logo-SoHo PlayhouseMay 12-25

New York, NY – Grace Aki’s solo play To Free a Mockingbird, the critically acclaimed and award-winning production, will play a limited run at SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam St. in New York City) May 12 - 25, for 10 performances only. To Free a Mockingbird had its international debut last summer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Following her Best Actor Win at SheNYC, and industry performance hosted by KGM Theatricals, Aki made her acting and playwriting international debut at the ‘Fringe.’ This run garnered her 5-star views, audience acclaim, and the demand to bring the production back to New York City. To Free a Mockingbird won the AUDIENCE CHOICE award at ATL Fringe and was voted a Theater Best Bets by ARTS ATL. Aki was nominated for Broadway World’s Best Actor and Best Play Off-Off Broadway in 2022.

To Free a Mockingbird is a play combining storytelling and stand-up. The story of a family’s journey from Japan through the American South. A solo work with family secrets and lessons on how our stories get told. To Free A Mockingbird is a vulnerable and daring piece, filled with effortless humor and honesty. This is her story and maybe yours as well. After all, generational trauma is...funny. She’s here to rebuild and tear down the past, brick by brick.

“In seven years of Fringe shows, I can’t remember a single performance I have been more captivated by, or enjoyed, more” - Andrew Samtoy Fringe

“An emotional rollercoaster told at 100 mph” - HAZE

“A cross between Nanette by Hannah Gadsby and Elaine Stritch at Liberty Hall,
I laughed and cried at the same time” - ARTS ATL

“Raw in a way that surprised me... as hours have passed and as I’ve reflected on it, To Free a Mockingbird just resonates in my head” - Benjamin Carr IMPACTED

 

“Grace’s show is worth far more than the price of admission, it is incredibly human” - Andrew K

Edinburgh Fringe

“A Must-See” - Kate Reinking @theatreislife

“Grace perfectly balances comedy and drama” - @BroadwayBen

“Strikingly vulnerable” - Mickey Jo @mickeyjotheatre Developed by Michael Fling and Kate Robards.

Performances are Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7pm with additional shows on Sunday, May 18 at 5pm and Sunday, May 25 at 7pm. Run time is 75 minutes. Tickets are $31.50 (includes fees). To purchase and for more info go to https://www.sohoplayhouse.com/upcoming-events/to-free-a-mockingbird.

GRACE AKI is a New York City-based playwright from Georgia. From Japanese and American Southern roots, Grace has a taste for many cultures. Grace is the reigning Miss North Georgia Agricultural Fair Queen, and graduate of Upright Citizen’s Brigade and The Barrow Group’s respective performing programs. It was under the training of Seth Barrish (Mike Birbiglia’s The Old Man and the Pool) that she developed a solo play entitled To Free a Mockingbird. She hosts the stand-up show SWEET MEAT, the storytelling podcast ‘Tell Me on a Sunday’ and Broadway Radio. Grace is a bi-coastal, pansexual, bipolar, multiracial canned salmon enthusiast. Learn more at https://graceaki.com.

TikTok/X/Instagram: @itsgraceaki

Continuing in the spirit of the theater’s original tenant, Edward Albee and his Playwright Unit Workshop, SoHo Playhouse (Artistic Director Darren Lee Cole, Managing Director Britt Lafield) is committed to presenting the brightest and most talented artists from New York, with its Lighthouse Series, and around the world, with the International Fringe Encore Series, to give the theater-going audience of New York important stories told with unique style, and evolving what the concept of Off-Broadway Theater is in the 21st century. For info visit https://www.sohoplayhouse.com.

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PRESS INVITATION/COVERAGE REQUEST:

Mon 5/12 at 7pm, Tue 5/13 at 7pm, Fri 5/16 at 7pm, Sat 5/17 at 7pm, Sun 5/18 at 5pm

(Press are welcome to attend any performance throughout the run)

Photos & key art available at https://tinyurl.com/yu8keuzc
(Please credit specific photographer)