About the Show
Celebrity gossip has NEVER been juicer than this.
Like, literally. It’s the 1660s. We just invented celebrities last week.
When a jaded celebrity gossip podcaster accidentally time-travels to 1660s England, he’s like — where’s Shakespeare? Turns out, he’s around forty years late to that party. Instead, he’s stuck in the Restoration Era, where the libertine King Charles II has just reclaimed the crown. The King proceeds to lift the Puritans’ theatre ban with only one rule: more sex jokes, please.
Luckily, our Podcaster crosses paths with Samuel Pepys, a famous English diarist whose meticulous journals are a window into how the Restoration sparks what will become modern celebrity culture. The two strike a deal: Pepys will teach our Podcaster about the Restoration entertainment industry, and our Podcaster will ensure Pepys’ legacy and diaries reach like, #legend status, in the modern day.
Of course…it is still the seventeenth century. And while the Puritans may be old news, when forbidden sparks fly and Blue Yeti mics die, some less-than-open-minded players may be inclined to start a good, old-fashioned witch hunt against our heroes.
THE PEEK WITH SAMUEL PEPYS is your first-hand peek into how the concept of celebrity actors came to be — delivered with all the drama, scandal, and intrigue of a modern-day gossip podcast.
About the Creator
Lee Melillo (they/she) is a writer, director, producer, and literary agent based in NYC. The idea for The Peek came in her senior year at Fordham University, when she took a class on Restoration Comedies with Professor Stuart Sherman. Presented in class as the genesis of modern celebrity culture, the idea has followed Lee for years, and she’s thrilled to finally have a chance to bring it to life in this exciting format.
As a playwright, Lee’s work has been seen at The Chain, The Tank, TheaterLab, Brick Aux, Fordham University, Under St. Marks, and more. Her play Slow Burn was a semi-finalist for the 2024 SheNYC festival, and an almost finalist for a lot of other things. She’s also directed quite a bit around the city, and produced countless theatre projects with her indie theatre production company, Personal Pizza Party.
Having lived in Sunnyside, Queens, since graduating Fordham, Lee has fallen in love with her community, and is grateful to be creating this project with support from the Queens Arts Fund and a plethora of other Queens-based creatives.
About the Queens Arts Fund
The Queens Arts Fund offers project grants to Queens-based artists, artist collectives, and small non-profit organizations of all artistic disciplines to support the local production of artwork and cultural programs that highlight, engage, and bolster the borough of Queens. It is administered by New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) in partnership with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA).
Please click here for the full award announcement.