THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOSH Comes to The Players Theatre, 5/16-18

After a 60-city tour, Huffington Post columnist, playwright, performer, and international public speaker Josh Rivedal returns to New York City with The Gospel According to Josh-his autobiographical 30-character, 1-man show described as a parable, a mitzvah, and a comedy all rolled into one. Brent Buell directs. Four performances will be staged at The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street in NYC from May 16-18, 2014. Performances will benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (afsp.org), Love is Louder (loveislouder.com) and The Trevor Project (thetrevorproject.org).

Synopsis: By the time he turns twenty-five, Josh thinks he'll have had the perfect life-a few years singing on Broadway, followed by a starring role in his own television show. After which, his getaway home in the Hamptons would be featured in Better Homes & Gardens, and his face would grace the cover of the National Enquirer as Bigfoot's not-so-secret lover. Instead, his resume is filled with an assortment of minor league theatre and an appearance on "The Maury Povich Show"-a career sidetracked by his father's untimely death. Tortured by his thoughts, he finds himself on the ledge of a fourth floor window, contemplating jumping out-in turn he must reach out to the only person who can help him before it's too late. Featuring cameos by Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., and Elvis; The Gospel According to Josh is a comedic and poignant true-to-life tale of love, loss, struggle, and survival-a gospel account of one young man's passage into manhood-his twenty-eight-year Gentile bar mitzvah.

Josh Rivedal (playwright and performer) serves on the board of The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and on the advisory board for Elijah's Journey: A Jewish Response to Suicide Prevention. He is a regular contributor on mental health in The Huffington Post, and is sought-after by suicide prevention councils and committees as a keynote speaker at their conferences. Josh wrote and developed The Gospel According to Josh in 2009, and has since performed it in theaters and educational institutions in over 60 cities across the United States and Canada. The play was presented at the Midtown International Theatre Festival in New York City with rave reviews, and was performed at The Media Theatre in Media, PA. As an actor, Josh has appeared on stages from New York, to Chicago, to Oahu. Josh is currently working on curating a compilation book "The Good News Project: Vol. 1" where 40 authors share stories of inspiration and good news-a portion of proceeds will be donated to 40 different charities. He is also working on a YA fantasy novel with a language learning component. His memoir "The Gospel According to Josh" was published in 2013 and added to The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's recommended reading list for survivors of suicide loss.

Brent Buell (director) has taken the directorial helm on such works as Iyaba Ibo Mandingo's award-winning one-man show unFRAMED and From Sing Sing to Broadway, which premiered at Playwrights Horizons in NYC. For nearly ten years, Buell volunteered with the non-profit organization Rehabilitation Through the Arts, directing theater in New York's maximum-security prisons. There his productions of plays have earned praise from critics, including from The New York Times. As an actor, Buell has appeared in classic roles from Shakespeare and Ibsen to Moliere and Strindberg. Brent is lead producer for Pat Blake's upcoming FREEDOM: The Musical starring Maino, coming Off Broadway, Fall 2014. His outrageous new political parody, "Rapturous," is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and at local booksellers.

Tickets are $47.50 and can be purchased by visiting gospeljosh.com/tickets or calling 212-352-3101. Performances are Friday @ 7pm, Saturday @ 2pm & 7pm, and Sunday @ 3pm. The Players Theatre is located at 115 Mac Dougal Street, New York, NY 10012.

Skookum Hill is a theatre production and book publishing company. They published "The Gospel According to Josh" in 2013 and are publishers for the upcoming "The Good News Project: Volume One," a compilation book of inspiration short stories from multiple authors in 2014, and an untitled fantasy novel with an educational language-learning component in 2015. Skookum Hill associated produced the Spanish language Christmas musical Rescatando la Navidad in Miami, Nov. 2013; Mexico City in 2016. They produce The Gospel According to Josh in New York City and on tour. They co-produced Hogan Gorman's one-woman show Hot Cripple; subsequently published as a memoir by Penguin in 2012.

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