For Immediate Release: July 6, 2007 Contact Brian Bauman at 303-819-7597 or brian@perfectdisgrace.com for more information PULITIZER PRIZE-WINNER ENDORSES LOCAL PLAYWRIGHT’S UPCOMING, EDGY PLAY. CONTROVERSIAL FIGURE TO PERFORM IN THE PRODUCTION. "Brian Bauman's writing is thrilling, sexy, political and rude. He's making provocative, in-your-face theatre -- not for the timid, or, perhaps, this is just what the timid need...." -- Suzan-Lori Parks, Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Genius Fellowship Winner Event Details: Perfect Disgrace Theater Presents PORRIDGE - A New Play by Brian Bauman Directed by Josh Chambers Mon Aug 20 8:00-9:30 PM Tues Aug 21 7:30-9:00 PM Thur Aug 23 9:00-10:30 PM Sat Aug 25 9:00-10:30 PM Sun Aug 26 2:30-4:00 PM The Performance Space @ The Dairy Center for the Arts 2590 Walnut Street, Boulder, 80302 Purchase Tickets Here: http://boulderfringe.com/2007festival/program-details.aspx?id=25 Brian Bauman, a 29-year-old playwright based in Boulder, CO, has penned a scathing investigation of American cultural imperialism in the Middle East and the quagmire of the first Gulf War. In the shadow of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, PORRIDGE follows overlapping narratives: Three queer marines are exposed to friendly-fire nerve gas and flee their base to set up a ramshackle home, replete with “family values”. Ameda, an Iraqi citizen, heads into the barren Arabian desert, risking starvation and death, after her family has been decimated in a bomb raid. What ensues is a terrifying and devastatingly funny vivisection of the War, Cultural Imperialism, Fashion, “Gay Liberation”, and the Miss Universe Contest. In a casting coup, Mike Jones, the masseuse who “outed” Reverend Ted Haggard from New Life Church (and author of the controversial book “I Had To Say Something: The Art of Ted Haggard’s Fall”), has committed to play the role of Marshall, a military interrogator in the production. Mr. Bauman approached Jones after reading a New York Times Sunday Magazine interview in which Jones’ was questioned about his tell-all book. The reporter had asked Jones what he’d like to do now that the scandal had come to light, and he said he would love to be in a play. Bauman saw this as a perfect opportunity to engage Jones in the script. PORRIDGE deals exclusively in the problematic nature of identity, and Jones’ personal story carries tremendous resonance with the issues brought up in the script. Perfect Disgrace Theater Company, founded by Mr. Bauman, will be producing the play as part of the Boulder International Fringe Festival. Perfect Disgrace is a strong and dedicated collective of artists, including many colleagues from the California Institute of the Arts. This production will bring professionally-honed, experimental aesthetics to the Colorado Theater community. Perfect Disgrace received a Boulder Arts Commission grant for $2,300 to help cover marketing and rehearsal costs for PORRIDGE. Most recently, Perfect Disgrace produced a free reading of ELEGY FOR A MIDSHIPMAN, another script written by Mr. Bauman, in the Carsen Theatre at the Dairy in January. The mission of Perfect Disgrace Theater is to investigate identity and challenge dominant power structures in order to create alternative possibilities, uncover hypocrisy and encourage change through theater and community. Perfect Disgrace is committed to initiating an artistic dialogue that avoids the usual traps of binary difference, as a strategy to name and examine brutality in all its forms, and to question current cultural trends and their repercussions. PORRIDGE was developed in workshops while Mr. Bauman was working toward his M.F.A. in Playwriting at California Institute of the Arts. The script served as his thesis project, and was directed at the institute by the legendary Everett Quinton of Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company. The "Writing For Performance" program at CalArts was founded by Suzan-Lori Parks, and Mr. Bauman trained exclusively with Ms. Parks and Erik Ehn, among many other professional, award-winning playwrights. Brian Bauman’s work has been staged in Boulder, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He’s written over a dozen plays, curated events for Galapagos Arts Space in Brooklyn, Ladyfest*East in NYC, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, and most recently Mr. Bauman was named a semi-finalist for the New Dramatist fellowship, and led a panel on contemporary queer theater at the Graduate Center/CUNY for the first annual “No Passport” conference. Director Josh Chambers has been Artistic Director for the notorious Brooklyn based theater company, Fovea Floods, for the past ten years. He has directed dozens of plays in Austin, New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, Park City/ Sundance Theatre Lab and Beyond. He is currently directing shows on both coasts, a series of the 365 Plays by Suzan-Lori Parks for the 24th Street Theatre in Santa Monica, and a theatrical extravaganza based on Guided By Voices’ music in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He received his M.F.A. in Directing from the California Institute of the Arts. Lighting Designer John Eckert has worked as a designer for many amazing, nationally recognized theater companies. His designs have been seen at The Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Son of Semele Ensemble in Los Angeles, and many other traditional and raw spaces across the country. He recently won a coveted LA Weekly “Ovation Award” for his lighting design of Caridad Svich’s “Iphegenia Crash Lands on the Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart: A Rave Fable”. He holds an M.F.A. in lighting design from the California Institute of the Arts Set Designer Ken Mackenzie has designed dozens of award winning productions, including plays at the Mark Taper Forum, the L.A. Opera, Son of Semele Ensemble in Los Angeles, and Fovea Floods in New York. He holds an M.F.A. in Set Design from the California Institute of the Arts.