MURDERED DARLINGS

Saturday, September 26th at 7pm | Deep End Studios, Philadelphia

Paper Doll Ensemble is back for the 2026 Philadelphia Fringe Festival!

Since 2017, Paper Doll Ensemble has created original theatrical work through an often chaotic, deeply collaborative process of experimentation, improvisation and play. Along the way, we’ve generated dozens of scenes, songs, characters, and concepts that we loved… but ultimately cut from our full-length productions. In theatre, we call that “killing your darlings.”

Now, for one night only, we’re resurrecting them.

Murdered Darlings is an eclectic evening of abandoned brilliance, bizarre curiosities, and unfinished gems pulled from the Paper Doll Ensemble vault. Expect a witch’s makeup tutorial, funeral service for an unforgettable camp nurse, a musical ode to the Master Cleanse liquid diet, and “Blood in a Box,” a commercial selling unethically sourced blood for all of your ritual needs!

Some pieces are polished. Some are gloriously messy. Almost all have never been performed in front of an audience before.

This is a rare glimpse into the cutting room floor of Paper Doll Ensemble’s creative process: the experiments, detours, and delightful disasters that helped shape our work over the years. Whether hilarious, haunting, heartfelt, or completely unhinged, each piece carries the DNA of the stories we’ve spent nearly a decade creating together.

Join us for this one-night-only theatrical séance as we breathe life back into the darlings we murdered. And who knows? They may never be seen or heard from again.

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