Monday Jan. 25, 2015 | 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.

Avenue 50 Studio | 131 North Avenue 50 Highland Park CA 90042

Come out to Avenue 50 Studio in Highland Park to celebrate Sam Chanse’s satirical one-woman play, Lydia’s Funeral Video: set in a near distant future, devout bank clerk Lydia Clark-Lin has 28 days to terminate an unplanned pregnancy, shoot her own funeral video, and do some stand-up comedy. Come celebrate the recent publication of Lydia’s Funeral Video by Kaya Press, which along with the full-script, features a full counterpoint narrative, stream-of-consciousness illustrations (a flip book!), essays, notes and more. Sam Chanse will read from the book, and then discuss it with Jesse Bliss — plus music from Lilly Flor Del Valle and Carry Hatchet. Kaya Press will be on hand with books and drinks for sale. Reception to follow. Free!

[If you can’t make this event, Sam Chanse will be performing in San Francisco on February 1st!]

Sam Chanse is a writer and theater artist based in New York and California. A 2015 Sundance Ucross Playwright Fellow and member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, her work has also been supported by the Lark Play Development Center, Labyrinth Theater, the Actor’s Studio Playwrights/Directors Unit, Bindlestiff Studio, Asian American Theater Company, and the San Francisco Arts Commission, and more. Her plays, musicals, and theater work includeFruiting Bodies, Gilgamesh & the Mosquito (with composer Bob Kelly), Lobsters Live Forever (also with Bob Kelly), Marian Jean, About That Whole Dying Thing, Back to the Graveyard, and Lydia’s Funeral Video — which was also published by Kaya Press as a book in 2015. She received her MFA in playwriting from Columbia University, and in musical theater writing from NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts. She was once artistic director of Kearny Street Workshop, and co-director of Locus Arts.​

Jesse Bliss is a playwright, director, producer, actress, poet and veteran arts educator with her work produced around the world at venues such as the United Nations, Edinburgh Festival, Lincoln Heights Jail, S.P.A.R.C at the Old Jail in Venice, The Last Bookstore, The Rosenthal Theater at Inner-City Arts, Casa 0101 Theater, Theatre of Note, Occidental College, UCSC, UCLA, and California Institute of Integral Studies to name a few. She has taught and created curriculum for Center Theatre Group, The Geffen, Inner-City Arts, Unusual Suspects, J.U.I.C.E. and Inside OUT Writers among others. She is a featured artist in Kate Crash’s LA WOMEN and in Yahoo News’ SHINE Documentaries. Ms. Bliss is a grant recipient from the Flourish Foundation and recent recipient from Poets & Writers for writing workshops for incarcerated girls inspiring her chapbook I LOVE MYSELF GOLDEN. Jesse is Co-Producer of KPFK 90.7’s THINK OUTSIDE THE CAGE. She is Founder and Artistic Director of The Roots and Wings Project. www.therootsandwingsproject.com.

Lilly Flor Del Valle is a first generation Salvadorena, born-again Xicana and mother to a beautiful bumblebee. She is currently the editorial assistant for Tia Chucha Press and Jaranera in the North East San Fernando Valley. She strives to live each day ARTfully.

This will be Carry Hatchet’s first live set. The band is extremely proud of Sam Chanse, and honored to be playing at her release of Lydia’s Funeral Video. Check out more here.