STABILIZED NOT CONTROLLED Announced At Alliance For The Arts

Fringe Fort Myers is bringing back a "Best of Venue" Award-winning hit from their recent Festival with edgy comedy Stabilized Not Controlled. Comedian and solo artist Frank Blocker takes on rent-stabilization and all things New York. 

As budget cuts from the State of Florida loom, Blocker worked with Alliance Theatre Director Bill Taylor to bring the show back for a benefit performance. "A drop in the bucket," says Blocker, "But we have to do whatever we can to plug the money gap, and remind audiences that without the State's funding, the arts will need all the help it can get in the coming years."

The play originally ran for two years at New York's Stage Left Studio where Blocker garnered accolades for his solo work. Blocker portrays more than a dozen New York characters fighting over a rent-stabilized building. Landlord "Killer Joe" wants them out, especially Lorna, the septuagenarian recovering addict who barks at passersby from her window. Per NYtheatre.com, "Lorna is charmingly reminiscent of a non-prudish Edith Bunker."

The tenants are a mixed bag of remaining occupants, each with their own agenda and issues. Directed by Jeffrey Peters, a Los Angles-based actor, artist and author and former "David Letterman Double" on The David Letterman Show. He is author/creator of the comic series Melvin Moose: Tood Detective and Museum Girl.

Blocker developed the play with a commitment to use as many verbatim quotes as possible from the subway, the streets, and conversations in the City, such as the commonly overheard, "Leave Manhattan? Not on your life." Hence, the fight-to-the-death storyline. The play contains strong language and adult themes. It is a play about New York City citizens and they cuss.

Blocker is best known for his long-running solo comedy Southern Gothic Novel, which was performed earlier this month. He recently premiered his new drama Good Jew at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.

Stabilized Not Controlled premiers August 30, 7:30pm at the Alliance for the Arts Foulds Theatre, 10091 McGregor Blvd, Fort Myers, Florida, 239-939-2787.

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