Now Playing
at Philadelphia Fringe Festival’s Cannonball Festival
September 9–23, 2026
Creative Team
Shelby Richardson
Lead Artist/Playwright and Performer
Paul Kruse
Director/Designer & Devisor
MK Tuomanen
Performer/Devisor
Sigh C. K.
Performer
Elah Sol
Performer
Morgan Porter
Costume Designer
Margo Cramer
Stage Manager and Light Designer
Joseph J. Kruse
Carpenter
In 1950s America, the field of “domestic economics” flourished. Universities began offering degrees in Motherhood, training students in early childhood development, nutrition, and infant care. But what is such an education without hands-on training? Enter the “Practice Baby.” Sourced from local orphanages, 6–18-month-old babies were brought to a university facility and raised by multiple student “mothers.” The rotating cast of babies would all share the same name, shifting slightly to keep up with the times: Dickie, Dickie, Dicky, Donnie. From Fringe veteran MK Tuomanen (Applied Mechanics, Bearded Ladies Cabaret) and queer Minneapolis artists Shelby Richardson (We Are Married) and Paul Kruse (Hatch Arts Collective), this show is a vulnerable look at the love-longing of childhood. Using clown, drag, and a rich visual design palette, we watch the Dickies try desperately to understand how to stay in the good graces of incomprehensible adults while clinging to the true companionship of a sibling.
Cannonball is the largest hub of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, championing a revolutionary artist-led model that prioritizes equity, experimentation, and community connection. Now in its sixth year, Cannonball presents more than 100 artists across five stages, representing nearly 30 percent of the overall Philadelphia Fringe Festival. From rebellious circus and delicious dance to fearless theater and activist art, Cannonball pushes the boundaries of live performance while creating a vibrant, artist-centered ecosystem for independent performance makers and adventurous audiences alike.
About the Artists
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Shelby Richardson (they/them) is an autistic, trans theater-maker who lives and works in Minneapolis, called “Best Actor in the Twin Cities” (City Paper, 2017). They direct, act, and write for theater and television. With their LLC We Are Married, they created projects such as RICH DOGS (Jungle Theater), TWO ROSSES (ANT Fest NYC) and a site-specific real estate spoof, HOUSE F**KER. They have recently directed at the Playwright’s Center and at the Jungle Theater. Current projects include their collaboration with Paul Kruse and Mk Tuomanen called BETTY, and a play about the process of learning to sing called Voice Lesson. They are also a boxer and an astrologer.
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MK Tuomanen (they/them) is a 2026 McKnight Fellow and a 2023-25 Jerome Fellow in playwriting, as well as a 2017 Haas Emerging Artist Award winner. They won the 2025 Terrence McNally Award for Night Science (developed at the Wilma, Playwrights’ Center, and Philadelphia Theater Company), a 2017 Philadelphia Award for their play, Peaceable Kingdom, and Barrymore Award nomination for their play Marcus/Emma (Interact 2017). Called "Best Theater Artist" by Philadelphia magazine, MK's touring solo works include Hello! Sadness!, Saint Joan Betrayed and Consider the Cow. They are a member of Applied Mechanics, an associated artist with the Bearded Ladies Cabaret and a member of the Minneapolis collective BETTY. MK was educated at the Lecoq School in Paris. www.mkplays.com
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Paul William Kruse (he/him) tells Queer love stories. As a playwright and media artist from Western Wisconsin, his work flows from his Midwestern roots and ever-evolving experience of family. He was a 2023–2025 Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and a cohort member of Audible’s third Emerging Playwrights Fund. Paul’s plays have been produced by Adjusted Realists in Brooklyn, NY; Quantum Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA; the Vortex Theater in Austin, TX; and in high schools around the country. Paul was a fellow with the Michener Center for Writers from 2017–2020, and from 2012–2022, Paul was resident playwright and co-founder of Pittsburgh’s Hatch Arts Collective. www.paulwkruse.com
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Morgan Porter (she/her) is a costume technician, designer, and educator for theater, opera, and ballet. She holds a BFA in Theater Design and Technology from the University of South Dakota, and moved to Philadelphia in 2017 where she began freelancing and teaching. Morgan is a proud member of IATSE 799, Philadelphia’s local costume union, where she continues to advocate for the rights of costume workers. You can see examples of Morgan’s work at Opera Philadelphia, The Walnut Street Theater, and the Arden Theater. You can also catch her in the classroom at Moore College of Art and Design.
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Sigh C. K. (she/her) is a Philadelphia based performer, singer/songwriter, and actor. She grew up performing and creating in the city and has had the pleasure of working with companies such as Pig Iron Theatre Company (Period of Animate Existence), Swim Pony (Trailoff: The Land Remembers), Nichole Canuso | Branching Paths (The Garden), and Theatre Exile (Tommy and Me). She loves animals, even when her dog tries to sing along when she records, and spends as much of her free time with them as possible. She's thrilled to join the cast of this wacky project and the wonderful minds involved.
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Elah Sol (he/they) is a multidisciplinary multilinguist. Previous credits include Bearded Ladies Cabarets’ Do You Want A Cookie, You Can Never Go Down The Drain, and performing in the debut of Contradict This at both Cherry St. Pier and LaMama New York. More recently, they performed in Chiori Miyagawa’s Migrations. You can see them this Fringe in the Bearded Ladies’ Priority Hoarding. They recently graduated Bard College with a degree in The Written Arts and Japanese Studies, and continue to pursue research on Fujoshi and transgender cultures.
