FAT KIDS ON FIRE

Back at home, 15 year old Bess is another angst-ridden teenager trying to fit in. But this summer, things are going to be different. Shirts come off, hearts are faint, first times are had, hands sweat, the sun burns. Campers and counselors alike are automatically drawn to the new skinny fat girl who's a definite shoe-in for the illustrious title of Camp Princess. Popularity, power, and self-worth get mixed up as Bess struggles to find her identity. Will she return to school a new woman or will her new self fade like the summer? Colored with sweat stains, stashed sweets, and the awkward innocence of first loves, award-winning playwright Bekah Brunstetter's "Fat Kids on Fire" is a candid telling of fitting in, living big, and feeling small.

Open: 01/26/08
Close: 02/06/08

Schedule:
Saturdays at 3PM; Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8PM; Dark on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays

Theater: Wings Theatre
Address: 154 Christopher Street
New York, NY 10014
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Closest subway: 1, 9 to Christopher Street, west on Christopher Street several blocks to theatre

Cost:$15.00, $12.00 Students
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Company: Phare Play Productions Official Web Site: www.phareplay.com

	Rachel Lin Rachel Lin (Bess) is a Stuyvesant High School alum who is currently pursuing her BFA in drama at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Favorite roles include Lucy Van Pelt ("You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown") and Diana Morales ("A Chorus Line"). It is her first year performing with the Village Playback Improv Company.
	Faye Rex Faye Rex is an Earnest acting student at NYU's Tisch, finishing up her senior year at the Atlantic Theatre School. Last seen as Claire in Fat Kids on Fire, this is Faye's second time with Phare Play Productions, and is grateful to be working alongside Christine and this masterly cast. Faye's recent NY/NJ credits include Anna in Closer, Kate in The Wild Party and Beatrice in The Servant of Two Masters. She would like to Earnestly thank her superhuman family and friends for an incomparable amount of warmth and support. Alex Puhlease. Ayissa, Mander, Jaf, Choate, NYU 1C, 1A, 2B. I love you Ba. This performance is dedicated to Princess for never missing a show and for Jamaican pancakes. I'm so lucky to have you all. In Earnest.
	Matt Farabee Matt Farabee (Scott) is a native of North Carolina and a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Some of Matt's favorite roles have included "The House of Yes" (Anthony), "Equus" (Alan Strang), "The Diviners" (Buddy Layman), and "Spring's Awakening" (Moritz). Matt most recently stage managed "Does the Body Good" and sound designed "Mary Brigit is Writing a Memoir" in the NYC Fringe Festival and was also a faculty member with the National High School Institute/Cherubs program this past summer.
	Erin Mccarson Erin McCarson (Cindy) hails from Yadkinville, North Carolina. Growing up, there were (and are) copious amounts of cows in her backyard. She received her BA in Dramatic Art and Communication Studies (focus in Performance Arts) from UNC Chapel Hill in 2004. Recent roles include Sweetie in "Marriage Play" (Fuckplays, WMC/The Thursday Problem) and Eliza in "Happy Birthday/I'm Dead" (Samuel French Finalist, WMC Binge Festival). Other credits include: Theatre: "Fat Pig", "Elephant Man", "La Casa de Bernarda Alba", "Gypsy", "Closer", "Oedipus Rox!", "Happen", "Exit Plato". TV: "This American Life" (Showtime), "Improv Everywhere" Pilot (NBC), "40 Greatest Pranks" (Vh1), "Stop the Silence" National Campaign. Film: "The Queen of Astoria". Erin is a member of Working Man's Clothes, Everybody Row Films, the girl band CUDZOO, and Improv Everywhere.
	Maggie Hamilton Amanda "Maggie" Hamilton (Nurse Joy) began performing and working in theater at the age of 12 and by the age of 22 had some 52 shows to her credit in all capacities of the theater from performing and directing to stage management and design. She studied theater in the South East and was most recently a student at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. October of 2007 she was seen on stage in Bekah Brunstetter's "I Used to Write on Walls" at Gene Frankel Underground and previously in "Men Eat Mars Bars While Touching Their Penis" at Under St. Marks. In 2006 Amanda won a New York Innovative Theatre Award as the producer of "To Nineveh: A Modern Miracle". Ms. Hamilton is a founding member and Managing Director of Working Man's Clothes Productions, a prolific and award winning Off-Off Broadway Company.
	Ryan Serhant Ryan Serhant (Mark) - Recent NY theatre: "Purple Hearts" (Lewis, Invisible City Theatre Company), "Much Ado About Nothing" (Benedick), "A Streetcar Named Desire" (Stanley), "Miss Julie" (Jean). Regional: "Brilliant Traces" (Bennington Actor's Express). Ryan received his BA in Honors Theatre from Hamilton College in 2006. He has also studied at the Perry Mansfield School and at the Globe in London. Ryan currently plays the role of the mischievous, yet dashing biochemist, Evan Walsh IV on "As the World Turns".
