One-Woman Show

A Bold New Experience in Forgiveness

Her mother was shot. Her father jailed. Then he married her aunt. This is Brenda’s true tale of forgiving the unforgivable.

My Brooklyn Hamlet is Brenda’s acclaimed one-woman show about family, murder, love, betrayal and the awesome power of forgiveness. In 1995 Adelman’s mother was shot and killed by her father and within months he married her aunt. This is a story about love and hate, passion and numbness and how to find joy after you’ve lost everything.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll surrenda ta Brenda the red hot contenda.

Click here for performance history

Do you have a question?

brenda@forgivenessandfreedom.com

To inquire about booking a show call (310) 429-1193.

“We were taken to the edge of human existence…Brenda Adelman’s My Brooklyn Hamlet, relived her mother’s murder by her father (who then married the victim’s sister), a drama that created a classical Greek catharsis in a modern Brooklyn setting.”

Henrik Eger, Ph. D., Association for Jewish Theatre

“Brenda Adelman has the rare combination of having been profoundly wounded by life, having a willingness to bring her wounding into the public eye with great love and immense humor, and being an extraordinary talent. Her show captures the audience from the moment she steps onto the stage and she holds our attention throughout. Finally, and most significantly, the show is an experience in healing for all who attend. In my opinion, as a spiritual teacher who spent years encarcerated and living the dark side in my earlier life, nothing impacts us more than to actually see someone who has returned from the darkness with a message of redemption. Such is the case of Brenda Adelman and her phenomenal show, My Brooklyn Hamlet.”

Rev. Mark Pope
Minister/Unity Church of Sedona
Founder/ The Awakening Heart Center of Sedona

“Brenda,
More than a week has passed since your visit to Manhattanville College and our students are still praising your moving and powerful performance and the workshop following. Among the gifts you offer are honesty, courage, genuine emotion without sentimentality and a humane and welcome sense of possibility and regeneration. I was particularly struck by the openness, coherence and compassion of the workshop, how suddenly and surely forgiveness and the desire to forgive arose in the room-clearly the therapeutic model is close to your heart. So on behalf of the students and faculty of the Department of Dance & Theatre and those from the Duchesne Center, our deepest thanks and appreciation. Please keep in touch and let us know when you are next in the east.

All good wishes and success.
Kol tuv.”

Michael

Professor Michael Posnick, Director
Department of Dance & Theatre
Manhattanville College 2900 Purchase St.Purchase, NY 10577
914 323 3209

“I saw Brenda Adelman’s performance in September of 2006, while attending the annual conference of the Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Having worked as a domestic violence advocate and therapist for 15 years, I thought I understood the emotional experience of survivors, children, and offenders quite well. Yet, as I watched Brenda’s life unfold before my eyes, I came to a humbling conclusion:

I did not understand how survivors, including myself, could still love, still trust, still forgive, after all the pain our abusive partners or parents caused.

That is, not until she spoke to her father, “I hate you, I love you.”

For in that moment, I realized how unforgiving and resentful I had been toward those in my life and in my field who caused me harm, or inadvertently revictimized those clients with whom I identified.

I had thought I was cured, when in reality, I was holding onto hatred, and denying my love.

Brenda Adelman’s moving performance opened the door to my own further healing. She is an amazing woman, with courage, strength, and above all compassion. She normalized the experience of my being a survivor, and made it okay to feel again.

Though it was over a year ago that I witnessed her performance, it inspires me to this day. Now, I am able to find and restore the sweet souls beneath the scars of indignity that she has forever opened my eyes to see.”

With Infinite Gratitude,

Deena Stewart-Hitzke, M.A.H.R.,.M.A.P.C.,
L.I.S.A.C.
Domestic Violence Educator, Treatment Provider, and Advocate.
Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Survivor

“What intrigued me the most about Brenda’s show, aside from her dramatic childhood experiences, is her ability to make the essence of Shakespeare for the first time accessible to me.

Her talent to relate and intertwine tangible, emotionally understandable scenes of her life to and with Shakespeare is ingenious.

It allowed me to equate that emotion evoked by her scene to each selected Shakespeare scenes, which gave me for the first time a “feeling access” to Shakespeare, which I consider a much more personal and lasting experience that merely observed by the mind. – Thank you, Brenda.”

Christoph

“I met Brenda earlier this year and was instantly drawn to the energy she possessed. Warm, calm, inviting, grounded, honest, strong, deep, free…these are all words that simultaneously flood my mind when I think of how to describe her. As a lover of theatre, I was compelled to see her perform her life story onstage. Brenda’s journey is one of wisdom, courage, and blatant honesty-both refreshing and undeniably intriguing. It was my experience after watching My Brooklyn Hamlet, that I was forced to examine myself and look inward to find the fractured and unsettled relationships in my life. This search, while not easy, instantly began to heal the wounds I hid from myself and solutions that would allow for closure immediately began to bubble up from within. This demonstrated to me, firsthand, how powerful forgiveness is. I am honored that Brenda allowed me to assist her in bringing My Brooklyn Hamlet to the stage in a new way and hope that the experience you have with her tonight touches you and your life story in an unexpected way.”

