[OPLINLIST] Play about Intellectual Freedom

[FILIPAN, RHONDA]

*This is a one-woman show, set in New York about someone who becomes a victim of Library Card Identify Theft!  Deals with issues of Intellectual Freedom.  Here is her message.....

The Intellectual Freedom Roundtable
of the New York Library Association invited me to perform at their state
conference: Connecting, Collaborating and Cooperating in Saratoga
Springs last week. It was a blast and while I was there a student at
SUNY Buffalo suggested that I tour the show to library programs. A light
bulb went off! I would welcome the chance to perform the show for your
community (and would also be grateful to have the novel included in your
library's collection).

Called "smart, macabre satire of the War on Terror" (Washington City
Paper), Cooperative Village is a boldly comic novel, which tells the
tale of an ordinary American woman who becomes bound for "enemy
combatant status"-and possible deportation to the Federal Detention
Center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba-when she becomes a victim of Library Card
Identity Theft (LCIT). Focusing on issues of reader privacy and
intellectual freedom, this work is for everyone who has ever wondered,
not if Big Brother is watching, but how closely. One NYPL librarian
called the book "a clever satire of the PATRIOT Act and an uproarious
look at urban living" and here's the link to my hands-down favorite
librarian review.
http://www.dppl.org/cgi-bin/StaffPicks/readReview.cgi?idNum=2062&path=listByAuthor_M


Cooperative Village, the play, is set in a laundromat in New York City's
Chinatown where fugitive Frances is hiding. The essential political
story at the heart of the book is recounted in a 50-minute one-woman
show performed without intermission but with lots of laughs along the
way. I performed the show in a 4-week run this past May in NYC. Time Out
New York pithily synopsized the play: "Frances Madeson performs her solo
political satire about a woman who mixes her darks with her rights!"
Among the many wonderful comments from audience members, one was
outstanding--she called the show "deliciously subversive!"

I would bring with me a few props to create the illusion of the
laundromat in Chinatown. There are no other technical requirements for
the show other than lights on/lights off and even that can be finessed.
It is best performed in an intimate space as if we were all in the
laundromat together, washing our dirty laundry and talking about life,
love and liberty.

The book was the NOW NYC Book Club pick for June '08 and is currently on
the recommended reading list posted on the website of the Iowa
Organization of Women Attorneys. The play was read in West Harlem by an
African-American theatre group on October 12th, and is being evaluated
for production in theaters in Cleveland, Washington, DC and London! All
to say that this material has a wide appeal and connects with urban
dwellers and rural communities too. More information about the book,
show and me is available at the following links:
www.carolmrp.com
http://booktour.com/author/frances_madeson

http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsM/madeson-frances.html

I am happy to work within your budget and am fine with home hospitality
to avoid motel fees. This work is meant as a thank you to librarians for
being on the front lines of our democracy and holding that line for the
rest of us. To thank, but also to entertain, inspire and embolden!

With appreciation,
Sincerely,
Frances

Frances Madeson
212-982-2973
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