That Dough Tho

mike durkin (’17)
9/3 – 5

The ritual act of making and breaking bread together. Finding moments of collective, collaboration, sharing, and primal qualities of food making. 5 modest ingredients and slight variations can make hundreds of different kinds of doughs that transcend different cultures, spaces, places, times, and identities. From your chapati, to your bagel, to your bao, to your pretzel. A dough for them all. All-purpose. Dough and dough making becomes a symbol for the collective, the slowing down, the tension between planning, being precise and adapting and improvising. mike will share history of dough-making rituals while participating in the act of making, baking, and sharing.

That Dough Tho, The Show is a performance project that finds deeper connections between doughs across different cultures. mike will lead audiences through 1 1/2 cups of discussion, 2 Tbsp. of dough-making, 1 Tbsp. of story-sharing, and 3 1/2 cups of dance and movement.

Audiences will be led by mike in making their own dough. The result will be a tasting and sharing over a fire of the cooked doughs we made.

 

5 Stagehands Fall Out of a Closet (the goose crisis)

Arianna Allen (’26), Michael Amendola (’25), Patrick Burke (’23), Arantxa Chavez (’25), Grace Lazarz (’26), Brooke Shilling (’21)
9/3 – 24

An avante-garde model, a professor of botanical poetry, and a paranormal investigator walk into a bar. Ouch.

They proceed to the back of the Trestle Inn, where, hidden behind an ominous curtain, shapeshifter Grace Lazarz unleashes a bevy of lovably grotesque characters into the intimate Go-Go purgatory.

Lazarz and director/collaborator, Michael Amendola, invite the audience to follow a whirligig of comic delirium while a chorus of 2? 57? 13? … 5 stagehands try to piece together a psyche with bubblegum and bum notes… before time runs out.

Get your steps in, lewk mortality in the eye(s), and discover the beauty of aging car mechanics and mutated pig innkeepers. “5SFOOAC(TGC)” is an absurdity that will stay with you until your cosmic punch(ouch)line.

*Characters created by various imbalances.

 

Family Vacation

John Miller Giltner (’20)
9/3 – 24

It’s vacation time for the family! Come join your mother, your cousins, yours aunt whose birthday you forget every year, and all the families soon to be ex girlfriends. It’s a safari of your dearest loved ones you only see twice a year. Let’s unpack family trauma while sipping a Mai Tai by the pool.

 

A Journey of Hardship & Suffering

Alexis Howland (’23)
9/4 – 12

A clowny comedy of errors inspired by a true 19th-century wilderness expedition into the interior of Alaska – impertinent mules, relentless mosquitos, sabotage, and mutiny!

This new ensemble show is a work-in-progress showing of phase one ideas. Development of this project is supported through Cannonball 2025’s Philadelphia Theatre Company Text and Dramaturgy Cohort.

 

Clowncuterie

Alyse James (’23), Francesca Montanile Lyons (Pig Iron Staff, ’15)
9/5 – 7

Bite-sized bits from a variety of Philly’s most scrumptious clowns sharing food-inspired works. Made in a facility that processes the horrors of life with haha’s. Flavors may be silly, or sexy, or sad – it’s a charcuterie of contemporary clown!! It’s Clowncuterie!!!

 

Pennsylvania Semiconscious Liberation Army

Patrick Burke (’23), Tyler Catanella (’25), Bellisant Corcoran-Mathe, Nick Gillette
9/5 – 28

Pennsylvania Semiconscious Liberation Army is an immersive civics experiment in our public square, dancing on the edge of sedition. The audience will be presented with a sequence of ethical dilemmas, and ‘vote with their feet’ by physically moving towards or away from increasingly polemic positions. This will reveal an emergent choreography of tolerance and resistance, like iron filings along the magnetic field of our invisible national mores. Part leftist struggle session, part trolley problem, part sacralized communal dance.

 

Donner and Blitzen After School Special with Donner and Blitzen

Michael Amendola (’25), Patrick Burke (’23), Alyse James (’23), MK Korbisch (’23), Sohrab Hagverdi (’20), Heather Hosford (’23), Rose Weiss (’23)
9/6 – 10

After a life of show business, Donner and Blitzen are here to give back through the gift of education. We’re going to learn all sorts of things today with help from a VARIETY of SPECIAL GWESTS, such as: food safety, sexual safety, car safety, relationship security, financial security, woodworking, labor laws, literature, how to pick up does, or bucks, and how to– uh– something–basically the list goes on. We are going to learn hard and cum laud.

This show is in the form of live theater, absurdist, variety show with audience participation, live onstage foley, too many deer puns, and excessive cartoon violence.

