Fools at the Fringe 2024!

Check out our other two Fringe shows:

A comedy inspired by the horrifying realities of our justice system. We follow a wrongfully convicted man in prison and his relationship with the former, guilt-ridden juror who put him away. It'll make you think. About what? That's undefined as of now. Check back after reviews come out. More Info

He's only got five minutes to make you laugh! The pressure is on, but this young comic still has a lot to learn. As he travels from city to city, Byron Coolie questions his self-worth, navigates the entertainment industry, and confronts racial injustice. YOU ARE ENOUGH!!! More Info

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CAST

Amanda Blake Davis as Planet Earth / Groff

Amanda Blake Davis (she/her) is thrilled to be returning to the Fringe! Past productions include Lamprey, Three Guys One Groupon, and Oh, Lorraine! In honor of this show she will be recycling her bio -She is an alum of The Second City Chicago, where she won a Jeff Award for Best Actress in a Revue (Studs Terkel's Not Working) and she has written for Cartoon Network's Wabbit and Showtime's Work In Progress. Catch her around town performing with her improv group Heyday.

Rebecca Larsen as Planet Earth (u/s)

Rebecca Larsen (she/her) Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Rebecca was a pre-medicine student before transferring into the Acting Program at the University of Utah. Since relocating to Los Angeles in 2004, she has worked as an actress, assistant director, producer, and director. At Sacred Fools, Rebecca has directed Fast & Loose, The Box (a non-linear theatrical experiment), and The Joe and Joshua Show at the 2017 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Rebecca became acquainted with Gifted as the co-curator of the New Works Development Program, and directed its world premiere in 2020. She most recently appeared with Sacred Fools in our 2022 Hollywood Fringe entry, Three Guys, One Groupon.

Cj Merriman as Taylor Swift / 1.5 Degrees #1 / T. Rex / Elephant / New Network President / Kid #1

Cj Merriman (she/her) went to Webster University's Conservatory of Theatre Arts and got a BFA in Acting, y'all, so she could delight you EVERY GODDAMNED FRINGE...

So, favorite live interactions: Watson, The Behavior of Broadus, The Poe Show and Skullduggery at Sacred Fools and Night Witches (2016), Three Guys, One Groupon (2022) and Raise Your Hand... FROM THE DEAD! (2023) at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. You can currently catch her cohosting the ONLY Theatre podcast (Theatre Theater) with J. Bailey Burcham and fellow Watson castmate, Scott Leggett.

Come up and say hi!

Morgan O'Sullivan as Kelly / 1.5 Degrees #3 / Kid #3 / Cricket

Morgan O'Sullivan (they/he) is an award winning Los Angeles based Actor, Director & Co-Founder of indie film company Red Seed Films. They spent the majority of their career working in New York City theatre where they also graduated from The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, NY. After working with such companies as The Pearl Theater, The Amoralists and Project Theater, Morgan Co-Founded The SoHo Shakespeare Company where they worked as a Co-Artistic Director before setting their sights on a career in film. He moved to Los Angeles where he spent his first two years working producing with LGBTQ+ Acting Class Act Now with Emmy-Nominated Actress Rain Valdez. Now, they're very happy to return to the stage with Sacred Fools & The Hollywood Fringe Festival. Their favorite acting credits include Frankie (as Frankie), I'd Rather Die (Jon), The Worth of Water (Nix) and Aunt Jack (Andy). morganrosullivan.com

Shannon J. Sharpe as Reverend V / Bird / Polar Ice Cap

Shannon Sharpe (she/her) is delighted to be a part of this amazing production. She is from Long island, New York and has been acting on stage since she was three years old. While receiving her undergraduate degree in Communication and Rhetorical studies from Syracuse University she performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to five star reviews. She also studied Comedia dell arte in Florence Italy and has performed Moliere in Italian!

While studying Television Radio and Film for her masters degree at Syracuse's Newhouse school, Shannon wrote, starred, and produced in countless film shorts and new media series.

