WATCH ME BURN to Play Fresh Fruit Festival This July

WATCH ME BURN, a new play by Rae Binstock and directed by Alex Tobey, will be presented by The Fresh Fruit Festival, one of New York's premiere LGBT theatrical events.

This raw and exciting new play tackles pressing issues of contemporary life, from gentrification and gender inequality to the struggle for love in a hostile city.

From new playwright Rae Binstock comes WATCH ME BURN: the story of Prometheus "Methe" Graham, a young black Harlem firefighter, who is determined to rely on herself and no one else. But as the heat rises, the stress of her mother's recent death, her teenage sister's rebellion, her captain's doubts, and her community's disapproval create a psychic holocaust that threatens to consume her from within. There are those-like Methe's next-door neighbor Sophia, who starts out friendly and ends up in bed, or her firehouse buddy Andre, who's not sure whether his ;oyalties lie with the job or with those he works beside-that try to penetrate her self-selected isolation. But when the time comes, it seems unlikely that they can spare her the revenge taken by the flames she has fought so hard to conquer.

"WATCH ME BURN takes on big subjects of race and class in America today, through an intimate story which works on both personal and political levels. Rae Binstock has something important to say, and the skill to create a play which shines with insight and courage," said David Henry Hwang, Tony Award-winning playwright.

"Rae one of the finest young playwrights I have encountered in 21 years of teaching. Her voice is fresh as paint, original, intelligent, compassionate and fierce...she is clearly headed for great things," commented Ellen McLaughlin, actor, playwright, and professor at Columbia University.

The Fresh Fruit Festival 2016 takes place at The Wild Project, 195 E 3rd St Between Avenue A & B New York, NY 10009 (3rd Street and Avenue B, take the F Train to Delancey or the L Train to 1st Avenue). WATCH ME BURN will run Tuesday July 12th, 7pm, Wednesday July 13th, 7pm and Thursday July 14th, 9pm. Tickets are $18. Purchase at www.freshfruitfestival.com or call OvationTix at 866.811.4111.

Rae Binstock was raised in Cambridge, MA and attended Columbia University. Her plays include Expedition (Seymour Brick Memorial Prize for Playwriting), We Are The Light Of The World (winner of Red Theater's National Playwriting Competition) and The Snowstorm (2016 Historic Elitch Theatre New Works Festival). She writes for Slate.com, is the author of upcoming serial podcast Tapes from Jane Street, and is the recipient of an artistic residency from The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. www.raebinstock.com

Alex Tobey was raised in Raleigh, NC and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University. He has worked with such comapnies as Vineyard Theatre, The Bushwick Starr, Ars Nova, Bricolage Production Company, Dixon Place, National Theatre for Student Artists, Burning Coal Theatre Company, Theatre Raleigh, and North Carolina Theatre. He is the recipient of the 2015 CMU Pittsburgh Drama Alumni Clan Award, the 2013 Pittsburgh Playhouse Plus Scholarship, and the 2011 City of Raleigh Artist of Tomorrow in Theatre. Alex also co-directs bubble:PGH, a traveling inflatable performance space in Pittsburgh. www.alextobey.com