Lions | 2026

Thank you for joining us at Lions! We are excited to be back at the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time since we came in 2018 with Underground Railroad Game.

If you enjoyed the show, please tell your friends and your dads to come see it and leave us a review on our EdFringe page!

We’re visiting from Philadelphia with five other incredible shows that we highly recommend checking out. If you see all six, you win a prize… Click below to read about all the shows!

CREATIVE TEAM

Written and Performed by Alice Yorke and Scott R. Sheppard

Directed and Developed by Sarah Blush

Scenic and Prop Designer: Colleen Murray

Lighting Designer: Masha Tsimring

Associate Lighting Designer: Christopher Bowser

Costume Designer: Rebecca Kanach

Sound Designer: Johnny Gasper

Stage Manager: Mason Rosenthal

Promotional Photos: Emilie Krause

Production Photos: Ashley Smith, Wide Eyed Studios

Lions premiered as part of Cannonball 2025 and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

PRESS AND ACCOLADES FROM OUR 2025 PHILLY FRINGE RUN

Steinberg/ATCA New Play Finalist in 2026

Broad Street Review

[Lions] records the administrative minutiae of dying, evoking the equal measures of dignity, pomp, and absurdity that descend in death’s aftermath…. The longtime rapport between Sheppard and Yorke as performers adds humor and richness to even the smallest moments throughout the tight 70-minute runtime…. I hope this show about dead dads has a long life beyond this year’s festival. 

Philadelphia Inquirer

“8 Shows We’ve Loved at the Philly Fringe Fest So Far”

[Yorke and Sheppard] remind us, too: How you want to be remembered is not always how it will happen. Lions made me laugh, cry, and consider my doomed legacy

Lions Creative Team Bios

Sarah Blush (Director) directs, writes and develops original projects for theatre, TV and more. Select directing: Racecar Racecar Racecar by Kallan Dana (A.R.T. NY); Bailey Williams’ Coach Coach (Clubbed Thumb), Events (The Brick), & I thought I would die but I didn’t (The Tank/ TimeOut Critics Pick); Future Wife: Party in a Spreadsheet by reid tang (New Georges); Sehnsucht (JACK/ NYT Critics Pick). Residencies/ awards: Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellowship, New Georges Audrey Residency, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, Colt Coeur Artist Residency, Barn Arts Residency, New York Society Library’s Emerging Female Artist Grant. Guest directing/ teaching: NYU Graduate Acting, AADA, UAlbany, NYU Meisner, Playwrights Horizons & Atlantic Studios. Sarah’s original TV pilot (co-written with Sofya Levitsky-Weitz) was developed with Lionsgate and Peacock.

Johnny Gasper (Sound Design) is a sound & video designer, musician, and performer. Notable and recent designs include “Camino Real” (Williamstown Theatre Festival - by Tennesee Williams, directed by Dustin Wills); “Two Sisters Find a Box of Lesbian Erotica In The Woods” (Rattlestick/New Georges, at HERE - by Bailey Williams & Emma Horwitz, directed by Tara Elliott; Drama Desk Nominee); “Salome” (Heartbeat Opera at Irondale Theater); “Wet Brain” (Playwrights Horizons - by John J. Caswell Jr., directed by Dustin Wills, sound co-design with Tei Blow; Obie Award, Lortel Nominee); “The Barbarians” (La Mama - by Jerry Lieblich, directed by Paul Lazar); “Racecar Racecar Racecar” (The Hearth, at ART/NY - by Kallan Dana, directed by Sarah Blush); “Coach Coach”, “Events”, and “I thought I would die but I didn’t” (Clubbed Thumb, The Brick, The Tank - by Bailey Williams, directed by Sarah Blush). He has performed with Advanced Beginner Group’s “I Understand Everything Better”; Elevator Repair Service’s “Seagull”; and Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble’s “The Art of Luv”, among others. MFA: PIMA, Brooklyn College.

Rebecca Kanach*^ (Costume Design) (she/her) is a Barrymore Award–winning costume designer and founding member of The Bearded Ladies Cabaret and company member of Lightning Rod Special. A proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829, Rebecca formerly taught at the University of the Arts and holds an MFA from NYU Tisch. Recent credits: Once (New Light Theatre) Twelfth Night (DelShakes) Upcoming: Misery (Act II), Hansel und Gretel (Julliard) 

Colleen Murrary^ (Scenic+Props Design) is a Brooklyn based Scenic Designer. Selected design works, Blue Cowboy (Dir. Les Waters, Bushwick Starr), Coach Coach (Dir Sarah Blush, ClubbedThumb), Berlindia (Dir Noah Latty, The Tank), Gloria (Dir, Doug Hughes, JCT), Happy Days (Dir, Nico Krell, The Wild Project), OHIO (Caitlin Sullivan & Anne Kauffman, co-design with dots, Actors Theater Louisville), DIRT (Sour Milk), Cellino v. Barnes (David Rafailedes, & Michael Breen). colleenmurraydesign.com IG: @coll3enmurray

