Long Wharf Theatre and RJ Julia Booksellers Announce JANUARY JOINER: A WEIGHT LOSS HORROR COMEDY Talk, 1/7

Associate Artistic Director Eric Ting will join playwright Laura Jacqmin for a discussion about her new play January Joiner: A Weight Loss Horror Comedy at RJ Julia Booksellers on Monday, January 7.

The event is free and begins at 7 pm at the store, located at 768 Boston Post Road, Madison, CT. Reservations can be made here: http://www.rjjulia.com/conversation-creators-january-joiner-weight-loss-horror-comedy-17.

The play runs on Long Wharf Theatre's Stage II from January 9 through February 10. In this modern age, when we are barraged with rail thin models in magazines, "miracle" cleanses and fad diets, January Joiner asks, why can't we just be happy with ourselves? Alternately hilarious, moving and chilling, this new comedy shows us that what appears in the mirror isn't always what it seems.

Inspired to write the play by events in her family life, Jacqmin blends elements of horror and comedy in an effort to depict the struggles of real people dealing with change, in both themselves and their loved ones. "The play grapples with the American obsession with size, and what our bodies say about us," Jacqmin said. "If what's outside is the only thing that counts, do our insides really matter? What happens to us when the people who are closest to us change?"

Jacqmin, a Yale University graduate, received her MFA from Ohio University. Her play Two Lakes, Two Rivers was workshopped at the 2012 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. Other plays include Ski Dubai, Look, We Are Breathing, and Dental Society Midwinter Meeting. Her work has been produced and developed by Atlantic Theater Company, Old Vic New Voices, Roundabout Underground, Vineyard Theatre, Ars Nova, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Second Stage Theatre, among others.

Eric Ting, director of the play, is in his ninth season at Long Wharf Theatre, his fifth as associate artistic director. Ting most recently closed critically acclaimed productions of We Are Proud To Present a Presentation ... (Soho Rep) and Miriam (BAM Next Wave) in New York City. Long Wharf Theatre credits include Macbeth 1969, It's a Wonderful Life: The Live Radio Play, Italian American Reconciliation, Agnes Under the Big Top, Sylvia, The Old Man and the Sea (a production he co-adapted from Hemingway's book), The Bluest Eye (Hartford Stage and Long Wharf Theatre), and Underneath the Lintel (Connecticut Critics Circle awards for Best Director and Best Production of a Play).
RJ Julia opened 21 years ago as an independent bookstore whose mission was, and is, to be a place where words matter, where writer meets reader, where the ambiance and selection and merchandising of books creates an atmosphere that is welcoming and presents the opportunity for discovery. For more information about RJ Julia, visit www.rjjulia.com or call (203) 245-3959.

For more information about Long Wharf Theatre, or to purchase tickets to the play, visit www.longwharf.org or call 203-787-4282.