WELCOME TO THE FAMILY COPOLI—WHERE GLITZ & GLAM MEET THE APOCALYPSE
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What do you do when the world is crumbling, humanity is on its last legs, and people have literally lost the will to repopulate? You put on a show.
Set 72 years after a solar super flare torched civilization and sent the human race spiraling toward extinction, The Family Copoli follows a ragtag troupe of post-apocalyptic performers bringing sensuality and sequins to the few survivors left on Earth. Their goal? To reignite the spark of humanity (and libido) through a risqué, slapstick, raunchy burlesque show.
But while the audience gets glitter, camp, and cabaret, things behind the curtain aren’t so glamorous. Feuds boil over, secrets threaten to tear the family apart, and the biggest questions loom: Why carry on? Should we? What happens if we don’t?
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WHY NOW?
We are a group of recent Cornell University alumni and current students who believe that now is the time to tell this story and we are the people to do it. Having worked on the show in Ithaca, New York in 2023, we felt called to bring it back and produce it on an international scale in response to what we’re experiencing in 2025. We're so excited to announce that we'll be performing a month-long run of the show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August. Scotland, here we come!
With book and lyrics by Cornell PhD student Andy Colpitts and music by Paris-based composer Michael Wookey, The Family Copoli is a romp, a riot, and a close inspection of both why we entertain and why we go on, even in the face of a disastrous, environmentally devastated world. It’s a sexy, campy, burlesque-vaudeville, but beneath its glittering surface are themes of overpopulation, technological dependence, and political fragility. It seeks to find joy in dark spaces while recognizing the potential for chaos and cruelty. But at the end of the day, if we’re all going down, we might as well come together!
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A QUICK GLIMPSE
Just as the human population reached an all-time high of 10 billion in the year 2025, a solar super flare nearly 200 times stronger than any known to humankind struck Earth. Known only as “The Accident,” the flare set in motion a domino effect of rapid population decline. Nuclear plants melt down à go-go, the electrical grid is fried, malformations are a dime a dozen, water is toxified, oh, and societal fragmentation on the side. No government prevails. Survivors live in tribes and shantytowns in the few environments that are still inhabitable. The population continues to be in free-fall, just a few million left. People have lost the will to even reproduce. Left to its own devices, the human race faces imminent extinction. Now, in the year A+72 (2097), The Family Copoli travels around performing their signature vaudevillian burlesque revue to generate laughter, delight, and diversion to incite the survivors to repopulate the earth. We move between the “onstage” action and the “backstage” action where family feuds and dark secrets that threaten to unravel the family structure are revealed. Whereas onstage it’s all glitter and kitsch, backstage we see tensions running high; we see a family at the end of their line.
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PERK DESCRIPTIONS
With your support, we will be able to cover venue and Fringe costs, travel and housing expenses, marketing and promotional costs, and basic design needs such as costumes, set, and props. It is the opportunity of a lifetime to showcase this piece to an international audience, and we believe that now, more than ever, we must find community in creating relevant theater with a clear point of view.
Donors can make a flat contribution or purchase a 'perk' packages. Our packages include Burlesque Benefactor, Solar Flare Survivor, Bobby Twins, Copoli In-Law, Executive Producer, and Savior of the Human Race.
$25: Burlesque Benefactor
- Social Media Shoutout
- Digital Thank You
$75: Solar Flare Survivor
- All of the above PLUS:
- Credit in program
- Exclusive access to behind-the-scenes content
$200: Two of a Kind
- All of the above PLUS:
- Personalized thank-you video message
$500: Copoli In-Law
- All of the above PLUS:
- Reserved tickets for the show
$1000: Executive Producer
- All of the above PLUS:
- Executive Producer Credit
- On stage shout-out
- Exclusive merchandise access
- VIP-backstage access and cast/crew meet and greet!
$5000: Savior of the Human Race
- All of the above PLUS:
- Program and flyer ad-space
- Dinner with the team!
*Please visit the following link below to review accepted forms of payment and troubleshooting guidance*
https://support.indiegogo.com/hc/en-us/articles...
OTHER WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT
Word of mouth is essential to help a show like this take off, so we'd also appreciate your support in the form of spreading the word on social media: any likes, follows, and reposts help! Please do bump our campaign if you know any other patrons of the arts who would be interested. We sincerely hope you will consider supporting us and this piece; thank you so much!
Check out our website https://thefamilycopoli.com/ & our Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thefamilycopoli/ to follow along!
THE FAMILY COPOLI IS PRODUCED BY LIV LICURSI, DANIELA RODRIGUEZ-CHAVEZ, KENNY AUNE, RAAHI MENON, AND JAKE DUFFLES.