In Los Angeles Shannon has starred in A Raisin in the Sun and found a new love in stand-up comedy! Through her continued work on stage and screen Shannon has become a full member of the SAG-AFTRA union and the Equity stage union. Shannon's latest short, Anxiety, is premiering this summer in an LA Film Festival!

Shannon is truly delighted to perform with this amazingly talented group of artists. It is a pleasure to be part of the Sacred Fools and the wonderful Hollywood Fringe Festival.

Matthew Siegan as Channing Bork / The Sun / Jeff Bezos

Matthew Siegan (he/him) is so excited to return to his first play in 11 years and first musical in [redacted for casting purposes] years. Matt has performed in plays, classical and contemporary, all over the country, as well as performing improv and stand-up comedy all over North America, and once in Paris. Matt is honored to be part of this world premiere. He thanks his amazing cast and crew, and Jonas and Scott - thank you for trusting me to be a part of this. It has been so much fun to tread the boards again. Matt has been a Sacred Fools fan for [redacted for casting purposes] years now. So cool to be doing my first show with you all. He also wants to thank his family and friends who support him so much and he acknowledges, receives, and cherishes that love and support. I love you. I don't say that enough.

Matt has appeared most recently as Charlie Goldstein on Season Two of HBO's reboot of Perry Mason. He also played Danny Dongelberg on Stumptown with Cobie Smulders on ABC, and was on the Second Season of Netflix's Flaked with Will Arnett. He has performed in productions at the California Shakespeare Festival, the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, the Colony Theatre in Burbank, the Segerstrom Performing Arts Center, and more. He has performed stand-up at the World Famous Comedy Store, the Mix in Vancouver, ComedySportz Chicago, Comedy Underground in Tacoma, and more. Matt graduated from the University of Southern California's Acting Conservatory. He once performed at Carnegie Hall and played various characters and read stage directions for the first reading of the Million Dollar Quartet musical. And (this is a good one) was a long-haired extra standing next to Heath Ledger in Lords of Dogtown.

Nick Turner as Larry La Lue / Dub Singer / 1.5 Degrees #2 / Rattlesnake / Neanderthal / Network President / Kid #2

Nick Turner (he/him) I first worked with playwright/director Jonas Oppenheim on his best play, I'm Gonna Kill The President, in the early 2000's. Now that I'm finally out of prison, I'm excited to be a part of his latest project. I've spent most of my career as a stand-up comedian, I was a New Face in Montreal in 2011 (back when it meant something! *shakes fist*) and since then have collected dozens of televised stand-up shows and other TV appearances. I've done standup on Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, The Comedy Central Half Hour, John Oliver's NY Stand-up Show, and a bunch of other forgotten shows on weird channels. I was a main cast member on VH1's Best Week Ever, I created and starred in a filmed pilot for Comedy Central starring opposite Parker Posey and shot two seasons of my Comedy Central digital series Ya Killin' Me! I shot an hour-long standup special for Epix recently and I'm recording my second comedy album at the end of the year. I'm also a freelance writer and podcast producer for iHeartMedia, Crooked Media, and The Last Podcast Network. But most importantly, I am a song and dance man, and Jonas Oppenheim's muse.

CREW

Jonas Oppenheim as Groff (u/s) | Book, Music & Lyrics / Director

Jonas Oppenheim (he/him) is an award-winning writer whose plays have received over 50 productions and won multiple awards. His guerrilla-theater satire I'm Gonna Kill the President! A Federal Offense toured to living rooms, parking lots, and back alleys across the country during the W. Bush and Trump presidencies, attracting the attention of the Secret Service. His street-theater musical Mr. Satan Goes to Wall Street performed outside both 2012 presidential conventions. He recently received grants from the California Arts Council and the Puffin Foundation. He is thrilled and grateful to be working once again with Sacred Fools - this is the fourth time they have produced an Oppenheim world premiere! (Produce me once, shame on me...) Jonas has developed an original sitcom with CBS and Warner Brothers, and he was a story producer on the final season of the unscripted true-crime series American Gangster: Trap Queens on BET+. Season 1 of his podcast sitcom, The Love Ark (it's The Love Boat on Noah's Ark!), is available everywhere. He has improvised comedy, made leftist radio, taught guerrilla theater, and performed in a wild rock'n'roll band. He was raised in Los Angeles, where he currently lives with his excellent wife, child, cat, and garden. I am now switching to the first-person tense to express immense gratitude to everyone who has ever worked on, attended, or otherwise supported one of my shows. Also free Palestine & permanent ceasefire posthaste pleeeeease!

