Stan Zimmerman's 'SUICIDE NOTES' Heads to Hollywood Fringe, Now thru 6/28

SUICIDE NOTES: In Their Own Words is a gripping one hour play that uses real suicide notes and performed by four actors in the vein of The Vagina Monologues and Love Letters. Stan Zimmerman, a TV and film veteran and award winning theatre writer/director, returns to Hollywood Fringe Festival for his three straight year. But this time, he departs from his usual comedy ventures to create this unique theatrical piece after loosing a close friend to suicide three years ago.

This production reunites Stan with four actors he's worked with in the past -- Olivia d'Abo (Wonder Years and Stan's award winning production of Entertaining Mr. Sloane), Allie Gonino (The Lying Game, Stan's Lifetime sitcom Rita Rocks), Peter Onorati (Civil Wars and Stan's theatrical directing debut with the 30th anniversary revival of Gemini), Brendan Robinson (Pretty Little Liars and Meet & Greet, Zimmerman's hit comedy play).

SUICIDE NOTES: In Their Own Words runs for only FOUR performances at Theatre Asylum, 6320 Santa Monica Blvd in Los Angeles. Shows are tonight, June 19th to Sunday June 28th at 4pm. Tickets are $15 online or $20 at the door. A portion of the proceeds will go to National Suicide Prevention Helpline 1-800-273-8255.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM:

STAN ZIMMERMAN (Director/Writer/Producer) with his writing partner James Berg, worked on such classic series as The Golden Girls and Roseanne (penning the controversial 'lesbian kiss' episode), both of which received WGA Award nominations for Best Comedy Writing. Other writing credits include Annie, (ABC t.v. movie) Gilmore Girls, the Lifetime sitcom Rita Rocks (which they also created and executive produced) and both Brady Bunch movies. They most recently wrote The 7th Zoe, a single cam half hour pilot for Amazon. Stan was host/showrunner on the Bravo reality series Situation: Comedy produced by Sean Hayes.

He made his stage directing debut with Gemini (Celebration Theatre), followed by A Tuna Christmas (Theatre Asylum) starring Mindy Sterling and Patrick Bristow, Spike Heels (Actor's Circle Theater), Entertaining Mr. Sloane (Actors Company Theatre) with Olivia d'Abo and Ian Buchanan. Stan won Best Director (LA) from BroadwayWorld for Blink & You Might Miss Me (Asylum Lab, Hollywood Fringe 2013, Renberg Theatre, SF Fringe, Chutzpah Festival-Vancouver and XL Cabaret-NYC). Last year at Hollywood Fringe 2014, he directed Susannah Blinkoff's musical memoir, Daughter Of... at Three Clubs Cocktail Lounge and the hit comedy Meet & Greet, which he also co-wrote. The show moved from Fringe to a successful run at the Elephant Space, winning numerous LA theatre awards.

With Christian McLaughlin, Stan wrote IT'S ON!, their tv theme song musical, which he directed a workshop starring Megan Hilty, Nolan Funk and Alan Thicke (Falcon Theatre) and also at NYMF (Signature Theatre) with Sheryl Lee Ralph, Mindy Sterling, Paige Davis and Michael Urie. www.zimmermanstan.com

ABOUT THE CAST:

OLIVIA D'ABO is probably best known for her role as "Karen" in the Emmy award winning ABC show, The Wonder Years. Recent TV appearances include the European series Jo opposite Jean Reno and guest star roles on USA's Psych, CBS's Elementary and the Lifetime film, Presumed Dead in Paradise. Notable recurring television credits include, Syfy's Eureka, Fox's Party of Five, Spin City and Alias on ABC and 3rd Rock From The Sun, The Single Guy and Law and Order: Criminal Intent on NBC.

In demand as a top voice over artist, Olivia's recent work includes the films -- Justice League: Doom, Green Lantern: First Flight. Her voice can also be heard as Black Widow/Natalia Romanoff in The Ultimate Avengers and The Ultimate Avengers II, Marvel Comics movies, The Avengers #1 and The Avengers #2, as well as Jane in Disney's animated series Tarzan, 'Tak' in Nickelodeon's Invader ZIM, 'Five' on Nickelodeon's Generator Rex and 'Jedi Luminara Unduli' in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, created by George Lucas.

d'Abo is also known for her independent films such as Live Nude Girls and Kicking And Screaming. Her other movies include: Wayne's World 2, Greedy, Conan The Destroyer, The Velocity of Gary, Point of No Return, Spirit of '76, Beyond The Stars, The Mission To Kill, Dream To Believe, and Bullies.

