I would love for the world to meet my sister. I think they’d all fall in love with her, and then maybe, they’d reject all the cuts in programs that serve her population. When the economy goes this schitzo — the 1% criminally rich, the rest of us insanely poor — I would like the rich to pay more taxes. Fund the disabled services that my sister needs to live her fullest possible life!
Oops! Is this a soapbox or a solo performance?!
It’s a performance! It’s MY show — Zero Tolerance: Sex, Math and Seizures — which I’m taking to three Fringe Festivals this summer, starting with my world premiere at the Capital Fringe in Washington DC.
Zero Tolerance: Sex, Math and Seizures is a comedy (really!) that deals with tough issues: people in your family who die or need services or need to be institutionalized.
It looks at the questions that surround my sister’s life — why can’t Margaret live at home? Which is worse, sedation or seizures? Will forgetting her past keep her from blaming the family who sent her away?
Also: how about the father who institutionalized Margaret at age 11? What if that father makes lots of money but doesn’t support his disabled daughter? What if he loves math and sex and pursues those passions rather than parenting? Does he still get Margaret’s love? Barbara’s advocacy?
Is he, perhaps, the person on the bumper sticker: “Be kind to your kids: they’ll choose your nursing home?”
Zero Tolerance: Sex, Math and Seizures brings Margaret into the world through me. I want people to imagine Margaret, I want their ears to catch her garbled speech, I want them to laugh too when she laughs at her own totally unexpected witticisms.
Most of all, I want people to come see Zero Tolerance: Sex, Math and Seizures and fall in love with my sister.
Zero Tolerance: Sex, Math and Seizures runs five times during the 2012 Capital Fringe Festival, which is a program of the Washington, DC, non-profit Capital Fringe.
The show’s venue is Caos on F – 923 F St NW (& 9th Street), in Washington, DC.
Click on the following performances to purchase tickets, or purchase them online, or at Fort Fringe – 607 New York Avenue, NW, in Washington, DC. Tickets are $17.00.
