SAD INDIE LOVE SONG Premieres Tonight as Part of New York International Fridge Festival

As part of The New York International Fridge Festival, The Dionysian will present the world premiere of Steve McMahon's sad indie love song for a four-performance run at IRT, tonight, August 31, through September 9, 2017.

sad indie love song is a new short work by Scottish playwright Steve McMahon, accepted through open submission to the 2017 New York International Fridge Festival. sad indie love song is an off-beat love story about relationships, love and a fridge. Chris and Cat love each other, but then Cat goes missing. Or does she, as there is another Cat in her place, who is the same but totally different. Or is it the same Cat? And there is a fridge involved, somehow.

Director Benjamin Viertel says "What I love about Steve's play is that it asks more questions than it answers. It's been such a thrill to work on, since the actors and I have been able to be so creative in defining our world, the characters and the journey they go on. It's a very unique, mysterious, vibrant and cryptic play, but also deeply honest, as it looks at lost love in alternative dimensions".

sad indie love song is directed by Benjamin Viertel, and features Natalie Donahue McMahon, Declan Maloney Drummond, and Shawna Wigney. Paul Hudson joins as Lighting Designer, and LiAnne Kennedy as Producer.

sad indie love song will be performed as part of a double bill (Series B) with Daniel Talbott's Nick and Zoe, as part of the inaugural New York Fridge Festival, a multidisciplinary theater festival this summer.

The schedule is as follows: August 31, 9pm September 3, 7pm September 6, 9pm September 9, 7pm. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased at thearcticgroup.org. In addition, the performances on August 31 and September 6 for sad indie love song are Fill Our Fridge nights, in which tickets can be purchased with the donation of non-perishable food products instead of cash. This initiative applies to performances across the Fridge Festival.

The New York International Fridge Festival was born in response to the news that The New York Fringe Festival would not take place in the summer of 2017 A multidisciplinary theater festival produced by The Arctic Group, the Fridge Festival will feature new works by both established and emerging artists, placing no restrictions on pieces and representing a wide variety of genres. All plays include (nay, feature) the same fridge. Fridge Festival playwrights are: Jenny King& The Barrington Collective, Suzanne Willett, Daniel Talbott, Steve McMahon, Matthew Minnicino, MJ Halberstadt, Glenn Marla, Korde Arrington Tuttle, Katie Cappiello, and Jordan G. Teicher. Half of all performances will be FILL OUR FRIDGE nights; in which tickets can be purchased with non-perishable goods instead of money. In anticipation of National Hunger Month, these donations will be delivered to a food bank local to the theater - a reflection of the company's belief that the arts play an essential role in the community.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

STEVE MCMAHON (Playwright) is an award-winning Scottish actor and writer based in Brooklyn. His plays have been developed and produced at IRT Theater, Origin Theatre Company, Fundamental Theater Project, Nylon Fusion, The Arctic Group, Between Us Productions and Big Apple Theater Festival in NYC and the Traverse Theatre, Village Pub Theatre, Bite-Size Plays, Strangetown and Ineffect in Scotland, including at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He has been published by Smith & Kraus and The Dionysian. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and co-founder and editor of the playwriting magazine, The Dionysian. As an actor, he graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he won the Lawrence Langner Award for Voice & Speech and has performed Shakespeare, 20th century classics, new plays and children's theatre.

BENJAMIN VIERTEL (Director) is a freelance director based in New York City, born in France and raised in South Florida by German and Italian parents. Upcoming: Grindr the Musical (UK and Italian tour). Past: The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (New Ohio Theater), Fireface (The Brick), Clipped (Atlantic Stage II), Kragtar: A Monster Musical (Peoples Improv Theater), Crimes of the Heart and Avenue Q (Bristol Valley Theater); and award-winning webseries [Blank] My Life. Benjamin has worked with BAM, Roundabout Theater Company, Huntington Theater Company, The New Group, and The Civilians. Member of Kennedy Center Director's Lab, MTC's Directing Fellow, The Civilian's R&D Group, and Resident Artist at The Brick and Abrons Arts Center. Co-founder and Artistic Director of Third Space. Education: Carnegie Mellon University. www.benjaminviertel.com

Paul Hudson (Lighting Designer) is thrilled to be joining the team on Sad Indie Love Song and return for his second production at IRT (previously: Novacation). Recent - Lucky Stiff (BVT), Henry V and Cymbeline (Juilliard Drama Division), Cracked Orlando (Juilliard CIA), The Cheesemonger's Invitational, Sorry (Shook Ones). Upcoming: Lonely Planet (Keen Co.), Affections of an Alleycat and Call it Clover (New Brooklyn Theater), eVirtuosos (Juilliard CIA).

LiAnne Kennedy (Producer) is a Scottish NYC-based theater marketer, administrator and producer, and currently works as Director of Marketing at The New York Musical Festival. Prior to moving to the USA, Lianne was Production Administrator at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company, and worked as Producer of Sanitise, a Fringe First Award-winning physical theater piece by Melanie Jordan and Caitlin Skinner during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2014 and subsequent Scottish tour. In NYC, Lianne recently produced The Dudleys! A Family Game (NYC Premiere, HERE), and Revel's End: A Tempest Dance Party (Studio 510).

NATALIE DONAHUE MCMAHON (Cat 2) graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2015 and performed as a member of their Company program through 2016. She most recently was seen in Random Access Theatre's season 'Resistance and Rebellion in Rep' playing Ismene in a new adaptation of Antigone. She also had the fortune of performing in one of Steve McMahon's other works, Settling in a reading at Origin Theatre Company's Annual Cultural Symposium. Love and thanks to Steve and the Dionysian. www.nataliedonahue.net

DECLAN MALONEY DRUMMOND (Chris) has acted in Burying Your Brother In The Pavement (National Theatre Youth Connections) and Off-Off Broadway production of Ashes To Ashes (Invisible Girl Theatre Co.). He is also the Editor-In-Chief of The Dionysian literary magazine.

SHAWNA WIGNEY (Cat 1) is originally from Canada and the Cayman Islands, recently graduating from the two-year conservatory and company program at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. As well as a performer, she is a co-founder and editor of NY-based literary journal, The Dionysian.

THE DIONYSIAN is an international playwriting magazine, that aims to highlight emerging and established playwrights of all genres and backgrounds through a quarterly publication and online content. Visit www.dionysianmagazine.com.

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