Matthew Hannon, Dir.
My Brooklyn Hamlet

“Brenda,
 
Wow….you are fabulous!   My tears are dripping on the desk from just the two minutes.  I look forward to seeing your entire show someday soon…in person.”
 
XO
Darlene

“Hey Brenda! I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to stick around for the Q&A after your show tonight and give you a giant hug!!! You were amazing! What an incredible experience to share, you took us on a magnificent journey tonight…it stirred me on many levels (including making me sad I won’t be
acting for a while). Anyways, truly fabulous job. This show should be playing to packed houses regularly. Thank you for having the courage to bring this story to life! Stay in touch with how things progress!”

Much love,
Danielle Katz
http://www.whataboutblue.org

“Your play was amazing!!!  Seems like all of us has a life time of work to do!”

Neely Gurman, Casting Director

Brenda’s Speaking and Performance History

Schools and Youth:

• University of Hawaii
• Manhattanville College (Purchase NY)
• Verde Valley School (Sedona, AZ)
• Red Rock High School (Sedona, AZ)
• Campbell HS (Ewa, HI)
• Communities in Schools (Wiapahu, HI) ages 8-15

Theatres/Festivals/Cultural Centers:

• Theatrikos Theatre (Flagstaff, AZ)
• Canyon Moon Theatre (Sedona, AZ)
• Actors Art Theatre (Los Angeles, CA)
• Philip Cotloff Center (NYC, NY)
• Red Tent Womens Project (Brooklyn, NY)
• Dr. S. Steven Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture at The Brooklyn Public Library (Comedies and Tragedies Festival)
• The 11th Annual Los Angeles Womens Theatre Festival
• Until The Violence Stops: NYC festival
• V-Day Sedona
• Repair the World-an International Jewish Theatre Festival (Vienna, Austria)
• Pulse Ensemble Theatre (NYC, NY)
• LATC (Los Angeles, CA)

Spiritual Communities

• Unity Church (Sedona, Flagstaff, Hawaii)
• Church of Religious Science (Flagstaff, AZ)
• Jewish Community Center of the Verde Valley (Sedona, AZ)
• Seicho No Iea (Maui and Oahu, HI)

Associations:

• Association for Jewish Theatre
• Jewish Women International (Phoenix, AZ)
• International Hawaii Forgiveness Project

Conferences:

• Celebrating the Divine Feminine (Sedona, AZ) Stellar Productions
• Secrets of Activating Your Personal Power, (Panelist alongside Dr. Michael Beckwith)
• The Gift of Shift
• Healthy Living: Aging with Grace (Scottsdale, AZ)

Workshops:

• Forgiving the Unforgivable: The Path to Freedom
• The 3 Steps to Forgive and Finally Be Free

Teleclasses:

• Forgiving the Unforgivable
• Setting Healthy Boundaries in Love and Life
• The 3 Steps to Forgive and Finally Be Free

Domestic Violence Community Clients: (Keynote presenter, speaker, trainer)

• The Verde Valley Sanctuary
• AZ Coalition against Domestic Violence
• NM Coalition against Domestic Violence
• Healthy Families Training (Phoenix, AZ)
• Prevent Child Abuse (AZ)
• The Children’s Aid Society (NYC, NY)
• Time-Out Shelter (Payson, AZ)

Awards:

• Recipient of 2008 Hero of Forgiveness award by The Hawaii International Forgiveness Project
• Best Actress Award 2007 at The Zaki Gordan Film Festival for ‘Daddy’s Girl’

Training:

Acting:

• The Riverside Shakespeare Company (NYC, NY)
• The Atlantic Theatre Company (NYC, NY)
• The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
• The Beverly Hills Playhouse
• Larry Moss Studios (Michelle Danner, Improv workout, On-Camera Technique)

Voice :

• Bob Corff

Dance:

• Cindera Che

Improv/ Stand-up:

• Bang/ Judy Carter

Acting Experience:

• Theatre
• film
• stand-up
• improvisation troupe (Laugh on the Rocks)
• One-woman show
• commercials
• print model

Other training/ experience:

• MA in Spiritual Psychology, assistant for 2 years
• Prayer Chaplain for Unity Church, Board member for 1 year, volunteer with youth ministry
• Boys and Girls Club: volunteer, Cedar’s Sinai: volunteer in pediatrics