Jessica Hendy To Present Industry Reading of New Bio-Musical, WALKING WITH BUBBLES This Month

Broadway actress Jessica Hendy, (Cats, Aida, Amour) is bringing her own story to the stage in Walking with Bubbles, a new musical about the journey of a mother navigating her life after a shocking health crisis leaves her family in a vulnerable storm of chaos, confusion, and possible danger. The interwoven score, written by Brianna Kothari Barnes (Jonathan Larson Grant 2021 finalist), beautifully pairs the female driven perspective of WAITRESS with the anthemic inspiration of NEXT TO NORMAL, and is performed by an all-female band. The industry reading, presented by Tony nominees Tom D'Angora and Michael D'Angora (Caroline, or Change, Harmony, NEWSical), will be presented on October 24th and 25th at the AMT Theatre.

A one-act work in development over the last five years, Hendy's intimate first-person narrative invites audiences into her seemingly perfect New York City life from center stage as a Broadway leading lady with a perfect marriage until her husband begins to suffer an inexplicable decline. Grappling with both guilt and empathy around her husband's struggles, she is left with her young son, Beckett, whose nickname is Bubbles, to navigate a seemingly impossible new landscape with few resources other than an irrepressible sense of humor and a mother's unwavering determination. The first of its kind in the musical theater genre, Walking with Bubbles presents a way forward through chaos, offering hard-won wisdom by bravely dramatizing missteps, embarrassments, and failures where audiences arrive as strangers and leave feeling like old friends forged through emotion, honesty, and an unmatched authenticity.

"It's scary to be so vulnerable in sharing the private issues I've faced in my personal life and within my family, but it's also an important part of healing," explains writer and performer Jessica Hendy. "Brianna and I have come together to bring this taboo topic into the spotlight," she adds. "It impacts so many people but is seldom talked about."

Crafted from the pages of Jessica Hendy's memoir, Walking With Bubbles had its theatrical debut in March of 2021 in Brooklyn, NY, at the Irondale Theatre's "On Woman" festival. Beginning as a one-act play with music, Walking With Bubbles was the festival's grand finale production and received critical acclaim. Wanting to elevate the storytelling, Jessica partnered with Brianna Kothari Barnes, to create an original score for her script. Enter: Walking With Bubbles, a new musical. In April of 2022, Brianna and Jessica traveled to Ohio for a week-long incubation workshop at their Alma-Mater, CCM, with director Richard Hess. This was in preparation for the first New York City industry reading which happened on May 19th, 2022, at Open Jar Studios. From that reading, Tom and Michael D'Angora were inspired to help Jessica and Brianna get the show to the next stage of development and the team was asked to bring Walking With Bubbles to the Forestburgh Playhouse for their "In The Works ~ In The Woods" festival, headed by artistic director Matt Lenz.

For more information and to request an invitation to the reading please visit www.WalkingWithBubblesTheMusical.com.

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