“Sometimes I’m OK” by playwright and standup comedian Randi Simon Lupo will make its Somers Point debut in the area’s newest arts space – studio;space – from Friday to Sunday, Oct. 15 to 17.
“Sometimes I’m OK”, directed by Karen Case Cook, debuted five years ago at Manhattan’s The Producers Club. Since then, it was selected for the International United Solo Festival, and has been performed in Central and North Jersey, as well as to sold out crowds at the Cape May Aerodrome and the Cape May Fringe Festival — the latter of which she was invited to attend by Cape May playwright and producer Bill Sterritt.
Studio;space is Sterritt’s new multi-purpose venue and where his “Wreck of the Spanish Armada” played last month. He was anxious to bring Lupo back to the area but for a different audience.
“The classics are great, of course, but I love to introduce audiences to newer material, such as Randi’s ‘Sometimes I’m OK’,” Sterritt says. Lupo, who has been performing standup comedy consistently for 12 years, has done her act on various stages such as Comix at Foxwoods, The New York Comedy Club, Gotham Comedy Club, Broadway Comedy Club, and The Metropolitan Room in New York City and Catch A Rising Star–Princeton. Presently she describes herself as a “comedian who wrote a play”, and her brave performance in “Sometimes” is proof that she isn’t afraid to show a more serious side.
“I wanted to tell a story where there’s no pressure to be funny. People do laugh at times. But I cannot categorize it as a comedy – I’m a comedian doing a more serious show,” she explains of her autobiographical, “kaleidoscope” show, which illustrates various instances of her life from the heartbreaking to the heart touching.
Lupo grew up one of four kids in Brooklyn, with a demanding father who expected his children to be successful at everything, and a mother who valued beauty above all else. At a young age, Lupo was diagnosed with scoliosis and several learning disabilities, which forced her to develop her own unique coping mechanisms. Growing up, she attended numerous therapy sessions and befriended many therapists along the way.
The one-woman show was something she says she “had to do” and was, ultimately, very healing for her.
“Nobody comes out of childhood unscathed — everybody has different experiences. You didn’t go through what I went through, I didn’t go through what you went through …,” says Lupo, who currently resides with her husband, the show’s executive producer, Patrick Mirucki in Central Jersey. “The point is that you can be OK. It can really be OK.”
“Sometimes” runs 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 15 and 16; and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 16 and 17. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased through Eventbrite.com.
Studio;space is at 112 Woodland Ave. in Somers Point. More information can be found at SometimesImOK.com or Facebook.com/sometimesimok.
