THE GOOD ADOPTEE to Tour Connecticut for National Adoption Awareness Month

By: Sep. 30, 2016
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Can you imagine not knowing your own identity? That's the reality for millions of adoptees and the focus of Suzanne Bachner's award-winning show, The Good Adoptee, which will tour Connecticut this fall to help garner support for restoring Connecticut adoptees' access to their original birth certificates.

The tour will run Oct. 22 to Dec. 9, coinciding with National Adoption Awareness Month and will benefit Access Connecticut's adoptee rights efforts. Each performance will include a post-show Talk Back with Suzanne Bachner and Anna Bridgforth who stars in the production.

Showtimes:

Saturday, Oct. 22, 8 pm, United Methodist Church, 15 Church St., Hamden

Friday, Nov. 4, 8 pm United Methodist Church, 305 Main St., Watertown

Friday, Nov. 11, 8 pm, First Congregational Church, 103 Main St., Ridgefield

Saturday, Nov. 12, 2 pm, Charter Oak Cultural Center, 21 Charter Oak Ave., Hartford

Friday, Nov. 18, 8 pm, First Church of Christ, 250 Temple St., New Haven

Saturday, Nov. 19, 2 pm, UConn Stamford, 1 University Place, Stamford

Friday, Dec. 2, 8 pm, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 383 Hazard Ave., Enfield

Saturday, Dec. 3, 8 pm, Questers Way, 95 Storrs Road, Mansfield

Friday, Dec. 9, 8 pm King Street United Church of Christ, 201 S. King St., Danbury

Tickets cost $25, $20 for seniors, students and military veterans, and can be purchased at caloprograms.com/the-good-adoptee.html. Learn more at www.TheGoodAdoptee.com and www.AccessConnecticut.org.

The Connecticut tour of The Good Adoptee is sponsored by Access Connecticut Now - the grassroots organization committed to restoring adult adoptee's right to know their original identity; and Calo Programs, an extraordinary family of programs, all dedicated to healing the effects of early trauma. All proceeds from the tour go to Access Connecticut.

"We are thrilled to be collaborating with Suzanne Bachner and Calo Programs to bring this extraordinary play to audiences in Connecticut. Adoptee voices are speaking out in the arts, the Internet and politics to let people know we will no longer be discriminated against. The era of shame and secrecy in adoption is ending for adoptees as well as their biological and adoptive families," Karen Caffrey, president of Access Connecticut Now, said.

Caffrey explains that the group is dedicated to ensuring that all Connecticut-born adoptees have the right to obtain their true, original birth certificates upon reaching the age of majority. In 2014, Access Connecticut Now led lobbying efforts that resulted in legislation allowing access for adoptees whose adoptions were finalized after Oct. 1, 1983. Prior to 1975, all Connecticut-born adoptees had that right. Today, however, that is not the case. Connecticut-born adoptees whose adoptions were finalized before Oct. 1, 1983 are denied access to their biological heritage and medical information -- discriminated against simply because they are adopted.

The Good Adoptee chronicles Suzanne Bachner's true story of her intrepid and relentless search for her birth parents in the face of New York State's sealed records. Once she opens Pandora's Box, there's no turning back. The show is a gripping mystery and often hilarious adventure as Suzanne's search brings her up against legalized government information suppression and all the ensuing roadblocks and conflicts both external and internal - an officious social worker, her loyalty to her beloved Mom and Dad, the temptation to become her own Identity Thief and an outrageous reality show genealogist.

The play is written and directed by Suzanne Bachner and stars Anna Bridgforth. Bob Brader is the Dramaturg. Katie Chai is the Sound Designer.

The Good Adoptee had its world premiere last fall in the United Solo Theatre Festival, the world's largest solo theatre festival, where it won the Awards for Best Autobiographical Script, Suzanne Bachner and Best Actress, Anna Bridgforth.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Suzanne Bachner is an award-winning playwright and director. The Good Adoptee, Suzanne's new play starring Anna Bridgforth, premiered in the United Solo Theatre Festival and won awards for Best Autobiographical Script and Best Actress. Her play, CIRCLE, ran for five months Off Broadway, was performed nationally and called "ingenious" by The New York Times. Her new two-actor production of CIRCLE is currently optioned for production in Australia following a 4-month 7-City Sold-Out International Tour during which it was awarded "Most Daring Show" of the London Fringe. Playwriting and directing: a six month NYC run of her cult hit, Icons & Outcasts; a five month NYC run and international tour of BITE and her celebrated kaleidoscopic memoir play, We Call Her Benny, which Broadway World called "the future of theatre." Her plays have been seen at PS NBC@HERE, The Duplex, the National Arts Club, the Michael Weller Theatre, the Samuel French Short Play Festival, Pulse Ensemble Theatre, Zeitgeist Stage Company, Mercury Players Theatre and 20th Century Fox at the Coronet Theater in LA, among others. A frequent solo show director, she is the proud director/
developer of Bob Brader's internationally acclaimed, multi-award-winning solo shows including Smoker and Spitting In The Face Of The Devil. Suzanne studied playwriting with Romulus Linney and Adrienne Kennedy and holds an MFA from The Actors Studio Drama School at the New School University. Her plays are published on Indie Theater Now. She is a four-time OOBR Award winner and a member of the United Solo Academy and the Dramatists Guild. www.JMTCTheatre.com

Anna Bridgforth is an award-winning actress and Virginia native who has lived in New York City for over 10 years, working her way across as many stages and screens and bar tops as would have her. She started her career working in independent film where she starred in several features (almost exclusively horror) including The Wickeds, Kamikazes: A Deathography, Holler Creek Canyon and The Screening among others. She shared her time with the New York stage, working on productions big and small all over the city. These include the JMTC production of BITE; which she has done twice! Both in it's original incarnation at The Red Room Theater in the East Village and as a part of the Orlando International Fringe Festival in 2014. Also with JMTC, Anna originated the role of Young Anna in the critically acclaimed play, We Call Her Benny, as part of the FRIGID New York Festival, as well as in its own run at the Michael Weller Theatre. Other New York Theater includes Measure for Measure and An Ideal Husband, both with Big Rodent Theater Company, as well as Hope with trip NYC. Anna recently starred in her first solo show, Suzanne Bachner's The Good Adoptee, which premiered as one of 150 shows in the United Solo Theatre Festival on Theatre Row and for which she won the coveted Best Actress Award. www.AnnaBridgforth.com

Access Connecticut is a grassroots organization dedicated to restoring the right of every adult adoptee born in Connecticut to access their true, original birth certificate. In 2014, Access Connecticut led lobbying efforts that resulted in legislation allowing access for adoptees whose adoptions were finalized after Oct. 1, 1983. Now the group is working to join the ever-increasing number of states (including Connecticut's New England neighbors of Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island) that allow unrestricted access to adult adoptees.

Calo Programs (www.CaloPrograms.com) is a family of programs specialized in addressing the dysfunctional patterns that arise due to early trauma, particularly families with adopted children. Calo Programs is comprised of Calo Teens, Calo Preteens, Calo Young Adults, Embark Workshops and Intensives and New Vision Wilderness.

Photo Credit: Shar Adrias



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