Following its recent sold-out run in Gowanus, Brooklyn, Take Me to Dollywood has been curated into the historic La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club's 2026 season! We are remounting and upscaling the production, and while La MaMa generously provides us space to perform and rehearse, our production is responsible for all other expenses. With your help, we can reach our goal and bring this whimsical and heartfelt theatre experience to life.

What is Take Me to Dollywood?

Take Me to Dollywood offers a full-length collage of scenes and experiments with a queer southern twang. On a porch in the south, A faceless Dolly Parton haunts the stage as characters find themselves on the edge of relationships, sexuality, and reality. A woman has eaten her hand, a sexy gummy bear awaits certain death, two men meet for a hook-up, a boss rummages through his employees' desks, and the playwright details his sex life.

The Fool Volk is an emerging theatre collective that believes silliness goes hand in hand with change. They focus on re-framing and re-calibrating by creating work that takes advantage of the medium of theatre. The Fool Volk utilizes puppets, devising, tasks, games, jokes, classical theater, and experimental theatre.

Who is the playwright?

Harris Singer (He/Him/His) is a Georgia-born and New York City-based playwright, director, performer, and illustrator. He co-founded and is the artistic director of The Fool Volk. His work embodies a queer absurdist lens, probes artistic forms/structures, mixes mediums (puppetry, dynamic movement, horror, tattoo, performance art, food, etc), and most importantly bursts with whimsy. Harris argues for a theater that utilizes the medium to its fullest: taking advantage of audience participation, scent, the body, tasks, time, etc. Notable playwriting: Trying For Hedda (La MaMa ETC Experiments Play Reading Series), Take Me To Dollywood (The Fool Volk at St. Lydia’s Church) Charles and His Office (Cabaret Echo & Somewhere Nice Festival), Dodge: a queer drama, Cruising, Don & Bell (Broke People Play Festival), The Love Part (La MaMa Galleria: Queer Love Show)

What is La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club?

A staple of the New York theatre scene, La MaMa was founded in 1961 by theatre legend Ellen Stewart. A multicultural hive of Avant-Garde drama and performance art, La MaMa is a springboard for an impressive roster of promising playwrights, directors, and actors. La MaMa is the only original Off-Off-Broadway venue still in operation. Ellen established La MaMa as a haven for underrepresented artists to experiment with new work, without the pressures of commercial success. Today, La MaMa maintains an environment of uncensored creative freedom, where artists of all backgrounds and identities can develop work that pushes the boundaries of what is possible onstage.

Where’s my donation going?

Stipends for our actors and understudies.
Stipends for our crew (Stage Manager, Intimacy Coordinator, Assistant Stage Manager, Run Crew,  etc.).
Stipends for our creative team (Set/Lighting/Costume/Prop/Sound Designers/Directors/Etc.)
Transportation
set materials
props
lights
speakers
costumes
printing
photography
And, of course, the miscellaneous expenses that arise when producing a show.

Every little bit brings us closer to our goal, but if you can't donate, you can still help by spreading the word! Please make noise about our campaign and our project by sharing on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Substack, Craigslist, Reddit, the Broadway forums, blogs, community boards, Nextdoor, Venmo, etc., etc., etc.

And make sure to bring it to the attention of your friends and family in casual conversation! Mom needs to know about Take Me To Dollywood.