Bring "5SFOOAC(TGC)" to Philly Fringe!

Hi! I'm Grace. I’m premiering my first solo(ish) comedy this fall in Philadelphia, and I need your help to make this decade-long dream a reality. Funding for the arts is mega-messed-up, so I’m counting on you to enable my obsession with foolish, absurd, and grotesque characters. (For this obsession I blame the Marx Brothers, my actual brothers, and being a very shy child who liked to observe people from the sidelines and subsequently form exaggerated versions of them.)

The piece I’m creating this summer (in collaboration with the amazing Michael Amendola) celebrates loudly what I’ve been doing quietly since I first premiered "The Missing Kitten" in West Lafayette, Indiana. In 2000. In my bedroom. My sister Hannah played a young girl searching for her lost cat, and I played every neighbor whom she met on her search.

My goal is to make you laugh, but also to send you searching for what's dark and true and contradictory underneath. I would love to share my findings with you about what it means to fragment myself into characters again and again. I would also love to gift you a new nonsensical earworm phrase. And to hopefully make you piss your pants. (from laughing, I promise the show will be under an hour!) And I hope you’ll come to the show and we can meet if we haven't!

There's nothing more important to me than my community, and so I hope to support YOU in return in some way in the future. If you're reading this (even if a stranger)--I love you! THANK YOU!

What I Need

In order to bring this show to life, I am seeking $2,000 to cover the following expenses:

Artist Stipends: $1,200

Props/Costumes/Design Elements: $400

Marketing/Documentation Expenses: $250

Event Insurance: $130

Fringe Registration: $20

About the Show

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.

Performance Information

Wednesday, September 3rd @ 7 PM

Wednesday, September 10th @ 7 PM

Wednesday, September 17th @ 7 PM

Wednesday, September 24th @ 7 PM

At the Trestle Inn, 339 N 11th St.

All performances will be followed by John Miller Giltner's show "Family Vacation" at 8:30 PM, followed by DANCING!

About Grace (Lead Artist)

Grace Lazarz (any pronouns) is a versatile theatre artist and administrator based in Philadelphia, currently pursuing an MFA in Devised Performance at the Pig Iron School. In their previous Hoosier life, Grace founded the South Bend Fringe Festival, worked with thousands of students in the South Bend area through AmeriCorps and as the Education Specialist at South Bend Civic Theater, and directed in Shakespeare & Company’s (Lenox, MA) Fall Festival for two seasons. Since moving to Philly in 2023, Grace has performed in Bartok’s Monster (Pig Iron), understudied for Franklin’s Key (Pig Iron), received the Performances for Young Audiences Cohort Grant through Cannonball Festival as the director of G(r)een in the 2024 Fringe, and played a guest spot in Madcap & Busty (winner of 2024 Fringie for Best Cabaret/Nightlife). Grace is also a regular at various variety shows and open mics throughout the city, such as Philly Clown Slam, Big Ass Bitties, Your Sunday Best, Freak Mic, Full Moon on Fire, and Hat on a Hat. IG: @gracelazarz

About Dola (Collaborator/Director)

Michael Amendola (he/they) is a Philly & NYC-based performer-creator, educator, and director with a strong interest in the personal, creative and social impact of “play.” He has performed in 60+ productions across the US including 600 shows with the Off-Broadway comedy hit, Drunk Shakespeare; Baal (starring Gabriel Luna, directed by Obie and Lucille Lortel award-winning director Dustin Wills); the solo show Every Brilliant Thing; Our Town at ZACH (Austin Critics’ Table Award for ‘Best Supporting Actor’); and 100+ performances as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the ASC. He earned his BFA in Acting from Texas State University, and MFA in Devised Performance at the Pig Iron School. Dola has led classes in devising, clown, and characterization for Circadium School for Contemporary Circus, Austin Shakespeare, PHIT, Cannonball Festival, and the American Shakespeare Center.

Team Members

Grace Lazarz--Lead Artist/Producer

Michael Amendola--Director/Collaborator

Patrick Burke--Ensemble

Arantxa Chavez--Ensemble

Brooke Shilling--Ensemble

Arianna Allen--Tech Operator

Photography by Laura Schmidt

Marketing image by Michael Amendola