Questions my Mother Can't Answer: The FringeNYC Dates!

A FringeNYC Official Selection!













ABOUT THE SHOW:

Questions My Mother Can’t Answer, a moving and funny one woman show written by and starring Andrea Caban, recipient of the 2008 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, will be part of the 14th annual New York International Fringe Festival – presented at New York Theatre Workshop's 4th Street Theater.

SCHEDULE!

SUN 8/15 @ 10:15pm

SUN 8/22 @ 1:45pm

TUE 8/24 @ 2:00pm

THUR 8/26 @ 6:45pm

FRI 8/27 @ 9:15pm


Andrea’s on a mission: she interviews eight “women-of-a-certain-age” including a sexy Moroccan ballroom dancer, a donations-only prostitute, and her Aunt Shirley, about getting pregnant, staying married and finding a flow. As she embarks on a healing journey after a personal tragic event, Andrea looks for guidance from a variety of female role models, only to find that there are no role models…that we are all flawed and that life isn't about avoiding accidents, or tragedy, but how we deal with it.


Produced by Coyote REP Theatre Company www.coyoterep.org, directed by Rachel Eckerling, co-director of this season’s acclaimed The Diary of a Teenage Girl at 3LD Arts & Technology Center and frequent collaborator of Francis Ford Coppola on both theatre and film projects. The creative team for Questions My Mother Can’t Answer will also include Grammy Award-winning sound designer Marcelo Añez and lighting designer Jason Teague.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT:

Official Show Site:
www.questionsmymothercantanswer.com

FringeNYC (This get's you right to the show's Fringe link)



or visit us at
www.coyoterep.org

Feelin' Fringey?

Hey Friends! Here's a note from Andrea Caban about her upcoming FringeNYC show Questions my Mother Can't Answer! Check it out!

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52 days until FringeNYC kicks off and I’m yet again jumping into the role of the lone wolf in the spotlight facing a pack protected by the dark. That notion used to scare me a lot more than it does in this moment. I think the story I’m telling in this piece and the journey of creating this piece for myself has helped me face a lot of fears about life & art. So laughing at myself and bearing my soul in front of a crowd of strangers, family and friends seems more like fun than anything else.

I’m in California now, reading the play for old friends and getting ready to learn it. Yes, I do have to make time to memorize the words I wrote. You’d think it would be a given, but no.

Through May and June, Rachel Eckerling, my lovely director helped me develop the arch of my story as it threads together the stories of the eight women I interviewed. And as soon as I get back to New York, I start rehearsals with Rachel, and the rest of my amazing team, including my Grammy award winning sound designer and my company manager who just happens to be my loving husband. So I’m a lucky woman, I know that.

But for now, I’m here in California re-connecting with old collaborators, classmates from grad school & dear friends, most of whom are women. In QMMCA, I’m searching for answers about how to be a good wife, when to be mother, and how to heal myself after a tragic event. As I snuggle into my old friendships here in Cali and indulge in some of this most-needed quality time that I’m ashamed I didn’t make a priority before now, I’m realizing in a very visceral way that all my friends are struggling with the same things I’m exploring in this piece. I knew that instinctively before coming out here, but now I really know. And I know the specifics. And I think we early thirty-somethings are taking a look at our lives and what we had expected our lives to be by this point, and it’s not always easy to take in the whole truth. Some of us are achieving everything we set out to and still haven’t found happiness, some of us are still looking for that one person to share life with, and some of us are in life or death situations because what we are is not at all what we expected to be.

I’m more inspired than ever to tell my story and be as honest and simple as I can be in hopes that it will push my girlfriends to face their stories and move beyond them. And their girlfriends and their boyfriends, and their mothers and their fathers. I have high hopes.

So I guess I’m really not very alone after all is this ‘solo’ piece. I can’t wait to share it with you.

FringeNYC 2010: Questions my Mother Can't Answer by Andrea Caban

Coyote REP is proud to announce that Andrea Caban's beautiful new solo endeavor Questions my Mother Can't Answer has been named an official selection for the 2010 New York International Fringe Festival! You might remember that Questions was recently presented as part of our Works-in-Development Series and was a huge hit with our audience.


