From the front pages of the New York Times to The Red Room TOASTED Written and performed by Elisa DeCarlo Directorial consultant Peter Schlosser map

DeCarlo's piece is harrowing and hysterical ..... a killer performer.	“Her story provides such messy, eerie, funny shades of self-dramatization in all of its characters and situations [it] makes the performance a fascinating one to behold.”	"A riveting theatrical achievement that will linger in your memory long after the show is over"
Raven Snook

Horse Trade presents Elisa DeCarlo’s acclaimed one-woman show

TOASTED

Kicking off a special downtown late night run. TOASTED will run on Saturdays at 10:30 pm from June 17 – July 15

“Elisa DeCarlo’s “Toasted,” a hands-down hit of the 2001 [San Francisco] Fringe, is pure solo dynamite.” San Francisco Chronicle
“Recounts in gripping, bizarre and hilarious detail how she discovered a murder confession via the Internet.” Broadway Stars

March 1998. Arriving home from a party, a drunken woman checks her email to discover a shocking, detailed confession of a horrific murder. Of the hundreds of people who received this email confession, only three people reported it to the police. The case made front-page headlines, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and leading news stories on ABC, CBS, and “Dateline NBC’. TOASTED is the true story of Elisa DeCarlo who was caught in a media tsunami that brought her celebrity and turmoil, ultimately leading to the arrest and conviction of a confessed killer.

TOASTED has been called: “A strangely chilling monologue that is also achingly funny. You find yourself laughing both at DeCarlo’s masterful storytelling ability and her skill at creating remarkably complex characters with a slight change in voice or facial expression.” Contra Costa Times; “Elisa DeCarlo regales her audience with bracing humor about an alcoholics support group, artfully shifting into a gut-wrenching story of child abuse and murder. Brightly comic, painfully brave, and ultimately, terribly tragic.” San Francisco Chronicle.

Elisa DeCarlo

 

ELISA DeCARLO (writer/performer) has performed at theaters, cabarets and performance spaces around the country, including the People’s Improv Theater, the Marsh in San Francisco, the Chopin Theater in Chicago, the world famous Caroline’s Comedy Club, Performance Space 122, and many others. She was a fixture of the alternative comedy scene, called “a downtown Carol Burnett” by the Village Voice and “girl next door gone suddenly insane” by The New York Press.

TOASTED premiered in August 2001 at HERE’s The American Living Room and went on to become a smash hit at the San Francisco Fringe, winning both “Best of the Fringe” and “Best Female Solo Performance.” In 2003, it was again a hit at San Francisco’s DIVAfest. In 2004, it won kudos at the Midtown International Theater Festival, and the run was extended after the festival ended as one of the “Best of the Festival.”

Elisa’s previous solo shows are CERVIX WITH A SMILE (Solo Arts Group, NYC; “Best of the San Francisco Fringe” 1997, “Critic’s Choice,” San Francisco Bay Guardian 2005) I LOVE DRUGS (Critic’s Choice, Chopin Theater, Chicago 1997; “Best of the San Francisco Fringe” 1995); and a comic autobiography with original songs, SIZE MATTERS (Westbeth Theater Center, 1998). As an actress, she has appeared in film, radio, and television, including “As The World Turns”, as a hooker in the Robert DeNiro film “Flawless, ” directed by Joel Schumacher, and in Kevin Bacon’s film “Loverboy.” Radio work includes National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and WNEW-FM’s morning show.

In June 2000 her two-character drama BUDDY N’ JANICE was produced as part of the New Writers Forum at the Looking Glass Theater in New York. In 2002, Elisa read the part of Janice opposite film and television actor Austin Pendleton as Buddy at HBO. The New York chapter of the National Television Academy of Arts and Sciences again sponsored the reading.

Elisa is a native New Yorker. She lives in the city with her husband, documentary filmmaker Jeff Shames. His autobiographical one-hour documentary about being a person who stutters, “Spit It Out,” has been shown at festivals internationally and won several awards. (www.newday.com/films/SpititOut) Scenes from “Toasted” are prominently featured.