For Immediate Release: July 17, 2014

 (Vancouver, BC) - Rodney DeCroo is bringing his critically acclaimed show Allegheny, BC (Stupid Boy in an Ugly Town) to the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival for 10 shows at the Sugar Foot Ballroom (10545-81st Avenue) starting on Friday, August 15th. Allegheny, BC (Stupid Boy in an Ugly Town) is a one-man show based both on DeCroo's book of poems of the same name and his album Allegheny. The show has DeCroo, via poems, songs and monologues, recalling his childhood in a small coal town near Western Pennsylvania's Allegheny River, and his coming of age struggles in the radically different world of Vancouver, BC, in the mid-1980s.

DeCroo released his 5th album, Allegheny, in early 2012 and it was a bit of a departure from his previous alt-country tinged records. It's a spoken word album drenched in electric atmosphere that returned the artist to his first love, poetry, while transporting the listener to a childhood as grimy as the corrupt Pennsylvanian river of the title. Yet, despite the stories of a blighted childhood in a small coal town just outside industrial Pittsburgh, Allegheny transcended to a defiant beauty that resonated with both critics and audiences. Allegheny was included in the year end top 10 lists of not one but two senior critics at the Georgia Straight and collected high regard from print and online publications such as The Vancouver Sun, The Province, Exclaim Magazine, Art Threat, The Tyee and many others. DeCroo followed this feat with another, publishing a haunting collection of 42 poems through Nightwood Editions called Allegheny, BC tackling the same subject matter.

In 2013, collaborating with double bassist/composer Mark Haney and director Jane Heyman, DeCroo expanded and launched Allegheny, BC (Stupid Boy in an Ugly Town) with a hybrid of poems, songs, and monologues at Vancouver’s Little Mountain Gallery. Haney and DeCroo next took the project across the prairies, work-shopping the show in clubs, galleries, bookstores and most recently, at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, Vancouver Fringe Festival and Vancouver International Writers Festival. Along the way, Allegheny, BC (Stupid Boy in an Ugly Town) has been met with the same acclaim and stunned silences—touching everyone from punks, old cowboys, literary and theatre types, and everyone in between.

Look for Rodney DeCroo in Edmonton for 10 performances of Allegheny, BC (Stupid Boy in an Ugly Town) at the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival. For ticket info and more information, please visit: www.rodneydecroo.com

Allegheny, BC @ Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival All Shows @ Sugar Foot Ballroom (10545-81st Avenue) Friday, August 15 - 9:15 PM Saturday, August 16 - 4:00 PM Sunday, August 17 - 5:00 PM Monday, August 18 - 9:15 PM Tuesday, August 19 - 7:30 PM Wednesday, August 20 - 9:15 PM Thursday, August 21 - 4:00 PM Friday, August 22 - 7:00 PM Saturday, August 23  - 5:00 PM Sunday, August 24 - 5:00 PM

For More Info: www.rodneydecroo.com

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PRAISE FOR ALLEGHENY, BC (STUPID BOY IN AN UGLY TOWN):

"You will be asked to hold your applause for Allegheny, BC until the end of the performance. And when that performance is over, you will have been moved to tears, amazed that something so painful could be made into an experience so profoundly uplifting. The Allegheny that snakes through the coal town of Harmarville is a “filthy river”, but from it has come something so beautiful and pure that the trauma might have been, on some abstract level, almost worth it. Almost." - Mike Usinger / Georgia Straight

"Brutally honest and beautifully observed. 4 out of 5 stars!" - Erica Thorkelson / Vancouver Sun       

 "DeCroo is a powerful and intense performer with impressive stage presence, and his life so far, recalled - even re-lived - seriously is well worth our attention." - Malcolm Page / Plank Magazine

MEDIA TOOLS: WATCH footage of Allegheny, BC (Stupid Boy in an Ugly Town) performance here STREAM Rodney DeCroo's - 'Allegheny' album here CLICK here for high-res - 'Allegheny' album art CLICK here and here for a high-res Rodney Decroo press photos.