Walking Fish Theatre Presents GRAVEDIGGER, May 7-23

Walking Fish Theatre Presents Gravedigger: The Plays of Mark Borlowski. Opening on Friday May 7, with performances through May 23, the three one-act plays are based on characters from the playwright's upbringing in Kensington.

In the plays, Borkowski uses actual situations that he witnessed or experienced while growing up in Kensington. In Twilight's Child, directed by Borkowski, a couple cope with the loss of their child via rice pudding in a diner, based on a true life story from a Horn & Hardart's encounter. In The Mutilation of Saint Barbara, directed by Managing Artistic Director Michelle Pauls, another couple is forced by a museum painting to deal with their concepts of sexuality and power or lose each other. Finally, in A Gravedigger's Tale, directed by Producing Artistic Director Stan Heleva, drug dealers, abusers and couriers fight to stay alive and sane, inspired by a real life gravedigger that Borkowski befriended in a graveyard in Kensington.

Mark Borkowski, now living in New York City, was born and raised in Kensington. "When I was twenty years old," he recalls, "I took a nervous breakdown, which was a manifestation of traumas I went through as a child, as well as drug addiction. I was hearing voices, but I was writing I started to write down the voices, and the voices came out in the form of dialogue."

Borkowski soon took his plays to Theatre Center of Philadelphia, where, under the guidance of Albert Benzwei, his first plays were produced. Though he makes his career as an actor and playwright in New York, he hasn't left Philadelphia behind. He often comes back home to visit his family in Fishtown. In the spring of 2009, his play The Kids Are Awake was produced at Walking Fish Theatre as part of Fresh Fish 2.0.

Mark Borkowski's plays have won critical acclaim from coast to coast. Most recently, The Daughters of Eve premiered at The Cherry Lane Theatre. A Gravedigger's Tale and The Mutilation of St. Barbara premiered at the American Theatre of Actors. Other NYC productions include: Don't Listen To What It Sounds Like at the American Globe Theatre. The Head Hunter and Within the Skins of Saints at The Common Basis Theatre, The Rude Man at The Kraine Theatre. The Godling, and The Shadow Keeper at Tribeca Lab. Outside New York: Suicide, Inc. at The Walnut St. Theatre. In Los Angeles, Lonely Vigil for a Stranger ran indefinitely at The Burbage Theatre where the LA Times heralded it, Fireworks and Poetry. He has worked extensively with Actors Studio Playwright/ Director's Unit where he workshops his plays.

Publications include: "A Gravedigger's Tale" (Smith & Krauss) Best One Acts of 2009 and "Don't Listen To What It Sounds Like" (Smith & Krauss) "Best One Acts of 2007." Mark was born in Philadelphia where, at 20, his first play, Saturday Mourn was produced upon winning The Philadelphia Theatre Company's One Act Play competition. The next year, his adaptation of Kafka's A Hunger Artist was produced by the legendary Squat Theatre Company in New York. He is the winner of the Playwrights Fellowship Award from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts. Also a screenwriter, his award winning movie, "The Perfect Witness" (First Look Studios) was recently released on DVD worldwide and is on Showtime. Mark is a member of The Lark, The Dramatists Guild and The Actors Studio Playwright/Director's Unit.

The Walking Fish Theatre is the performance/workshop space for the community of Fishtown/Kensington.

This production will take place at Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, 19125. Tickets are $18, or $12 for students and seniors. For more information call 215-427-9255 or visit our website at www.walkingfishtheatre.com. Pay-what-you-can preview performances will take place on Thursday, May 5, and Friday, May 6.

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