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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: E-Merging Writers Publicity (212) 289-5643

Southern Gothic Novel Adds Dates
to National Tour : Baltimore and Columbus

(DRAFT/DATE- New York City, NY) – E-Merging Writers announces added dates for the national tour of Southern Gothic Novel. From another critically-acclaimed, New York run at the Midtown Theatre Festival the play moves to Baltimore’s The Sky Room @ Mt. Washington Tavern, Sept. 11, 2004, for two shows, 8:00 pm and 10:30 pm. The solo piece will then appear Sept. 13-15 as part of the Columbus Theatre Festival at 2Cos Cabaret. Please see attached Fact Sheet for performance schedules and box office information.

First presented at the New York International Fringe Festival (a production of The Present Company), critics deemed it “at least an HBO Special.” The show was then invited to present at the Playwrights’ Project in Westchester, NY, and continued to Rose’s Turn and to Whole World Theatre in Atlanta, GA. Written and performed by Frank Blocker – off-Broadway star and co-author of Eula Mae’s Beauty, Bait & Tackle, Southern Gothic Novel finds Blocker portraying eighteen citizens of the tiny burg of Aberdeen, Mississippi. Young girls are disappearing mysteriously in Aberdeen, but when the hopelessly romantic Viola Haygood gets kidnapped, it seems that nearly everyone’s got a motive.

“The title says it all. I do a novel. In about an hour.” Equal parts David Lynch and Fried Green Tomatoes, Next Magazine called Southern Gothic Novel “a theatrical tour-de-force reminiscent of Greater Tuna crossed with A Prairie Home Companion. Blocker's writing is sly, sharp, erudite and unerringly funny, and his talent for voices and characterization is simply wonderful.” The play has enjoyed a diverse audience as well as much repeat business at each of its varied venues including The Red Room, where the show has been scouted by Showtime and Bravo television.

New Jersey's Gabriel Shanks directs the solo comedy. Shanks, an alumnus of Georgia State University’s theatre department, is currently Artistic Director of Creative Mechanics and The Audience Project Director for The Drama League of New York. Over a decade ago, Shanks first met Blocker in Atlanta when they collaborated on Shanks’ comic musical Saga! The Whitney Bonneville Story at the 14th Street Playhouse.

Blocker and Shanks are available for comments and interviews; photo stills and additional information are available upon request at (212) 289-5643 or at publicity@E-MergingWriters.com. More information can be found at the official websites .

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