A woman’s journey from girlhood to maturity is told through stories about her bras.

BY CHRISTINE DOLEN
CDOLEN@MIAMIHERALD.COM

Actress Gwynyth Walsh performs the solo show 'Cups,' a funny and poignant play involving the different bras in a woman's life.

Where: Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, 3385 NE 188th St., Aventura
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, through Oct. 22
Cost: $36 (breast-cancer survivors can get one free ticket by using the password PINK when reserving)
Info: 954-462-0222, www.aventuracenter.org

At first glance, the idea might seem a little odd: the story of one woman’s life told through anecdotes about the various bras she’s worn.

But think about the success of such woman-resonant shows as Menopause the Musical and Motherhood the Musical, and Joni Sheram’s Cups sounds like a good bet to tap into those everywoman experiences that make girl-power theater so popular and virtually critic-proof.

Cups, a solo show performed by actress Gwynyth Walsh at the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, is simpler than those brassy and beloved musicals. Though Sheram’s play would never be confused with a Tony Award contender, it is funny, contemplative and ultimately touching. And there’s a reason the show is visiting South Florida during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Sheram, who died nearly a year ago after a long battle with cancer, wrote and performed Cups as a tribute to her mother and grandmother, creating a fictional woman named Nora but blending in her own experiences – and those of any girl or woman who has ever worn a bra. Guys who score above-average in the empathy department can certainly enjoy the show, but to really get it, you probably need to have been stabbed in the armpit by an underwire that has escaped its fabric casing. Just saying.

Walsh, a Canadian actress with a long list of movie and television credits, is a slender, energetic and engaging Nora. The conceit of the show is that she has gone up to her attic to stow away a bra worn by her beloved, recently deceased mom . She begins reminiscing, with decades-traversing photos projected on a large screen behind her, as she pulls from drawers and boxes the bras that have marked her own passage from anxious seventh grader to empty nester who has lost a breast but found mature love.

By turns, Walsh becomes the insecure junior-high Nora, Nora’s mom, underwear saleswomen and more. As happens often in one-character plays, she gets phone calls (even the phones, particularly a pink Princess model, mark changing eras) so that she isn’t always talking directly to the audience.

She sounds like a lively professor delivering a lecture when she breaks the fourth wall to get some back-and-forth going with the smiling, nodding gals who remember their own bra-by-bra history. Like Nora, they’ve been there, worn that.

The Cups timeline doesn’t quite track for Walsh, who is clearly younger than Nora, but the story she tells – about an insecure girl who becomes a young mother, a woman betrayed, a cancer survivor – makes for a play that digs deeper than a mere catalogue of evolving bra styles.

Date:October 12 – 22, 2011
Time: Show times vary
Tickets: $36
Venue: Aventura Arts & Cultural Center

“Cups will touch the hearts of audiences everywhere. It’s funny, heartfelt and has universal appeal regardless of age or gender.”

Joni Sheram’s “Cups” is an entertaining one-woman play about a writer reminiscing about growing up, her memories shaped the contours and curves of…bras! Who knew of memories secreted away in the cups of… a training bra… a strapless… a bra burned in the 60′s… nursing bras… and more.

Intimate details are shared in Sheram’s delightful and moving rites of passage, each one mirroring changes in society while interweaving a very personal journey. You’ll laugh and cry and leave smiling. “Uplifting, hilarious, poignant” praised the Denver Post for “Cups.”

Joni Sheram wrote “Cups” and starred in the one-woman play when it premiered in 2008. She died of cancer in November, but the play lives on. Contributed photo.

In ‘Cups,’ a woman looks back at her life through the bras she’s worn

By Jeff Favre
Posted August 12, 2011 at 12:04 a.m.

The one-woman play, presented by Theater League, will be performed by Gwynyth Walsh through Sept. 4 in the Scherr Forum Theatre at Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks.

Performances are at 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $43.30 and available in person at the box office or through Ticketmaster, 800-745-3000 or ticketmaster. com. For more information, visit theaterleague.com.

TO PURCHASE TICKETS CLICK HERE

LINK TO INTERVIEW ON KCLU

Nora (Star Trek Generations favorite Gwynyth Walsh) discovers that her bras hold memories too, in the LA premier of CUPS by Joni Sheram, now through September 4 at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza's intimate Scherr Forum Theatre.

CUPS traces the milestones in a woman’s life through the bras she’s worn. The one-woman show, written by Joni Sheram, captures a lifetime of remarkable events in this hilarious, often poignant memory play. From training to push-up, front-hooked and strapless to nursing and mastectomy, CUPS reminds us how these intimates hold our memories, too.

The show’s star Gwynyth Walsh, has co-starred in the acclaimed CBC series “DaVinci’s Inquest” and has been featured on the television series “ER,” “Smallville,” “NYPD,” and “Star Trek; The Next Generation,” among many others. She won a Dramalogue Award for her work with the LA Shakespeare Festival and has performed at Canada’s prestigious Stratford Festival.

Purchase tickets today by calling 800.745.3000, online www.theaterleague.com or by visiting any Ticketmaster outlets.

Groups of 10+ call 866.314.7687

Gwynyth Walsh will star in CUPS in Thousand Oaks, California beginning August 11, 2011.  Gwynyth co-starred in the acclaimed CBC series “DaVinci’s Inquest” and has been featured on the television series “ER,” “Smallville,” “NYPD,” and “Star Trek; The Next Generation,”  among many others. She won a Dramalogue Award for her work with the LA Shakespeare Festival and has performed at Canada’s prestigious Stratford Festival.
Tickets are included in Thousand Oaks Broadway Series Membership.

• More Information from BroadwayWorld