A Picnic at the Asylum
By Angela Neff
“Picnics” is humorous, intensely powerful and heart-breakingly profound. Neff’s performance style oozes physicality and wins over audiences everywhere she travels."
Si Robinson, Downtown Phoenix Journal Editor’s Pick, Phoenix Fringe FestivalLATR calls Picnic at the Asylum Pitch perfect. A fringe hit. Neff’s stage presence alone is reason enough to see…comedic & compelling. http://tinyurl.com/HFFHIT
A young woman struggles to come of age as the dark spiral of bi-polar illness takes over her once idolized father’s life, landing him on skid row and the front pages of the local papers.
Free Preview on Saturday, June 19th, 5 PM
Sun, Jun 20 – Fri, Jun 25
Tickets $12, 323-960-7787
www.plays411.com/apicnic
Sun, 8 PM
Tues, Wed 9:30 PM
Fri at 8 PM
http://www.picnicsattheasylum.com
The Hudson Theater
6539 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Valet Parking
Dramedy Written and performed by Angela Neff
Developed with David Ford
Directed by Mark Kenward
About the Playwright/Performer
A Picnic at the Asylum, was developed in San Francisco with playwright and director David Ford, renowned for his work with solo theater artists. “Picnics” had its debut at The Marsh theater in S.F. last year. Angela has performed in various cities in the western United States and is honored to bring her father’s personal story to the City of Angels. This summer, she is also bringing it to the Capital Fringe in DC.
Living on the streets of downtown San Jose and Phoenix in the ’80s, Bob Neff was a manic self-ordained street preacher outlandish enough in his messianic message to draw the attention of local journalists. Now, 25 years after he made his final headline leaping to his death from the top of the Hyatt Regency, his daughter, actress/playwright Angela Neff, performs her 15 character solo play about the vibrant and tragic life leading up to that final act.
Before he was another homeless “character” on skid row, Bob Neff was a loving hard charging father of eight piloting an unreliable 1948 Woody on surfing safaris and leading his kids’ backyard 4-H adventures in a nascent Silicon Valley. His tendency to take things to extremes – from advanced Catholicism to psychedelic holidays – somehow seemed part and parcel of that era’s Northern California grooviness.
But the dark spiral of bi-polar mental illness eventually sent him down a rabbit hole of madness – to a brooding state mental hospital complete with electro-shock therapy and surreal Sunday picnics. Ultimately, the madness tore apart his family, too – leaving his daughter to come of age in its shadow, seeking solace and love in wild memories.