 

Ashes to Ashes

Nick Schwasman (’17)
9/7 – 25

Come gather around the campfire as we shed light on the death of the American ash tree, and consider what it means to be human in a world losing its flame. Join Philly Fringe veteran, Nick Schwasman, in his debut solo work, “Ashes to Ashes,” a fireside performance for small audiences.

 

Two Queers in Wigs: a Split/Bill Concerning Clowns & Gender

Tim Shu (’26), Nico Montalvo (’26)
9/10 – 14

‘Nina Nina Nina’ by Tim Shu: ‘Hey! Did you know that Nina Mikhailovna Zarechnaya is in town?’ ‘Wait, you mean that girl from Chekhov’s Seagull? Isn’t she fictional?’ ‘To be honest with you, I think this Nina we’ve got looks a bit… weird.’ In Nina’s debut in Philadelphia, she will go out of her way and even confront her deepest fear to prove that she is not a fraud and is indeed the Russian girl who dreams of fame and recognition from Chekhov’s play.

‘Lin-Manuel gets an Oscar’ by Nico Montalvo: Lin Manuel-Miranda has invited you all to attend his musical workshop: How To Write Like Lin, and has been preparing all week long for what is surely to be the most educational night of your life. learn why he writes bars like he does, the inner workings of his creative mind, and even get a taste of his new musical biopic (iCosgrove: the American Revolution). In other words, he wants an Oscar, and he’s finally willing to put on a wig to get it.

 

Magenta Lies

Rebecca Posner (’18)

9/10 – 17

Lions

Scott R. Sheppard (’13), Alice Yorke (’13)
9/10 – 21

From the creators of Fringe hits like Nosejob, The Appointment (New Yorker Best of 2023), SPEECH, and Underground Railroad Game (Obie Award), comes an unsentimental two-hander about the business of letting our dads die. With a dose of Kafka and A Christmas Carol, Lions disassembles the myths our fathers told themselves about what it means to be a great man. Enter a world of breathing machines, Christmas ghosts, to-do lists, shirts that smell like grass, and the most romantic disappointments of our fathers lives. Part clown show and part deconstructed eulogy, Lions tries to honor our fathers by not denying them the humanity they could not always offer themselves. A show about death that is not about grief, but instead asks, ‘What does it mean to live a good life?’

 

Regulator XXL presents: ‘When Pigs Fly’

Sarah Owens (’23)
9/11 – 17

Hi there, my name is Rachel Hunsinger and I am auditioning for the role of Regulator XXL in ‘When Pigs Fly’. My monologue is entitled ‘When Pigs Fly’ by Rachel Hunsinger, and I will be presenting my deeply personal repertoire brought to you by Regulator XXL. Thank you for your time, and please enjoy ‘Regulator XXL presents, ‘When Pigs Fly’.

Regulator XXL presents, ‘When Pigs Fly’ introduces a sliver of ‘Blood on the Cats Neck V2′, a larger performance incubator building towards a full production in 2026/2027. Revamping Hunsinger’s devised staging of R.W. Fassbinder’s absurdist play ‘Blood on the Cats Neck’ in 2016, ‘When Pigs Fly’ awakens the piece and offers the first response to the works pivotal question: If an alien comes to your world to understand human democracy, what will you tell them?

 

Frankenstein’s Body

Jasmine Jiang (Pig Iron Staff)
9/11 – 25

Before it was a monster, they were people. These are their stories.

Frankenstein’s Body is an improvised Gothic Horror inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Philadelphia’s real history of mass grave robbings that saw hundreds of human bodies unceremoniously taken from cemeteries to local medical schools and hospitals. We welcome the audience into the surgical theater of mad scientist Dr. Benjamin Frankenstein, who has prepared a lecture concerning his ongoing experiments with corpse reconstruction and reanimation. There has been a major breakthrough, and we’re the unlucky few to witness it first.

 

Americannibal

Nick Jonczak (’15), Vanessa Ogbuehi (’19)
9/12 – 18

 

El idioma de lo silenciado: The letters that were never sent

Faysal Can Dakni (’23)
9/12 – 21

VILE

Francesca Montanile Lyons (Pig Iron Staff, ’15)
9/13 – 25

Are you sad? Me too, bestie. Welcome to VILE, a wild award-winning solo show from Francesca Montanile Lyons. VILE blends clown and bouffon in an exploration of muddling through depression, surviving rape culture, and drowning in modernity. Expect a riot of absurdity, tenderness, and the kind of laughter that feels more like a cathartic gag reflex. Ingredients include: greasy toes, green cellophane, a balloon penis, and a side of BDSM. VILE has toured nationally to US Fringe Festivals in Providence, Indianapolis, Philadelphia and Minneapolis.