Coyote REP will mount 'Questions' as part of FringeNYC at New York Theater Workshop's 4th Street Theater (79 East 4th Street).

The Fringe Festival dates this year are August 13th-August 29th 2010.




Please stay tuned to our blog and website for details on dates and times.


About The Show: (From the show's official website: www.questionsmymothercantanswer.com)

Questions My Mother Can’t Answer, a moving and funny one woman show written by and starring Andrea Caban, recipient of the 2008 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, will be part of the 14th annual New York International Fringe Festival starting August 13 through August 29 – presented at New York Theatre Workshop's 4th Street Theater.

Andrea’s on a mission: she interviews eight “women-of-a-certain-age” including a sexy Moroccan ballroom dancer, a donations-only prostitute, and her Aunt Shirley, about getting pregnant, staying married and finding a flow. As she embarks on a healing journey after a personal tragic event, Andrea looks for guidance from a variety of female role models, only to find that there are no role models…that we are all flawed and that life isn't about avoiding accidents, or tragedy, but how we deal with it.

Produced by Coyote REP Theatre Company www.coyoterep.org, directed by Rachel Eckerling, co-director of this season’s acclaimed The Diary of a Teenage Girl at 3LD Arts & Technology Center and frequent collaborator of Francis Ford Coppola on both theatre and film projects. The creative team for Questions My Mother Can’t Answer will also include Grammy Award-winning sound designer Marcelo Añez and lighting designer Jason Teague.

Questions My Mother Can't Answer

QUESTIONS MY MOTHER CAN'T ANSWER by Andrea Cabab

Sunday May 10th 7pm Bruce Mitchell Room
ART/NY
520 8th Avenue, 3rd Floor
(between 36th and 37th Streets)
New York, NY 10018
($5 suggested donation)

I got the idea to write "Questions My Mother Can't Answer" (a working title by the way) after one of the performances of my last solo show, "You Got Questions? I Got Answers!" That piece was a documentary theater collage derived from the interviews I conducted with 8 New Yorkers about when they feel the most isolated and when they feel the most connected. A friend of mine brought her mother to the show. Her mom commented to me that I interviewed people of all different races, genders, & ethnicities, but I had no one in my play that represented her generation, the voice of women in their early 60's. I felt a little guilty I hadn't included anyone of that age. And then I felt a little curious.

Then I started finding friendships, lots of friendships, with women around my mom's age. My husband thought it funny that while my peers were going out for drinks until the wee hours, I was making dinner dates with 60-something year old women I met on the subway! I started to wonder what it was these friendships were giving me that perhaps my relationship with my mother did not. So I started asking for interviews. And unlike with my first piece, every women I asked said yes! There was absolutely no shame in their stories...they were pleased to be able to tell me about the moment they found out they were pregnant, about the fall of their first marriage, and a few things they wouldn't tell their own daughters.
So not only was I gaining the benefit of delving into the lives of these highly fascinating and highly flawed women, they were finding release in the telling of stories, that in some cases, they had never told anyone before. And they had never told anyone before because no one had ever asked.

I tell people when I work in this way, I start from a curiosity and follow my nose until a play presents itself to me. I titled this one before I knew what the heck it was going to be about. So when I interviewed my mom, I was shocked at and grateful for the answers I got. I don't think I'm giving too much away by saying that.

Andrea Caban is an actor, writer, producer, and teacher. She last appeared in Craig Wright's The Pavilion in the role of the narrator and 17+ other roles at Boise Contemporary Theater. Andrea received the 2008 New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for her documentary-based play You Got Questions? I Got Answers! Her play also earned Outstanding Short Script & Outstanding Performance Art Production nominations. Regional and New York credits include productions at The Public Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Long Wharf Theater, New World Stages, HERE Arts Center, GAle GAtes et al, and The Hayworth Theater in LA. BA: University of South Florida. MFA: University of California, Irvine. www.andreacaban.com

The New Play Development Program is our commitment to nurturing the original work of our company's playwrights. This intensive, ten-month program provides a structured series of workshops culminating in our May Works-in-Development Series, a public presentation of readings.