There's a play happening. Right now. It's a one person show about a woman who travels to Ireland and gets haunted by a Bog Man. It's not very good. 

There's another play happening. Right now. Inside the head of the actress playing the woman who travels to Ireland and gets haunted by a Bog Man.

She’s worried. She’s worried that the play is so bad that the spirit of the Bog Man has begun to haunt her. She’s worried about not finishing the play. She’s worried about finishing the play. She’s worried about going crazy. She’s worried about getting an exorcism. She’s worried about her health insurance.

In the aftermath of an act of sexual violence, a young woman finds comfort and community in the form of... stand up comedy? Or at least she tries. The local comedy scene isn’t real into jokes about being sexually assaulted, and she finds herself booted from the stage more than once until a local manager decides to give her a chance. But there’s one rule: she can’t talk about what happened to her. In response, she adopts the persona of “Trauma Queen” – a comedian and life coach (?) ready to joke about the worst thing that’s ever happened to you. Her career takes off, and Trauma Queen becomes a local hit until one of her bits is leaked online and her audience is suddenly much bigger than she ever intended. As she experiences the thrill of life as an Internet microcelebrity, it seems like everything’s getting better for her. She’s the people’s princess of group therapy, she’s got a cool new best friend, she’s booking gigs and headlining shows! But it’s not long before the very fame that she thinks saved her life puts her back in danger. Laughter is the best medicine, but how much can it actually heal? How long can you make fun of the worst thing that’s ever happened to you before you have to face the truth?

This developmental reading of Trauma Queen is a part of Fresh Squeezed, The Lemonade Stand's new works reading series built to bring new playwrights and collaborators into our community of artists. Fresh Squeezed gives playwrights a one-week intensive workshop process, followed by a public PWYC reading. This is the third installment of Fresh Squeezed and our first at Philly Fringe.