2026 Lineup
All Three Nights will be hosted by our fabulous MC - Erin-Kate Whitcomb
FRIDAY
8/14/26
Joshua Raoul Brody
Lesser Mortals
“Road Plays”
8:00 pm
Erin-Kate Whitcomb
“Five Doors”
9:00 pm
Todd Alcott
with Lynn Odell
“Model Home”
SATURDAY
8/15/26
Joshua Raoul Brody
Lesser Mortals
“Road Plays”
8:00 PM
Sara Statler
“Cabaret”
9:00 PM
Liz Eldridge
“Space Rock Opera”
SUNDAY
8/16/26
Joshua Raoul Brody
Lesser Mortals
“Road Plays”
7:00 PM
Noahdial Abraham Shanti
“Jesus, Trump & The Little Mermaid Walk into a Bar”
8:00 PM
Richard Montoya
Spoken Word Performance
Todd Alcott
Playwright, screenwriter, and illustrator Todd Alcott has now become a cartoonist. His graphic memoir work-in-progress, Model Home, chronicles his childhood in the 1970s as a victim of emotional abuse by his narcissist father. It is a blunt, searing plunge into the darkest areas of domestic life during the Carter recession. The show is a staged reading of the graphic novel, which will be projected on stage. All roles will be performed by Todd Alcott and Lynn Odell.
Liz Eldridge
Space Rock Opera follows Mrs. Hughes, a historical figure who is the only person known to have been hit by a falling meteor and survived, and Space Rock, the meteor that struck her, whose continued presence may or may not be the result of Mrs. Hughes’ head injury. Or the mysteries of space. Or magic. Maybe.
When she was struck by the space rock, Mrs. Hughes achieved the true American dream – becoming famous for doing nothing. She went from napping in her living room to a feature in LIFE magazine! From sea to shining sea! The sky falling on that fateful day allowed Mrs. Hughes to become beloved by all, admired and valued in a way few humble country wives would ever be.
But when her landlord sues her for possession of the rock (it did fall through HIS roof) and some other dude finds a different piece of the meteor in a field (which is what is displayed in the Smithsonian to this day), Mrs. Hughes fades into total obscurity. Her five minutes? UP.
But in this telling, she is NOT going out without a fight. To recapture fame and love, she’s embarking on a country music career and you are gonna hear about it. In Space Rock Opera, Mrs. Hughes tells her tale through country music (with a killer backing band), and though she is sometimes possessed by the meteoric spirit of the Space Rock to sing songs more psychedelic and jagged than her conscious mind knows how to process, she’s still a wholesome American woman just trying to figure out why she keeps creating when nobody cares and the world is falling apart.
Perhaps, it’s the creation itself that keeps her – and the rest of us – going at all? In Space Rock Opera, we will find out together: the band, the audience, Mrs. Hughes, played by composer and playwright Liz Eldridge, and the Space Rock, who is a Space Rock. By the end, we may not have all the answers, but we will be sweaty, transported, and singing along.
Space Rock Opera won the 2025 Cat's Crawl Hollywood Fringe Loud Artist & Encore Awards, in addition to receiving nominations for the Best Musical & Playwright's Promise Awards.
Featuring
Liz Eldridge as Mrs. Hughes
Phil Cobb, Scott Cornish, Gabe Saucedo, and Marty Sataman as the Band
& Space Rock as Space Rock
Sara Statler
SARAH STATLER, originally from San Jose, California, grew up studying theater, voice and piano. After moving to New York, she graduated from Manhattan School of Music with a BM in voice. During her time there, she was a recipient of the ASCAP Foundation’s Fran Morgenstern Davis Scholarship. She recently finished touring with the 2nd national tour of “Anastasia” (Ensemble/Countess Gregory, u/s Dowager Empress). Regional theater credits include: “Buddy..The Buddy Holly Story” (John W. Engeman Theater, The Fireside Dinner Theatre & Timber Lake Playhouse), “Indecent” (Arden Theatre Company), Bernstein’s “Mass” (The Virginia Arts Festival), as well as various productions at Busch Gardens, VA where she covered multiple roles as a vocal swing. New York Theater credits include: “Makeover” (New Dramatists), “The Nose” (Master Theater) & “The Dome” (Prospect Theater Company).
Lesser Mortals
lesser mortals creates new theatre works invoking a wide array of disciplines and aesthetic approaches. Founded in San Francisco in 1984 by Amy Brosnahan, Ann Fajilan, Tom Ford, and Roger Nieboer (all former drama students at UC Davis), they immediately gained acclaim and recognition for their production of The Ballad of Johnny & Abduhl at Intersection for the Arts.
Since then they have performed at venues ranging from the Winnipeg Folk Festival to New Dramatists in New York. They have created large-scale, site-specific works for train stations, art museums and vacant lots.
With Road Plays they create a series of brief vignettes designed to serve as breaks in the action, interludes between scenes of a larger dramatic work, or stand-alone, self-contained shards of celebration.
