Bucks County Playhouse Launches WORD OF MOUTH: EAVESDROPPING Livestreamed Storytelling Series

While in-person live performances are waiting in the wings, Bucks County Playhouse is inaugurating an online, streaming version of its popular story-telling series, "Word of Mouth." Held on Sundays at 7 pm - live on Bucks County Playhouse's Facebook page (TheaterBCP) - these events will bring some of the nation's top storytellers and raconteurs to an intimate conversation with renowned storyteller, Michaela Murphy, Bucks County Playhouse's Director of Education.

Entitled, "Word of Mouth: Eavesdropping," the Sunday, April 5 program will feature five storytellers. National Public Radio's, Ophira Eisenberg ("Ask Me Another"), will co-host with Murphy. They will be joined on the program by David Crabb, Adam Wade, and Playhouse Producing Director Alexander Fraser. The theme for Sunday's broadcast is "Freedom."

"As we face our stay-at-home time together, we think we all find ourselves trying to fathom the enormity of this pandemic on the one hand, while we ponder the sometimes-hilarious inanities of social isolation," says Producing Director Alexander Fraser. "We've been looking at ways that Bucks County Playhouse can help. We feel Michaela's 'Word of Mouth' Storytelling Series may be a perfect tonic to let us feel connected in these challenging times."

"I am thrilled that Ophira is going to join me this week as co-host. She is not only a favorite storyteller among storytellers, her easy rapport as a popular host has made her a standout for both audiences and guests on her show," says Murphy. "And thanks to the technology we are using to stay connected, we are able to reach out to our friends and storytellers all over the country to create this amazing roster of talent to appear on this new series."

David Crabb's stories have appeared on The Moth, NPR, Buzzfeed & RISK! His solo show Bad Kid was a New York Times Critic's Pick and his memoir of the same name was released in 2015 by Harper Perennial. David is currently a member of the Groundlings Sunday Company and a Professor of Autobiographical Performance at Occidental College. He hosts the RISK! live show in Los Angeles and the podcast "A Special Presentation."

An inimitable fixture in both the New York City storytelling and comedy scenes, Adam Wade is the winner of 20 SLAMS at The Moth (18 StorySLAM victories and two GrandSLAM Championships) with 20 different winning stories. He has toured across North America with The Moth Main Stage and his stories have appeared on The Moth Radio Hour, The Moth Podcast, and the PBS television show Stories from the Stage. Adam has been performing his New York Times critic's pick monthly solo showcase since January 2010. He is also a regular performer on Nights of Our Lives and has made several appearances on Asssscat 3000 (guest monologist), and Seth Herzog's show Sweet. He has appeared on HBO's "Girls" Season 5 finale and on Season 2 and 3 of Comedy Central's "Inside Amy Schumer". His unique audio memoir "You Ought to Know Adam Wade" was released in January 2020 and was produced by Audible. It was the #1 new release in the Performing Arts category on both Audible and Amazon for 4 straight weeks and in the Top 5 for 12 straight weeks.

Ophira Eisenberg is a Canadian-born standup comedian and writer. She hosts NPR's nationally syndicated comedy, trivia show "Ask Me Another" where she interviews and plays silly games with Sir Patrick Stewart, Awkwafina, Roxanne Gay, Terry Crews, Jessica Walter, Josh Groban, Nick Kroll, Tony Hawk, George Takei, Sasha Velour, Ethan Hawke, Julia Stiles, Lewis Black, Uzo Aruba, Michael C. Hall and more. She has appeared on Comedy Central, "This Week At The Comedy Cellar," The New Yorker Festival, Kevin Hart's "LOL Network," HBO's "Girls," "Gotham Live," "The Late Late Show," "The Today Show," and VH-1. Selected as one of New York Magazine's "Top 10 Comics that Funny People Find Funny," and featured in the New York Times as a skilled comedian and storyteller with a "bleakly stylish" sense of humor, Ophira is also a regular host and teller with The Moth. Her stories have also been included in two of The Moth's best-selling collections. Ophira's own comedic memoir, Screw Everyone: "Sleeping My Way to Monogamy" was optioned for a feature film.

Michaela Murphy is a writer, playwright, storyteller and teacher. Her stories have been featured on NPR, Off-Broadway (Second Stage Theater), The Moth Mainstage (NYC and National Tours) and Peabody Award winning The Moth Radio Hour, The Liar Show, RISK! and TEDx, the Clinton White House and in The New Yorker. She is formerly the Director of Education at Second Stage Theater and was a guest Artistic Director for several of The 52nd Street Project replications (Navajo and Chippewa Nations). Michaela is a Co-Founder of "L!FE: Leadership Fueled by Entrepreneur-ism" (Detroit, NYC), an education platform for High School students, and was Director of the Entrepreneurs-in-Training program at Barnard College.

Alexander Fraser has served as Producing Director at Bucks County Playhouse since 2014. Born in St. Louis and raised in Memphis, Alex came to NYC in 1977 to attend NYU (where he is now an adjunct instructor). In the interim, he worked on over 100 Broadway, off-Broadway, West End and touring productions, winning a Tony Award as a producer of The Normal Heart in 2011. He lives in New Hope with his husband and their three dogs.

Audiences wishing to join Murphy and company for "Word of Mouth" can join the Zoom webinar from the Bucks County Playhouse homepage or see it stream live on the Playhouse's Facebook page at facebook.com/TheaterBCP. Information about guests for upcoming editions of the series will be announced shortly.

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