(CHATHAM, N.Y.) – Latter-day vaudevillian Hilary Chaplain brings her award-winning solo show, “A Life In Her Day,” to PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century on Saturday, July 27, 2013, at 8pm, as part of PS21’s comedy-themed program of theater, music, film and dance. Regarded as one of America’s foremost physical comediennes, this quirky actress creates a lifetime in a day as she chases the elusive promises of happily ever after.
“A Life In Her Day” is wonderful mix of physical comedy, object theatre, puppetry, and serious theatre about a Jewish woman in her publicly shared private world. An original amalgam of Lucille Ball and Charlie Chaplin, Hilary Chaplain uncovers the humor in everyday life.
In transforming simple objects into human companions, Hilary’s character gets caught up in an alternate reality. While pouring a bowl of cereal, out pops a prize: a big diamond ring. From here a lifetime ensues in the course of an hour in a lovely and humorous portrait of a woman who wants the same thing as everyone else – to be loved. One thing leads to the next until she’s at the altar marrying a lamp with a paper towel veil and a dress made from the lampshade. Her adventures continue with a Hawaiian honeymoon, giving birth to a son fashioned from a roll of paper towels, and becoming a rabbi wearing a Hostess Snowball yarmulke performing a bris on her newborn. In the end, the audience is left with the sense that everything she needs can be created and that all she really needs is herself.
Hilary Chaplain is a founding member of the New York Goofs. She has appeared with them at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Medora Musical, and on tour at Wolf Trap with Bob McGrath from Sesame Street. Chaplain was an original cast member in Bill Irwin’s Largely/New York and also played a featured role in the 1994 Oscar winning movie “Forrest Gump.”
Hilary was an adjunct professor of clowning at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts for eight years and has taught numerous workshops in clowning and physical comedy. Known as “Nurse Nice,” she has been entertaining hospitalized children with the renowned Big Apple Circus Hospital Clown Program® (since 1987) and has been invited to teach Hospital Clowning internationally.
A graduate of Hampshire College with a BA in Theatre Arts, Hilary has also worked with such teaching greats as Tony Montanaro, Aitor Basauri Barruetabeña, Avner Eisenberg, Julie Goell, Philippe Gaulier, Angela de Castro, David Shiner, Dick Monday, Ami Hattab, Bob Berky and Bill Irwin, to develop her unique style of performance.
Tickets for “Hilary Chaplain: A Life In Her Day” are $25 general admission, $20 for PS21 member and $15 for students. They can be purchased at PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century, by calling 1-800-838-3006..
PS21 is located at 2980 Route 66 in Chatham, NY. PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century is a not-for-profit organization in Chatham, NY, dedicated to the performing arts and to serving a diverse community with concerts, programs and residencies by professional artists and ensembles, youth and children’s programming and cultural education opportunities for all ages.