THE PIZZA MAN to Open in Austin Before Heading to Edinburgh Fringe

Indie-Film darling and recently named Best Actress 2024 by the Austin Chronicle, Katie Folger returns this week with her new comedy, Getting in Bed with the Pizza Man written and performed by Katie Folger with direction by Matrex Kilgore.

Fresh from her Los Angeles premiere, the limited four-show engagement will play July 10-13, 2024 at Ground Floor Theatre, 979 Springdale Rd, Suite 122, Austin, TX. Tickets on sale now at katiefolger.com.

Once this engagement concludes on July 13, Katie will head to Scotland to debut Getting in Bed with the Pizza Man this August at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024.

“Edinburgh, here we come! When I first started developing my show, playing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe seemed like a distant and impossible dream. And just a year and a half later, it's happening,” said Folger. “Encoring the show in Austin is just the hometown love I need before taking the Pizza Man across the pond. We don't know when we'll be back in Austin (if ever!) so be sure to catch this thing before it travels up, up, and away! This weekend's pizza party is the place to be— come celebrate this massive achievement with us.”

Getting in Bed with the Pizza Man is a racy, whimsical one-woman show exploring the perils and thrills of sex and singledom post-pandemic by actress, writer, and comedienne Katie Folger. Originating as a backyard performance with 25 guests, the show saw additional workshops with close friends from being performed in a bedroom to a pizza shop to an art gallery to shooting an immersive living room performance to a highly successful Kickstarter campaign that brought this vision to the stage in Austin 2023.

Fully produced at the Crashbox Theatre in May of 2023, with two sold out weekends and rave reviews, Getting in Bed with the Pizza Man was named as a Top 10 Theatrical Moment of 2023 by the Austin Chronicle. Followed by an intimate workshop reading in LA in the Fall of 2023, Folger sowed the seeds for a fully produced premiere in Los Angeles May 2024.

Lauded as “witty, wise and phenomenal at physical comedy” by NOHO Arts, Folger recently played to enthusiastic houses in Los Angeles. Austin audiences will be in for a treat of comedic storytelling that's unabashedly feminine, sexy, glamorous, and provocative — kicking up the sheets for a lil sum'n different than the characteristic Austin grunge.

Getting in Bed with the Pizza Man Friday, July 12 and Saturday, July 13 performances will feature comedienne Stef Dag as an opening act. Dag is an actor, nationally touring stand-up comedian, and host and creator of the popular internet dating show Hot & Single.

Saddled between the white picket fence vision of older generations and the prevalence of “hook up culture,” fleeting situationships, and debauchery characteristic of dating in the 2020's, Getting in Bed with the Pizza Man asks: What do love and sex now look like? Is unbridled sexual exploration truly liberating? Where is home if you haven't found it with another person? And is there value in both tradition and exploration?

Written, produced and starring Katie Folger, Getting in Bed with the Pizza Man is directed by Matrex Kilgore. The production team also includes scenic design by Paola Cortés-Manthey, lighting design by Eric Gerzymisch, and costume design by Chrissy Paszalek. Rounding out the team is technical director Christopher Shea. Sound design by Lacy Strong.

Getting in Bed with the Pizza Man | July 10-13, 2024

Wednesday thru Friday at 8:00 pm | Saturday at 7:00 pm

**with Stef Dag opening Friday July 12 and Saturday July 13

Ground Floor Theatre | 979 Springdale Rd. Suite 122 | Austin, TX 78702

Tickets: Start at $40 plus applicable fees. Tickets available at katiefolger.com

Katie is a 30-year-old single woman fumbling with dating, sex, and boundaries in a rigidly boundaried pandemic world. On a dagger-tongued jump down a rabbit hole of beginner's sexual empowerment, Katie exits the circumstantially imposed monogamy of a reality where it isn't “exactly responsible to f*ck whomever you wanted when there was a deadly disease decimating significant portions of the population” with a wild(ish) woman's abandon. On her first trip since lockdown to San Francisco, a saucy, kismet run-in with an old crush Lane leads to an “invitation to magic”…and potential for a hedonistic week of love-making. But her highfalutin expectations for transcendent, plague-fee org*sms are humbled by a stinging admission from Lane. Feeling rejected and unsure of herself, Katie finds herself consumed with prospect of love and sex, rebelling against the roles she thinks she's supposed to play—pious girlfriend, perfect wife—with a teen's angst, mostly to no avail. But a seemingly lame, dead-end session with a psychic named White Raven gives unexpected way to that foreshadowed magic, setting Katie on a winding quest of sexual misadventure and discovery—a hippie cuddle-puddle, an illicit encounter with Lane's bestie, a curious collision with a pizza man—that ultimately centers Katie, sans pizza man, in her own delectable narrative.

Ages: This show is for ages 17+

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