Nosejob

Credits

The Lightning Rod Special Production of Nosejob
Written by Lee Minora and Scott R. Sheppard
Directed and Developed by Nell Bang-Jensen
Developed with Matteo Scammell
Performers: Ciera Gardner, Leigha Kato, Lee Minora, Matteo Scammell, Scott R. Sheppard, Alice Yorke
Scenic Designer: You-Shin Chen
Lighting Designer: Mike Inwood
Sound Designer: Kathy Ruvuna
Costume Designer: Rebecca Kanach
Prop Designer and Scenic Assistant: Vic Gill-Gomez
Dramaturgy: Mason Rosenthal
Production Management and Technical Direction: Flannel & Hammer
Stage Manager: Randi Alexis Hickey
Assistant Stage Manager: Zoë Gilmore
Assistant Director: Sasha Kostyrko
Lighting Design Associate: Manny Garcia
Sound Design Assistant: Ava Weintzweig
Costume Design Assistant: V Hope

Support

Nosejob received development support from FringeArts, Colgate University, The Director Residency Program of The Drama League, Lightning Rod Special’s Sound Break audio series, and Theatre Exile’s X-hibition Series.

LRS ARTISTIC SPONSORS
Linda & David Glickstein; Nancy Lanham; Shelley Z. Green & Michael Golden, Jr.

FRINGEARTS PRODUCERS

Festival Icon Producers:
Mark and Tobey Dichter
Festival Executive Producers:
Carol Klein and Lawrence Spitz
Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer
Festival Producers:
Chris Deephouse and Donna Hunt
Festival Co-Producer:
Christie Hartwell

Special Thanks

Sarah Anton, Ellen Chenoweth, Theatre Horizon, 1812 Productions, Colgate University, Drama League, Ars Nova (NYC), Jack Moore, Maud McInerney, Theatre Exile, Lantern Theater Company.

Thanks to the many artists who helped develop Nosejob over the years:

Jehan O. Young, Dito Van Reigersberg, Sarah Sanford, Lee Etzold, Terran Scott, Jacinta Yelland, Melanye Finister,  Leah Walton, Alex Bechtel, Cathy Ang, Emilie Krause, Campbell O’Hare, Emma Claire Gibson, and Annette Hammond

About the Show

At its heart, Nosejob is our attempt to make sense of the messy, funny, and painful experiences that defined our college sex lives. How do we reckon with the violence we faced and the mistakes we made given what we know now? In what ways do we still carry those moments with us? How did team sports shape our notions of community and accountability? How does a 4th wave feminist grapple with her 2nd wave fantasies? And why does our culture continue to put the labor of progress on the shoulders of those who are victims of sexual predation? 

Nosejob careens from football locker room to college party to 9th century Scotland. Although a theatrical work of fiction, Nosejob was inspired by lots of true stories. Or half-true stories. The first is the story of “bury” from writer Lee Minora:

“It’s really absurd looking back on it. One day in high school a boy in my class shouted out “Bury!” and then shoved his face in my female classmate’s chest. The guys all laughed. The girl laughed in protest. But then this phenomenon of ‘Bury’ just kept going. The whole act was completely outrageous. Looking back I think we, the girls, saw it as a really backwards way of flirting and definitely not as a threat. Rather it was a sort of desirable nuisance. You might brag about it like you would about being “too busy.” Of course we knew not to tell any adults. It never really occurred to me to examine it at the time. It was just part of our reality, like how you couldn’t wear a thong because when you walked up the stairs people would see up your skirt. And it never occurred to the school that girls shouldn’t have to wear skirts when the only way to access classrooms was by stairs. It was just accepted that it would be the girls’ responsibility to consider their underwear and plan accordingly.” 

The second story is of Saint Aebbe the Younger, who lived in 9th Century Scotland among a small community of nuns. When Vikings descended upon their abbey, Aebbe inspired her fellow nuns to cut off their noses to avoid rape by the invaders. In the story, the nuns were still murdered by the Vikings, but because of this act of self-mutilation they retained their sexual purity, gained access to Heaven, and were lionized for centuries by all who heard of their plight. Or so we were told. We know now this story is a form of early Christian propaganda, where monks fabricated salacious legends about saints performing acts of self-harm to prove their loyalty to the church. The larger project was to feed the relic economy, establish systems of obedience, and win pilgrims and their dollars for the church. It is one story in a long line of narratives that purports to valorize women, only to disassemble structures of accountability for their abusers. 

Nosejob was a semifinalist for the O’Neill Playwright Conference, and it received development support from Colgate University, The Director Residency Program of The Drama League, Lightning Rod Special’s Sound Break audio series, and Theater Exile’s X-hibition Series.