Akin to the knee plays familiar to fans of Japanese Noh Theatre, Road Plays are often rooted in local history or mythology, and are intended to amuse, divert, and provide respite to the weary.
On this night you will experience but a few selections from the 144-part series currently under
construction.
What about the music?
Music has been an essential component of their theatre work from the very beginning.
Described by musicologists as “Folk-punk” or “punkabilly” and derided by others as “mish-mash”
or “hot mess,
” their music aims to capture the vocal stylings and instrumentation of folk music
infused with the high energy and urgency of punk.
Performer Bios
Amy Brosnahan serves as a Senior Judge for the State of Minnesota. She is a founding
member of the all-judge rock band Reasonable Doubts, and is passionately devoted to Irish
music.
Roger Nieboer wrote and directed his first play (a nativity puppet show) at age nine. Produced
as a Cub Scout project in his neighbor’s garage, it featured the reenactment of the Virgin Birth,
utilizing his sister’s Siamese cat Mitsu as the infant Jesus. His work continues to explore the
theatrical dynamic between animals and deities.
Noadiah Abraham Shanti
They say you can’t choose your family of origin, but you can choose how much tequila to put in your sparkling water when you visit them! What do you do when you transition to manhood but your Fox News-loving mom still holds the remote? Come home for Thanksgiving in this witty, raw, and bracingly hilarious solo performance. From freight-train conceptions to “super-spreader” musical numbers, Noadiah Abraham Shanti explores spiritual reformation, identity, and the eternal power of family recipes. Based on excerpts from the upcoming memoir, A Man Called Mommy.
Noadiah Abraham Shanti is a writer, performer, parent, and kundalini yoga teacher. His show, Jesus, Trump & The Little Mermaid Walk into a Bar, was recently featured in L.A. Blade during its June run at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. When he isn't developing his upcoming memoir, A Man Called Mommy, he operates as a world expert on septic needs in notoriously entangled California coastal towns. And of course, he has a dog named Bo. Instagram: @noadiahshanti
Joshua Raoul Brody
Joshua Raoul Brody has been helping and hindering the Fringe of the Woods Festival musically since its onset. This year he will be accompanying Genny Lim, as well as sticking in his musical two cents here and there as he sees fit. He’s done a lot of other stuff. You could read about it on his website if it hadn’t been hacked about 8 years ago. Talk to him — he’s approachable!
Richard Montoya
Geoff Shields
“SF82” is the latest chapter of Geoff’s one man show, “JunkDrawer.” Action moves back and forth between his ten years in San Francisco (1982-1992) and the mad New Jersey/NYC upbringing that prepared him to be in that place at that time. A World War Two, AA Dad whose body was still pushing out shrapnel in the 70’s; A Medical emergency in the middle of a play staged in a South of Market abattoir; Working for Blondie and living with The Ramones; Hack actor day job alliances between San Francisco Doormen and Cab Drivers; Conversations at eighteen with Warhol; Living in The Castro at the Height of the AIDS epidemic; L’amour in Calaveras County, The Earthquake, Four babies in a 18 months and The San Francisco Breeders Ball Fundraiser that fed us. They all tie in, and they all lead us to This Night.
Geoff Shields lived in San Francisco for ten years, from 1982-1992. He was born and raised on The Jersey Shore, working in gas stations and on horse farms before finding his way to New York City during his senior year of High School. He found his way into the rock and roll scene of the time, along the way working for The Ramones, Blondie and Shrapnel. Upon the advice of Debbie Harry, who knew an inept roadie when she saw one, he enrolled in Junior College, studying theater. After a particularly vivid dream during an afternoon nap on a New Jersey sofa, Geoff transferred to San Francisco State University, where lots of great stuff happened. He remained in SF after graduating, co-forming a theater company and sealing his fate. This is a show about fate. Mostly the good kind. Some of the other stuff. As Kurt Vonnegut said; “Hold onto your hat…We could end up Miles from Here!”
Don Bajema
Novelist, screenwriter, actor, and performer Don Bajema was born in St. John's, New Foundland, Canada in 1949. He is the author of two highly acclaimed collections of short stories, Boy In The Air and Reach, now published as one volume, Winged Shoes and a Shield, by City Lights. As an actor, Bajema first appeared on stage in the West Coast premiere of Sam Shepard's "Curse of the Starving Class". With a lead role in the 1983 film "Signal Seven", Bajema began a long-time collaboration with groundbreaking independent film director Rob Nilsson. He had a lead role in Nilsson's 1988 Sundance Film Festival Grand Prize winner "Heat and Sunlight" and he wrote and starred in the 1996 film "Chalk," which Nilsson directed. He has appeared in more than a dozen feature films, most recently Carl Franklin's 2002 film "High Crimes". A favorite on the "spoken word circuit", Bajema has toured extensively in the US, Canada and Europe, performing at hundreds of clubs, theaters and universities. He has shared the spoken word stage with the likes of Hubert Selby, Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins, and Jim Carroll. He is a former world-class track and field athlete who competed in the 1972 US Olympic trials and played football for legendary coach Don Coryell at San Diego State University. He currently lives with his family in New York City.
