FringeNYC Previews

From the Inside, Out

Produced by 4th Meal Productions

Author: Maggie Keenan-Bolger

From the Inside, Out is a play about a young woman telling her father she's a self-injurer. The narrative is interspersed with monologues and scenes from interviews with self-injurers and friends and family of self-injurers. It's a rough topic, but its portrayed with humor and empathy producing a humanistic view of a topic often shrouded in shame and secrecy.

An estimated 2 million people in this world struggle with self-injury. Exponentially more have friends or family members who have dealt with self-injurous behavior. From the Inside, Out creates an accessible atmosphere to explore the issues surrounding the behavior. Even if you don't know anyone yet who self-injurers, chances are good that sometime in your life you will encounter a situation where you have to deal with it. Seeing this show puts a personal face on this issue and dispels damaging myths surrounding SI. On top of it all, it's entertaining — you're not going to feel like you've been hit over the head when you leave. It's theater in its most active form — it educates through entertainment.

As a former self-injurer I experienced first hand the need for personal narrative surrounding the topic. For the number of medical journals and academic articles on the subject, very few include the real stories of real people. I created this show to fill some major gaps in the research that's been done about SI. I hope this show will assist in giving self-injurers a voice and giving their friends and family more tools for dealing with them.

Maggie Keenan-Bolger, creator