016: Lost Grrrl Found

 

Written and Edited by Milo Mikkelson, host of Brooklyn Buzz on WPIR  
Interview on 10/12/2026
[Names linked within text will be colored]  

Lost Grrrl Found is creating a whole new art form with their musical/punk show mashup. The show’s director and co-writers talked with Brooklyn Buzz to celebrate their upcoming EP and the fact that you can see their project performed LIVE this Saturday (10/24/2026) at Stone Circle Theatre. In reading (or listening above to) this interview, discover how the riot grrrl movement is kept alive and fighting today, how lesbian punk bands are the perfect avenue for exploring complicated friendship and queer community, and how to attend this one-of-a-kind performance. Lost Grrrl Found’s EP, Pupal Phase, will be released October 23rd and tickets for their Stone Circle Theatre performance on October 24th can be found HERE. This is something you don’t want to miss!

Do you want to introduce yourselves?

Holly: My name is Holly Nance. I’m one of the co-writiers. I wrote the music and co-wrote the story.

Marina: I’m Marina Carlstroem. I’m the director of the live show and we all co-produced the show together.

Penelope: I’m Penelope Gould. I’m the other co-writer with Holly. I did the script and lyrics, and we co-wrote the story. Yup!

For those discovering Lost Grrrl Found for the first time, how would you describe the project?

P: Lost Grrrl Found is a riot grrrl musical that takes place in music venues. It honestly functions sort of like a punk show. It is a queer coming-of-age story about a college student named Izzy who is finding herself by finding community. It is something we have been showing around New York for the last two years, since 2024, and we are super excited because we are finally releasing our new EP, Pupal Phase, to highlight some of the friendship at the core of the piece. And we are doing a show October 24th to promote the release! [Click here for tickets.] You know I had to get the plugs in right away. *laughs*

I was also wondering: How did the idea first come about? I know you started writing it in college.

H: Yes! Penelope and I met as freshman in NYU’s dramatic writing program and we bonded over our shared love of Carrie Brownstein and riot grrrl, and specifically Carrie Brownstein’s memoir, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl. So we really bonded over that. We started working on Lost Grrrl Found in 2019, when we were freshman/sophmores. We really picked it up after the pandemic when we came back to NY. We wrote it a lot over Covid and realized “we can actually do this now!” We both loved plays and music, and I think we were really interested in what it would be like to be true to both forms as much as possible, but also be something so different.

P: Yeah, I think that’s true. In developing it, learning the skills to put on a show like this really allowed us to finish it in 2021. Honestly, my collaboration with Marina on other plays was a big part of that. Me and Marina started putting on plays that she directed and I wrote, self-producing, which let us be like “Ok, here is how you put on a play.” And separately Holly was playing in bands and being like “Ok, here is how a band can rehearse.” Those skills together made us realize what it could be like.

M: We all have shared brainspace that was altered by Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl when we were 13/14ish. We are all from California, sort of a big riot grrrl hub adjacency on the West Coast. When Penelope and I were working together on other projects, she told me about this play and I basically said, “You guys need to finish this so that I can have it and we can all work on it together.” *laughs* Penelope and I were working on a lot of projects that we were pouring so much time and energy into. When you’re working on a play, if you’re not at a huge $100,000 level or above, it is often a space where you spend months and months working on something and then you do it for a weekend. And then it is just gone until someone else gives you $100,000. I think we were really curious about what a different model for a play could look like. I had a lot of friends who were in the indie music scene and I was going to those shows and realizing that people were showing up really differently there than in a theatrical space. There is a sense of community that I was not finding when I was going to a play, where people are coming both for the music and to be with their people. Sometimes I would go to a show where I was excited to see the artist, but I was also really excited to see my friends and see these people who I have adjacency and community to. We were really excited about the idea of building a space theatrically that could also have those kinds of tenants inside of it. That was a big part of building not just the narrative of the show, but what we wanted it to be over time. We have learned a lot about things that music and theatre can learn from each other in doing this process over the past two years.

You have mentioned a couple times that you were really inspired by the riot grrrl movement, which is awesome. I was curious how this piece of feminist history is implemented into the performance and what the inspiration was there.

P: The story takes place in 1992 in a riot grrrl scene. It’s about this network of bands that these characters are playing within that have riot grrrl values of figuring out ways to be unabashed in your presentation of femininity and not feeling that the patriarchal structures that you are existing in are things that are your fault, but rather are things you can change and feel empowered to change. That’s the world that this story takes place in. But I think there is also a meta level of this where we were inspired by the fact that riot grrrls weren’t waiting for people to put their shows on for them or produce their albums for them. They were like “I have an idea for a song, I’m writing it, I’m making it happen, I’m recording it.” That DIY ethos of building out a community and making stuff with them was really something that we take a lot of inspiration from. We have an amazing team of core collaborators who are all musicians and performers in their own right. So this idea that we saw from riot grrrl where so many people are playing in four different bands and it is more of a network rather than solo projects that are completely distinct from each other, that is something we have really taken on with Lost Grrrl Found. So there are a lot of things that structurally modelled off of riot grrrl, also narratively. I think there are lots of things we see in riot grrrl – that even riot grrrls reflect on – that we should have done differently. We are not interested in repeating the sins of our foremothers for sure, but it feels special to be 30 years out and be able to reflect on that and take what is meaningful. Also, you know, reshape that history and continue that lineage in new ways.