Olivia can currently be seen in Bernard Rose's Pagnini and in the films -- The Devil's Violinist, Imperioso and Sleeping Beauty. She recently finished several movies, including a drama, Blue Weekend, the family film, Robo Dog, the comedy Unbelievable and thriller Against Her Will.

She made her Broadway debut alongside Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane in The Odd Couple and appeared in the West Coast version with Jason Alexander and Martin Short. Olivia was also in Scenes from an Execution at the Mark Taper Form with Frank Langela and the Los Angeles Theatre's critically acclaimed musical, It's A Girl. Her other theatre work includes Stan Zimmerman's prestigious production of Joe Orton's classic Entertaining Mr. Sloane at the Actors' Company Theatre. She won the 2012 Broadway World Award for her performance.

In her music world, d'Abo has recently released her album, "Not TV", produced by Patrick Leonard. On Inner Knott records and Eone distribution she released her indie video "Revolution". She's about to release her much anticipated duet single with Seal of a song she wrote, "Broken and Alright", which will be the end title song for the film, Waking Madison. Olivia has also had songs in the indie films, Face2Face and Relentless. www.oliviadabo.net

ALLIE GONINO is a singer-songwriter, musician, and actress from the outskirts of Dallas, Texas. Making the move to L.A. with her mother in 2006, Gonino has since made music with girl group The Stunners, alt-folk trio The Good Mad, and recently debuted a solo project with the EP, 'Hollywood High'. She starred as Laurel Mercer on ABC Family's, The Lying Game, had recurring roles on the Lifetime sitcom, Rita Rocks, ABC Family's 10 Things I Hate About You and most recently played Rachel Jensen on Sundance TV's original series, The Red Road, opposite Julianne Nicholson and Jason Momoa.

PETER ONORATI left his M.B.A. and 11 ½ years as a marketing exec to become one half of the world's only Hassidic/Siamese twin comedy team, The Kippermans. He made his television debut as Lou Carello in the long running CBS sitcom Kate & Allie. Other tv credits include: Murder in the First, NYPD Blue, Civil Wars, Under Suspicion, Murder One and Cop Rock. Peter has created leading roles as "Good Guys" and "Bad Guys" (the pay is the same) for tv movies on ABC, CBS, USA, SHOWTIME, TNT and HBO. He has made over 40 feature films. Peter recently returned to the stage in the premiere of Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex & Sex, written by George Furth and The Iceman Cometh, (with Al Pacino) at the Falcon Theatre and the 30th anniversary revival of Gemini in Los Angeles.

His guest star roles include such shows as: How to Get Away with Murder, Battle Creek, Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls, The Exes, Harry's Law, Castle, Rizzoli and Isles, The Mentalist and many more. Peter has had recent recurring roles on: CSI, Desperate Housewives, 24, Everybody Hates Chris and Boston Legal. His most recent film work includes new releases like West End, Callers, Circle, The House that Jack Built. Peter's animation career encompasses such shows as: The Justice League, Batman Beyond, Batman the Brave and Bold, Teen Titans, Family Guy and recent release of the movie Batman vs. Robin. If you haven't had enough go to peteronorati.com. Peter lives in LA with his wife, writer/producer Jeanette Collins and their 3 sons: Sebastiano, Fancesco and GianCarlo.

BRENDAN ROBINSON is excited to be working again with Stan Zimmerman after co-starring last fall in a successful run of the comedy Meet and Greet. He is best known for playing Lucas Gottesman on the hit ABC family drama Pretty Little Liars, for the past five seasons. Other television includes recurring roles on Weeds and Good Luck Charlie, and guest star appearances on Bones, How I Met Your Mother, Cold Case, and Review. He starred in the comedy film Feels So Good, which is now available on Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant Video. Other film credits include The River Why and The Do-Deca Pentathlon. Regional stage credits include the title role in Peter Pan, A Christmas Carol, Inspecting Carol, and Moby Dick: the Musical.

COMBINED ARTFORM/MATTHEW QUINN (Producer) has been involved in theatre production/venue management for over 20 years in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where he owns and operates Theatre Asylum- Elephant Space. He created Combined Artform in 1998 to produce full and co-productions, explore multi-media, including live online internet programming and be an active member in the performance community. Stand out productions include Santaland Diaries, now in its 12th year at the Eureka Theatre (SF) , Blink & You Might Miss Me, Jane Austen Unscripted (w/ImproTheatre), A Tuna Christmas, Pulp Shakespeare, How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse- US Version and Tilted Frame. He's on the advisory board and active supporter of the Hollywood Fringe Festival and on the NYU West Coast Gallatin Alumni Board. In 2010 he started the Asylum's Best of the Fringe (Encore Awards) and from it has co-produced extensions of Pulp Shakespeare, Pokemusical and Sunny Afternoon.

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