Share your love for Nosejob by posting about the show! You can tag LRS on Instagram or Facebook @lightningrodspecial. 

Lightning Rod Special

Bios

Nell Bang-Jensen (she/her) is an award-winning, Philadelphia-based Director. She has created five original works, in addition to directing for Philadelphia’s major theater institutions including FringeArts, People’s Light, PTC, the Wilma, Pig Iron, and the Painted Bride. Her 2020 production of The Wolves (PTC)  was celebrated in the NY Times as “saving pandemic theatre.”  Recent productions include Christmas Carol (People’s Light), Empathitrax (PTC), and Town (Theatre Horizon). Since 2019 she has served as Artistic Director of Theatre Horizon and she is the incoming CEO & Producing Director of FringeArts. www.nellbangjensen.com 

You-Shin Chen (she/her) is a USA-based Taiwanese scenic designer. As a theatre collaborator, she is committed to diversity and humanity. You-Shin centers humans, both the characters and the viewers, and their experiences in her process of creating a three-dimensional space. Recipient of the 2019 Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award at The Lilly Awards; Outstanding Scenic Design at the Lortel Awards: Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie (2020) & Wolf Play (2023); Connecticut Critics Circle Awards: Walden (2022), A View From the Bridge (2024). Assistant professor at Muhlenberg College. USA829. www.youshinchen.com

Ciera Gardner (they/them) is a Barrymore award nominated actor, mover, and collaborator in Philadelphia and surrounding areas. They graduated from the University of the Arts while also attending the Headlong Performance Institute. Credits include: The Climb (Interact Theatre Company), Fun Home (New Light Theatre), Macbeth (Delaware Shakespeare), Peer Gynt (Enchantment Theatre), Wine in the Wilderness (Philadelphia Artist Collective), Richard III (Theatre in the X), Peter and the Starcatcher (Theatre Horizon), The Gap (Azuka Theatre), Coriolanus (Shakespeare in Clark Park). www.cieragardner.com 

Randi Alexish Hickey (she/her) is a Philadelphia based director, stage manager, and self-producer. She is a graduate of The University of The Arts (RIP) and has spent the last few years as an administrator for Theatre Exile. She also runs her own pet sitting business, Randi Sits. Credits include: Chris Davis’ One Man Nutcracker, Lilith & Her Demons (Polyphone Festival for New and Emerging Musicals), The Mad Ones Lab (Kerrigan & Lowdermilk), Broccoli, Roosevelt, and Mr. House (Theatre Horizon), and Tick Tick Boom (Theatre Horizon, upcoming). www.randialexishickey.com

Mike Inwood (he/him) is an Emmy Award-winning artist working across many different genres of lighting design. In Philadelphia, Mike’s work has been seen at The Arden, PTC, People’s Light, Theatre Horizon, The Lantern, 1812 and Opera Philadelphia. Mike also works as a part of the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, most recently designing the lighting for their Late Night Snacks festival. In New York, Mike’s designs have been seen on stage at Playwrights Horizons, Ars Nova, Signature Theatre, Second Stage and BAM. This is Mike’s first production with LRS, and he’s excited to be working with this exceptional team. www.mikeinwood.com

Leigha Louise Kato (she/her) is a Barrymore nominated actor and creative based in NYC. Credits include: Skin of Our Teeth, Wizard of Oz, My Fair Lady, Mother Courage, Saint Joan, Doctor Faustus (Quintessence Theatre Co.), Peter and the Starcatcher, Into the Woods (Theatre Horizon), Metamorphoses, A Year with Frog (Arden Theatre Company), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Bristol Riverside Theatre), Broken Biscuits (1812 Productions) 4000 Miles (Philadelphia Theatre Co.) HAIR (Chance Theatre Co)Training: The University of the Arts. Endless love to Mom, Grandma and Ryan @Leeeuuh

Sasha Kostyrko (she/they) is thrilled to be working with LRS on Nosejob. They are currently also directing John Miller Giltner’s DEAD DAD SHOW this Fringe Festival. She is a leading artist on Atlantic City: City of Dreams, a satirical musical about the origins of the game monopoly, capitalism, climate change, and the “American Dream”. www.sashakostyrko.com 

LEE MINORA is a writer and performer based in Philadelphia. Her original solo shows (White Feminist and Cheeks) have been presented in London, San Francisco, Edinburgh, Philadelphia, Ann Arbor and New York City. She has worked with The Berserker Residents, Applied Mechanics, Theater in Quarantine, (NYT’s Critics Pick) and Lightning Rod Special (NYT’s Critics Pick ‘23 and ‘19, Best of Theater ‘19: NYTs,Time Out New York and New York Magazine). As an actor, she’s been seen in over two dozen productions. She is a Barrymore nominee, an F. Otto Haas award finalist, a Wilma Artist in Residence. Love to Teo and her family. 

