NEWS RELEASE — “ALL ABOARD THE MARRIAGE HEARSE” BY MATT MORILLO — SIX PERFS ONLY IN HOLLYWOOD FRINGE FESTIVAL

KADM Productions has announced a Hollywood Fringe Festival production of All Aboard the Marriage Hearse, a romantic seriocomic play written and directed by Matt Morillo. Featuring Jessica Moreno and Tom Pilutik, there will be six performances at the Lounge Theatre in Hollywood — Saturday 6/4 at 6pm (press preview); Friday 6/10 at 8pm; Saturday 6/11 at 10pm; Friday 6/17 at 6pm; Saturday 6/18 at 8pm; and Sunday 6/19 at 4pm. Running time will be 70 minutes.

Sean and Amy are your typical co-habiting Catholic/Jewish thirty-something couple living in Manhattan. After four years together, Amy wants to get married but Sean doesn’t. Sean will try to talk Amy out of marriage; Amy will try to talk Sean into it. Will they break up? Will they keep traveling on the same path? Or will they climb aboard the ‘Marriage Hearse?’

All Aboard the Marriage Hearse had its world premiere in New York City in 2008. The play also caught the attention of renowned marriage counselor Rabbi Shmuley Boteach who began a public debate with playwright Morillo on the institution of marriage. In 2015, All Aboard the Marriage Hearse ran to great acclaim in Croatia and Mexico and is now receiving productions throughout the USA. In this new production at the Hollywood Fringe, Jessica Moreno returns for the first time to the role she created in the play’s 2008 debut.

Award-winning playwright/director Matt Morillo made his theatrical debut in New York with Angry Young Women in Low Rise Jeans with High Class Issues. The play had an off-Broadway run in 2007, followed by multiple engagements in Hollywood, and Sydney, Australia. Angry Young Women enjoyed several return engagements in 2009, 2010, and 2011. It also ran in the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe Festival (as well as being developed into a web series). All Aboard the Marriage Hearse, similar to Angry Young Women, traveled the world, having successful runs in Ohio, Illinois, Mexico, and Croatia. Morillo’s first serious play, American Soldiers, a family drama about a woman war veteran’s return to her home in Long Island, has been produced in New York, Hollywood, and Florida. All three plays have been published by Samuel French. Morillo’s next play, a return to comedy with The Inventor, The Escort, The Photographer, Her Boyfriend and His Girlfriend, had an acclaimed Los Angeles engagement followed by a run at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where it won the Fringe Review Tea Pot Award for Best Theatre Performance. Morillo’s latest play, the serio-comic Allen Wilder 2.0, is about an alcoholic, soft-core porn director trying to put his life back together, was recently performed in New York to critical acclaim.

Tickets for All Aboard the Marriage Hearse are $15 and may be obtained online at http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/3605?tab=tickets or www.kadm.com, or by phone at (323) 455-4585. The Lounge Theatre is located at 6201 Santa Monica Boulevard (just east of Vine, at El Centro), in Hollywood, 90038. Street parking is available.

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05-05-16

NEWS RELEASE — WEB SERIES “ACTING DEAD” SUBMITS FOR PRIMETIME EMMY AWARD CONSIDERATION IN NEW SHORT FORM CATEGORY

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
WEB SERIES ACTING DEAD
SUBMITTED FOR PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS
NEW SHORT FORM COMEDY CATEGORY

Acting Dead, a comic web series created by Brian Beacock and produced by Beacock, Susan Bernhardt, and Paul Nygro, has been submitted for Primetime Emmy Award nomination consideration in the Television Academy’s new expanded Short Form Comedy categories. The series is submitted for: Outstanding Short Form Comedy — Acting Dead; Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Comedy — Brian Beacock; Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy — Jillian Clare and Patrika Darbo.

Acting Dead tells the story of Tate Blodgett (Beacock), a down on his luck, unemployed actor, who after being turned down for role after role, decides to take matters into his own hands and become a Zombie so he can finally get work in the many Zombie movies and television shows being made. Along the way, as things aren’t working out so well, he meets Alex Carboneux (Clare), a former child star whose temper has stalled her career. Alex decides to take matters in her own hands, which doesn’t turn out so well either.

Brian Beacock and Susan Bernhardt are known for their earlier web series, the critically acclaimed McCracken Live! (Beacock) and Miss Behave (Bernhardt). Acting Dead, a ‘Zom-Com’ which has been gleefully described as Shaun of the Dead meets Arrested Development, boasts a wide array of talent. Along with Beacock and Clare, additional series regulars are Chris Galya, Patrika Darbo, Paul Nygro, and John Yelvington. Season One guest stars are Debbie Gibson, Eric Martsolf, Carolyn Hennesy, Sean Kanan, John J. York, Cocoa Brown, Christine Lakin, Lori Alan, Erin Matthews, Gary and Larry Lane, Peter Allen Vogt, Sheila Sheila, Mitch Silpa, and Jacee Jule.

