Tapehead RED (OFFICIAL marketing and publicity photo)

Photo by Scott Pakudaitis

Tape Head GREEN (OFFICIAL marketing and publicity photo)

Photo by Scott Pakudaitis

Candid shot from Lowry Lab run, October 2007

Photo by Scott Pakudaitis

Candid shot from Lowry Lab run, October 2007

Photo by Scott Pakudaitis

Candid shot from Lowry Lab run, October 2007

Photo by Scott Pakudaitis

Candid shot from Lowry Lab run, October 2007

Photo by Scott Pakudaitis

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It is then, as Ms. Gleby is announcing to the entire gym class that I’ve scored lower on the Presidential Physical Fitness Test than any student in the history of Cheese Creek Junior High, “lower even that the retards”, she barks, that I decide it. I can’t take this anymore. My body and I are getting a DIVORCE. Oh, it can hang there below my chin if it really wants to, but I will no longer speak to it or look at it or even acknowledge its presence. We are finished. Forever. Okay, I guess we might need to share custody of my mouth, cuz of nutrition and all, but other than that, I will live the rest of my life as a head. A floating head. That won’t be so bad…right?

The Ghosts of Gym Teachers Past meet the Fear of Fitness Centers Present and the Obsession with Weight Loss Future in this new solo play about size, sweat…and exercising your demons. From the creator of the hit touring plays“Does This Monologue Make Me Look Fat?” and "So Kiss Me Already, Herschel Gertz!”, "Circumference" takes a raw, honest and hilarious look at the ways we're led to love, loathe, reject and respect our bodies.

“ A MUST-SEE: poignant, sensitive and hysterically funny.”
– The St. Paul Pioneer-Press

“Salloway is that rarity, an equally talented writer and performer… hilarious, honest, and unsparing, with a great sense of pace.”
-- Calgary Herald

“Appealing and marvellously funny…you can also add brave and original.”
– The Ottawa Citizen

“(She) has a gift for detail, a technician's skill with words, and a dead-on instinct for finding humor where others might mine only darkness.”
– City Pages

For CLIPS of "Circumference", visit:
Amy's YouTube Page!


For a "Circumference" BOOKING KIT, please visit Amy's personal website and click on the "Circumference" page:

http://www.amysalloway.com/Circumference.html



UPCOMING PERFORMANCES OF "CIRCUMFERENCE":

Check back for updates! :D


PAST PERFORMANCES OF "CIRCUMFERENCE":

Open Stage Theatre of Harrisburg's
FLYING SOLO FESTIVAL
Harrisburg, PA

June 26-28, 2009

THE BERKSHIRE FRINGE FESTIVAL
Great Barrington, MA
http://www.berkshirefringe.org
August 5-9, 2009
THE EDMONTON FRINGE FESTIVAL
Edmonton, AB

http://www.fringetheatreadventures.ca
August 13-23, 2009

University of Rhode Island
February 19, 2009

Six Figures Theatre's Artists of Tomorrow Festival

New York, NY

December 10-13, 2008


The Victoria Fringe Festival
Victoria, BC
August 21-31, 2008
www.intrepidtheatre.com
www.victoriafringe.com


The Calgary Fringe Festival, Calgary, AB
August 1-10, 2008
Calgaryfringe.com


The Winnipeg Fringe Festival, Winnipeg, MB
July 16-27, 2008
Winnipegfringe.com


The Piggyback Fringe, Wakefield, QC
June 29-30, 2008
Piggybackfringe.ca


The Ottawa Fringe Festival, Ottawa, ON
June 19-29, 2008
Ottawafringe.com


The Her-icane Festival of Women's Theatre
Regina, SK
May 30-31, 2008


Stage North Theatre, Washburn, WI
May 3, 2008


Old Arizona Studio, Minneapolis, MN
April 4-12, 2008


The Space: A Center for Creativity, New Richmond, WI
March 22, 2008


The Lowry Lab Fringe Invitational, presented by Actors Theatre of Minnesota, St. Paul
Sept. 29th - October 12th, 2007


