People's Light & Theatre Extends Jonatha Brooke's MY MOTHER HAS 4 NOSES

As an addition to its 40th anniversary season lineup, People's Light presents acclaimed singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke in her one-woman show My Mother Has 4 Noses. People's Light is located at 39 Conestoga Road, Malvern, PA 19355. For tickets, call 610.644.3500 or visit Peopleslight.org. Made possible in part by a grant from the Phoenixville Community Health Foundation.

In this touching mother-daughter love story, acclaimed singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke shares her experience caring for her eccentric and ailing mother. Jonatha weaves 10 new songs through stories of their final two years together in this one-woman play The New York Times calls "a poignantly funny, beautifully created narrative."

Hal Real, Founder of World Cafe Live, states "We are proud to partner with People's Light and WXPN to present Jonatha's heartwarming tribute to her mother. When she performed this play at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia several years ago, the audience was blown away by the way Jonatha brings her signature songwriting to this meaningful, moving, and often amusing story."

"We're thrilled to be presenting a highly personal musical theater experience created by longtime core XPN artist, Jonatha Brooke, that will resonate with our listeners," said Roger LaMay, WXPN General Manager.

Jonatha Brooke has been writing songs, making records and touring since her early days in Boston with her band The Story. In 1995, Ms. Brooke released the first of two solo albums on MCA/Universal, Plumb, followed by Ten Cent Wings in 1997. In 1999 she started her own independent label, Bad Dog Records, and has since released seven more albums, her most recent, the companion CD to her show My Mother Has 4 Noses. Ms. Brooke has written for film and television, and composed and performed the theme song for Joss Whedon's series Dollhouse. She recently co-wrote songs with Katy Perry ("Choose Your Battles") and The Courtyard Hounds ("Sunshine") for their current releases.

My Mother Has 4 Noses, written and performed by Brooke, and directed by Jeremy B. Cohen, has already played to sold-out houses at The Playwright's Center and the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis; at The Philly Fringe Fest at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia; and had a critically acclaimed 10-week run at The Duke on 42nd St. in New York. Brooke's exploration of loving and caring for someone with dementia makes for an "affectionate, well-crafted, surprisingly funny new musical" (New York Post).

Jonatha's mother was a published poet, a clown, a Christian Scientist, and she had Alzheimer's. She also did have 4 noses, and an indomitable sense of humor. In their final two years together, Jonatha and her mother would mine the daily goings on for theatre:

"My mom was a character," says Brooke. "In fact, I used to thank her on stage for all the good material. 'How many people do YOU know who can say they have 4 NOSES?' she'd quip almost daily... 'Boolie, (my nickname) 'that's GOOD! Are you getting this down? We should make a play out of it!' My Mother Has 4 Noses is the result."

"In her last two years, we shared every human experience on the spectrum. My only instinct? Write it, sing it, tell it. And mom was absolutely complicit. So this is our crazy love story, complicated by religion and dementia."

In 2013, Producing Director Zak Berkman attended a concert presentation of My Mother Has Four Noses at World Cafe Live, which he was invited to see by Hal Real and People's Light Company Member, David Bradley. "I have loved Jonatha's music since my college days." Berkman comments "She has always expressed such honesty, compassion, and humor in her songwriting. Four Noses possesses all of those qualities in the shape of this daughter-mother love story that is both one of a kind and also speaks to the experiences of so many adult children and caregivers. We are thrilled to bring Jonatha and Director Jeremy B. Cohen (Producing Artistic Director at The Playwrights Center in Minneapolis) to People's Light for the first time."

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