Emily F-ing Dickinson: America’s Favorite Recluse a BFF 2026 Free Event

It’s BFF 2026, the 11th Annual BFF Binge Fringe Festival of FREE Theatre, October 13 through November 20, the only FREE Fringe Festival in the nation, offering 37 in-person plays, workshops and family-oriented events, presenting:

Poet. Recluse. Icon. This is not your English teacher’s Emily Dickinson. It’s an original solo musical—a feral, funny, and fiercely musical dive into the mind of a woman who refused to play by anyone’s rules. Featuring a score of original songs inspired by Dickinson’s poetry and spirit, the show is intimate, manic, a little unhinged, and unexpectedly hilarious. Hailed by Stage Takes as a “tour-de-force performance” with a range that is “astonishing,” and by NoHo Arts District as “a riot of music and laughter,” Cooper’s production is part concert, part confession, part rebellion and one wild night you definitely didn’t read about in class. Book, Music, Lyrics & Performed by Shelley Cooper.

Special thanks to generous grants from the We Are Santa Monica Fund, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission, and Playhouse PALS. The BFF celebrates the range and depth of the human condition and the idea that theatre arts experiences are vital, transformative, and must be available for all.

FREE as part of the BFF Binge Fringe Festival of Free Theatre. Live-streaming info can be found at SantaMonicaPlayhouse.com. No need to make a reservation If you are live-streaming.