The Minnesota Fringe Festival, Minneapolis, MN
August 2-12th, 2007

The Atlantic Fringe Festival, Halifax, NS
September 1-10, 2006

REVIEWS of "CIRCUMFERENCE" on tour, 2008:
Calgary Herald, August 5, 2008:
By Stephen Hunt
4 out of 5 stars
At the end of the (fringe) day, when patrons are blurrily stumbling from one show to another, sluggish and fuzzy, frequently hungry and sometimes a bit grumpy, nothing works better to restore their faith in fringe theatre than strong writing. All the high concepts, splashy sets, slide shows, shock value or cursing can't subsitute for good, strong writing.
What's strong writing? I once had a writing teacher who said, "the audience only responds to the truth--and they recognize it, immediately."
Amy Salloway's "Circumference" is ostensibly about her very own personal battle of the bulge. It's a one-person show reliving her days in Minneapolis attempting to qualify for gastric bypass surgery that is covered by her insurer (it ain't cheap). The catch, in this case, is that in order to prove she can't lose weight, Salloway must first commit to a six month stretch of completely documented diet, exercise and futility in order to get the bypass surgery, which she figures is her last best shot at living a normal person's life.

Circumference is all about how Salloway gets her life and her body back even as her plan to have gastric bypass surgery goes awry. It's smart, funny, and most importantly, honest. You can almost see her brain working towards a punch line as she tells us one of her fat horror stories, and then, at the last moment, going, oh, I'll just write the truth instead.
Salloway is also just as engaging a performer as she is a writer.
The night before I saw Circumference, I asked some volunteers what their favorite shows so far had been and one said, 'Circumference--but it's about women's body image issues, so I don't know how much guys would be into it.'
Memo to volunteer: guys invented women's body image issues. And we have a
few of our own as well.
Circumference pulled a full house Monday, and it was an equal divide between guys and women. There was no divide between who was laughing, though: that would be everyone lucky enough to be at the show.
Calgary Sun, August 4, 2008:
Online here!
Every so often at the Fringe comes a show, that is personal, funny, poignant and touching, a show carefully crafted to take advantage of each moment's full emotional effect, whether highs or lows.
This year that show would seem to be Amy Salloway's Circumference.
The show is about the battle with the bulge and the battle many of have against our own bodies and against a beauty-obsessed world.
The show jumps between her past and her present body issues — as a 7th-Grader ostracized by her classmates and as an adult suffering through loneliness, depression and a backwards insurance approval process to qualify for gastric bypass surgery — as Salloway manages to offer up tales that are familiar to many without ever resorting to “poor me” tactics, even when the story has her at her lowest points.
And boy are there low points, but even during those, there are plenty laughs to be had.
Salloway especially manages to inject comedy into some cringe-inducing moments involving her Grade 7 gym teacher, who routinely singles the poor 12-year-old out in front of her fellow classmates.
As a performer, Salloway is tireless, and delightful, with range and comedic timing to boot.
Along the way, through the humiliation, name-calling, Circumference leads to some semblance of self-acceptance that avoids coming off as flabby, tired cliche.
4 ½ Stars
Calgary Herald Top Five Fringe Shows Not To Miss, August 7, 2008:
By Stephen Hunt
It's the final countdown for the Calgary Fringe -- it wraps up Sunday -- so we decided to turn Centre Stage into a fringe greatest hits, featuring our favourite fringe productions of the week. We haven't seen everything, but we've seen a few terrific shows that are not to be missed.
In no particular order, here are a few of Centre Stage's fringe faves....