	Mark Garkusha Mark Garkusha (Bridger) is very happy to be working on Fat Kids on Fire, and would like to thank all the wonderful people involved. Mark is a graduate of the Hartt school actor training program. Although Mark has performed all over the place in the U.S Ireland and England, you have probably never seen him in anything.
	Kayla Kuzbel Kayla was recently seen in the premiere of Fat Kids on Fire (MS) at the Wings Theatre. Past theatre credits also include The Heidi Chronicles (Jill/April/Sandra), Company (Joanne), Nine (Saraghina), Footloose (Urleen), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Narrator), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Helena), Once Upon a Mattress (Winnifred), No, No, Nanette (Pauline), Mame (Gooch). Film: "Being Michael Madsen." WCSU Summa Cum Laude Graduate. Kayla sang in 2001 at The White House with the Connecticut Youth Jazz Workshop. Bunches of love and thanks to my family and friends.
	Noelle Fair Noelle Fair (Currently playing "Catherine" in PROOF with Hudson Shakespeare Company) ) OFF-B’WAY: Big Apple Bites: The Interview Project (Hudson Guild Theater), "Then or Now" as part of the Strawberry One Act Festival 2009 - semi-finalist OFF-OFF B’WAY: Othello (Desdemona), Richard III (Queen Margaret/Ratcliff) Foolish Mortals Prod. Romeo and Juliet (Nurse), Merchant of Venice (Salarino), The Complete Works. . .. (abridged) with Hudson Shakespeare Company, GIRL POWER! (Estrogrenius Festival - Manhattan Theater Source) REGIONAL: Julius Caesar (Plebian/Solider u/s Calpurnia) Baltimore Shakespeare Festival. Taming of the Shrew/Tamer Tamed (u/s Grumio/Sophocles), Couldabeen Hamlet (Horatio/Crazy Ophelia), Fooling of a Sly (Sly) Shakespeare in the Valley, NH. Noelle has also performed in two World Premiere’s: Fat Kids on Fire (Bianca) which was nominated for the 2008 NYC Innovative Theater Awards and is published by Playscripts, Inc. The other, All The World’s a Grave (Guildenstern) by best selling author John Reed, published by Penguin Press (check it out at any Barnes and Noble!). This Baltimore/DC native graduated from Towson University in 2006. .
	Bekah Brunstetter Bekah Brunstetter (playwright) hails from North Carolina. She received her BA in Theater, with an Honors Thesis in Fiction Writing, from UNC Chapel Hill in 2004. As of May, she proudly holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from The New School for Drama. Her Plays have been read and staged by The Rattlestick Playwright's theater, NYU's HotINK Festival of New Plays, Canada's NEXTFEST, The Alliance Theater, SPF, The Emerging Artists' Theatre, Boston Theater Works, Working Mans Clothes Productions, Manhattan Theatre Source, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, Old Vic New Voices, the Soho Think tank, and in venues such as the Ohio Theater, the Atlantic, and Galapagos Art Space. Her works have been honored by the Cherry Lane Mentorship Program (nominee), The Jane Chambers Student Playwriting Award, The Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival, KCACTF, Actor's Theater of Louisville, and the Alliance Theater. Her play "To Nineveh" received Six New York Innovative Theatre Awards in September 2006, including Best New Full Length Play. Her play "Sick" won the 2006 Samuel French Short Play Competition. Most recently, she was honored as a finalist for the Alliance Theater's Kendeda graduate playwriting award for her play "Green". She was a semi-finalist for the 2007 O'Neill Playwright's Conference, and the 2007 Princess Grace Award. A founding member of Working Man's Clothes Productions, she currently serves as its Director of New Play Development. Most recently, the Babel Theatre Project staged Brunstetter's new play, "You May Go Now", at the 45th St. Theater, a production which nytheatre.com called ' remarkable.' Her plays are published by Samuel French, United Stages and Smith & Krauss. She is a contributing member of Working Man's Clothes Productions, Old Vic New Voices, and a member of the Dramatist's Guild and the Playwright's Center. She is also proudly a new addition to the Ars Nova Play Group.
	Karen Dabney Karen M. Dabney (director) - Upcoming productions include "Any Number Can Die" with the Amateur Comedy Club. Most recent credits include "And Toto, Too", "I Have It", "Not So Bad Once You Get Used to It", "A Stall of One's Own", "Drift", "Brother", "The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year" and "Mom, Stoned". Other favorite productions include "American Buffalo", "Zipless", "PIMP", "Eleemosynary", and "Sick", winner of the Samuel French Festival in 2006. AD, "Black Snow". Directing Observer on "Hamlet" directed by Shep Sobel, Pearl Theatre. ASM, EST 29th Marathon, Series A. MFA in Directing, The New School for Drama, NY. BA, St. Olaf College, MN.