“Time To Grow Up” captures the moment college freshmen Izzy and Morgan realize their friendship is coming unraveled, setting in motion the events of Lost Grrrl Found, a coming-of-age musical created by Penelope Gould and Holly Nance with director Marina Carlstroem.
“It’s the conflict that starts the whole show,” says Gould. “So it felt like the right way for us to ground this introduction to a new side of the project for audiences who haven’t yet seen the full show live.”
“Time To Grow Up” is the latest single from Pupal Phase, a four-song EP due October 23. While previous releases have introduced Zipper Lips, the fictional lesbian punk trio at the center of the musical, the EP turns its attention to the relationship between Izzy and Morgan. Set in the Pacific Northwest amid the early-’90s riot-grrrl movement, Lost Grrrl Found has its roots in New York University’s dramatic writing program, where Gould and Nance initially bonded over Bikini Kill and Carrie Brownstein’s Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl as freshmen. When the pandemic hit, they continued writing from home, returning to New York with a nearly finished script but no way to produce it. Enter Carlstroem, who helped hone the material into a loosely theatrical narrative.
Initially, “Time To Grow Up” was barely a song. “In the first live show we ever did, it was just a scene,” says Carlstroem. “But once we’d seen it live and watched Morgan embodied by Marvelyn Ramirez—who’s played the character since the first Lost Grrrl Found show and sings on the EP—we felt like we owed the characters a more dedicated beginning that showed where they are emotionally at the top of the show.”
Gould and Nance deliberately kept the music unpolished. “This is the only song in the show with a simpler, more childlike riff,” says Nance. “We wanted it to feel sparser, less lived-in. It draws a lot from the early riot grrrls, who were mostly self-taught musicians figuring out their guitars in their early shows and recordings.”
The pair began Lost Grrrl Found in 2019—and the years they’ve spent developing it have paralleled the journey of their characters. Lacking a true home for a 22-song theatrical production requiring actors, a live band and the occasional mosh pit, Gould, Nance and Carlstroem have improvised. Lost Grrrl Found premiered at Manhattan’s Parkside Lounge in June 2024 and has since moved through unconventional theater spaces and music venues around New York.
“We’ve been able to mirror the story of the show by coming into our creative power,” says Gould. “We’ve both become much surer of ourselves as artists.”
We’re proud to premiere Lost Grrrl Found’s “Time To Grow Up.”
—Hobart Rowland
