A $1,200 grant, a Cyr Wheel looking for a bigger stage, and a group of NEPA artists who’d never made a show together — that’s the unlikely origin of Wemore Theatre Troupe. Through Scranton Fringe’s Fringe Theater Lab, which pairs first-time collaborators with funding and support to build something original, that loose idea became Sixty to Curtain, a vaudeville-style musical about a rural theater troupe’s chaotic final dress rehearsal.

Created by Connor Simon and Lisa Glover of Wemore Theatre Troupe, the show plays Scranton Cultural Center Shopland Hall on Thursday, October 8 and Friday, October 9, both at 7:00 PM. We talked to Connor and Lisa about grief, rural life, and what happens when you put on a play with your friends.

In your own words, what is your show about?

Set in 2086, Sixty to Curtain is a musical about a ‘third-rate rural theater troupe’ that is struggling through a mess of a dress rehearsal ahead of their next big vaudeville-style performance at a new venue. Shenanigans abound: a magic trick unearths something unconventional, wheels come off the rails, and no one wants to take the place of the missing burlesque dancer. How any of these challenges and more can be resolved in the space of an hour may be Wemore’s biggest feat yet.

What sparked this piece?

Lisa: I had been on the look-out for opportunities to perform with my Cyr Wheel, and Scranton Fringe Festival was looking for shows that were, well, longer than three minutes. That said, the Fringe Festival website was advertising a unique opportunity: a Fringe Theater Lab, in which NEPA-based artists collaborating together for the first time could receive $1,200 and support to build something original. A goal of the lab was to strengthen the local art scene across NEPA and beyond Fringe.

Most of us have worked in small groups on various creative projects, but never all together in an original live performance capacity, and it sounded intriguing. We applied in February with a loose idea about a vaudeville-style musical set in the near-future and we found out in April that we’d been accepted.

What does “Fringe” mean to you as an artist?

Connor: This project wouldn’t exist without the prospect of a grant from the Scranton Fringe Festival. To us, “Fringe” is the thing pulling us together. I keep thinking of these fleece blankets my grandmother makes sometimes – they’ve got these stripped edges that she ties together in little knots to keep it from fraying. The knots in those fringes hold the blanket together. I like to think of our group like those little knots.

What do you want someone to feel — or think about differently — after seeing your show?

Connor: Life imitates art, right? There is so much of this show that has proven true for us. We didn’t originally set out to write a musical about grief or reflect deep traumas within ourselves, but that’s what we ended up with. My hope is that something – anything resonates with you on a deeper level and causes you to think about yourself, the world, and where you fit within it.

Lisa: Rural is often under-resourced, and yet rural people make incredible things happen. Often they get it done because community comes together to fill in the gaps, which is both a feature of our story itself and something we’ve experienced in bringing this show to life. I hope that this show, in its own way, reminds suburban and city folks that rural isn’t a monolith—if you’ve seen one small town, you’ve seen one small town. And I hope it helps to foster further curiosity and interest in rural stories and voices, which I believe will build greater understanding and appreciation between people from all places.

What’s been the hardest or most surprising part of making this?

Connor: The biggest challenge through this entire project – and also the biggest gift – has been managing communication and personal relationships. If you ever want to test your ability to keep a group together or form consensus, put on a play with your friends. There have been some ups and downs through the process, some heartbreak, too, but we’ve managed to come through it as a closer company than when we started and that’s amazing. For as challenging as it can be sometimes, the reward can be a tighter community, closer friendships, and better communication.

Lisa: I’ve always been a creative person, but I’ve also felt very strongly about where my space to be creative was…and wasn’t. Singing, acting, dancing, these felt mortifyingly off-limits to me since middle school. In this show I’m doing all three. But again, because of the support of those around me, I feel like I can take a creative leap into a new-to-me-space and know I’ll be okay.

Catch Sixty to Curtain at Scranton Cultural Center Shopland Hall on Thursday, October 8 and Friday, October 9, both at 7:00 PM, as part of the 2026 Scranton Fringe Festival. Buy tickets here.