Dear Diary LOL

Lead Artist: Francesca Montanile Lyons

• ShowBiz NYC calls us, “The funniest show I’ve seen in ages…The audience went ballistic at curtain call–and rightly so, this one’s a keeper.”
• Emily Cordes of Theatre Is Easy says, “As audiences’ steady giggles and “awws” attest, Dear Diary LOL is as relatable as it is funny, inviting us to empathize with our younger selves as we laugh at their extremes. Beneath its hot-pink surface beats a tender heart and the universal queries of adolescence.”
• Broad Street Review writes, “Antigravity achieves more than nostalgic fun-poking, exploring a uniquely turbulent time of life with brutal honesty.”
• Phindie writes, “The text is deliciously naive, sincere, and honest, delivered with joyful reference.”

Dear Diary LOL is a comedic theatre work born verbatim from the real-life tween-teen diaries of the show’s creators. Antigravity’s devising ensemble of high-octane funny women invites you to cringe, laugh, and cry at their most earnest desires, deepest fears, secret shames, and terrible poetry written as coming-of-age girls in the late 90s/early 2000s.

The piece explodes its source diaries with moments of direct address, music, dance, and physical comedy, colliding the style of melodrama with the inherent humor found in the earnestness of young girlhood musings (with all the benefits of hindsight). These tumultuous coming-of-age years are explored from a female perspective, providing an intimate glimpse of the ways these young girls come to understand the world around them, form a self, and use their voices as they experiment with their malleable identities and budding adulthood.

Directors Francesca Montanile Lyons & Michael T. Williams

Performer-Creators Kelly Conrad, Alicia Crosby, Nikki Hudgins, Jessica Johnson, Francesca Montanile Lyons, Jenna Strusowski, Megan Thibodeaux, and Michael T. Williams

Lighting Designer Kate McGee

Sound Designer Tom Carman

Set Artists Alicia Crosby & Megan Thibodeaux

Produced by Eleanor Regan, Michael T. Williams, & Antigravity

Publicity by DARR Publicity

Additional Devisors: Sarah Knittel, Gina Elizabeth Murdock, Riva Rubenoff, and Andalyn Young

Diaries by Alicia Crosby, Naomi Inoshita, Sarah Knittel, Francesca Montanile Lyons, Megan Thibodeaux, Nikki Hudgins

Dear Diary LOL was supported in part by a grant from Small But Mighty Arts and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant. Dear Diary LOL received support from the New York Theatre Workshop annual Usual Suspects summer residency at Adelphi University and Bethany Arts Community. An initial iteration of this piece was presented at the 2015 Pig Iron School “Dares” Festival under the title “This Song Is For You.”

Dear Diary LOL was presented by New Ohio Theatre’s Ice Factory Festival in July of 2018, guest curated by Pig Iron Theatre Company with an Encore Run in New Ohio’s Fall Season September 2018. Originally self-produced by Antigravity in 2017 Neighborhood FringeArts Festival before 2-show run on FringeArts’ Main Stage January 2018.