PERFORMER
“One of Francesca’s super powers as an artist is highlighting her own shame and finding where it intersects with the shame of her audiences. She then morphs that shared discomfort into a game where laughter ensues.”
As a performer, Francesca explores the overlap of alt-comedy, clowning, buffon, and burlesque. She can be found at venues across Philadelphia. She mostly performs her own projects (both collaborative and solo) but is also a skilled deviser and down to clown with other makers.
She trained at the Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance and has been making new work in the Philadelphia performance community since 2013.
SELECTED PROJECTS:
VILE
“It’s raunchy, authentic, and
hilarious... A fantastic piece of
performance art and a real gem of the Fringe.”
VILE is an award-winning solo show from Francesca Montanile Lyons that blends clown and bouffon in an exploration of muddling through depression, surviving rape culture, and drowning in modernity. Expect a riot of absurdity, tenderness, and the kind of laughter that feels more like a cathartic gag reflex. Ingredients include: greasy toes, green cellophane, a balloon penis, and a side of BDSM.
VILE has toured nationally to US Fringe Festivals in Providence, Indianapolis, Philadelphia and Minneapolis.
WINNER:
Encore Series Cannonball Festival
Golden Lanyard MN Fringe
Created by Francesca Montanile Lyons. Set/props design and outside-eye support by Alicia Crosby. Sound design by Tom Carman. Illustrations and animations by Francesca Montanile Lyons.
“Brilliantly weird... Girl Poop gives me permission to love myself.”
GIRL POOP
Girl Poop was a clown/burlesque band specializing in Pussy Pop Rock-their style of short, high-octane ditties inspired by first-person experience and set to simple, catchy beats. They served up original tunes about sex, shame, self love, and secret pleasures.
Performed and Created by Alicia Crosby, Kelly Conrad, Francesca Montanile Lyons, and Megan Thibodeaux. Music Composition/ Arrangement with Terran Scott.
The Hopefuls
The Hopefuls were a satirical, theatrical punk band that covered the 2016 presidential elections based in Philadelphia, PA.
Between June 2015 and November 2016 they played sixteen shows. Their work was presented by First Person Arts and the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship at Haverford College. Our PUNK ELECTION FANTASIA received support from the Knight Foundation via Citizen University’s Joy of Voting Initiative.
Co-created and performed by John Chandler Hawthorne, Francesca Montanile Lyons, Jenna Strusowski, Sara Vanasse, and Michael T. Williams.
Nellie/
nellie
“Extraordinary physical performances… I was blinking back tears at the end.”
Nellie/Nellie is a devised stage adaptation ofNellie Bly’s Ten Days in A Madhouse with original music and ensemble movement. Created and produced by Antigravity Performance Project for the 2014 Philadelphia Fringe.
Co-created and performed by Alicia Crosby, Johanna Kasimow, Alex Kryger, Francesca Montanile, Megan Thibodeaux, Sara Vanasse, Michael T. Williams (Director), Andalyn Young, Ilse Torlin Zoerb, Noah Levine, Michael Costagliola, Kyle Dacuyan, and Ned Riseley.
Image Credits: Lillian Ransijn, Ashley Smith/Wide Eyed Studios, John C. Hawthorne, Andrew O’Neill, IndyGhost, Chelsea Schryver, Lindsay Browning, Garrett Allen, Pete Rose, JJ Tiziou.