A delicious idea: Random pizza delivery equals theater fundraising
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Essentially, it's pizza-bombing yourself or someone you love (or hate, we guess) in the name of supporting local arts.
facebook.com/der.vorfuhreffekt
You heard it here first: you can officially pizza-bomb your friends (or, we suppose, a lactose intolerant enemy?) in the name of supporting the arts. What a time to be alive.
The Der Vorführeffekt Theatre company (its creator, Donna Oblongata, née Sellinger, tells me you pretty much just go phonetic on that pronunciation beast) has created “My Pizza, My Idea,” a month-long pizza delivery service through April, to raise funds for its latest production, Three Kinds of Wildness.
Here’s how it works: The six members of the company, plus one of their friends, make pizzas when they aren’t rehearsing for the new show. You sign up to receive or send a pizza here. Input your home, work and another location with the hours you spend at those places (plus your contact in case you're not there when they deliver) and the company members will coordinate their schedules to deliver it when they can. It’s pizza, shrouded in mystery — you won’t know when the pizza will come.
They suggest you pay $20, but the donation is up to you.
Oblongata said the pizza makers plan to respect legit dietary restrictions listed on the online form, but not “pickiness” or “interest in pizza levels at time of delivery.” [As if anyone wouldn’t be interested in pizza on a round-the-clock basis, we say].
The idea came from a friend of Oblongata’s who originally pitched it as a joke. But when she and some friends were living in Massachusetts, they tried “My Pizza, My Idea” out as a way to break themselves into the neighborhood. It was a huge success, so they’re giving it a shot here in Phily.
She can’t say how many people have signed up for the pizza delivery so far, but said the company is fully committed to getting people their homemade pies.
“We don’t want to be sadistic,” she added of the whole random surprise element. “It’s in our interest that people enjoy this.”
It seems as though they will — Oblongata said they’ve got yummy toppings on deck like roasted eggplant, garlic, spinach and asparagus.
Three Kinds of Wildness will debut in Baltimore on April 25, tour the Northeast for two weeks, and swing back our way May 9 and 10, in West Philly (official location and time details to come).
In rehearsal currently, the show, Oblongata said, will feature highly fictionalized versions of Alexander Graham Bell, Frederic Tudor — known as “Boston’s Ice King,” whose packing and shipping processes helped turn ice into a commodity in the 18th and 19th centuries — and “a chorus of mushrooms.” It all takes place in a city located in the deepest goldmine in the world, and also features handcrafted puppets and "unconventional lighting."
The company also uses salvaged and recycled materials for all its sets, props and costumes, and the members work to keep admission cheap and don’t turn anyone away for being unable to pay.
“We rehearse by day and make pizza by night,” Oblongata said. “In this modern era, we get to do a little bit of extra fun ‘stalking’; if we can see someone’s Facebook page, and on Foursquare they’ve checked in, we can run up with their pizza when they’re sitting in a park.”
Dramatic pizza delivery: would you expect any different from theater folks?
