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1-900-SELFPLEX
Written by: Alex DeFazio
Directed by: Jody P. Person
Cast: Deena Jiles (Alberta), Jennifer Joyce (Max), Michelle Wood (Abby), and introducing Patrick Martin as The Child
Crew: Theresa Zicolello (Stage Manager), Robert A. Terrano (Lighting Design / Technical Director / Photography), Josh Nulman (Sound Operator), Eva Surany (Graphic Design), Chris Curto (Additional Photography), Alexa Shaughnessy (Marketing), Video Imprint Productions LLC (Web Video & Viral Marketing)
Originally performed at the Studio at Cherry Lane Theatre as part of the 13th Annual NY International Fringe Festival, FringeNYC, August 2009
Synopsis: Dial into the imagination where the self is as slippery as the myriad stories constructing it. In 1-900-SELFPLEX, a 40-year-old writer/"sexpert" finds herself - and subsequent worldwide celebrity - by assuming the identity of a transgendered, teenage boy.
Time Out New York 08/27/2009:
"**** [FOUR STARS] If you call 1-900-SELFPLEX on a phone, it won't connect. You'll have better luck at Alex DeFazio's intriguing play. Alberta (Deena Jiles) is an ambitious renaissance woman with myriad professional hats - writer, artist, temporary phone-sex operator - whose imagination calls into being a young, transgender male named Jeremy (Patrick Martin), and passes his story off as real. Her girlfriend, Max (Jennifer Joyce), is cautious about how Alberta reaches her goals and who helps her along the way - especially when it comes to Max's strung-out younger sister, Abby (Michelle Wood), who pretends to be Jeremy for the benefit of reporters eager to put a face to the writing. Throughout the play, the characters struggle with love, confidence, dreams, self-worth and, most importantly, their identities. Although some aspects of 1-900-SELFPLEX are confusing at first, DeFazio's absorbing script eventually made me eager to see what would happen to all of her fictional characters - especially, oddly enough, the most fictional of them all: Jeremy."