Playwright Albi Gorn Turns Personal Grief Into Dramatic Comedy in JIM'S ROOM

Imagine dating someone who makes you think you are looking into the mirror of your soul. You begin to question your true identity. It's an out-of-body experience. Reincarnation, anyone?

All that and more takes place in offbeat dramatic comedy JIM'S ROOM, by award-winning Hudson Valley playwright Albi Gorn. The 90-minute play (performed without intermission) has its world premiere August 22, 24 and 25 at the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival in Manhattan.

In JIM's ROOM, directed by Robin Anne Joseph, Mr. Gorn employs his trademark verbal playfulness to observe the human condition -- with its full range of emotions -- and explore how far we'll go to recover what we've lost.

As they start dating, Maddie and Beau at first are thrilled to discover they have an uncanny connection. Yet the lovebirds run into a little problem as they start to get it on: Maddie thinks she's the reincarnation of Beau's twin brother Jim. The lady or the brother? That's the complicated choice Beau faces as he thinks longingly about the sibling he lost a lifetime ago.

The real-life source material for JIM'S ROOM, says Albi Gorn, is his response years ago to the still-birth that took the life of one of his and wife Robin Anne Joseph's newborn twins.

"What was an unimaginably painful time in my life," he says, "found a place to land when I thought about not only what my deceased child would have been like, but what my living child would have been like had he had his brother in his life. JIM'S ROOM imagines the humor and the magic in the possibility of recovering that relationship."

The cast of JIM'S ROOM features Jason Beckmann, Jess Beveridge, Michelle Daneshvar, Jess Erick, Julie Griffin, Lucas Kane, Patrick McGuinness, and Susan Ward* (*Appears Courtesy of Actors' Equity Association). Performances at the Theater at the 14th Street Y, 344 E. 14th Street (2nd floor) are Aug. 22 at 8:30 p.m., Aug. 24 at 5 p.m., and Aug. 25 at 8:30 p.m.

For tickets and more information...
www.broadwayboundfestival.com.

Pictured is the cast of JIM ROOM'S Room (front row, from left): Lucas Kane (as Ron), Michelle Daneshvar (Maddie), Jason Beckmann (Beau), Jess Beveridge (Bev); (back row, from left): Jess Erick (Shirley), Julie Griffin (Rachel), Patrick McGuinness (Marty), Susan Ward (Agnes). Photo by Robin Anne Joseph