Season One of Acting Dead is now available for viewing at www.actingdead.com. Voting begins on June 13 and ends on June 27.

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05-03-16

Facebook.com/ActingDead

Twitter: @actingdead

NEWS RELEASE — THE BLANK THEATRE’S 24th ANNUAL YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL CHOOSES WINNERS

THE BLANK THEATRE’S 24TH ANNUAL
YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL
CHOOSES WINNERS
12 PLAYS BY THE NATION’S BRIGHTEST YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS
WILL BE PERFORMED AT
THE STELLA ADLER THEATRE IN HOLLYWOOD
JUNE 2 — 26, 2016

Now celebrating its 24th Anniversary, The Blank Theatre’s Nationwide Young Playwrights Festival has chosen 12 plays by playwrights aged 16—19 from seven different states. These plays will be presented by professional actors and directors in this year’s Festival at The Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood, June 2—26.

Said Noah Wyle (star of television’s ER and Falling Skies), Artistic Producer at The Blank, “Each Spring for the past 23 years, The Blank has found the freshest, most original voices in the American theatre, invited them to Los Angeles, and promoted their work during a month-long festival in June. This thought provoking work, performed and directed by seasoned professionals, has entertained thousands of audience members over the years. While these authors are often as different as the states from which they come and the subjects with which they deal, they share something truly improbable. They’re teenagers.” Wyle continued, “These are not only the voices of today’s theatre — they are the voices of tomorrow’s as well.”

Producing Director Heather Provost added, “I am especially pleased that 11 out of 12 Festival winners this year are female. Gender parity in our industry is so important and I’m happy that we are contributing to the balance.”

This year’s winning plays are: VICTIMOLOGY by Rachel Linton, Washington, DC, Age 18; AGE-SEX-LOCATION by Honor Levy, Los Angeles, CA, Age 18; MIND GAMES by Sarah Holland, Austin, TX, Age 18; SUPERMARKET OF LOST by Casandra Hsiao, Walnut, CA, Age 16; ABOUT ART by Alexa Derman, Westfield, NJ, Age 19; BITING ELEPHANTS by Sarah Steuer, Memphis, TN, Age 19; LAZY BOY by Charlotte Leavengood, St. Petersburg, FL, Age 16; GWENDOLYN by Dylan Schifrin, Sherman Oaks, CA, Age 17; LOVELY MADNESS by Ariella Carmell, Chicago, Age 16; DOESN’T THAT SOUND LOVELY? by Gabrielle Poisson, Boonton Township, NJ, Age 17; OVEREXPOSURE by Lani Kording, Costa Mesa, CA, Age 18; and STICK AND POKE by Johanna Stone, Altadena, CA, Age 17.

A panel of theatre professionals chose from 200 plays submitted by young writers across the nation. Winning playwrights are next assigned a mentor, and then a professional director who will help them hone their scripts for four public performances with professional actors. This year’s mentors include David Rambo (Revolution, Empire, CSI), Dave Holstein (Weeds, Raising Hope), Ellen Byron (Just Shoot Me, Wings), Gary Tieche (Medium), Kit Steinkellner (four-time YPF winner), Beth Bigler (The Real Housewives of Atlanta and three-time YPF winner), Bert V. Royal (Dog Sees God), Austin Winsberg (five-time YPF winner), Adam Lapidus, Robert L. Freedman, Scott Damian, and Adam Belanoff. This year’s directors are (in alphabetical order) Barbara Bain, June Carryl, Guillermo Cienfuegos, Warren Davis, Bjørn Johnson, Doug Oliphant, Loni Peristere, Christopher J. Raymond, Michael A. Shepperd, Laura Stribling, Richard Tatum, and April Webster.

Over the past 23 years, The Blank has produced 272 plays by young playwrights. Eleven of those plays or playwrights have gone on to be presented on The Blank’s mainstage. Additionally, many of the plays have been nominated for LA theatre awards, including an Ovation Award for Best Writing—World Premiere, and an LA Weekly Award for Best One-Act Playwriting. Other alumni playwrights are populating the nation’s theatres and sound stages with their work. Many YPF winners have gone on to successful writing careers on Broadway, are filling regional stages, and have created network TV shows. Alumnus winner Stephen Karam has been a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and is currently Tony Award-nominated for Best Play for The Humans, a hit on Broadway this season.

This year’s YPF is made possible in part by The Bloomberg Philanthropies, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Los Angeles City Department of Cultural Affairs, The Rosenthal Family Foundation, The Plum Foundation, and the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

The Blank Theatre’s 24th Annual Young Playwrights Festival runs June 2—26 at the Stella Adler Theatre, 6773 Hollywood Boulevard, in Hollywood. The performance schedule is Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm. Each week’s program includes three plays, and admission is $20 for adults and $14 for students. Festival passes, which are good for one ticket each week of the festival, are $68 for adults and $48 for students. Tickets may be purchased in advance online at www.TheBlank.com, or via phone by calling (323) 661-9827.

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05-03-16