynn Gorney, Brandon Jones, Richard Binder, Adiagha Faizah, and Bradley Levine.