Arts News
Paris Hilton Wannabe Takes Manhattan
By Amy Somensky
Jul 13, 2006, 14:32 GMT

New York: The New York International Fringe Festival is proud to present Oblivious To Everyone, a seriocomic one-woman show written and performed by Jessica Lynn Johnson, and directed by Christopher Sorensen. Performances will run from August 12th, 2006 to August 19th, 2006 at the Manhattan Children's Theatre (52 White St.) in NYC as part of the festival's 10th season.  Note: This is not a show for kids!

Botox Beauty (click) Elimidate Pervert (click) Springer Trailer Trash (click). Carrie's personality surfing begins and the media's hogging the remote. Oblivious To Everyone explores the media's portrayal of and influence on the style and psyche of the modern woman. The play centers around the character of Carrie, a self-proclaimed smut-aholic and avid talk show watcher, who is seeking psychiatric evaluation after repeated complaints from friends and family about her alleged multiple "personalities." Rapidly flipping identities like TV stations, the audience will discover just how oblivious this Paris Hilton wannabe really is.

Playwright/Performer Jessica Lynn Johnson received her BFA in Theatre Performance from Missouri State University where she was granted both the John Goodman and Kathleen Turner talent scholarships. At Harvard, she studied with Yuri Yeremin as part of the Moscow Art Theater's Stanislavsky Summer Academy Program. Since arriving in NYC only a year ago from St. Charles, Missouri, Ms. Johnson has guest starred as Beverly on One Life To Live and portrayed both Daisy Duke in CMT's promo for The Dukes of Hazzard and Onion Girl in MTV's national promo for The Reality Show.

Director Christopher Sorensen is a graduate of the Rutgers Professional Actor Training Program (MFA) where he studied under William Esper. He has since gone on to direct/teach at Cornell University, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Atlantic Theatre Company School and Interlochen Center for the Arts. He is one of the original members of The Present Company (NYC) and was a cast member in the Edinburgh Fringe First Award-Winning production of Americana Absurdum by Brian Parks. Christopher is the author of a number of new works including A Cripple Creek Christmas Carol, The Vampire of Cripple Creek and Special Powers.

The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC), a production of The Present Company, is the largest multi-arts festival in North America, with more than 200 companies from all over the world performing for 16 days in more than 20 venues  - that's a total of more than 1,300 performances. FringeNYC generates an atmosphere of extreme excitement and their energy is contagious.

Performances will run Sat 8/12 @6:30pm, Sun 8/13 @5pm, Tue 8/15 @5pm, Wed 8/16 @8:30pm & Sat 8/19 @7pm.

Tickets are $15 and can be purchased by calling 212-279-4488 or 1-888-FringeNYC (outside NY) or visiting www.fringenyc.org.