Pamela Parker's DREAMS OF MARTHA STEWART Comes to Stage Left Studio This Weekend

Stage Left Studio, home of award-winning solo performances for more than a decade, is pleased to present the return of Pamela Parker's poignant and hilarious DREAMS OF MARTHA STEWART for a limited engagement this weekend, January 8-10, 2015.

DREAMS OF MARTHA STEWART tells the story of The Traveler, an All-American Everywoman who feels her life as a displaced housewife needs professional redesign. She makes the radical decision to see the Domestic Diva herself, like a pilgrim to the Dalai Lama. On a Greyhound from the Deep South to Bedford, New York, her stopovers and her fellow passengers weave an American quilt of women's stories, sharing many of the same struggles and triumphs. All will be revealed at the gates of Martha Stewart's mansion: It is never the destination, but the journey. Martha -- always ready for an impromptu guest -- can turn her imperfect "good girl" life into "a good thing."

This production will be directed by Cheryl King of the critically lauded Stage Left Studio. King has helmed many successful solo shows and was recently given a Pioneer Award by All-for-One Solo Theatre. DREAMS will star Tamara Paquette, playing a variety of characters that include a jazz singer, a homeless schizophrenic, a nun and a wild-eyed Christian tele-aerobics instructor/life coach.

Further productions and a national tour are being planned, as well as future dates at Stage Left in the coming months.

Pamela Parker's plays include Second Samuel (national tour), A Higher Place in Heaven (winner of Southern Playwrights Competition), Grass Widows (Neighborhood Playhouse One-Act Play Competition) and musical Tallulah and Hattie: Dead at the Pearly Gates Café (Theatre in the Square) created with Nat Martin.

Paquette and Parker have been working for more than a year exploring the characters' origins along the Southern and Eastern seaboards via interviews and local research. Now on its third production in New York City, the script has been adapted and updated by Parker.

DREAMS OF MARTHA STEWART will play January 8-10, 2015, Thursday and Friday at 7:30 pm and Saturday at 8:30 pm at the Stage Left Studio, Manhattan, 214 W. 30th Street, 6th Floor. A champagne and canapé reception will follow each performance for those who RSVP by January 5.

The production staff also includes designer Ellen Rosenberg on lights and sound, Frank Blocker as production consultant, and Kenneth Allen, publicity.

Stage Left Studio is located at 214 W 30th Street, 6th Floor and is home to numerous Drama Desk Award nominees in Solo Performance and the 8-year-and-still-running Forbidden Kiss LIVE! Stage Left is dedicated to developing new works, solo and otherwise, and continues to offer writing and acting workshops.

BIOGRAPHIES:

CHERYL KING (Director)

Ms. King is the creator and producing director of Stage Left Studio, New York City. She was resident acting coach at All My Children from 2007-2010, and is a playwright, director and actor. She teaches two weekly playwriting workshops, and has directed more than 35 plays, including Frank Blocker's Drama Desk-nominated Southern Gothic Novel. She was nominated as a producer for Tom Gualtieri's "That Play" in 2013. She has been performing Sally Lambert's play Grapefruit at Stage Left Studio for more than two years. She is a writer for New York Theater Experience and authors a blog called pagetostageblog. Cheryl is a member of the Dramatist's Guild and a board member of League of Independent Theatre, New York. She is currently performing in an adaptation of The Merchant of Venice at Stage Left Studio, and is the chief writer and a cast member of Forbidden Kiss LIVE, named by Village Voice "NY's Best Sexy Theater." NYTheatreNow named Cheryl a "Person of the Year" in New York Theater in 2008. The New York Times described her as "the matriarch of the Off-Off Broadway solo show community."

TAMARA PAQUETTE (Actress & Producer)

Ms. Paquette is a stage and television actress having appeared in Burn Notice, All My Children, Law & Order and Sex and the City. She worked extensively in New York City performing at American Globe Theatre, The Riant Theatre, and Laughing Stock Company, before relocating to her roots. She gained national acclaim as Toyota's "Hot Hot Hot" Girl, and was an original Bud Girl. She now leads a double life, living in sin amongst conservatives; fighting for social justice while sharing her art by any means necessary. She makes regular appearances for charities and public events. Her own dream was to take on the challenge of solo performance in a vehicle that was enjoyable for all audiences, which led her to Pamela Parker's acclaimed work. Working for nearly two years on location interviews throughout the Southern and Eastern seaboards as Ms. Parker revamped the script, Tamara is ready to take on the world in her own journey of a lifetime. She is a member of SAG/AFTRA.

PAMELA PARKER (Playwright)

Ms. Parker was born in a small mill town in Georgia and raised by grandparents who told stories about life in the rural South in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Despite having no educational background of any sort, Parker began writing plays in the late 1980s; the first three were one-act plays and all have been produced in New York and other cities. Second Samuel was her first full-length play. Dan Hulbert of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution named it the Best Original Play 1991-92. In 1995, Parker won the Southern Playwrights Competition at the Center for Southern Studies at Jacksonville State University in Alabama with A Higher Place in Heaven. In 1997, Pat Conroy invited Parker to the Southern Voices conference, Hoover, Alabama, to read from The Second Samueltonian-a collection of Parker's short stories. In 2010, Parker became an international playwright when Second Samuel was produced in Perth, Australia. Her other plays include Grass Widows, Why I Live at the P.O., Home for Christmas, and Tallulah and Hattie: Dead at the Pearly Gates Café. She resides in Atlanta, Georgia with her spouse, three dogs, and welcomes turtles and pigs whenever possible.

FRANK BLOCKER (Coach/Production Consultant)

Mr. Blocker is a character actor and playwright, especially known for his solo performance work and wide-ranging vocal and physical characterizations, particularly of (but certainly not limited to) Southern. His play Southern Gothic Novel was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Solo Performance and his most recent work, an adaptation of HP Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu, developed with Dan Spurgeon, was met with overwhelming critical praise in Los Angeles. He has coached playwrights and actors for more than two decades. His other plays include Stabilized Not Controlled (Stage Left Studio, Hollywood Fringe Festival), Eula Mae's Beauty, Bait & Tackle (off-Broadway, many cities), The Wisconsinners (Dubuque Fine Arts Center), Suite Atlanta (Atlanta, NYC), and Patient Number (winner, Inner Voices Social Issues Award). A producer and the owner of E-MergingWriters, Blocker has published and edited anthologies of plays and produced several works in New York City, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. He is a member of Actors' Equity Association, SAG /AFTRA, and The Dramatists Guild. He has been an artist-in-residence for Creative Mechanics Theatre Company and (currently) for The Visceral Company in Los Angeles. He has been a guest speaker and presenter at colleges, festivals, and workshops, and was recently invited to guest on a ComiCon panel discussion.

For more, go to www.DreamsofMarthaStewart.com, www.StageLeftStudio.net or visit www.CherylKingProductions.com.

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