LAFPI

BOOTLEG THEATER is thrilled to announce the Los Angeles premiere (second half of a rolling world premiere) of I CARRY YOUR HEART, written by Georgette Kelly and directed by Jessica Hanna (as part of the Hope & Optimism Initiative’s “Hope On Stage” playwriting prize project (www.hopeoptimism.com).

I CARRY YOUR HEART will preview on Thursday, May 18 at 7pm; will open on Friday, May 19 at 7pm and run Thursdays, Fridays, Saturday at 7pm – additional performances Sunday, May 21 at 7pm & Sunday, May 28 at 2pm – through Saturday, June 10.

Phoebe is a young poet, forever living in the shadow of her estranged mother’s literary acclaim. When her mother unexpectedly dies Phoebe is left with two complicated legacies: donating her mother’s organs and reading her mother’s unpublished confessional journal. Meanwhile, Tess and her partner Lydia receive an early morning phone call, informing them that a donor heart is available for Tess – good news, but news that has come far sooner than they were prepared for. As these two families form an unlikely connection, they struggle to understand the politics and poetics of organ donation—and they dare to hope that pieces of us can live on after great tragedy.

GEORGETTE KELLY (Playwright) is a playwright with one foot in New York and the other in Chicago. Her play Ballast was featured on The Kilroys List 2015 and was chosen as a finalist in the 2015 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition. Georgette’s other plays include Faith in a Fallen World, In the Belly of the Whale, how to hero or the subway play, and an adaptation of Jeanette Winterson’s Lighthousekeeping. Her work has been developed by The Kennedy Center, The National New Play Network, The DC Source Festival, The Alliance Theatre, terraNOVA Collective, Taffety Punk, Diversionary Theatre, Capital Stage, TOSOS, Prologue Theatre, New Leaf Theatre, and Chicago’s DCASE. She is a 2016 Lambda Literary Fellow and a member of 2014-2015 TerraNOVA Groundbreakers Playwrights Group, The Dramatists Guild of America, and Writers WorkSpace. Georgette holds a B.A. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Hunter College, where she studied with Tina Howe, Arthur Kopit, and Mark Bly.

JESSICA HANNA (Director) is a Los Angeles based Theater Maker. BFA in Acting from the Theater School at DePaul University in Chicago. She has worked as an actor, director, choreographer and producer all over Los Angeles with many companies and spaces including, Open Fist, Sacred Fools, Evidence Room, John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, Greenway Court, Abundant Sugar, Atwater Village Theatre, Furious Theatre, Mine is Yours Theatre Co., B-Flat Productions, Center Theatre Group, Mutant Collective, Occidental College and Circle X. She has also had the pleasure of working with Anne Bogart and the SITI Co. as an actor at the Getty Villa twice. In June 2006, she co-founded Bootleg Theater and has been the Producing & Managing Director ever since. At Bootleg she has produced and worked with hundreds of artists and companies, overseeing production of all the theatrical and dance performances. Recent directing credits include: Four Chords And A Gun by John Ross Bowie at Bootleg Theater, Inland Empress by Tom Cavanaugh for Mutant Collective, Lisa Dring’s Death Play for the Son of Semele Solo Creation Festival and Circle X Theatre. No Homo by Brandon Baruch, at Hollywood Fringe (Winner Best Director, Ensemble Theater, World Premiere and Golden Playwright), New York Fringe and Atwater Village Theatres, and Bachelorette for Mine is Yours Theatre Co.

I CARRY YOUR HEART will feature (in alphabetical order): Michael Bates, Joanna Bronson, Christine Dunford, Elizabeth Liang, Mateo Mpinduzi- Mott, and Elayn J. Taylor.

The Hope and Optimism Project (www.hopeoptimism.com) is a $5 million, four-year initiative at Notre Dame, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation.  The project created the “Hope on Stage” playwriting prize that in addition to a cash prize to the winner, also funds a rolling premiere of the winning play in Ithaca, NY (which performs April 28-30) and in Los Angeles, CA (May 19 – June 10). Georgette Kelly’s I CARRY YOUR HEART was chosen as the winner from almost 800 blind submissions by a panel of professional theater makers and academics.

For the LA Hope Festival Weekend, in addition to the play running Friday, Saturday and Sunday (May 19-21) at 7pm, a full roster of daytime events is planned with speakers including a keynote address on May 20 by DR. CORNEL WEST. Bands take the stage after the play every night. Visitwww.bootlegtheater.org for a full Festival schedule and more information.