Urban Hermit Memoir Musical Set for United Solo on November 3

Minnesota storyteller/songwriter Rachel Nelson brings her memoir musical THE URBAN HERMIT to the 2013 United Solo Theater Festival on Nov. 3. This coming-of-age story about coming out, sobering up, and street busking is directed by Beth Margolis Brooks, founding member of the Margolis-Brown Adaptors Theatre Company.

Drawing on her physical theater studies with Kari Margolis when the Adaptors were based in Minneapolis, Nelson blends movement into her stories. New York aficionados of the Margolis Method can see in this show how that method lives in a storyteller.

Nelson's early days as a theater musician grew into a storytelling style where she often acts as her own musician to enhance the story. "I approached this show as a musical in the classic American sense: every song or musical bit needs to propel the story forward or deepen the character's development," she says. Nelson accompanies the action in this show with guitar, fiddle, hand drum, Tibetan bowl, and washtub bass.

THE URBAN HERMIT is a show nurtured by the storytelling community. Born out of a 5-minute story slam at the 2008 National Storytelling Network conference, where Nelson received a standing ovation for her fringe musical LIVING THE QUESTIONS, the URBAN HERMIT had its first flight at a 2010 Northlands regional storytelling conference. Positive response from fellow storytellers there led Nelson to refine and develop her first foray into personal story with director Beth Margolis Brooks. THE URBAN HERMIT premiered in Duluth and the MN Fringe Festival in 2012, playing the Orlando Fringe in 2013.

THE URBAN HERMIT plays the United Solo Theatre Festival Sunday Nov. 3 at 2:00 pm in the Studio Theatre at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, New York City. Tickets at $18 are available at the Theatre Row Box Office and online through Telecharge at www.telecharge.com or 212-239-6200. More information about the United Solo Festival at www.unitedsolo.org.

What Solo performer most influenced this work? q/a with Rochelle Denton at nytheaternow.com: http://nytheaternow.com/2013/09/27/united-solo-festival-previews-5/