Scott R. Sheppard* (Writer/Performer) is an Obie Award-winning playwright and performer as well as a founding Co-Artistic Director of Lightning Rod Special. He is the co-creator and performer of “Underground Railroad Game,” (Ars Nova) which won an Edinburgh Fringe First Award and was named by the New York Times as one of the 25 Best Plays of the past 25 Years. Scott was a 2024 Finalist for the National Playwriting Conference (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center) and a semifinalist for the 2024 Terrence McNally Award with “Performance Department.” Lead Writer/Performer in Lightning Rod Special’s “The Appointment” (Best theater of 2023 in the New Yorker and Best of 2019 in Time Out New York and New York Magazine). Other credits include: co-writer/performer of “Nosejob” (2024 semifinalist for Eugene O’Neill Playwriting Conference) and lead writer/performer of “SPEECH” with Lightning Rod Special; writer of “Blood Meal” (New York Times Critics’ Pick) and “Topside” with Theater in Quarantine; Scott graduated from Pig Iron’s School for Advanced Performance Training and has collaborated on several works with Pig Iron Theatre Co. Scott was an Independence Foundation Fellow, a Bric Lab Resident, and a member of Page 73’s Writer’s Group. He is currently studying at The Juilliard School for playwriting and runs a wedding venue with his wife and friends in the Catskills called Adena Orchard. www.scottrsheppard.com.

Masha Tsimring^ (Lighting Design) Previously with Lighting Rod Special: The Appointment, Sans Everything; Off Broadway: Rheology, A Woman Among Women (Bushwick Starr); Six Characters (LCT3); Staff Meal (Playwrights Horizons); Grief Hotel (Clubbed Thumb); Sad Boys in Harpy Land (Playwrights Horizons/Abrons Art Center); Montag (Soho Rep). Regional: The Inspector (Yale Rep); Primary Trust (La Jolla Playhouse); Eternal Life, Part 1 (The Wilma); Dance/Opera: GEMS (LADP/Brisbane Festival); Don Giovanni (Music Academy of the West); Giulio Cesare (Hudson Hall); Friday Night Rat Catchers (Lisa Fagan/Lena Engelstein/NYLA); Plenum/Anima (LADP); Terce (Prototype); Me. You. We. They. (LA Dance Project/Paris Philarmonie); morning/mourning (Prototype/HERE); Deepe Darknesse (Lisa Fagan/Lena Engelstein/NYLA); Unstill Life (LA Dance Project); Rodelinda (Hudson Hall/Santa Fe Opera); Der Freischütz  (Wolf Trap Opera). She is a proud member of USA829. MFA Yale School of Drama. More info at www.mashald.com. 

Alice Yorke* (Writer/Performer) is an actor, theatermaker, and founding Co-Artistic Director of Lightning Rod Special. She is the lead creator of LRS’s highly lauded musical satire of the abortion debate, The Appointment (WP Theater: Best of 2023 Theater, The New Yorker; “Should Have Been Nominated for a Tony,” New York Times. NYTW Next Door: Best of 2019 Theater, New York Times, Time Out New York, and New York Magazine). With LRS: performer/creator: Nosejob (Barrymore nomination), SPEECH, Sans Everything, Let the Dog See the Rabbit and Hackles; creative producer: Underground Railroad Game (2015). Select performance credits include Much Ado About Nothing (Lantern Theater), Franklin’s Key (Pig Iron Theatre Company), Can’t Forget About You and Once Upon a Bridge (Inis Nua), The Gap (Azuka Theatre, Barrymore nomination). Alice and LRS are current Next Forever fellows at Princeton University. “Best Theatre Talent in Philadelphia” – Philadelphia Magazine. 2026 Creative Capital Awardee. www.aliceyorke.com

*Denotes Lightning Rod Special company member

^Denotes United Scenic Artists Local 829 Member

Special Thanks to Scott and Alice’s families; the ICU team at Honor Health Scottsdale Thompson Peak Medical Center and the SICU team at Jersey Shore Medical Center; Christine Octavia Shaw; the Lantern Theatre; Schmear Bagel Parlor; Unicorn Bar and ASK of Kingston, NY; all the donors to our Edinburgh Fringe campaign

Thank you so much to the following people for their producer level-support of Lions in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. If you loved the show, it’s not too late to join this crew of Big Cats! Click HERE for more info.

JAGUARS

Paige Price

Max Tuttleman

COUGARS

Morgan Everitt

Sandi Foxx-Jones

Shelley Green and Michael Golden

Nancy Sheppard, in memory of Steven R Sheppard

LEOPARDS

Eve Chamberlain

Andy Cino

Mark Dichter

Nancy Lanham

Jonathan Lipson, in memory of Fern Zittler

Samuel Morgan

Kathleen Noonan

Kevin Purring

Dennis Quinn

Lynn Rusten

Gayle Smith