EVENT: With Love and a Major Organ (Fringe)

Veteran artists tackle Fringe with A New Canadian Comedy

WITH LOVE AND A MAJOR ORGAN

May 25, 2012 – Toronto – Martha Ross (The Story, More Fine Girls), Andrew Lamb (My Mother’s Jewish Lesbian Wiccan Wedding) and Melanie McNeill (VideoCaberet) form the core of an all-star team behind Julia Lederer’s latest play, With Love and a Major Organ, sure to be a Patron’s Pick at this year’s Toronto Fringe.

Playwright, Julia Lederer has become a staple of the Toronto Indie Theatre scene both as a writer and performer. Her credits include new and experimental works such as a co-created performance entitled The School PROJECT, a window into the school experience which she and her collaborators performed inside a Bloor Collegiate classroom in 2010. In the 2009 she performed in the Toronto Fringe hit, 36 Little Plays About Hopeless Girls. After a year-long hiatus living in New York and studying acting at HB Studio, Primary Stages, and the Upright Citizens Brigade, she is returning home to present a play influenced by the community that first shaped

her as a writer, Toronto.

“I am honoured and excited to be back in Toronto working with such talented and experienced artists,” Lederer notes. “I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to premiere With Love and a Major Organ at the Toronto Fringe. This play takes place in Toronto and it’s development was supported by Toronto artists, so it is the perfect place.” A comedy with guts – about pheromones, fate and the TTC. With love and a major organ beautifully depicts tragic, bold and hopelessly romantic characters with lots of heart and little social grace. Anabel (Julia Lederer) gives her heart to a man she meets on the subway and he disappears with it. Her limbs begins to fall asleep. George (Robin Archer) is one the run but keeps getting distracted by romantic comedies. He begins to blame his mother. Mona (Martha Ross) resorts to seeking therapy from GoogleShrink, forcing herself to speed date, and taking in a stranger who appears at her window clad in purple plaid. Lederer’s writing is coloured with

metaphors that will make you smile, if not laugh yourself silly. With Love and a Major Organ is a play for that odd stranger we all try to dismiss, but secretly love to admire.

To bring this play to our stages, Lederer sought the help of veteran director, Andrew Lamb who had not been back to the Fringe circuit since his direction of the hit My Mother’s Jewish Lesbian Wiccan Wedding in 2009, which went on to a Mirvish production and continues to be presented across the U.S. and Canada.

“I’m thrilled to be returning to the Fringe for the first time since the success of My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding,” says Mr. Lamb. “I feel Julia’s quirky comedy has something for everyone.”

With Love and a Major Organ

By Julia Lederer

Directed by Andrew Lamb

Designed by Melanie McNeill

Sound Design by Rob Watson

Featuring Robin Archer, Julia Lederer & Martha Ross

Presented by QuestionMark-Exclamation Theatre from Toronto, ON

www.questionmarkexclamation.com

part of The 2012 Toronto Fringe Festival

www.fringetoronto.com

Ticket Bookings via (416) 966-1062

Venue: Theatre Passe Muraille’s Backspace

Showtimes:

Thu July 5 @6:00 PM Sat July 7 @1:30 PM Sun July 8 8:00 PM

Mon July 9 @7:30 PM Wed July 11 @8:15 PM Thu July 12 @1:00 PM

Fri July 13 @3:30 PM Sat July 14 @4:30 PM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Please add to your listings / May 25, 2012

Media reference: Dan Daley / 416.500.9875 / dan@daleybredarts.ca