(GARWOOD, NJ) -- Before taking their award-winning production to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland this August, Cheese Platter Productions will present one final hometown performance, and one final opportunity for audiences to help send the company overseas.
The company will stage a special Fundraising Preview Performance of 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche on Sunday, July 26, 2026 at 3:00pm at Crossroads (78 North Avenue) in Garwood, New Jersey. The performance serves as the company's final major fundraiser before departing for Scotland, with proceeds helping offset the remaining costs of bringing the production to the world's largest arts festival.
What began as a single community theatre production in northern New Jersey has grown into an international leap of faith. After meeting during Nutley Little Theatre's February 2024 production of 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche by Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood, four local actresses discovered an unexpected creative chemistry and a shared determination to take their celebrated production beyond state lines and onto one of the world's largest stages.
With no prior experience producing work at an international festival and no corporate sponsors backing them, the group independently formed Cheese Platter Productions specifically to bring their award-winning production to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The effort is entirely grassroots: self-produced, self-funded, and organized from the ground up by the performers themselves.
Since launching their fundraising campaign, the company has raised more than $5,030 through GoFundMe, thanks to the generosity of supporters throughout New Jersey and beyond. The July 26 preview performance represents the company's final fundraising push before leaving for Scotland.
"After our original production closed, so many people reached out to tell us how disappointed they were that they'd missed the chance to see it," said Jessa Blackthorne, director and performer with Cheese Platter Productions. "We're incredibly grateful that this Fringe journey has given us the opportunity to bring the show back one more time, not only so those audiences can finally experience it, but so they can become part of this adventure by helping us get to Edinburgh."
The fundraiser performance takes place Sunday, July 26 at 3:00pm. Tickets are available for purchase online. Crossroads is located at 78 North Avenue in Garwood, New Jersey.
The cast includes Danielle Levitt (Wren Robin), Kayla Torres (Dale Prist), Mia Jacobs (Vern Schultz), Sinead Kerr (Ginny Cadbury), and Jessa Blackthorne (Lulie Stanwyck).
The Creative Team includes Director: Jessa Blackthorne; Assistant Director: Kayla Torres; Lighting Design: Maz Sailer; Stage Management & Sound Op: Chris Osapai; Producer: Danielle Levitt; and Marketing: Mia Jacobs International Liaison: Sinead Kerr.
The original Nutley Little Theatre production went on to win the 2024 NJACT Perry Award for Best Play, one of New Jersey community theatre's most competitive honors, with cast member Danielle Levitt also earning a nomination for Best Actress. Four of the five original cast members, Sinead Kerr of Bayonne, Kayla Torres of Bloomfield, Danielle Levitt of Westfield, and Jessa Blackthorne of Carlstadt, will reprise their roles in Scotland, joined by newcomer Mia Jacobs of Caldwell.
Though none of the performers have previously traveled overseas to perform, all come from strong community theatre backgrounds, having built their experience on local, volunteer-driven stages throughout northern New Jersey. What makes this story especially meaningful is that their Fringe journey was born not out of institutional backing, but from friendship. The cast remained close after their 2024 run and made the decision together to revive the production for an international audience despite the steep logistical and financial challenges involved.
Adding a full-circle element to the story, cast member Sinead Kerr is a Scotland native and former Olympic ice dancer who competed for Great Britain in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Her return to Scotland with this theatrical production marks a unique homecoming moment within the company's Fringe debut.
The Fringe production will be directed by Jessa Blackthorne, who also performs in the show, with Kayla Torres serving as Assistant Director. Together, the team is refining the award-winning staging for a global audience while preserving the camaraderie and sharp comedic timing that made the original production so successful.
Following the July 26 preview, the production will perform August 8–15 at The Studio at Paradise in Augustines as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (no performance on August 9).
5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche is a tenderhearted but raucous comedy set in 1956. The "widows" of the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein are gathered for their annual quiche breakfast when atomic bomb sirens sound. Has the Communist threat finally come to pass? As their idyllic town and carefully constructed world begins to crumble, secrets emerge and the women wrestle with hysteria, survival, and a fate worse than death: a world without quiche!
5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche was first presented by The New Colony under Co-Artistic Directors Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder and Producing Director Will Rogers at Dank Haus in Chicago, Illinois, on June 24, 2011. It was later presented at the 2012 New York International Fringe Festival before transferring Off-Broadway to the SoHo Playhouse. This marks the first time the production has been presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Cheese Platter Productions is funding the venture entirely through community support and local fundraising efforts throughout northern New Jersey. Those wishing to support the production may attend the July 26 preview performance or contribute through the company's GoFundMe campaign.
5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.
