Lightning Rod Special Launches Three-Part Audio Series With NOSEJOB

Lightning Rod Special is launching Sound Break, a new series of audio works made in LRS's signature explosive style. These three brand-new audio shows to be released throughout 2021 are designed for at-home listening, available for free online to all listeners. Sound Break is theater when and where you want it.

Kicking off the series is Nosejob, a work that crosses medieval legend with American sexual politics. Co-written by Lee Minora and Scott R. Sheppard along with director/creator Nell Bang-Jensen and creator Matteo Scammell, Nosejob tells the story of a 9th century abbey of nuns who cut off their noses to repel a pack of rapacious vikings, and a 21st century college, where boys are "burying" their faces in girls' cleavage as part of a schoolwide prank. At the center of this wicked satire is college student Devon Chase, a feminist in search of a fantasy life she can live with.

With sound design by Kathy Ruvuna, Nosejob charts the countours of consent, power, and fantasy to ask what has changed about rape culture in the last 13 centuries. Nosejob is performed by Cathy Ang, Melanye Finister, Annette Hammond, Lee Minora, Matteo Scammell, Scott R. Sheppard, and Leah Walton.

Nosejob is the first of what will be 3 new audio works presented by award-winning theater company Lightning Rod Special and will be available for free online to the public starting on April 16th, 2021 on the Lightning Rod Special website, lightningrodspecial.com. Or light some votive candles, slip on a pair of your favorite headphones, and join LRS artists for the virtual listening party premiere of Nosejob on April 15th. RSVP for the listening party HERE.

Nosejob asks fresh questions about where we get fodder for our erotic fantasies and what we're supposed to do when they don't line up with our waking values. How does a 4th wave feminist justify her 2nd wave fantasies? And why does this labor and scrutiny so often fall on the shoulders of those who are victims of sexual predation?

Nosejob was inspired by two true stories. Sort of. The first is this true story from writer Lee Minora:

"It's really absurd looking back on it. One day in high school a boy in my class shouted out "Bury!" and then shoved his face in my female classmate's chest. The guys all laughed. The girl laughed and protested. But then this phenomenon of 'Bury' just kept going. The whole act was completely outrageous. Looking back I think we, the girls, saw it as a really backwards way of flirting and definitely not as a threat. Rather it was a sort of desirable nuisance, like bragging about being "too busy." Of course we knew not to tell any adults. It never really occurred to me to examine it at the time. It was just part of our reality, like how you couldn't wear a thong because when you walked up the stairs people would see up your skirt. And it never occurred to the school that girls shouldn't have to wear skirts when the only way to access classrooms was by stairs. It was just accepted that it would be the girl's responsibility to consider their underwear and plan accordingly."

The second story is of St. Aebbe the Younger, who lived in 9th Century Scotland among a small community of nuns. When Vikings descended upon their abbey, Aebbe inspired her fellow nuns to cut off their noses to avoid rape by the invaders. In the story, the nuns were still murdered by The Vikings, but because of this act of self-mutilation they retained their sexual purity, gained access to Heaven, and were lionized for centuries by all who read or heard their plight. Or so we were told. Was this story just part of early Christian propaganda, where monks fabricated salacious stories about saints' to draw pilgrims and their dollars to the church?

Nosejob was originally developed as a stage production and received developmental support as part of the 2019 Director Residency Program of The Drama League of New York. (Gabriel Stelian-Shanks, Executive Artistic Director; Travis Le Mont Ballenger, Associate Producer). When the pandemic hit, the piece was put on indefinite hold. As the creative team considered the ways that the piece could be translated to the medium of audio storytelling, the themes of fantasy and erotica already present in the piece rose to the forefront. The private nature of audio storytelling lends itself to a kind of intimacy and interiority that would not be possible as part of a theatrical production.