LUCKY: A BURLESQUE TRAGEDY

Help! Lucky’s out of luck. Drunk, pregnant & with her American Dream in the gutter, this burlesque chick hits rock bottom! But don’t despair – Filipina Mamas to the rescue! “Cher”, “Marilyn Monroe” & “Tura Satana” intervene in Lucky’s misfortunes through jazz, poetry, comedy & dance. Opening act by Trapeze Freaky Flip.

Written & Performed By The Nerve of Minerva (Vier)

Directed by Mighty Fabulous Michael (Kearns)

Musical Direction by Big Daddy Zachary

Choreographed by Slinky Amorous Amy (Danielson)

@ The Paul G. Gleason Theatre

6520 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90038

Friday, June 17, 2011 @ 8pm

Saturday, June 18, 2011 @ 8pm

Sunday, June 19, 2011 @ 7pm

Preview @ Fringe Central / ArtWorks Theatre

6567 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90038

Sunday, June 12, 2011 @ 5pm

Info & Ticketing at (323-455-4585) or www.hollywoodfringe.com/projects/460

$15 at the door; $12 w/ discount code TURA if purchased online (see above)

$10 for attendees of The National Asian American Theater Conference & Festival

To show your support for this show, go to:

http://www.kickstarter.com/e/qEQ60/projects/luckyburlesque/lucky-a-burlesque-tragedy-a-show-for-the-hollywood

http://www.twitter.com/LUCKYBURLESQUE

www.facebook.com/pages/Lucky-A-Burlesque-Tragedy

To know more about this show, go to:

http://bitter-lemons.com/2011/05/lucky-a-burlesque-tragedy-2/

http://musicalsinla.blogspot.com/

Lucky: A Burlesque Tragedy is not quite the solo show as Lucky and her mothers (played by The Nerve of Minerva) is accompanies onstage on the grand piano by Big Daddy Zachary. The legendary writer/director/performer Michael Kearns directs and the amazing pole dancer and actress Amy Danielson choreographs.

MINERVA BENEDICTO VIER’S ARTISTIC STATEMENT

In my solo performance work, I engage in social, political and cultural issues that are personally significant to me yet have a universal resonance as well as performance styles that challenge the conventional notions of “theater” but are totally entertaining. I explore subject matters as diverse as motherhood, immigration, art, identity, multiculturalism, The American Dream, Hollywood and many others. I especially love exploring the notion of Survival and The Strength of the Human Spirit. I also love to tell my stories through various combinations of dance, comedy, theatrical poetry, video projections, reinvented music and spoken word since doing so frees my imagination and allows happy accidents and theatrical magic to occur. Recently, I’ve been very interested in the use of Burlesque elements such as sensational acts and deconstructed musical numbers as evidenced in my latest solo work, Lucky: A Burlesque Tragedy.

ARTISTS’ BIOS

Minerva Vier (Writer/Solo Performer) is an L.A.-based Filipina-American actress, playwright, dancer and poet. As an actress, Minerva has performed in various L.A. and New York stage productions for theater companies such as Center Theater Group, East-West Players, The Actor’s Studio, Playwrights’ Arena, Will & Co., Antaeus Classical Theater, Teada, Casa 0101, and Collage Dance Theater among others. She garnered an L.A Weekly Theatre nomination for Best Actress In A Play for her performance in the DIJO production of Edwin Sanchez’ Barefoot Boy With Shoes On. As a writer, she has penned Stateside Girls (a play about the Americanization of Filipina immigrants), Maude Gonne (a play based on the legendary epic romance of Irish poet, W.B. Yeats and his muse, Maude Gonne), and her most recent solo performance work, Lucky: A Burlesque Tragedy (about the spiritual awakening of a pregnant drunken stripper). She also has a collection of poetry, Flaming Icons. As a dancer, she has performed with the dance companies Dante’s Inferno, CL12 Movement Ensemble, Pacific Dance Co. in New York and Silayan Dance Company (a Philippine modern dance company) in Los Angeles.

Michael Kearns (Director) has devoted much of his theatrical career over the past four decades to the art of solo performance. As a writer-performer, his work has been lauded nationally and abroad. He followed his first solo piece, The Truth Is Bad Enough, with intimacies, a ground-breaking one-man show in which he played six characters with AIDS. As he continued writing his own work (Rock, Attachments, Tell-Tale Kisses), he also began working as a dramaturge (Jenny Sullivan’s J for J and most recently, Alex Davis’s Transitions). As dramaturge-director, he has helmed Precious Chong’s series of Porcelain Penelope Shows, Lan Tran’s Elevator Sex (both Off Broadway) and the 2011 premiere of Cathy Lind Hayes’ Non-Identifying Information. Kearns has also written two books that are considered requisite for anyone intent on going solo: Getting Your Solo Act Together and The Solo Performer’s Journey: From the Page to the Stage.