About Us

We are Em and Jo. We’ve been silly together since 2010. Here is a list of things we’ve successfully done together: write, produce, direct, make films, improv, sketch, duo stand-up, musical parodies, act, some marginally easy partner acrobatics, start a production company, end a production company, bartend, karaoke, taught children’s theatre, got a couples massage, top tier maid of honor speeches at each other’s weddings, boudoir photo shoot in a bowling alley, watched Fried Green Tomatoes 100+ times. Best Halloween Costumes: Sexy US Presidents, Sexy Sesame Street Characters, Justin Bieber fans, Sexy trees. Em’s dog is named Bill Paxton and Jo’s dog is named Kevin Costner. Karaoke Duet Go-To: Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy. Create theatre, watch theatre, talk about theatre. 

Em Perez is a producer and director who also enjoys playwrighting and set design. She specializes in directing physical comedy and farce, and is currently enjoying exploring the intersection of comedy and horror on a stage. She finds herself most engaged in the creation of “theatre magic,” playing with how theatricality offers a unique storytelling experience. Whether reading new plays, watching new shows, or creating her own, Em is always searching for surprising and delightful ways that explore connecting a story to an audience. Favorite Play: The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl. Favorite Musical: Little Shop of Horrors. When not creating theatre, Em is really into tabletop games, homebrewing beer, drinking beer, skiing, cycling, trivia, Girl’s Nights, watching reality television and bad movies, making her husband laugh, and being a dog-mom. 

Jo McIver Lee is a producer and playwright who also enjoys improv and stand-up. She specializes in character theory, and writes and creates as a way to explore deep human emotion, but mostly in a funny way. Rest of her bio coming because, well, she’s a human-mom.

We believe theatre is a powerful storytelling tool to explore the human condition and build community. But, like, in a cool, fun way. We want to create things that are new, weird and bold - and we want to focus on stories, venues, experiences, and audiences that are just, like, real people. Like You! Probably! Theatre should be fun, interesting, challenging, emotional, engaging. Theatre should spark curiosity. Theatre should be play. Play for us the creators, play for you as the audience, and most importantly - a space where we play together. 

A lot of theatres operate on the “donor model.” This means a large portion of their funding comes from donations. This is great for revenue, but can also be a creative trap. Because most theatre donors are rich, old, white people. In order to get donations, theatres select plays that will appeal to that donor audience. Of course! But then you end up producing a lot of plays for rich, old, white people. 

And we also believe there is a culture around theatre that somehow implies you need to dress up, pay really high ticket prices, and that, inherently, theatre is an intellectual experience for hoity-toity types. 

That’s cool and all, but we want to do something a little different. Because we believe theatre is and can be (and has been and will be again) so much MORE than that. Theatre can be fun, and weird, and hard, and goofy, and playful. It doesn’t have to cost an arm and leg, it doesn’t have to be intellectual, it doesn’t have to be just for them - it can be for you. We’re here for you. We’re here to give the people what they want.

Finally, we believe that theatre is a radical act of community - we are meant to come together and have a SHARED experience with friends and strangers. We want comfortable spaces, with affordable drinks (alcoholic or non, however you chill), and space to just sit in community for a bit and enjoy some plays and stuff.

Our Approach

What we think you want

-NEW plays by playwrights of color, women, trans and nonbinary folx, young playwrights, neurodivergent playwrights, playwrights who have fresh things to say, true things to say, wild things to say. Plays that can explore diversity not just through trauma-drama, but through joy, connection, exploration and all the other facets of a lived-experience.

-WEIRD plays that explore new ways to tell a story, or connect with an audience, or are just a little too funky to be picked up by conventional theatres - plays that won’t be picked up at other theatres because they are “hard to produce” because they are too experimental in how they play with a stage space. We want to do plays that you haven’t seen anywhere else. We want to do plays that you see and think “That was fucking weird. I think I liked it.”

-BOLD plays that may challenge you. You may not like them. And we’re here to tell you - that’s ok. Much like going to an Art Gallery - you don’t have to like every single thing you see. But you can appreciate the skill, the high quality production, the attempt to try something new, and the conversation you have with your friends afterwards where you dissect what spoke to you and what didn’t. Art is creation, and art is conversation.

We may be wrong, but EH, we’re still going to do it this way.

  • Ticket Sales and creative budgeting. Our ticketing model is not a standard cost, but will fluctuate per show based on production requirements. We are committed to affordable shows, and work with venues and production teams to keep that possible.

  • You can! ALL and we mean ALL donations go directly to the creatives in our current productions. That means actors, techs and designers. All donations will be tallied at the end of each run and divvied out based on hours put into the show. No donations go to overhead costs.

  • No. But we can commit to creating an environment where capitalism doesn’t stand in the way of our art, your art, or your experience of art as an audience.