 

Adventures at Skyline Wilderness Camp

Christopher Cauffman Cooke (’27), Maddie Roth (’27), Reb Martin (’27)
9/13 – 28

Kayaking? Firebuilding? CPR? Birdwatching? Crafting? Smores? Campfire songs? Tug-of-War? Watersports? Painting your bunkmate’s toenails? Kissing your 3rd cousin? Ukulele Lessons? Talent shows? Fishing? Artisanal Coffee Tasting? Skydiving? Are you ready to take the risk?

Adventures at Skyline Wilderness Camp is an immersive experience that draws an adult audience back to the silly absurdity of summer camp. Enter on your first day, be sorted into cabins, make new friends, and select your camp electives. We invite you to consider: how far will you allow yourself to play?

 

The Offer

Alyse James (’23)
9/16 – 17

This play is a passionate celebration of the genre of classic stage farce. It is based on the true—and truly farcical—story of John F. Kennedy’s attempt to get Lyndon Johnson to be his vice presidential running mate, and Kennedy’s little brother Bobby’s attempt to get Johnson off the ticket. Confusion, chaos, and hilarity ensue… plus plenty of stairs and doors for the ingredients of a perfect farce.

 

Nothing But Roaring

Alyse James (’23)
9/17 – 23

Nothing but Roaring is an improvised Shakespeare comedy! The troupe spontaneously creates a complete narrative, with a hero, villain and comic subplot that ends in a climactic final scene. Taking inspiration from long-form improv and commedia dell’arte, the show mashes up the best of the Bard!

 

Baby Everything

Alice Yorke (’13)
9/17 – 26

Lee Minora, the writer/performer of Nosejob and White Feminist, returns with a slippery, sparkling, and savage new solo show: Baby Everything. Directed and developed by Lightning Rod Special’s Alice Yorke (Lions, The Appointment). You’ll laugh. You’ll flinch. You’ll feel seen—too seen.

 

Egg Project

Nicole Burgio (Pig Iron School Faculty), Jo Kramer (’25)
9/19 – 21

Have you ever met your past self? Have you ever been swung by your hair into the future? What do eggs mean?
An acrobatic, theatrical clashing of the versions of ourselves adopted out of fear and trauma, creating dissonance within us. During this first look of original work by Nicole Burgio and Jo Kramer, we invite these parts to the table, proving what new versions of ourselves are possible.

 

PRIDE & Prejudice: A Queer Parody

Jasmine Jiang (Pig Iron Staff)
9/19 – 28

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that single theater in possession of a good script, must be in want of an audience. Join us at CSz Philadelphia as we celebrate the 20 year anniversary of our favorite, already pretty gay, period romance with a comedic staged reading!

PRIDE & Prejudice is your queer parody of the infamous Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. You’ll see the iconic 2005 lovebirds in a brand new way, filled with laughs and hilarity that’s not to be missed! If you love the movie, you’re going to loooooove PRIDE & Prejudice. If you’ve never seen the movie, then let this special event tarnish it forever. If you liked Bridgerton, well, close enough!

Come in COSTUME for a chance to win BEST DRESSED at the Netherfield ball! No pressure, but strongly encouraged, like finding the right marriage so you don’t end up 27 with no money and no prospects.

We’ll take your suggestions to make each show a never-before-seen viewing. Bring forth your friends, your lovers, your exes, your great great great aunts who also are lovers, just bring somebody to enjoy the show with you!

 

The Orgy

Margo Cramer (’26), Matthew McPherson (’27)
9/25 – 28

Curated by Pig Iron alum Sarah Knittel, Dumb Hub is a living shrine to the holy fool. The hub welcomes a swirling contamination of America’s boldest clowns, idiots, alt comedians, and performance freaks. The line-up features a rotating schedule of full-length shows and pop-up performances, including new clowns and familiar Pig Iron friends:

Ben Franklin Sex Party

Sarah Knittel (’16)
9/12 – 20

My Orc, Cicero

John Miller Giltner (’20), Jonathan Schlieman (’20)
9/11 – 20

Absolute power doesn’t corrupt, it reveals. And we all have a little Julius Caesar inside of us.

My Orc, Cicero tells the story of how one group of intrepid heroes became World of Warcraft’s queerest, leftist, most soci-anarchistic guild. And how it tore itself apart Roman Republic style over accusations of ableism and not buying health potions.

 

Mischief Night Masters

Hosted by Sarah Knittel (’16) and Betty Smithsonian, featuring some very special Pig Iron School Faculty guests
9/19

“I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.” — Aeschylus

Mischief Night Masters is a once-in-a-generation convergence of Philadelphia’s most exacting and exalted artists. In a night of ecstatic rupture and brutal refinement they summon a force beyond performance—pure invocation. Time folds form breaks the air thickens. What is revealed cannot be unseen. Those permitted to witness will not return the same. Hosted by Betty J. Smithsonian and Sarah Knittel