Joyce Hutter | Property Designer

Joyce Hutter (she/her) is delighted to return to the Hollywood Fringe as property designer for not one but three Hollywood Fringe Shows this year: Pure Cinema, Vivian Vance Is Alive and Well and Running a Chinese Take-Out, and THE PLANET EARTH FAREWELL CONCERT. Joyce flourishes as an artist, designer, filmmaker, and puppeteer. She is a recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for distinguished achievement in puppet and mask design. Her recent theater design work includes Brushstroke (Prop & Scenic Design/Odyssey Theater) and Mamma Mia! (Prop Design/Milken HS Performing Arts Department); Eurydice (Set Design/Little Fish Theatre); The Braille Legacy (Scenic & Video Design/Theatre by the Blind); Housewife '52 (Puppet Design/Kick Boom Theatre); On the Way to Oregon (Scenic Design/ArtsUp! LA); Waiting for Waiting for Godot (Prop Design/Sacred Fools Theater). Joyce is also the artistic director of Strings & Things Puppet Theatre, a non-traditional, socially responsible puppet theatre, and producer of Nite At The Puppet Asylum, an offbeat puppetry slam for adult audiences as part of the Puppet Slam Network.

Ryan Thomas Johnson | Musical Director

Ryan Thomas Johnson (he/him) Ovation Award-winning composer and music director Ryan Thomas Johnson has been working with Sacred Fools ever since 2010's Forbidden Zone: Live in the 6th Dimension. Since then, he has written music for their productions Stoneface, Watson, Neverwhere and others. His original musical Deadly, created with book writer Vanessa Claire Stewart, premiered at the Broadwater in 2019. He provided music for a couple shows at the Pasadena Playhouse, the feature film Match by director Sean McGinly, and has a few cues in the show SpyOps on Netflix. He's jammed with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Sia Furler at the Orpheum. His choral work has been performed by the Munich Orpheus Choir. He plays in the artsy metal band Circle of Sighs, noise group Nyte Vypr, and EDM duo Hell Money. When he was 18, he starred in a movie where he killed a T-Rex with a forklift. He works out every day, eats salad, and brings his own bags to the grocery store.

Scott Leggett | Producer

Scott Leggett (he/him) is a Fringe veteran, having won Best Two-Person Play, along with Nedra Gallegos for Ronnie Larsen's If I'm Good. He performed multiple characters in Burglars of Hamm's critically acclaimed production of Resa Fantastiskt Mystisk, which won Top of Fringe in 2017. He was Monster in Cookie and the Monster at the HFF '15, which won Best Ensemble. He earned praise playing Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle opposite French Stewart in the critically acclaimed Pasadena Playhouse production of Stoneface: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Buster Keaton. At Sacred Fools, he played the titular character in Watson: The Last Great Tale of the Legendary Sherlock Holmes as well as its sequel. He studied theater at Penn State University and has appeared in several films, commercials and TV shows. Scott is also an accomplished director, having staged the hugely successful adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere at Sacred Fools. He also directed The Poe Show, which won Best Comedy at the HFF '15, and Skullduggery: The Musical Prequel to Hamlet. He currently serves as the Producing Director / Interim Artistic Director for Sacred Fools.

Ben Rock | Projection Designer

Ben Rock (he/him) is an award-winning director and projection designer. Directing credits include Baal, Richard III, Occupation and The Sirens of Titan. He designed projections for Mercury (The Road), Stoneface (Pasadena Playhouse) and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Sacred Fools), as well as Sci-Fest, Empire Burlesque (Broad Stage) and Driving Wilde (Theatre of NOTE). His film work ranges from production designing The Blair Witch Project to numerous features, shorts, web series, and audio projects. You can see his work at benrock.com.