Cyndy Fujikawa
Cyndy Fujikawa (producer) is a Los Angeles based theatre artist and filmmaker who recently directed The Spy Who Went Into Rehab at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival starring FOTW veteran Mike McShane. She received her MFA from the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco where she was a founding member of the ACT based Encore Theatre Company. Her passion is bringing biographical and autobiographical work to life. She is the director/producer of Ninety Minutes Later, an award-winning documentary film about the fatal 2018 police shooting of actress Vanessa Marquez, for which she received a 2024 grant from Eastside Arts Initiative.
As a playwright, she was commissioned by Cornerstone Theatre Co. to adapt the cherished memoir, Farewell to Manzanar, for the stage. She is perhaps best known for telling her father's story (actor and former Manzanar incarceree Jerry Fujikawa) in the one woman play, Old Man River, which was later adapted into an award-winning documentary film. Cyndy is a two two-time Van Lier Fellowship recipient for her work autobiographical work at legendary Mabou Mines and New York Theatre Workshop.
Erin-Kate Whitcomb
Delve into the fascinating world of American politics through the eyes of five unique women. Experience their captivating stories, as they reveal intimate details of their lives and the experiences that shape their political beliefs. This captivating performance offers a rare glimpse into the moderate heart of America, often overshadowed by the radical fringes. Be prepared to laugh, reflect and question, as our writer and talented performer Erin-Kate Whitcomb impeccably brings these diverse characters to life. This riveting show offers a refreshing perspective on the political landscape, promising an evening of entertainment, humor and thought-provoking dialogue.
BIO of Erin-Kate Whitcomb (AEA/AGVA/SAG-AFTRA): Erin-Kate has been acting professionally for 30 years and has won Bay Area Critics Circle, Dean Goodman Choice and other awards for acting and playwriting. As a playwright, she was commissioned by Theatre Rhinoceros to write and perform her play “Route 80: Cars, Cows and Caffeine”, which won critical acclaim for her as a writer and multi-character actor. She has performed with 42nd Street Moon, Berkeley Rep, TheatreWorks, Theatre Rhinoceros, Oasis SF and other Bay Area theatres. Erin-Kate performed in the US/Canadian tour with Dame Edna in “Dame Edna: My First, Last Tour” as Dame Edna’s disappointing daughter Valmai, and in the star-studded San Francisco revival of “Ruthless: The Musical”. Erin-Kate has supplied her voice for hundreds of radio and industrial jobs, and has appeared in TV and film for the past 35 years. Erin-Kate is a proud member and former Board Member of Northern California’s SAG-AFTRA, where she continues to serve both as an advisor, and on various committees. She is also a member of AEA (Actors Equity Association) and AGVA (American Guild of Variety Artists). EK is a fourth generation San Franciscan, and raised her sons, the fifth generation, in San Francisco with her wife, Michele.
Don Bajema Workshop : WHAT WOULD ORWELL DO WITH THIS?
What would Orwell do with this?
I came to what works for me as a writer and performer on the road in
with Henry Rollins, Lydia Lunch, Hubert Selby Jr. and Jim Carroll.
Bill Graham put me on stage with Henry after I’d written a play about Anne Frank. Next thing I knew, at the advanced age of forty-three I was on my first European reading tour with punk icons, Henry and Lydia, opening to their tough, unforgiving audiences in six countries, twenty-eight shows in thirty days. I was an unknown, I had little to lose, and I wanted, beyond pleasing the audience, all to grow.
Instead of having a set list that might work, I wrote new material that I’d read that same night en route to the next city. It brought an urgency to my writing, also a sense of the moment, fused with current events, fresh in the psychological political landscape that lent, sometimes, a story or piece that went beyond the moment and beyond me. Many of those stories are in Winged Shoes And A Shield my short story collection published by City Lights.
It was a little scary, certainly out of my comfort zone, but it left the quiet wondering ‘Is this any good?’, and the uncertain circular editing at the writer’s desk miles behind. The experience was revealing, the benefits were huge, and the growth was assured.
If you are primarily a writer, I guarantee on stage first-reading will strengthen your writing. If you are primarily an actor performing your own words you’ll find it enhances your facility for subtext and is a lot of fun.
It’s my great pleasure to explore all this with you in a four-hour session that delves into ‘Who Am I Right Now?’, “What do I have to say about politics, decency, respect, love, fear, anger, hope Right Now?’.
We’ll write it and we’ll perform it, putting our writing directly in our bodies. We’ll do it again, different topic. Discussing as we go. Take a break have something to eat, drink* be merry. Then we’ll go to it again. You’ll find it’s a whole lot of fun reading from the high wire, believe me.
Don
*Please bring your own lunch and beverages.
DATE: Saturday 8/9/25
HOURS: 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
LOCATION: 7024 Crable Street, Frazier Park, CA 93225
COST: $150.00
To sign up, send an email to Kim Teevan:
You can pay via Venmo;
@Kim-Teevan
415-806-7736
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415-806-7736
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