Kathy Ruvuna (she/her) is New York based sound designer and composer. Recent credits include Mary Gets Hers (Playwrights Realm), Trouble in Mind, Hot Wing King (Hartford Stage), Bernarda’s Daughters, Amani (National Black Theatre), Dark Disabled Stories, Self Portraits (Deluxe) (Bushwick Starr), What-A-Christmas!, Sweat (Alley Theatre), The Lion in Winter, Pipeline, Radio Golf (Everyman Theatre), Circle Jerk! Live (Fake Friends), In the Southern Breeze, Ni Mi Madre (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater). M.F.A. in Sound Design – Yale School of Drama.

Mason Rosenthal (he/him) is a Philadelphia performance maker raised in Skokie, Illinois. He is a founding member, and current Associate Artistic Director, of the award-winning Lightning Rod Special. Mason is also a founding member of The Medium Theater Company, and one half of the performance art duo Ben and Ben’s Brother. He has devised nearly 75 original performance pieces. See more of his work this Fringe in “The Fluxus Brothers Present: Good Art Bad Art” and “Sohrab is Bumbling Foriegner,” both part of Cannonball Festival. Love to Roni at her first LRS show. www.masonrosenthal.weebly.com

Matteo Scammell (he/him) is a Barrymore Award-winning theater maker based in Philadelphia. He’s a member of Tony Award-winning ensemble theater The Wilma; and of Obie Award-winning experimental theater company New Paradise Laboratories. Matteo has performed in over 45 theatrical productions. Credits: Streetcar Named Desire (Arden), Empathitrax (PTC), Good Person of Setzuan (Wilma), Escape to Margaritaville (Walnut), Wolf Play (Theatre Exile), Comedy of Errors (Lantern), Gentlemen Volunteers (Pig Iron), Holden (George & Co.), The Hairy Ape (EgoPo). Congratulations to LRS & Nosejob team! To Lee and family, love you! BFA – University of the Arts. 2020 – Independence Fellow. Barrymore Award – Lead Actor.

Scott R. Sheppard (he/him) is an Obie award-winning playwright, theater artist and a Founding Co-Artistic Director of theater company Lightning Rod Special. He was a co-creator/performer of “Underground Railroad Game,” (Ars Nova) named by the NY Times as one of the 25 Best Plays of the past 25 Years. Recent credits include: Lead Writer of “The Appointment” (Best of 2023 -New Yorker) Lead Writer of “SPEECH”; Writer of “Topside” and “Blood Meal” (NY Times Critics’ Pick) with Theater in Quarantine. Graduate of the Pig Iron School and collaborator on several Pig Iron works. www.scottrsheppard.com

Lauren Tracy (she/her) is excited to be returning to LRS after working on Speech and The Appointment.  She is also the production manager for Inis Nua Theatre Company along with the Flannel & Hammer Scene Shop. She’d like to thank her family, friends, and Andrew & Jackie for their love and support.

Ava Weintzweig (they/he) is a Philly based theatre artist primarily working in performance and sound design. Some of their recent performance work includes THE LAST PARADE (InterAct), SURVIVORS (Theatre Ariel), and MEN ON BOATS (Temple University). Recent sound design work includes COMET (Upstream Performance Collaborative), CITRUS ANDRONICUS (Philadelphia Artist Collective), and CARROLL COUNTY FIX (Azuka). Find out more at https://aweintzweig.wixsite.com/home, and follow @weintswag on Instagram to see what they’re working on next! 

Alice Yorke (she/her) is a Founding Co-Artistic Director of Lightning Rod Special, lead artist on their piece, The Appointment (Best of 2023 Theater – The New Yorker), and has written and performed in almost every LRS production from Hackles (2012) to SPEECH (2022). She has performed with Inis Nua, Azuka, Wilma, Pig Iron, Interact, Tiny Dynamite, Double Edge Theatre, Frîches Théâtre Urbain and more. Director: We Are Trying to Reach You (LRS’s Sound Break series), Cerebral (UArts), and Lee Minora’s White Feminist (Ars Nova Ant Fest, Sick of the Fringe – London). “Best Theatre Talent in Philadelphia” – Philadelphia Magazine. aliceyorke.com 

LRS Advisory Board

Natasha Dravid
Paige Price
Jenny Laden
Nick Kerr
Nick Stuccio
Shayok Misha Chowdhury

About FringeArts

FringeArts is Philadelphia’s home for contemporary performance, presenting progressive, world-class art that expands the imagination and boldly defies expectation. Our programming exposes audiences to genre-defying dance, theater, and music performances by accomplished and emerging innovators who push the boundaries of art-making and redefine the artistic landscape worldwide.

FringeArts Staff + Board

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