Michael Pope, Sandro Monetti & More Set for 59E59 Theaters' EAST TO EDINBURGH, Now thru 7/29

59E59 Theaters has announced the 2012 line up for the 8th annual EAST TO EDINBURGH festival, beginning tonight, July 10 for a limited engagement through Sunday, July 29. Each July, 59E59 Theaters hosts a plethora of innovative US productions en route to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world. Created as a way to help shows get on their feet before flying off to Scotland, EAST TO EDINBURGH simulates the same production constraints that all shows experience during the Festival, while giving them a clean, comfortable and nurturing space to fine-tune their productions. This whirlwind three-week festival, featuring 16 productions, reflects some of the most adventurous theater from NY and across the US.

The 2012 EAST TO EDINBURGH line up:

July 10, 11 & 14 at 7 PM
MICHAEL POPE IS GAY FOR PAY, written by Michael Pope, directed by BriAnna Olson
Cast: Michael Pope
Ticket Price: $20 ($14 for 59E59 Members)
Michael Pope’s stranger than fiction tale of a mystery job in the Empire State Building and becoming the world’s greatest phone sex operator.

July 10, 11, 12 & 14 at 9 PM
DIRTY BARBIE AND OTHER GIRLHOOD TALES, written and directed by DeeDee Stewart
Cast: DeeDee Stewart
Ticket Price: $15 ($10.50 for 59E59 Members)
In 1978, a mother, newly widowed, moved her family from the wide, open spaces of Wyoming to a tiny town in North Carolina. Spinning tales on scarlet fever, scotch over ice and girls gone wild, DeeDee Stewart puts the “fun” back in dysfunctional.

July 12 & 13 at 7 PM; July 15 at 4 PM
LISTEN! THE RIVER, written by Robin Rice Lichtig, directed by Prav MJ
Cast: Wendy Peace
Ticket Price: $15 ($10.50 for 59E59 Members)
Forced to leave his rural home and move to New York City, Turbo the cat misses the soothing sounds of the river. Can the strangers he encounters help him navigate his way?

July 13 & 27 at 9 PM; July 15 & 18 at 7 PM
MADE FOR EACH OTHER, written by Monica Bauer, directed by John D. FitzGibbon
Cast: John Fico
Ticket Price: $18 ($12.60 for 59E59 Members)
A dramedy about sex, love, and the power of memory. Gay marriage meets Alzheimer’s, with an unexpected twist.

July 14 at 2 PM; July 20 at 5 PM
CAPTAIN FERGUSON’S SCHOOL FOR BALLOON WARFARE, written by Isaac Rathbone, directed by Philip Emeott
Cast: David Nelson
Ticket Price: $18 ($12.60 for 59E59 Members)
WWI changed everything and Thomas Ferguson got carried away by it. Find out what it takes to spy on the Kaiser at 5,000 ft. Sound crazy? It was.

July 14 at 4 PM; July 15 at 2 PM
I HEART HAMAS: AND OTHER THINGS I’M AFRAID TO TELL YOU, written by Jennifer Jajeh, directed by W. Kamau Bell
Cast: Jennifer Jajeh
Ticket Price: $20 ($14 for 59E59 Members)
Join Jennifer on auditions, bad dates and across military checkpoints as she explores becoming Palestinian-ized, politicized and eventually radicalized in this fresh, often funny, searingly honest show.

July 17 at 7 PM; July 22 at 2 PM; July 25 at 7 PM
A MAN FOR ALL TIMES: W.E.B. DU BOIS, written and directed by Alexa Kelly
Cast: BrIan Richardson
Ticket Price: $20 ($14 for 59E59 Members)
The story of W.E.B. DuBois, a major forerunner to Martin Luther King, is told in this riveting and inspirational drama.

July 17 & 18 at 9 PM; July 21 at 2 PM
CLOONEY, COWELL, PITT AND ME: Amusing Encounters with the A-List, written by Sandro Monetti, directed by Craig Jessen
Cast: Sandro Monetti
Ticket Price: $12 ($8.50 for 59E59 Members)
Ever wondered what the biggest stars in Hollywood are really like? Find out from the man who has met them all. In this rollicking one man show, leading British entertainment reporter Sandro Monetti shares amazing but true entertaining stories about the big names he has interviewed.

