The Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer will include an original musical – “The Family Copoli” – written, performed and produced by alumni and students from the Department of Performing and Media Arts (PMA) in the College of Arts and Sciences.
The “post-apocalyptic burlesque and re-population play” is the brainchild of playwright Andy Colpitts ’26, a doctoral candidate in PMA, and composer Michael Wookey. With a folk-pop score inflected with cabaret stylings and golden-aged Broadway callbacks, the musical explores entertainment at the end of days and the limits of family love.
A production of “The Family Copoli” was staged at the Schwartz Center in 2023 and the cast and crew say they are thrilled to be bringing a new iteration to an international stage.
“[When] I performed in a musical at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year, ‘The Family Copoli’ resurfaced in my mind,” said Liv Licursi ’25, director and lead producer of the new version of the play. “I thought that it was the perfect show to bring to the fringe, as it is an ode to performers who travel all around trying to affect the world with their work.”
“The Family Copoli” follows a traveling troupe in the year 2097, decades after a devastating solar super-flare decimates Earth's population. Their vaudevillian burlesque shows are aimed at inspiring survivors to copulate and repopulate and save humanity from extinction, even though behind the scenes, family secrets threaten the troupe’s ability to carry on.
“The show asks, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, how art fundamentally serves the needs of humans and of the earth,” said Colpitts, a doctoral candidate in performing and media arts. “When is "entertainment" not (just) a question of diversion or delight, but of carrying on in a collective and existential sense?”
To mount the show for Edinburgh, Licursi formed a production company and brought on four Cornell alumni as co-producers: Raahi Menon ’23; Daniela Rodriguez-Chavez ’23; Kenny Aune ’24; and Jake Duffles ’24. In addition, Caro Ryan ’24 is director of design; Ana Mocklar ’27 is costume head and Zoe Buddie ’24 is assistant director.
Five members of the original production are returning: Licursi, Buddie, Oscar Llodra ’25, Emily Rubinstein ’25, and Tess Lovell ’24. And five new additions have been cast: Justin Lee ’26, Cecilia Wagner ’25, Jack Henigan ’25, Katherine Lynn-Rose ’25 and Astrid "AJ" James ’27.
“In true Family Copoli fashion, our cast members are also all associate producers, as they are helping with crowdfunding and piecing the show together,” said Licursi.
“With this run of ‘The Family Copoli’ I want to lean into the grime and grit of what the Family would be experiencing in this post-apocalyptic world- asking what does post-apocalyptic attempting, but failing, at glitz and glam look like?” Licursi said. “We are also planning to lean into burlesque and drag more intensely than we did in 2023. This piece is relevant and pressing right now, as it contains themes regarding what the fallout of a world that failed to create sustainable systems, both environmentally and politically, looks like.”
“I've been so delighted and honored to see the students who were part of the 2023 workshop run with this show and make it their own,” Colpitts said. “They've put so much time, talent, and care into this production, and rehearsals haven't even started yet. Theatre is inherently collaborative. So, as much as Michael and I are the writers of this show and it reflects our vision, I've never wanted to be the final authority on the story. I am sure they will do things with this show that I would have never imagined – and that's thrilling. I can't wait to see what it becomes.”
“The process of bringing together a team, leading people to become inspired by and passionate about a new project and building something from the bottom up feels purely electric to me,” Licursi said. “I love what I am doing, I love my team, and I believe in this piece to its core.”
The production is currently raising funds to cover expenses for the cast and crew. Visit their Indiegogo page to support.
Beatrice Fenyes-Gartenberg is communications coordinator for the Department of Performing and Media Arts.
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