Lightning Rod Special

📣🎉 We are so excited to announce that Lions is a finalist for the Steinberg/ATCA New Play award! Congratulations to playwright-performers Alice Yorke and Scott Sheppard ! Thank you to the ATCA for this incredible recognition! 🎉📣

We are deeply honored to announce that Lightning Rod Special’s Mason Rosenthal Scott Sheppard and Alice Yorke have been named 2026 Creative Capital awardees!⚡️⚡️ Our project “America Again” is a performance in response to the United States Semiquincentennial. Set in a post-apocalyptic theme park, the piece unfolds through looping dioramas of the American Revolution and asks: Are we spiraling upward toward our democratic ideals, or sinking deeper into our founding sins? ⚡️🌀⚡️

The dads have a few ideas about how to ring in the new year. 🔔😉🔔 You’ve got 30 hours to click the link below and join them… 🔗⚡️ https://givebutter.com/BiggerAndBolder

Happy Holidays from LRS! What’s your vibe this holiday season?
1. Existential dread about the cost of overnight shipping
2. Spreadsheet satisfaction
3. Breaking out the fancy sweatpants
4. “Die Hard is not a Christmas movie!!!”
5. “Uhhuh and you’re bringing all the dogs, too? Oh yeah sure fine that’s great!”
6. Cool uncle 😎😎
Click the link in our bio to make your year-end gift to LRS. Every dollar adds up and gets us closer to our goal! 🙏⚡️⚡️

Giving thanks for the incredible people who made LRS’s work possible this year: our artists, company members, and advisory board. We’re grateful to all these people (and so many more!) for their contributions to our work ⚡️

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Congratulations to the cast and crew of Nosejob, nominated for five Barrymore Awards. We may not have taken home any trophies, but it’s a gift to have our work recognized in our home community. 🌟

Congrats to all the nominees and awardees… loved seeing so many LRS friends up on that stage! Shout out to company member for his two wins, to Nosejob creator/performer for Best Actor in a play, creator/performer of SPEECH and The Appointment for Best Ensemble, and to The Appointment actor for Best Actor in a musical! Well deserved wins!! 👏👏

"I hope this show about dead dads has a long life beyond this year’s festival." — Alaina Johns, Broad Street Review

Only six more chances to catch Scott R. Sheppard and Alice Yorke in action, whose longtime rapport "adds humor and richness to even the smallest moments."

Read the review! 👇

Philly Fringe 2025: Lightning Rod Special presents Alice Yorke and… Lions , the latest Fringe entry from Lightning Rod Special, written and performed by Alice Yorke and Scott R. Sheppard, finds heartfelt laughs and…

Dear Philly Fringe Goers,

While your (other) father and I are enjoying a period of rest, we hope you're seeing other weird, wild and wonderful performance art all over town.

Check out what's happening at Cannonball Festival if you need ideas.

We look forward to our refreshed return to perform "Lions" at The Proscenium at The Drake this Thursday, Sept. 18, at 6pm.

Then again on Fri., Sept 19 at 8:30pm
Sat., Sept 20 at 12pm & 9:30pm
and Sun., Sept 21 at 12pm & 7pm

Then that's it. We take to our beds and bid you adieu. That's not a lot of chances to spend time with your father(s).

If you haven't gotten your tickets yet.... now would be a good time.

Find them at this FringeArts website: https://phillyfringe.org/events/lions/

Affectionately,
Dad

🦁 ICYMI Hear "Lions" creator/performers and company founders Alice Yorke and Scott R. Sheppard speaking with Jennifer Lynn on WHYY. https://whyy.org/articles/philadelphia-fringe-festival-lions-fathers-loss/

Still need a ticket for "Lions?"
Get one here -> https://phillyfringe.org/events/lions/

Two writers turn loss of their fathers into play about death that’s not about grief Drawing from personal loss, Lightning Rod Special’s new work takes audiences through the chaos of end-of-life care, memory and legacy at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.