Mary Poppins is a Butterfly

The Hollywood Fringe Festival’s list of shows is quite long, providing ample opportunity to see theatre that’s at least interesting, if not mind-popping. One hopes, anyway.

Most of the shows have more than one performance. Not the case with Mary Poppins is a Butterfly: One show and one show only. Writer and performer Suzan Averitt says, “It’s been extremely difficult to characterize this piece for the public blurbs. It began as a fifteen minute spoken word essay in a Paula Killen workshop some years back. It did not fit in at all with the other comedic pieces, all of them very accessible and well done–still, it always spoke to me and I wanted to put something in the first Hollywood Fringe Festival.

“I was going to direct a one act, but I thought the rehearsal space and insurance were beyond me, financially. “It is always a challenge to put up your own show, without the mixed blessing of a theatre group to help you do it–Also, I really wanted to act in something, so I decided to develop Mary Poppins is a Butterfly into a longer piece (it runs about an hour), with some video (some original, some taken from the web) and slides (also some of my own, and some found online). I participated in Slideshow at The Fake a couple of years ago, and I liked presenting my work so much better with odd visuals to help break up the story and sometimes jog it into another, perhaps unexplored corner…

“MPisaB can be called a comedy about a serious subject matter. Some of the events it is based on are taken from my own life. The piece examines a young girl’s first brush with spirituality and sexuality, and how she connects the events in a way that makes sense for her.

“Even though we are only on the one night, we have a fully realized set, which currently is specific to Art|Works Theatre. I hope the concept will serve our show in future performances.”

More info here.

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