Avery Avellino and Grace Stewart Gardner
Interdisciplinary, Theater
Connect
MEAT CUTE is a delicious double-feature of two short plays that explore themes of the body, mind, and heart as meat.
In MEAT PLAY, by Grace Stewart Gardner, Bailey has just been promoted to the Killing Floor, where employees are expected to slaughter over 2,000 animals per day. Throughout this intimate, two-hander one-act, we watch the impact that 40 hours of butchery per week takes on Bailey and his fiancée Beau as the two of them try to make a home out of their mobile home and plan their wedding. Touching on themes of mental health, with a focus on the imperfections between two people in love; part living-room drama, part movement piece, all new and developing work, freshly fleshed out for the Philly Fringe audience!
Splatter!, by Avery Avellino, seeks broadly to vouch for the value of human life. Two strangers, both hitched too young; with dead-end jobs and broken marriages fantasize deeply about the end of their lives. In spite of their shared interest, they have vastly different worldviews. Everything in them says the other’s dream of a perfect death is a selfish nightmare. Saw and Laney both wanna know: do you think I’m capable of being a human; or to you, am I essentially a piece of meat? After all, how would you react if you got hit by a piece of flying cake?
Cannonball is the largest hub of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, championing a revolutionary artist-led model that prioritizes equity, experimentation, and community connection. Now in its sixth year, Cannonball presents more than 100 artists across five stages, representing nearly 30 percent of the overall Philadelphia Fringe Festival. From rebellious circus and delicious dance to fearless theater and activist art, Cannonball pushes the boundaries of live performance while creating a vibrant, artist-centered ecosystem for independent performance makers and adventurous audiences alike.
PWYC Options $5+
Venue: Asian Arts Initiative Black Box Theater 
September 19, 2026 12.00pm
1219 Vine Street
General Admission: $25
PWYC Options
September 20, 2026 4.45pm
1219 Vine Street
General Admission: $25
PWYC Options
September 22, 2026 5.30pm
1219 Vine Street
General Admission: $25
PWYC Options
About the Artist
Meat Play author Grace Stewart Gardner has recently moved to New York and is excited to be diving into the surrounding area of fringe arts! Her greatest joy over the past four months of inundation to the area has been collaboration with friends and artists from across many years of her past endeavors: her college, Coastal Carolina University (Myrtle Beach, SC), her beloved summer-stocks, Camp Ballibay (Wyalusing, PA) and The Lost Colony (Manteo, NC), and her high school, The Fine Arts Center (Greenville, SC). Oh yeah, and her Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway debuts.
Meat Cute combines her love of new play production, her Southern roots, and surprisingly, aspects of physical theatre and clown. Though she rarely appears onstage, she devised and performed as an ensemble member in "Galatea" by Lizzy Arnold, in association with the Cannonball hub of the the 2025 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. And she’s so excited to get back onstage in her own play for Cannonball 2026!
As a last-minute addition to “Meat Cute” with “Splatter!” Avery Avellino was inspired to re-visit one of his student pieces. Avery took his time at Coastal Carolina University to expand his depth in writing, directing, acting, and all aspects of theatre production, leading to a strong foundation to begin self-producing. His real dream lies in helping young artists around him realize their own creative endeavors and participate in the original works process.
An explorer of topics larger than himself (love, religion, grief, and the indelible passage of time in conflict with the human spirit), he believes the contemporary era warrants contemporary conversation of antiquated topics from new voices.
His most recent project was “Shakespeare’s Troilus & Cressida” (Off-Off-Broadway) an original-practice Shakespeare Production with The As If Then Creatives Coalition or TheAsIfThen for short. The company was founded by Avery and Grace Stewart Gardner.
- Grace Stewart GardnerCo-Production Manager/Playwright (Meat Play)/BEAU (Meat Play)/ Director (Splatter!) grace.backstage@gmail.com
- Avery AvellinoCo-Production Manager/Playwright (Splatter!)/SAW (Splatter!) /Director (Meat Play)avavellino12@gmail.com
- Maggie DupreAssistant Production Manager/ LANEY (Splatter!)
- Mitch MaguireBAILEY (Meat Play)
- Julia PickardAssisting Creativejuliamoorpickard@gmail.com
Accessibility & Content Considerations
Contact the Fringe Festival Box Office for up to date accessibility information.
This event is appropriate for ages 18+
Violent ContentAdult Language
Strobe/Flashing Lights
Themes of suicide, adult language and themes, discussion of/abstract depiction of harm to animals, discussion of body/body image, misuse of alcohol, strobe/flashing lights
Covid-19 Safety policy
This event does not require masks to be worn
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Philadelphia, PA 19106
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