Fantastic. That was so well said!

P: Thank you! We have been thinking about this for a little while. *laughs*

A huge part of riot grrrl too is making art in your own new way, very DIY and collaborative. You’re really carrying that spirit forward. You’re kind of making your own new art form, which I thought was impossible in this day and age, but I’m really happy to be proven incorrect! *laughs* Can we get into the story a little bit?

P: Def-in-it-ely!

At its heart, the story follows Izzy who is navigating a friendship falling apart, a first love, and moving on… which I know is what the first single off your upcoming EP is all about. We will get into that too, don’t worry. But the story is sort of this messy transition into adulthood, which I think for a lot of listeners and readers can feel really relatable. Most fans of “Off-Air” are just getting into college, living through it, or just starting post-grad life, so we are all there. And you’re telling the story through this lens of this lesbain punk band! Could you speak on that a little bit? Especially because that seems to be a not-so-obvious, perfect way to tell this kind of moment in our lives.

P: I feel like a band dynamic brings out so many interpersonal conflicts that make you grow up so quickly or make you have to figure out ways to talk about your feelings, your ethos, and sort of defend them. You’re building a new family structure with a band. That is something that we see Izzy grappling with quite a bit. Also the thing in queer communities where romantic interest and platonic friendships are all intertangled. The ways that you are evaluating all of these types of relationships can become complicated. I don’t think it’s a thing where your romantic relationship becomes prioritized, though. It’s her having to figure out how to hold all these different relationships. So, both the band dynamic and the lesbian dynamic has processing that is going to be done and that’s beautiful. *laughs* It’s an amazing opportunity narratively because people are going to speak on it.

*laughs*

M: I think that when you’re turning to a new part of your life, who are the people that you set yourself against and look towards to identify with those new elements of yourself? I think one thing that we often talk about for this project is how Izzy’s transformation is spurred by the generative power of a crush. To get a little collegiate, I’m always thinking about the work of Chris Kraus in I Love Dick and how that is a text where she says “Through love, I’m teaching myself how to think.” I think that is something that happens in this play over the course of Izzy’s relationship with both her best friend Morgan and also her relationship with Liana, who is the lead singer of Zipper Lips, the band. Some of that is about seeing the other person in front of you, and there is another part of that that is about “How do I envision the person that I am because of who you see in me? And the new light that you allow me to exist within?” I think that is a really powerful thing that happens in these inflection point relationships in your life early on. Especially if you are coming to understand your relationship to queerness for the first time.

Very well said. Quoting books! That’s awesome.

P: Yeah, we read!

*laughs*

As you mentioned, there is a band within the show, Zipper Lips, and they perform… is it 22 original songs?

H: Yes, the show itself has 22 original songs, and Zipper Lips within the show has four. The rest are the in-story songs, except for one sneaky song that is from a surf-rock band they’re touring with. Mostly the narrative songs are the musical theater songs that move the story along, and Zipper Lips plays four songs to the audience.

P: But they also play the other songs too. It is the same group of musicians. Everyone in the show is also playing instruments, except the two leads. There are no additional bands playing these songs, it is all the people on stage.

H: Yes, that’s a great point. We don’t have a TV Eye pit band or anything. *laughs*

P: That would be sick! Pit band at Union Pool.

M: But I think that has also been something really fun to play with in the way that we do the storytelling. It’s the same performers doing the diegetic – which is like in-world – and the non-diagetic songs. There will be a moment where the performers that play Liana and Sam, who are two of the people in Zipper Lips who also cause some romantic tribulations for Izzy and Morgan – there’s a song called Lesbain Spinsters where they’re both playing – and they are witnessing the ghost of those relationships in them playing, even though the character doesn’t have a line. I think that is a really fun thing to witness and play with in space. These are the same performers that you’re witnessing and how does that play into the story that we are telling in the live show specifically.

I also love that you encourage the audience to mosh!

H: It’s so fun when they do. We are constantly rewriting things and punching things up, so it’s so fun to notice what songs are really hitting and what environments make people actually wanna dance. A few rooms like at Pianos, with the low ceiling, that was crazy! People were throwing each other across the room. *laughs* At Stone Circle Theatre, people are a little bit more respectful.

