LA's Newest Theatre Company, The Brookside Project, Makes Its Fringe Debut With AM I BLUE

After opening their doors in March of this year with Chekhov's Gull, an original, minimalistic adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, The Brookside Project is producing Am I Blue by Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Beth Henley as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival, directed by Brookside founder Noah Todd. The play stars Jamie Leo as Ashbe Williams, an outspoken, quirky teenage girl who roams New Orleans looking for companionship. She spends the play fostering a connection with John Polk Richards, played by Gavin Damian-Loring, who is an uptight, sheepish student being hazed by his fraternity, disconnected from his own path in life. The cast is rounded out by Miriam Holsbeke and Scott Mazzapica in supporting roles.

Am I Blue will run for three Fringe performances at the Broadwater Studio (1078 Lillian Way, Los Angeles): Tuesday, June 18 at 11:00 pm, Friday, June 21 at 11:55 pm, and Sunday, June 23 at 11:00 pm. The Fringe run will be followed by a weekend of performances at The Brookside Project's own studio in West LA (12227 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles), Friday, June 28 through Sunday, June 30 at 8:00 pm. All performances, as part of the Fringe and at the Brookside studio, are free to attend. Ticketing information can be found at brooksideproject.com/blue.

The Brookside Project, a West LA-based theatre company founded by theatre artist and musician Noah Todd, opened earlier this year. Brookside is an experiential, essentialist theatre company founded on the tenets of human-centric creation and uncompromised access to the arts. The Brookside Project is committed to:

• Producing new, original theatre, including innovative adaptations of classic texts alongside new works written and curated by our artists.

• Pay-what-you-can admission to Brookside productions, always.

• Celebrating human intelligence, curiosity, and ingenuity, with large language models and any artificial intelligence tools to come in the future never being incorporated into our writing process, text analysis, or media generation.

In addition to Am I Blue and Chekhov's Gull, The Brookside Project will present an original fall production and continue hosting their unplugged indie music series, Night Music. Additionally, the Brookside studio is available to host the work of outside playwrights, directors, and theatre practitioners through the end of this year, and anybody interested in producing work in West LA should visit brooksideproject.com.

Founder and Creative Director Noah Todd is an Associate Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and he was previously the Assistant Artistic Director of Flock Theatre and a theatre director and professor at Mitchell College in New London, CT. He has performed at the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, and in 2020 he received Emerging Artist recognition from the Connecticut Office of the Arts.

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