Valerie David Brings New Solo Play BAGGAGE FROM BAGHDAD To Gothenburg Fringe This September

Award-winning performer and playwright Valerie David of New York City, who won the prestigious 2018 WOW award at the Gothenburg Fringe Festival for her internationally acclaimed inspirational comedy The Pink Hulk: One Woman's Journey to Find the Superhero Within kicking cancer to the curb 3 times, will return to Gothenburg with Baggage From BaghDAD: Becoming my father's daughter. This is Valerie's new solo play about the power of family and perseverance amid a harrowing past. Written and performed by Valerie David from New York City, the Gothenburg Fringe Festival is presenting Baggage From BaghDAD at Göteborgs Dramatiska Teater @ Stigbergsliden 5B, 414 63 Göteborg. A talkback with award-winning Iraqi-Jewish-American filmmaker Carole Basri and award-winning filmmaker Adriana Davis will follow the 8 September performance.

Mirroring the struggle of today's Ukrainian refugees and reflecting rising global racial, religious and sexual intolerance, Baggage From BaghDAD is one Middle Eastern Jewish family's true inspirational journey as they are forced to flee religious persecution during the 1941 Iraqi "Farhud" pogrom. It is the story of playwright and performer Valerie David's father, and his family's struggle to transcend their harrowing past as they build a new home in America. As father and daughter learn to love and to accept their differences, the importance of family takes center stage as she begins to understand how his tale of survival and perseverance shaped her convictions and her future. Tickets are 145 Kr To buy tickets: https://www.gbgfringe.com/events/baggage-from-baghdad/

Baggage From BaghDAD was first presented in April 2018 at the MENASA Artists Coalition cabaret night, with subsequent staged readings at the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival (August 2018) and Live & In Color in Connecticut (September 2018), where Valerie was selected as writer-in-residence. In 2021, Baggage From BaghDAD was presented as a filmed staged reading in EAT's New Works Series. It was a semi-finalist for the 2021 Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award, and most recently was selected for The New York Step 1 Theatre Project 2022. As of 2022, this will be Valerie's 6th appearance with her solo shows in the Nordic Fringe Network.

Valerie David (playwright/performer) is thrilled to present her new solo show Baggage From BaghDAD about her father and his family fleeing Iraq in 1941 from religious persecution at the Gothenburg Fringe. Her goal for Baggage From BaghDAD is to perform it both domestically and internationally as an educational piece to create awareness of the Farhud, an essential, important part of history that has largely been forgotten-a 1941 Middle Eastern pogrom against the Jews of Baghdad, which forever changed their lives. Valerie will be taking this solo show next to the Stockholm Fringe Festival, also this month. Venue: The Pygméteatern, Vegagatan 17, 113 29 Stockholm. Show times: Thursday, 15 September @ 9:00 pm (21:00) and Saturday, 17 September @ 6:00 pm (18:00). Ticket price 150 kr. To purchase tickets, https://stoff.ssboxoffice.com/events/baggage-from-baghdad/

Valerie wrote and currently performs the award-winning, internationally acclaimed solo show, The Pink Hulk: One Woman's Journey to Find the Superhero Within. She wrote the autobiographical comedic drama The Pink Hulk as a cancer survivor to express the empowerment she felt being able to find humor and superhero inner strength going through three bouts of cancer to become a 3-time cancer survivor-first Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Stage II Breast Cancer, and then Stage IV Metastatic Breast cancer, which she has conquered. Valerie is a true superhero-she currently has no evidence of disease-no trace of her cancer as of April 2019. The Pink Hulk has been accepted into over 47 different play festivals worldwide since its 2016 debut, performed in over 25 different cities, including touring in Europe, and is a testament TO NEVER GIVE UP! It has won several awards including the Audience Choice Award in the Shenandoah Fringe and WOW Award in Sweden's Gothenburg Fringe, and Valerie has been touring the show since 2016, including performances virtually throughout the pandemic. Valerie won the Act Solo Show Award in the Reykjavik Fringe Festival for her in-person performances in Iceland in July 2021. Valerie and The Pink Hulk have been featured on TV, radio, in publications and on podcasts, including NBC 4 New York, CBS, FOX, amNY, Heal magazine, The IndyStar, Breast Friends Cancer Support Radio Network, Mia's World, First Online With Fran, The Crisis Help Show, the Jim Masters Show! Live, Tamara L. Hunter's Service Hero Show and Reykjavik Fringe Festival podcast. A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts-Manhattan Campus and James Madison University, her credits include the Off-Broadway production of A Stoop on Orchard Street, Cookie in Rumors and Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life. Films: How I Became that Jewish Guy and Bridges and Tunnels. Valerie has also co-written several two-person plays and cabarets. Valerie raises money through The Pink Hulk performances for domestic and international cancer organizations. For more info on Valerie, visit https://pinkhulkplay.com/

