About Champion
The comedy extravaganza that rocked EXIT Theater’s 2002 DIVAfest returns for a limited East Bay engagement! Maniacal cheerleaders, cutthroat child stars and the mommy managers that made them battle for power and prestige in Thessaly Lerner’s one-woman tour-de-force. Find out who’s number one on the Chelsea Clinton High School Popularity Graph in Champion! written and performed by Thessaly Lerner and directed by Peter Nachtrieb.
Lerner and Nachtrieb’s collaboration began with a nursery school production of The Wizard of Oz and continued through high school and now post-college.
Read what the Critics are Saying
“The appealing and wildly funny Lerner plays more than a dozen characters. She’s wonderfully sharp and funny and her manic comic energy recalls Saturday Night Live alums.” Chad Jones Oakland Tribune
“Lerner is tremendous fun and shines in her multiple roles. It seems there’s nowhere she’d rather be than onstage.” Joe Mader San Francisco Examiner
“Hyped-up and on acid!” Amanda Nowinski Speak Magazine
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Thessaly Lerner is from the San Francisco Bay Area where she creates innovative comedic theatricals. She is an actress, director, playwright and producer and also works in voice-over, TV and film. She is a founding member of The Original Action Pack improvisation troupe and was co-founder of the internationally acclaimed (but alas defunct) comedy duo The Lunch Box, which performed throughout the East and West coasts, including Boston’s International Center for Art.
For the past three years Lerner has focused on developing her solo comedic extravaganza, Champion! which debuted to rave reviews at the EXIT Theater’s premier DIVAfest. Her research for Champion! led her and a film crew to attend the Universal Cheerleading Association’s Cheerleading Camp, where the teen cheerleaders voted her the Leadership award.
Aside from her solo work, she has performed with The Magic Theater, EXIT Theater, Crowded Fire, Berkeley Repertory and more. She recently co-wrote and performed the show Yucatantalizing! “The Iguana Be Loved BY You” Revue in Akumal, Mexico, as well as writing and directing The Canadian Play, a political satire produced by The Shotgun Players Theater Lab.
Lerner’s voice has been part of many Sony Playstation products including “Silent Hill” and Electronic Arts’ “Cel Damage” as well as numerous Leapfrog Toys and a variety of other cd-roms, webtoons and radio spots. She has had a guest spot on “Nash Bridges” and been part of many industrials, commercials and independent feature films and has taught theater and related skills for the past ten years. She began by studying improvisation with the legendary clown, Wavy Gravy and holds a BFA in acting from Emerson College, where she studied with Kristin Linklater.