“A cleverly poignant, one-woman show…This cathartic expedition of self-doubt and self-discovery is touching and quiet, much like the ukulele that serves as a good portion of her accompaniment.”
– On Stage Pittsburgh
“I was thoroughly captivated by almost every word and gesture…this is definitely one play to take note of.” – Pittsburgh-owlscribe.blogspot
“Young’s show is part standup, and part folk concert…[it] is a surprise. It’s a wonderfully uplifting tale about Young at her lowest moments, but from the depths of despair she reaches the heights of joy and the audience goes right along with her.” – burghvivant.org
Oct. 6 - Oct. 21, 2023
When Jesus Divorced Me
Written and performed by
Laura Irene Young
Directed by
Allison Weakland
She was married to the man of her dreams. Shortly after their wedding, he is cast at a theme park where he either plays Jesus or crucifies him everyday at 3. She tries to be proud of her husband in his new endeavor. Not until a princess from a neighboring theme park comes into the picture, does she realize something is amiss. Now, she is left with the weird and weirdly funny aftermath.
A story about how we deal we life's messes and breakups. This surprising folk-music concert from Laura Irene Young expertly moves from gut busting to gut punching: with a score that is equally cheeky and vulnerable you won’t want to miss this show.
`About The Show
"My friend's ex-husband played Jesus and he left her for Mary Magdalene and said God wanted them to be together and she was the one in the way."
This has been an odd story told at parties for several years. We might as well tell it in a theatrical production complete with music! A look back at a crucial ten years, Laura examines the odd love story that she lived, along with the emotional debris left behind after the explosion.
The story is tragic but also way too weird to be taken 100% seriously.
The Love Story
Every divorce starts off a love story....
and here is this one. These two actors became friends during a summer in Ohio. A simple summer stock contract, after meeting online through mutual friends created a quick friendship. That friendship turned into love. They helped each other with monologues, audition packages, write shows, and travel to different cities for auditions and contracts. They eventually got married. The bride was religious and the groom was not. The groom went to an audition for a Christian Theme Park and was cast in all of their shows, including the crucifixion of Jesus. The bride was excited to see her husband slowly become religious, until...he left his bride for an actor playing Mary Magdalene. You may have heard of her.
The Playwright
Laura Irene Young is a creative individual from Pittsburgh, PA. She has been in several outdoor dramas, tours, a professional jellyfish, and the background extra in lots of television shows filmed in Atlanta. She is known to write a screenplay, play, or novel about anything that happens to her. Sometimes, when something makes her very sad, she will write a comedic song to process her emotions.
Laura Irene Young
Laura Irene Young has been a writer, director, and actor for many years. Favorite acting credits include Julie in After Miss Julie, Marian Paroo in The Music Man, and Lorraine in Bubble Boy. A lover of odd contracts, Laura Irene Young also performed as a jellyfish, in an Amish Musical, and as a zombie apocalypse survivor. Laura Irene Young co-directed the 2022 season of Hershey Park Dark Nights and directs a local elementary school musical featuring over 125 children every year. She has written a children's book series, The Dapper Adventures, based on her dog. Dapper teaches kids how to live with anxiety and still go on adventures. Laura is currently writing a few more shows that will soon see the light of day. www.lauraireneyoung.com
Allison Weakland
Allison M. Weakland (Director)made her New York City debut in the fall of 2011 when she directed Take Two Aspirin and Call Me in the Morning for The Manhattan Theatre Source’s Estrogenius Festival. She is thrilled to return to off the WALL Productions after directing Not Medea in 2019. In the greater Pittsburgh area, she has directed for many companies including South Park Theatre, Old Schoolhouse Players, Little Lake Theatre, Throughline Theatre Company, and Prime Stage Theatre. Allison had the wonderful opportunity to assistant direct the Broadway hit Seminar and the world premiere of Hope and Gravity at City Theatre. Allison earned her BA in Performance and Technical Theatre from Seton Hill University.
Natalie Rose Mabry
Natalie Rose Mabry (she/they) Is a Trans-Queer Scenic & Projections Designer. They Recently Moved From Dallas to Pittsburgh as the Resident Artist aNATALIE nd Teaching Artist at the University of Pittsburgh.Natalie Is the Recipient of the Bill and Gene Eckhart Award for Excellence In Stage Design and, the Taubman Scholarship For Excellence In Stage Design. They Have Designed for Theatres Such as the The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Dallas Theater Center, Shakespeare Dallas, Stage West Theatre, Dallas Childrens Theater, Theatre Three, and more. Natalie Is a Trans-Queer Designer Focusing on Stories for a New and Modern Audience and Making Space for Trans Designers Voices.
You can find them via: IG: @nrmabryartistry.
Website: natalierosemabry.art
THE TEAM
Shannon Knapp
Shannon Knapp (Sound Design)
Shannon (she/her/hers) is a director, sound designer, all-around theatremaker, and the Director of Marketing for the Pittsburgh Playhouse. She holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Pittsburgh
and most recently served as Communications
Manager for HowlRound Theatre Commons. Shannon has spent the last decade developing plays and irreverent publicity schemes with her close collaborators at Non-State Actors as well as working frequently with off the WALL productions and Throughline Theatre Company. When
not playing theatre make-believe, she plays Dungeons and Dragons make-believe.
Jennifer Leno
Jen Leno (she/they) is a Lighting Designer, Photographer, and Generative Artist working out of Brooklyn, NY. She obtained her MFA in Lighting Design from Brooklyn College (2023) and holds a BFA in Painting from the Honors College at Southern Connecticut State University (New Haven, CT), (2014). Jen has worked professionally in technical theater since 2014 and in New York City since 2016 as a Lighting Designer, Assistant Technical Director (Hunter College), Head Electrician, ETC Programmer, Board Op, Stagehand, and Stage Manager. Their love for theater blossomed out of a 14-year, childhood dance career and small, but impactful theatrical performance history. As a multidisciplinary artist, Jen maintains that Lighting Design is the ideal career to utilize both her creative and problem-solving brains.Diversified collaboration is central to Jen's values as a theater maker. Working with people of underrepresented identities including the BIPOC, AAPI, and especially the LGBTQIA+ communities, is essential to their process and ambitions to continue the work of decentralizing the historically white, cis-male dominated perspective in the technical theater industry. She believes higher educational institutions can provide students from all backgrounds with hands-on skills that can empower them to establish financial and job security in our tumultuous and unpredictable artistic economy. For this reason they are pursuing a career in both Lighting Design and Higher Education.
Erika Cuenca
Erika Cuenca (Stage Manager) Is Associate Artistic Director with off the WALL Productions and the General Manager for Carnegie Stage. Stage Management with OTW: Mother Lode ('23), Etty, What Kind of Woman, Not My Revolution, Limits of Things, or The Mess. Some favorite PGH performance credits include: Gloria (Hatch Arts Collective); The Heiress, Travesties (PICT); The Diary of Anne Frank, L'Hotel (Pittsburgh Public Theater); Tigers Be Still, Opus (City Theatre); August: Osage County, A View From the Bridge, (Playhouse REP); Closer, The Red Shoes (Quantum); Lebensraum, Mazel (JTOP); Hoard, World Builders, Byhalia, Mississippi, 4.48 Psychosis, Scared of Sarah, Or,, A Feminine Ending, Gruesome Playground Injuries, The Other Place, How I Learned to Drive, Agnes of God, Stop Kiss, Shaken and Stirred (OTW). Erika is a graduate of Point Park's Conservatory of Performing Arts and a member of Actors' Equity Association.