July 19 & 20 at 7 PM; July 21 at 4 PM
DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE, written by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Dawn Fuller-Medhurst
Cast: Alyssa Hagerbrant, Ashish Ramachandran, Kira Schott, Anna Skesley, Sumner Welles, Jessie Vissicchio
Ticket Price: $15 ($10.50 for 59E59 Members)
In a world a-twitter with technology, DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE wonders about our capacity to connect. A stranger’s cell phone leads a woman to into hilarious and harrowing relationships that question her place in a viral world. For what happens when our connections get broken? Can we hear each other now?

July 19, 20 & 21 at 9 PM
DIRTY PAKI LINGERIE, written by Aizzah Fatima, directed by Erica Gould
Cast: Aizzah Fatima
Ticket Price: $20 ($14 for 59E59 Members)
Sex, religion, and politics collide as six Pakistani-American Muslim females air their dirty lingerie.

July 21, 22, 26, 27, 28 & 29 at 7 PM
MOD, written and directed by Paul Andrew Perez, music and lyrics by George Griggs
Cast: Brian Arkin, Lindsay Avellino, Jeremy Bacon, Joseph Coppola, Alison Gips, Lillianna Levonick, Tom Oliverio, Justin Santore, Catherine Saraceno, Jessica Shaw, Emma Wellington
Ticket Price: $20 ($14 for 59E59 Members)
Fab! Irreverent! Totally Groovy! Original musical rocks 59E59 Theaters. Inspired by the British pop of the early 1960s. Teen angst set against the backdrop of the Beatles' invasion of America.

July 22 at 4 PM; July 24 at 7 PM
EAT $H*T, HOW OUR WASTE CAN SAVE THE WORLD, written by Shawn Shafner, directed by Rhea Lehman
Cast: Shawn Shafner, Rachel Chatham, Akilah Arthur
Ticket Price: $15 ($10.50 for 59E59 Members)
Brown’s the New Green in the show that’s changing the world one flush at a time!

July 24, 25 & 26 at 9 PM
TENDERPITS, written by Anthony Johnston, co-created and directed by Nathan Schwartz
Cast: Anthony Johnston
Ticket Price: $18 ($12.60 for 59E59 Members)
TENDERPITS is the incredible 100% half-true story of a young wizard’s immigration from the wilderness of Canada to New York City.

July 28 at 2 PM
DEATH BOOGIE, written by Darian Dauchan, directed by Jennifer McGrath
Cast: Darian Dauchan, Ian J. Baggette, Curtis Stewart
Live music by The Mighty Third Rail
Ticket Price: $12 ($8.50 for 59E59 Members)
DEATH BOOGIE is a multimedia hip hop poetry musical that follows the fictional story of Victor Spartan, a blue collar worker who lives a comatose lifestyle by day but at night hears the poetic sounds of revolution. Commissioned and developed at Dance Theatre Workshop’s Studio series.

July 28 & 29 at 4 PM
VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE, written and directed by Adam Strauss
Cast: Adam Strauss
Ticket Price: $12 ($8.50 for 59E59 Members)
Inspired by a study showing that hallucinogenic mushrooms can effectively treat obsessive-compulsive disorder, award-winning standup comic Adam Strauss embarked on a program of vigilante psychopharmacology.

July 28 at 9 PM; July 29 at 2 PM
3 BY POE, stories by Edgar Allan Poe, directed by Richard Smithies
Cast: Richard Smithies
Ticket Price: $12 ($8.50 for 59E59 Members)
Three superb Edgar Allan Poe horror stories with a common theme - revenge! Cask of Amontillado and Tell Tale Heart are performed by the murderers in each story; Hop-Frog by Poe himself.

Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets to each EAST TO EDINBURGH show range from $12 - $20 ($8.50 -$14 for 59E59 Members). Tickets can be purchased by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or online at www.59e59.org.

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