LDRNY Coordinator Mikki Baloy's play tells the story of 11 ordinary New Yorkers trying to cope with life after 9/11

                                          photo by Tony Gale

Whether she was portraying an elderly woman, an elementary school student, a homeless drug-user, or husband overwrought with anger, LDRNY Coordinator Mikki Baloy made it clear to the audience that we were all affected in some way by 9/11.  

In her one-woman show, eleven, Baloy took on the personas of 11 ordinary New Yorkers just trying to get by since the tragedy. Andy is a kid trying to make sense of the Iraq war and terrorism today. Daryl is a drug-user grieving the loss of someone who he hasn’t seen on the streets since the Towers collapsed. Nathan suffers from unresolved anger and panic attacks, winding up in a pyshciatrist’s office after hitting his wife. Raziya, a Muslim woman, spends time in an immigration office line trying to inquire about her detained husband.  

All simple stories of everyday New Yorkers, linked together by a common thread – that life hasn’t been the same for us since 9/11. 

“I wanted to write this play to tell the stories we never see on the news, and to show that these are issues we all share," said Baloy. This 27-year-old Brooklynite has firsthand experience with the wave affects of 9/11. As Coordinator of LDRNY, she works with people every day who are still recovering from the tragedy. She, too, was working in lower Manhattan the day the Towers collapsed, and recalls fleeing the area from the real estate company where she was working at the time.  

This is not the first theatrical experience for Baloy, who wrote and stars in eleven at the Brick Theater in Brooklyn. She founded Magdalene Productions this spring, and has appeared with Todo Con Nada, Shakespeare in the Park(ing Lot), and the Ontological-Hysteric, as well as several other productions at the Brick. NYTheatre.com said eleven is "powerful, strong, captivating... a show worth seeing."

Congratulations, Mikki. You managed to remind us that while there are no easy answers, we can be there for each other throughout life’s journey. 

eleven

June 17, 8:30 p.m.

June 18, 9:30 p.m.

June 25, 7 p.m.

June 27, 8:30 p.m.

July 2, 1 p.m.

For tickets:

www.smarttix.com

All tickets $10

For directions and more on the Festival:

The Brick Theater www.bricktheater.com

575 Metropolitan Ave.,

Williamsburg, Brooklyn 11222

(a block from the Lorimer stop of the L train)

LDRNY sponsored a reception after June 11th's performance.  Thank you to the friends and colleagues who supported this production.

        John Scibilia and Mikki Baloy after the show       Friends from Faithful Response, Salvation Army,

                                                                                                    NYDIS, and IOCC enjoy the reception