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Event
Chemo Barbie: My Lady Bits' Journey Through Breast Cancer
Chemo Barbie returns to the States after a hugely successful run this summer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival!
In 2016, Heather Kellers world was rocked by a breast cancer diagnosis. Overnight, she went from being a healthy, vegan runner to a cancer patient and since then her life has been and continues to be an inspiring journey of growth filled with love, friendships, disappointments, betrayals and yes, even some humor.
Keller shares this experience in her solo show Chemo Barbie: My Lady Bits Journey Through Breast Cancer, which made its world premiere June 2017 as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival winning an Encore Producers' Award. Chemo Barbie just returned from the largest festival in the world, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it received RAVE reviews and was named one of the top 10 body positive shows to see at fringe, out of 3,998 shows.
Chemo Barbie is an inspiring story told with painful honesty, comedic charm and tear-jerking dignity that takes you into the mind of a cancer patient from diagnosis to treatment. Keller shows what a patient goes through from doctor meetings, testing, treatments and peoples reactions around them. It shows the strength and support that develops with some friends and family while others shy away or leave altogether. Crafted from Heathers hand written journals, videos, texts, emails, storytelling and an online chronicling of her experience, Chemo Barbie is a show spoken and performed from the heart that tells the gritty, funny, heartbreaking and uplifting journey of a young woman conquering cancer while living life as normal as possible.
When I was diagnosed, I had insane decisions to make, difficult things to choose, Keller said. I survived and Im trying to do something positive from a negative.
Since its debut, which earned a Fringe Encore Award, Keller has added some new material, including a section on her most recent scare with possible metastatic breast cancer and serving as foster parents with her husband. Offering perspective and inspiring others is ultimately Kellers goal with the show. The idea for a solo show came from the journals she kept during her treatment and a private online journal she shared with family and friends. Keller also recorded video of certain key moments in the process and posted it on the YouTube channel Keep Abreast with Heather.
A sketch writer for Upright Citizens Brigade and the Groundlings as well as an accomplished actress, Keller later performed a couple monologues from her experience at WeSpark Cancer Support Centre, as well as other places. Soon, others were asking to hear more of her experience. Working with her director Jessica Lynn Johnson, Keller started to experience a catharsis in putting a show together based on her experience and a joy in the knowledge that it could help others.
Im so proud and excited to have been invited to Edinburgh and into the largest arts festival in the World. Keller said. Its because of so much love and support from family and friends that Chemo Barbie has been so wonderfully successful! I love being around positive, supportive, productive, talented folks.
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LocationSoloFest 2019 Whitefire Theatre (View)
13500 Ventura Blvd
Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 16 |
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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