By Cecelia Otis

1. You have a multitude of skills and titles that influence and enhance your work, i.e., artistry, acting, writing, directing, etc. You have also been producing your work for many years. How did you get started in this profession? What drew you to the performing arts in the first place?

• I was lucky to have parents who were involved in local arts growing up – my mom volunteered for the theatre in Charlottesville that brought out of town shows in and she also went to different schools telling folks stories herself. My parents also took me to a lot of plays and got my brother and I involved in the children’s theatres that would pass through town and put on plays. Later, I felt like I needed to choose between being an artist and having a sustainable career, but thankfully, I now get to do both.

2. You have received many degrees in Sociology, Acting, and Devising, which are included in the subject matter of your work. What inspired you to pursue these degrees? How did you know you wanted to include those subjects in your productions?

• When I was a kid in school, I developed theories to figure out why some kids were cool and I wasn’t so I could game the system. Then I took my first sociology class, I realized there was a whole academy of nerds who wanted to understand things like that too! Now, more than ingratiating myself with my peers, I’m interested in how we function in relationships and in society, especially in order to consider how we might make society better, but I examine that through theatre and art rather than through a scholarly lens.

3. A lot of your work includes audience participation and engagement to create a sense of community in your productions. How does this mode of storytelling enhance the experience of your shows? How does including the audience in your shows affect the story of your work?

• I’m interested in the conversation that live theatre allows, which is different from other art forms. We get to affect one another in real time, in a more sensitive space. It’s sacred and ritualistic and spiritual, and there aren’t many spaces like that left in contemporary American life. I’m also excited by playing and experimenting with such a range of forms of participation, from an audience of one ambulatory experience where the audience member is the show and the actor, to more traditional proscenium shows where I might ask an audience member to interact with me in an isolated moment. But I think even if there is no “audience participation” at all, the audience still impacts the performance by virtue of being in the same space and giving their attention. Even with the lights off, we still feel each other and share breath.

4. As a solo artist, you created the show BFF, a show about one woman and her mannequin best friend traversing through post-apocalyptic America. Your work centers around serious and societal issues of modern life. What made you want to use these topics in your work? How do you think your work impacts the community?

• I create out of my own experiences and what’s on my mind. Whether or not I want to make work about the climate crisis and the feeling of impending doom in modern society, it’s what I think about all the time so it’s what comes out in my art. And then often, experiences from my own life provide the frame or the fodder within the show. To be honest, when I premiered my show Heart Ripped Out Twice And So Can You!, I was worried that audiences wouldn’t enjoy it because it was so personal, but the old wisdom held true that the personal is universal – people keep telling me they relate strongly to the show even though it’s an incredibly specific and personal story (wrapped inside a hypothetical about the audience). But even though my work talks about serious issues like dementia, ecocide, pain, and death, I create shows that I want to perform, so I write comedies or adventures or explore a new style I haven’t tried yet. I like to invent the mode but draw from my own life.

5. In some of your work, you have collaborated with several different people and organizations, like Lupine Performance Cooperative, Sohrab Haghverdi, and many others. What was it like working with other people to bring the projects alive? Any fond or favorite memories from your collaborations?

• Working with other people is hard! And often rewarding, because you make something you couldn’t have made alone, and you’re sharing the weight of the creative process and the execution. But also hard! I can be very single-minded sometimes in my creative opinions. Recently, I’ve been part of a creative process writing a show about the political moment we’re in and exploring the question of what we should do as people who are not willing to let fascism win. The devising process has involved like 14 performers creating the show together, and it has been such a pleasure going from being alone onstage to speaking in unison and playing with so many other incredible artists. But even writing Heart Ripped Out Twice involved other artists passing through the creative process and donating ideas. The whole frame of the sales pitch actually was a suggestion from one playwright friend who shaped a huge element of the show.

6. Aside from all of your performative work, you are also a teacher and have founded a playreading company called Queen City Queer Theatre Collective, which celebrates LGBTQIA+ stories. How has teaching and advocating affected your work? What kind of impact do you think it has on your community?

• Teaching helps me remember what I’m doing as a performer. I had one teacher say “everything with acting is 101” and it’s a good reminder in teaching others that everything is the basics: being present in the moment, being honest with the audience and yourself, and maximizing your pleasure and play as a performer. Of course, teaching is also about giving others the gift of mentorship that you received from others and passing forward what you’ve discovered by investigating the art form through your personal experiences and perspectives. But even more than enriching my work, my students have enriched my life, from the elementary kids I’ve worked with to the college students I taught. It’s an amazing gift to be able to be vulnerable with others in a classroom setting, specifically in an arts class, specifically in an art form that relies on presence and connection.

7. Your show is called My Heart Ripped Out Twice And So Can You!, which you will be performing at the Scranton Fringe Festival. What is your show about? What can audiences expect to see?

• I feel like I’ve dropped some hints in this interview, but this show is an energetic dark comedy that plays with a lot of props and absurdity to investigate the sometimes very hard experience of being alive. In the show, I play a sales representative selling an audience of memory-less energies in bardo on being reborn rather than passing into nirvana, but as I pitch the experience of being alive, I keep accidentally letting on about all the bad parts like physical and emotional pain. I’ve toured this show for four years to many different fringe festivals and theatres and it’s been really exciting for me to connect with other people through such a personal work and have so many people respond so strongly. Being a touring self-producing artist can be really exhausting and challenging (and expensive), but I feel so lucky to have been able to share this work with so many people who have laughed and been moved by it.

Linnea Bond’s show will be performed at the Scranton Fringe Festival on September 26th and 27th, 2025, at the Shakes Space in the Steamtown Mall. Tickets are on sale now- just click here – then and enjoy a night of laughter and deep questions!