LIVE ANIMALS ON— STAGE

Live Animals Onstage! is a Brooklyn-based DIY experimental and experiential theater company. Our practice is rooted in deconstructing text, community building, and spectacle. Our characteristic style includes a party environment, participatory, site-specific elements, and poor theatre technology.

Founded in 2019 by Fiona Selmi and John Murphy at Williams College, Live Animals Onstage! has grown into Brooklyn's most infamous backyard theater company. Recent productions include a site-specific production of OUR TOWN (2025), featuring an immersive scavenger hunt through East Williamsburg, a community picnic, live music, and a dog; ROMEO & JULIET (2024), which transformed a neighboring apartment into Juliet's balcony; and WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (2024), staged over the course of a three-course dinner party.

Throughout our history, Live Animals Onstage! has been joined by more than forty collaborators, many of whom return in different roles across multiple productions. We think of ourselves as a rock band: each show is a new album, each collaborator brings a different sound, and every production builds on the last while remaining unmistakably LAO. We live by our company motto: Less Talk. More Rock.

This summer, LAO returned with DECAPITATRIX, in collaboration with Green Lung Studio, marking our first venture indoors, which has been a long-time goal of the company. DECAPITATRIX enjoyed a twice-extended run in Red Hook, and we look forward to the future of the production. The backyard may be behind us, but the party is only getting bigger.