Maris Heller (director) is the founder of Maris Heller Studios, Maris has performed at Soho Repertory Theater, Primary Stages, The Gene Frankel Theater under the direction of renowned director Gene Frankel and has directed at the American Place Theater with founder/director Wynn Handman. Maris is a founding member of The First Amendment Comedy and Improvisation Co., and has directed numerous original works including solo performances, cabaret and, most notably, a special for PBS, "The Consuming Passions of Lydia Pinkham and Rev. Sylvester Graham". Maris has been an adjunct professor for speech and drama at City College of New York. She received her Master's Degree from San Francisco State University School of Drama. She also directs The Pink Hulk.

Carole Basri (special talkback guest) is a lawyer and filmmaker. She's a visiting professor at Peking University School of Transnational Law and a visiting professor at Pericles Law School. In 2003, Ms. Basri was a member of the US State Department's "Future of Iraq" Project and a member of the Coalition Provisional Authority, with the Iraqi Reconstruction Development Council for Ambassador Bremer in Baghdad. Ms. Basri has Executive Produced a trilogy of films about Iraq's Jewish community and history: THE LIFE OF FRANK INY (1999), SEARCHING FOR BAGHDAD (2002), and THE LAST JEWS OF BAGHDAD (2005). The trilogy screened in over 80 premiere film festivals in the US, Canada, Israel and Europe, and was featured on PBS and JLTV. Ms. Basri received a B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law. Carole Basri and Adriana Davis are also the co-directors and also produced SAVING THE IRAQI JEWISH ARCHIVES (2020), which is a journey to rescue the identity of Iraqi Jews. Through the voices of the community itself, spread throughout the world, we bear witness to their struggles surviving ethnic cleansing and preserving the heritage for future generations.

Adriana Davis (special talkback guest) is a director, producer, writer, editor and voice actor in film, television and radio since 1991 and, in 1995, founded her production company D-Squared Media. Ms. Davis has managed productions of award-winning documentary television for A&E, History Channel, CNN, CourtTV, BET, ESPN and, in 2001, produced a weekly radio show COURAGEOUS RADIO for WNEW-FM and is a sought-after voice actor and coach. She has co-directed, produced, co-wrote and edited a film series about Iraq's Jewish culture and history: THE LIFE OF FRANK INY (1999) and SEARCHING FOR BAGHDAD (2002) aired on PBS and at worldwide festivals. THE LAST JEWS OF BAGHDAD (2005) has screened to sold-out audiences worldwide and on Jewish Life TV. SAVING THE IRAQI JEWISH ARCHIVES (2020), was featured at the NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival, Miami Jewish Film Festival and selected Best Human Rights Documentary at the Montreal Independent Film Festival. Ms. Davis has also produced and edited narrative films including a feature-length romantic comedy PLAY IT BY EAR (2006) starring Oscar Winner Rita Moreno.

About the Gothenburg Fringe Festival:

Taking place for the seventh consecutive year, Gothenburg Fringe is all about cutting-edge performances at some of the most curious and exciting spots in town for an exciting blend of dance, theatre, comedy and everything in between. 2022 is the festival's most exciting collection of artists to date with over 150 performances taking place at 19 locations across the city, featuring exciting local performers as well as award-winning international talent.

Performance Details:

The 7th Annual Gothenburg Fringe Festival Presents Baggage From BaghDAD: Becoming my Father's Daughter

One Middle Eastern Jewish Family's True Epic Journey to America

Written and Performed by Renowned Solo Artist Valerie David; Directed by Maris Heller

Performance dates:
-Thursday, 8 Sept @ 8:30 pm (20:30)
30-min talkback to follow performance with
award-winning filmmakers Carole Basri and Adriana Davis
-Saturday, 10 September @ 7:00 pm (19:00)
-Sunday, 11 September @ 3:55 pm (15:55)

Venue:Göteborgs Dramatiska Teater @ Stigbergsliden 5B, 414 63 Göteborg
Runtime: Approx. 60 minutes
Tickets are 145 Kr
To buy tickets: https://www.gbgfringe.com/events/baggage-from-baghdad/

*Comp tickets available to press/industry.
**Valerie is also available for in-person interviews beginning on Monday, 5 September through Tuesday, 13 September, as well as remotely before her arrival.

 

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