Emmy-Winning Journalist & Comedian Faith Salie Opens One-Woman Show At Alliance Theatre

The Alliance Theatre is pleased to present the world premiere production of Approval Junkie, by and starring Faith Salie. A comedian and Emmy Award-winning journalist best known for her roles on NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! and CBS News Sunday Morning, Salie returns home to Georgia to adapt her memoir into a heartfelt (and disturbingly hilarious) one-woman show. Approval Junkie is directed by Amanda Watkins and premieres on the Hertz Stage April 5 - 28, 2019. Opening night is Wednesday, April 10, 2019.

>From winning her (very Southern) high school beauty pageant, to picking the perfect outfit to wear to her divorce, Faith Salie is the ultimate approval seeker - an "approval junkie," if you will. Through her witty, candid, and sometimes heartbreaking recollections, Salie reflects on a lifetime of looking for validation in all the wrong places - and reveals how she finally won gold stars from her toughest critic...herself.

"Faith Salie and I have the world in common, which is proving to be a strong basis for a great friendship and collaboration," said Director Amanda Watkins. "And what I love about the story we are telling is that it's universal. Who can't relate to the loss felt after the death of a parent or the souring of a once promising romance? Who hasn't felt unloved or less than? And these feelings most often fuel our need to please, our need to be better, do more. Faith's story is so relatable and painfully honest. In her words, she is 'living nakedly human publicly.' And I can't wait to wrestle with that and be a part of it all."

"I hope the audiences who generously witness my preposterously personal stories will leave feeling themselves more understood-reminded that it's the things we do in the name of being heard, seen, and loved that make us most human," said Salie. "I'm returning to the place where I grew up, where I lost my mother, where I now return as a mother to introduce my kids to dogwoods and Waffle House. This experience is more than the incredible invitation to tell my stories-it's a middle-of-life dream come true. I hope audiences will not be distracted by my joyfully self-inflicted bruises that come from the fact that I keep pinching myself."

Led by Director Amanda Watkins, the creative team includes Jack Magaw (Set Designer), Ivan Ingermann (Costume Designer), Amanda Zieve (Lighting Designer), Alex Basco Koch (Projection Designer), and Brandon Bush (Sound Designer and Composer).

Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., April 5 - 28, 2019, on the Hertz Stage. There will be no 2:30 p.m. performance on Saturday, April 6, no performance on Wednesday, April 17, and no 7:30 p.m. performance on Sunday, April 28. There will be additional performances on Tuesday, April 9 and Tuesday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets start at $25 and are available at The Woodruff Arts Center Box Office in person or by calling 404-733-5000. Tickets are also available online at www.alliancetheatre.org/approvaljunkie. Discounted rates for groups of 10 or more are available by calling 404.733.4690. Discount rates are also available for members of the military, seniors and students. The Alliance Theatre is located at The Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree Street, at the corner of Peachtree and 15th Street, in Midtown Atlanta.

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