WORLD PREMIERE TO BENEFIT NATIONAL ORGANIZATION

BEFORE A FALL

Los Angeles, CA. April 23, 2013 – Opening night of BEFORE A FALL, a gripping play about child sexual abuse and a 2012 finalist for The Goldberg Prize in playwriting, will serve as a benefit for RAINN, the rape, abuse, and incest national network. On June 9, doors open at The Hudson Backstage Theatre for a 7 PM performance of the 110 minute play, immediately followed by drinks, desserts, and a raffle of items from RAINN, as well as local businesses. 100% of the evening’s net proceeds will go to RAINN.

Lily Mercer, an award winning writer and recent MFA graduate of NYU/Tisch, didn’t set out to raise awareness; she set out to write a play. It was late 2010, and she had just started graduate school. “I was surfing the internet for ideas, when I found a story about the pastor of a small Southern church accused of raping his daughters and granddaughters. I grew up in a small Southern town, and I went to a small Southern church, so this story grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go.” Around the same time, details of the Jaycee Dugard case were released, the story of a girl kidnapped by a religious zealot, then forced to bear his children. Soon the decade old Elizabeth Smart story resurfaced, the case of a cult leader keeping a child as his sexual slave.

Then Mercer read the alarming statistics: One out of 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape, and 15% of victims are under 12 years of age – statistics reflected in her play. She felt compelled to tell this story and within days had started BEFORE A FALL. Two years later the play was a finalist for the 2012 GOLDBERG PRIZE, and on June 9 it will make its world premiere in the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

Framed as a courtroom drama, BEFORE A FALL is an ensemble play about the patriarch of a Southern Church suspected of molesting his granddaughter, the high-school teacher who tries to intercede, and the community that turns a blind eye. Moving back and forth in time and place, from courtroom to classroom to little country church, the secrets and sickness that have kept a family locked together are slowly revealed in this Southern Gothic tale of faith, family, and fear.

Mercer didn’t set out to raise awareness, but that is exactly what she’s doing.

WHO: Written and directed by Lily Mercer, cast includes Constance Ball, Allie Costa, Marti Hale, Jen Hines, Worth Howe, Melissa Jobe, Jamie McRae, Jeffrey S. Miles, Laura Napoli, Steven P. Oliver, David Portorreal, and George Tovar.

WHERE: Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, Ca 90038

WHEN: June 9, Opening Night, Performance at 7 PM, followed by Drinks, Desserts, and Raffle.

TICKETS: Opening Night BENEFIT, all seats $30. Go to HOLLYWOODFRINGE. ORG, plays411.com/fall, or call (323) 455-4585.