...3) Circumference. Amy Salloway's one-person show about a heavy woman's (is that OK to say?) last best chance at living a normal life: gastric bypass surgery, and how being denied it helps her get her body and herself back. Solloway is that rarity, an equally talented writer and performer who has written for National Public Radio and CBC Radio, among others. She's a hilarious, honest, unsparing storyteller with a great sense of pace, who will cause you never to look at a zucchini the same way again.
CBC Manitoba, July 16, 2008:
Review link here
Written by and starring Amy Salloway, Circumference cleverly explores one woman’s antagonistic relationship with her body and her treadmill.
A lifelong battle with weight leads Amy to her ultimate goal of adulthood: to get her insurance to cover gastric bypass surgery so she can find someone to love her. With that, we are swept along on trips to the local convenience store and nights dipping into the secret universe of post-surgery chat boards.
Salloway uses humor and a whole lot of energy to delve into fat stereotypes, the haunting influence of a junior high school gym class and a unique way to get an extra serving of vegetables. Circumference is extremely relatable for anyone who dislikes something about their body and the near full house on opening night proved women’s body issues can also make the men in the crowd laugh.
Though I did hear a couple of women leaving the show talking about how much weight Salloway is likely to lose given the physicality of the performance.
I think they might have missed the point.
4 out of 5 stars
Reviewed By: Anna Lazowski
Winnipeg Sun, July 18, 2008:
Review link here
CIRCUMFERENCE
Venue 3, Playhouse Studio
Pesky belly bulge may be the subject at hand, but there's nothing flabby about the latest effort from Minneapolis' Amy Salloway (“So Kiss Me Already, Herschel Gertz!”). The lovable drama queen's comical and endearing exploration of her past and present body woes -- ignited while she's waiting to see if her insurer will fund gastric-bypass surgery -- takes a firm stance on society's tight expectations of women's waistlines. But she doesn't try to make everyone feel sorry for her because she doesn't meet them. Instead, she takes us on a relatable journey, from her horrifying locker-room experiences as an obese adolescent to her current struggle at the adult gym -- where her similarly miserable crush announces he has started seeing another woman who is "so beautiful." At her lowest point, Salloway finds herself binging and vowing never to leave the house again -- even after she swore off her weight obsession and got a "divorce" from her body. Clearly, this quest for perfection has its ups and downs -- but there's a lot to love.
4 out of 5 stars
-- Lindsey Ward
Jenny Review, July 20, 2008:
Review link here
She’s ba-a-ck! Amy Salloway delighted us with “So Kiss Me Already, Herschel Gertz!” two years ago. Now she’s back with “Circumference”. Anyone who’s struggled with their weight (or anything, for that matter) will immediately feel their hearts go out to Amy. Her quests are to get bariatric surgery to lose weight, and a date. She suffers with exercising, gym class, dieting and “profound datelessness”. This extremely funny, talented and just plain nice actress hits the spot!
-- Lisa Campbell
"Salloway takes on a weighty subject with humor and heart. Definitely add this one to your Fringe list."
-- CBC Ottawa, “All In A Day”
“Serves up humour and heartbreak… ‘Circumference’ is a tasty one-hour morsel.”
-- Winnipeg Free Press
"Go see this show. You will love it. I promise. Amy Salloway ‘s shows (“So Kiss Me Already, Herschel Gertz!” and “Does This Monologue Make Me Look Fat?”) have been my (and that of many friends less inclined to post on this site) favourites for the past two years running. That said, as hard as this might be to believe, this could be her best one yet. Circumference is smart and poignant and heartbreaking and hilarious and Amy Salloway is an adorable, genuine, crazy-talented person.


