Backyard Arts 2020-2023
Backyard Arts
Solo performances by local artists in the safety of your back yard!
Choose from our rotating cast of solo performers on a day and time that works for you!
We'll send a performer and a stage manager to present a low-tech solo show in your backyard. Bring out the couch, grab some snacks and drinks, and enjoy the show.
You set the ticket price - we want all people to be able to enjoy these artists.
If you do not have the space to host a performance, you may request a show in our residence yard, or join a performance at Smitty’s in Parkview when available.
THE LILY SHOW
By Lily Kerrigan
The Lily Show is part stand-up, part storytelling, part confessional-essay-reading. Each three-to-seven-minute "episode" touches on a different topic: creativity, grief, professional cuddling, getting heckled at sex clubs. She also tells the story of the time she dislocated her jaw giving a blowjob. All the stories are true...or are they? The blowjob one definitely is.
Due to the nature of the show, its length can be catered to the audience, running anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour.
THIS SHOW IS 13+
THE MATTHEW PRESENTATION
By Matthew Marcus
The Matthew Presentation is a companion piece to The Lily Show, following the tradition of mediocre men riding the coattails of harder working women. The Matthew Presentation is two parts storytelling, one part stand-up, all parts neurosis. Watch a dude spiral from asshole to self-loathing to self-improvement, and then finally (with any luck) to acceptance. Contains: BDSM, Peruvians, romance, making fun of Nazis, self-improvement, and props!
Due to the nature of the show, its length can be catered to the audience, running anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour.
THIS SHOW IS 13+
WOMBAT DROOL
By David S. Kessler
Wombats! K, an easily distracted zookeeper, wants to tell you about Wombats. And Red Pandas. And Naked Mole-Rats. And Tortoise poop. And sleeping Siamangs. And Vertigo. And Moonrat vaginas. And Sex Education movies. And Wombats! Exalt in the Remarkably Unremarkable.
The hit of 2015’s Capital Fringe Festival comes drooling back in a newly revised and safely socially distanced performance. We all need a few Wombats back in our lives.
Especially now.
THIS SHOW IS 13+
MARX IN SOHO
By Howard Zinn
Performed by Mary Myers
The time is now; the place is here; and Karl Marx is back from the dead to tell us exactly what he thinks of what we’ve made of our world. Mary Myers returns to DC with her Helen Hayes nominated performance! We invite you into the mind of one of the most brilliant and controversial philosophers of all time. The revolution has been resurrected.
WHITE-ISH
By Deidre Staples
Dotty is black.
Dotty discovers she wants to be white.
WHITE-ISH takes us on a black girl's comical journey of identity and acceptance through a panhandling street kid, a black revolutionary, and sorority girls.
"WHITE-ISH is a tremendous satire with heart and surprise. Deidre Staple's writing enthralls with expert humor and an emotional core of identity. An excellent play." - Heather Meyer