I think that also speaks to the earlier conversations about different environments and how audiences show up. It feels more community of course, because you’re literally throwing people around and it can be very intense. For readers who haven’t been in a mosh pit: It’s scary but once you’re in there it is life changing! *laughs*

H: It is! It’s very respectful too. Knock on wood, hopefully that stays true. In punk circles in general, there is such an etiquette and so many social understandings around moshing that it’s so fun to see people throw each other around in such a respectful way. People are checking in on each other, pulling people back up, being like “whose phone is this?” *laughs*

P: Once my shoe was untied in a Bikini Kill moshpit and I had to lean over to tie my shoe, and I feel like five people came up to me to ask me if I was good. *laughs* There is a sacred space element of the mosh pit.

I just wanted to shout that out because there are so many exciting aspects to what you guys are doing and I don’t want to miss anything.

H: Thank you!

P: I do think we are some people’s first pit, which feels really special.

H: Some theater goers!

P: Yes! They’re like “Okaaay I’ll try this out! Sure!”

Aw, that’s so great! This is like my two worlds colliding!

All: Us too! *laughs*

Let’s talk a little bit about your upcoming EP and the song that just came out! You just recently released a single, “Time to Grow Up”. Am I correct in believing this is the intro to the story?

H: Yes, you are correct. This is the inciting incident.

Is the EP a direct reflection of the story that already exists, is it an expansion on the story, or how exactly does it work in?

H: It is a direct reflection of the story that already exists. It chronicles starting with the friendship breakup and the resolution between Izzy (played by Abby Mohaddes) and Morgan (played by Marvelyn Ramirez) whose friendship is at the center of this piece. These songs exist in the show. We knew it was practical, in the sense that we knew we couldn’t record a ton of music due to budget and all that fun stuff. So we wanted to see what we could build out of a four song selection. What feels true to the story and what encapsulates the story? This friendship of Izzy and Morgan is so central and has this theatrical element. We have released some of the Zipper Lips songs, but those can disguise themselves as regular punk songs, so we did really want to figure out what from the soundtrack could be released to introduce audiences to the theatrical elements.

I feel like I can maybe infer, but I always like to ask: What does your name, Lost Grrrl Found, really mean?

P: Honestly sometimes I forget that it is a play on words and I’ll hear someone say “Lost and Found” and I think “Why are they talking about the show!?” *laughs* We named it so long ago! But there were a lot of things we wanted to include in it. We like that it includes “Grrrl” so that you know it’s riot grrrl right from the title but we also like that it’s a play on words because so much of the early riot grrrl music has some sort of riff off of a storybook rhyming scheme. So it is a cutesy play on words but also a hard-hitting actual piece. It feels very true to the riot grrrl aesthetic. And it is a coming-of-age and coming-into-your-queerness story, so this idea of being “found” – which is a fraught one – plays heavily into the text.

That’s great. Nearing the end here, the question that I hope everybody is thinking right now: Where can people experience this project? Where can audiences see you in person and where can we hear your EP?

P: Woohoo! We all started smiling so big. Well, you can already stream “Do Ya?” and “Happy Home” by Zipper Lips on bandcamp. We are next up at Stone Circle Theatre to celebrate the Pupal Phase EP release on October 24th in Ridgewood, Queens. Ridgewood can feel like Paris sometimes. *laughs* It is going to be completely fabulous! We are going to have community partners coming in and tabling, and we have all of our amazing cast of course. Then, if you happen to be a West Coast listener, we are going to be in LA at Zebulon on January 21st. It’s our first West Coast show.

That’s awesome!

H: With special guest, DJ Allison Wolfe, Bratmobile!

P: So we are really excited for that too, but October 24th is really what we are looking towards right now. It is going to be such a fun show, we are super excited about it. We are returning to Stone Circle because we love it so much.

M: Yeah, we did our first full performance there after we did a workshop at the Parkside Lounge. Shout out. But, Stone Circle is a really fun space because it’s all ages, which we feel is a really wonderful thing to bring to this show because we all wish that we had the opportunity to go to something like this when we were 17. It really is a beautiful space to do a live music performance, and it is truly a community space. We love the fact that there were so many punk and specifically riot grrrl shows in the 90’s that were at community centers or rotary clubs. Doing our show at a space like Stone Circle is really in that lineage in a way that compliments the shows that we do at more “traditional” music venues. Everybody come through!

You said it is also a release show, is that release on the same day?

H: The release is October 23rd, one day before.

P: So you can get off-book.

*laughs*

H: Yes! Study the lyrics for a full 24 hours before the show starts.

P: And if, god forbid, you have to miss the first show, then you can also stream the EP after that.

H: And we stay doing this show, so eventually we will be doing it again.

P: Follow us on @lostgrrrlfound on Instagram to know what we’re up to!

Additional photos, from various performances (scroll):

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.