“She’s got that brilliance for capturing what it means to be human.”
– Ottawa Fringe Audience Review
"I consider myself very fortunate for catching a performance of “Circumference” amongst all of this year’s great Fringe shows. Amy Salloway is completely endearing on stage and has wonderfully, comically and painfully woven together her life from adolescence to adulthood. Her story speaks of the haunting pain of other people’s cruelty, but Miss Salloway does not stand before us as a victim. She bravely and heroically lets us into her heart, her bedroom and opens up her soul. She moved me to tears and the show has stayed with me. Go. This is a DO NOT MISS.
"
-- Ottawa Fringe Audience Review
“…completely endearing…(Salloway) bravely and heroically lets us into her heart, her bedroom, and opens up her soul. A DO NOT MISS”.
– Ottawa Fringe Audience Review
REVIEWS OF THE WORK-IN-PROGRESS VERSION OF "CIRCUMFERENCE" at the MN Fringe Festival, August 2007:
“MUST SEE” Shows from the Pioneer Press:
Review link here
CIRCUMFERENCE
08/06/2007
How many Fringe performers inspire rousing ovations on their mere entrances to the stage? Amy Salloway earned every decibel Sunday in her overdue return to this festival. "My body and I have never gotten along," says Salloway, whose desperation leads her to seek a "divorce from my body" through gastric bypass surgery. Wearing Converse hi-tops, an oversized black T-shirt and a skirt that looks cut from a tablecloth, Salloway immerses us through the humiliation of her junior high gym class and her fitful efforts to get in shape for the surgery. She's a major-league writer and storyteller - poignant, sensitive and hysterically funny. Jewels of observation and awareness become transformative moments, and no audience can come away untouched by the gift of her experience.
-- Matt Peiken
Circumference – City Pages, 8/8/07
Review link here
Amy Salloway's new monologue is delivered with such craft and assurance, and as a performer she has so much appeal, that it's easy to forget that her subject matter involves such a great deal of hardship and pain. While being considered for gastric-bypass surgery, Salloway recounts the results of a weight-loss program mandated by her insurance—the rush of getting in touch with her body after years of estrangement, the despair after a crush at the gym turned out to be unrequited. Digging into the past, she turns a Presidential Fitness Test into a verbal opera of cruelty. It's no small wonder that from all these experiences she creates a show that both entertains and elicits such strong affection from her audience.
—QUINTON SKINNER
2007 MINNESOTA FRINGE AUDIENCE REVIEW QUOTES:
Link is here
Average audience review: 4.5 STARS
"This latest offering from Salloway is billed as a work in progress; whole scenes and characters may come and go every night, so it may be important to say I'm reviewing the Sunday the 5th version. It certainly reads as a work in progress- it was unmemorized, and some scenes fell oddly on the ear. That said, it was excellent. It's far more of a journey than her previous works- she progresses towards her goal of a self-acceptable body, using first the crutch of attaining approval for gastric bypass, then of the perceived attraction of a fellow gym-goer. When both crutches are kicked away, she's faced with the choice of total regression, or continuing on her path unaided, and she finds an unsuspected strength within herself. It's heartwarming, and because it's Amy Salloway, I don't have to tell you that it's funny, clever, and disarmingly unselfconscious. Catch it while you can- it's a delight.”
”…an incredible blend of heartbreak and humor. Amy, you may not love the body you were born with, but we love you!”
"Circumference is possibly the best play Amy Salloway has put forth to date. As deeply personal as her previous efforts were, Circumference goes one step deeper, something that could possibly pain in the telling, but if it does then it is a healing pain. This is easily one of my favorite shows of the Fringe this year, and well recommended. And with only a few more performances, if you haven't caught it I might suggest reworking the schedule to be there. It really is that good.”
"Amy has the remarkable ability to write about personal subjects and pain and somehow make it funny. Her performance of these stories is brave and very very entertaining.”
"Salloway is simply an amazing thinker, writer and performer, truly one-of-a-kind. I've loved her previous shows, but she really ups the emotional ante on this one. This is such a heartbreakingly personal hour that you almost feel like you're eavesdropping rather than watching a stage show. This is one brave and honest storyteller. Salloway seamlessly weaves humor and despair without ever going for cheap laughs or maudlin sentimentality. One of those rare Fringe shows that I know I'll be thinking about for a long time.”
"A group of girl friends and I go to see Amy Salloway every chance we get, which pretty much means every fringe. She is our local hero! As soon as the show ended and the applause stopped, I turned to my friend and said, "I just hope that her low self esteem is just for the sake of a great gig and not because it is true. But then, she couldn't possibly write this stuff as well as she does if it weren't truly from the heart. And so, from my friends to Amy, you have nothing to be ashamed of, everything to be proud of, and we are so glad that you continue to entertain us. And we don't have to be fat to relate to all that you say.”
“I love everything Amy does, and I'm rooting for her all the way, as is every member of her audience. Particularly those of us who were picked last on the kickball team.”
”…at ten minutes to seven I took my seat at the back of the almost full theater. The audience was so excited. I could just feel their anticipation. The applause later at the end of the show was so heartfelt…it was precious. I had never seen Amy before in my life so my first impression of her was on center stage. She was magic. I suddenly understood what some of my mentors have been trying to teach me. I was so impressed with Amy that when (an actor) introduced me to her later outside of the theater I was amazed at how small she was off the stage because in my mind she was larger than life.”
"Amy Salloway is a profoundly honest and gifted performer and I found her performance to be utterly inspirational. If you're looking for something to give you a redeeming, uplifting feeling, go see this show. It was fantastic.”
"I mistakenly went to the wrong venue last night - already late. almost ran in the heat to Mixed Blood to catch the last half of this funny, poignant and ultimately very entertaining production. Amy seamlessly slips into characters, internal imagined and real, and the piece (even in the truncated version I saw) has the uncanny ability (forgive the cliche) to make one laugh and cry simultaneously. I've had the good fortune to work with Amy and her talent and imagination extend well beyond her years. Put this one on a must-see.”
"…I was drawn in to her world with all its comic and tragic landscapes. Being in the audience for Circumference was a powerful and moving experience.”

