Solo Arts Heal – The Good Adoptee

Solo Arts Heal

Hosted by Gail Schickele

Excerpts, talkbacks and Q&A with special guests
providing health and healing education and advocacy.

Wednesday, July 15 | 7:30 PDT

The Good Adoptee

Written & Directed by Suzanne Bachner
Performed by Hayley Palmer
Dramaturged by Bob Brader

“What a powerful piece of work — the script is tight and packed with emotion, the performance is brilliant and spot on. Perfection!”
Betsie Norris – Executive Director of Adoption Network Cleveland

“A spellbinding emotional detective story!” – Theater Scene

“The Good Adoptee is everything you want a solo show to be: well crafted, lovingly performed and thoroughly entertaining!” – Hi Drama

“Brava! Incredible Writing and Performance! A powerful show that the entire world needs to see!” – Suz Bednarz of writingmywrongs.com

www.TheGoodAdoptee.com

The Good Adoptee Trailer

Show Description

Can you imagine not knowing your own identity?

The Good Adoptee is the riveting and outrageous true story of award-winning playwright Suzanne Bachner’s search for her first/birth parents in the face of New York State’s sealed records. Once she opens Pandora’s Box, can she find a way to integrate her dual identities and still remain “the Good Adoptee”? This multi-award-winning show is performed by acclaimed Off Broadway actor Hayley Palmer.

The Good Adoptee has toured to the London International Fringe Festival and all over the U.S., including a 7-week 9-city Connecticut tour to support the vital legislative efforts of Access Connecticut. Suzanne’s play has won awards for Best Autobiographical Script and Best Actress for original star Anna Bridgforth when it premiered in the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York City. It was also named a Best Play by Indie Theater Now and is included in ITN’s Plays and Playwrights 2017 anthology.

The Good Adoptee was the Keynote at the popular international Indiana Adoptee Network Conference and is known for its dynamic, community-engaging post-show talk backs. The Good Adoptee recently played to a sold-out crowd at Caveat in NYC in celebration of New York’s historic Adoptee Rights victory and as a fundraiser for the continuing work of their partner Adoptees United. The show was last performed at the Stroum Jewish Community Center in Seattle this past February.

Artists Biographies

Suzanne Bachner • Playwright & Director
is an award-winning playwright and director and an adoptee rights advocate. Her hit play, CIRCLE,ran for five months Off Broadway, was produced nationally, won Most Daring Show of the London Fringe during its a Sold Out International Tour and was called “ingenious” by The New York Times. Playwriting and directing credits include a six month run of her NYC cult hit, Icons & Outcasts; a five month NYC run and international tour of her choose-your-own-adventure comedy, BITE; her 14-actor San Diego commission and marriage equality epic, Brilliant Mistake and her celebrated kaleidoscopic memoir play, We Call Her Benny, which Broadway World called “the future of theatre”. Solo show directing and development include Bob Brader’s internationally acclaimed, multi-award-winning solo shows including Spitting In The Face Of The Devil and Smoker, Gloria Rosen’s award-winning Listen…Can You Hear Me Now? and Suzanne’s own true story, The Good Adoptee, which won the Best Autobiographical Script award at United Solo and has toured to the London International Fringe Festival and across the U.S. and been part of law and life-changing adoptee rights advocacy. Suzanne studied playwriting with Romulus Linney and Adrienne Kennedy and holds an MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School at the New School University. She is a four-time OOBR Award winner and a member of the United Solo Academy and the Dramatists Guild. www.JMTCTheatre.com

Hayley Palmer • Performer
is an actor and teaching artist living in New York City. Originally from San Diego, she received her B.A. in Drama from the University of California Irvine where she would later earn her M.F.A. in Acting. Hayley was the Swing and Dance Captain in the National Tour of Beauty and the Beast, and has performed regionally with PCPA Theaterfest, New Swan Shakespeare Festival, and Mill Mountain Theatre. Off-Broadway, Hayley played Lady Macbeth in the New York Times Critic’s Pick Drunk Shakespearefor more than 250 performances. She teaches Voice, Speech, and Improvisation for the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NYC and is guest Acting faculty for the University of California, Irvine. She is currently progressing toward designation in the Linklater Voice Technique. www.HayleyPalmer.me @hayleypalvoice

Guest Expert Biography

Astrid Castro, Director/Founder of Adoption Mosaic a Portland, Oregon based organization dedicated to providing space where the adoption community feels valued, heard, understood and accepted as a full member of their family and society. Astrid has traveled the country for nearly 30 years leading and presenting groups, talks, and workshops on adoption and race. Astrid co-authored Adoption in the Movies, developed an innovative evidence-based training DVD: Adoptive Parent Training, and was a contributing author for the book Parents As Adoptees. Her personal experiences as an adoptee, as a woman of color, and of growing up in a white family and community, fuel her professional path to supporting others. www.adoptionmosaic.com

ABOUT SOLO ARTS HEAL

Solo performers present real-life, empowering stories. Transformative experiences for audiences. A theater of resilience that celebrates overcoming mental and physical life challenges and offers hope and inspiration. SOLO ARTS HEAL includes excerpts, talkbacks, and Q&A that provide education and advocacy. Readings or clips of performances will be shared by artists in conversation with Gail Schickele, whose work as a manager and producer of solo artists inspired collaboration of performing arts presenters with artists on a medical track based on their personal experience. The collective creative vision? To help communities through educational outreach and the healing power of the Arts.