"Powerful, affecting, very funny…the audience identifies more and more strongly with the performer as the show goes on.”
“Once again, our heroine, Amy, attacks life's trials and travails, while connecting to feelings and experiences we have all had. A very funny, and poignant piece.”
"I've been watching Amy's work for a while now, and being able to participate in a work-in-progress like this is a special treat. All the key moments are there: the funny, the poignant, the downright sad, and Amy brings us all along and asks us to remember what it's like to not-be-like-everyone-else: and don't we all feel that way at times? With a little more spit and polish, this one will be totally amazing. Right now it's amazing enough.”
"Intensely personal, very sad and very funny.”
"Amy's wit and self-depreciating humor shines through again....she makes me laugh, remember being a child again (the Presidential fitness award!) and in the end, leaves me feeling like life is still okay.”
REVIEWS OF THE WORK-IN-PROGRESS VERSION OF "CIRCUMFERENCE" at the Atlantic Fringe Festival, Halifax NS:
The Coast, Halifax, NS
http://www.thecoast.ns.ca/1bloglistingsbody.lasso?-token.blogref=3189.112113#544
Circumference
Touching one-woman play tackles body image
September 10, 2006
A tale of a woman's struggle with body image, Circumference is a dynamite one-woman play written by and starring Amy Salloway. A series of monologues strung together, there's more content in this play than any other this reviewer has seen combined. That explains the notebook that Salloway references throughout the hour-long performance to keep herself on track and pace fast. Afterwards she tells the audience that it's a work in progress, and that she's constantly rewriting and revising the text. Regardless of the use of the notebook to keep her place, Salloway gives a dead-on performance of a woman whose body shape is at odds against her love life, ability to make friends in school, and her gym teacher. Funny and touching, Circumference is what a fringe festival play should be.
-- Johnston Farrow
The Halifax Herald
http://www.halifaxherald.com/Entertainment/525749.html
Saturday September 2, 2006
Salloway delivers well-rounded comedy
Amy Salloway captures the natural rhythms of the rise and fall of speech with enviable ease in this extended, comic riff on what it’s like when a lively, witty, aware intelligence is trapped inside an obese body.
She adopts an autobiographical mode in Circumference, her fast-paced, high-minded, anecdotal tale of PE (Physical Education) classes in school in Minneapolis, and the horrors of always coming last in the trials for the Presidential Physical Fitness campaign mounted by the unsympathetic Ms. Gleby.
Her dramatic persona, also called Amy, valiantly takes up the challenge, labouring through the roadwork, sweating it out on the elliptical trainer in full view of shapely women "whose thighs don’t rub together," and wh

om, with outrageously pointed wit, she savages like a heroine of the overweight.
Admittedly overweight, though hardly obese, there’s nothing fat or sluggish about Salloway’s prose. Her frenetic energy powers her through a scintillating script peppered with ironic exaggeration and pre-emptive wisecracks. She flies like a hawk in a hurricane.
Circumference, at the Neptune Imperial Room, is a show still in development. Salloway is still working on the script. But the music-stand and the open loose-leaf binder on it and the fact that she reads and turns pages from time to time, hardly constrains her physical comedy. She’s a born entertainer.
-- Stephen Pedersen, arts reporter

Actor, Author, Playwright, Literary

http://www.youtube.com/user/IlaughedIcried 

Some Stuff About Me.
Circumference
So Kiss Me Already, Herschel Gertz!
Heebs and Dweebs
Does This Monologue Make Me Look Fat?
The Advice People
Teaching and Workshops
Entwined -- an all-new show for the 2010 MN Fringe!