Artist Spotlight: Comedy Troupe Moms Unhinged | Local Author Becky O’Connor

Stand-up comedy is an intensely competitive and subjective field, requiring years of perseverance to build a reputation and voice as a comedian. Perhaps subconsciously, standards have been set in the field based on subjective humor and even world viewpoints. In many of her performances, Andrea Marie Soderberg noticed a particular discrepancy in the lineups she saw.

“Women were not getting as many opportunities as men to be on shows,” says Sodergren. “It was often a pretty male-dominated lineup. Maybe, there’d be one or two females.”

In particular, she recognized the challenges mothers faced in the field, as their personal commitments increase the difficulty of making their way through the scene. As a solution to these problems, Soderberg founded Moms Unhinged, a comedy troupe that shines the spotlight on mothers.

The shows poke fun at the ups and downs of life – marriage, divorce, motherhood, online dating, and more – in an environment that emphasizes women’s experiences, but is open for everyone to share a laugh about the absurdities of everyday existence.

Outside of Moms Unhinged, Sodergren explores navigating life’s challenges in the tragicomic performance Life: A Delightful Show About Fear and Grief. In each show, the trio of Sodergren, Elaina McMillan, and Katie Mason discuss themes of addiction, love, loss, and acceptance through stand-up, spoken word, and stories.

“We’re trying to dive into the sanctity of those emotions, but also be able to laugh and find the funny parts about them,” says Sodergren of the show’s heavy subject matter. “People do leave the theater feeling much lighter; people talk about the experience as being very transformative and cathartic.”

“There’s a real desire for women to be able to see themselves on stage like this in a way that hasn’t been as prevalent,” says Sodergren. “It’s just a really beautiful thing to see people gather and laugh; people leave the theater feeling lighter and more connected.”

Moms Unhinged will perform at the Boulder Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut Street, on Thursday, April 9, 2026, starting at 7 p.m. They will also perform at The Louisville Underground, 640 Main Street Suite B, on Wednesday, April 29, starting at 7 p.m. Learn more and buy tickets at momsunhinged.com.

For good unknown sure is not had; or had,

And yet unknown, is as not had at all.

In plain then, what forbids he but to know?

Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise.

John Milton, Paradise Lost

Eve’s story is embedded in Becky Kivlovitz O’Connor’s bones. Captivated by the Genesis figure’s portrayal in John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost as a University of Texas at Austin undergraduate, O’Connor memorized a section recounting Eve’s decision to take the forbidden fruit.

“When I was reading Paradise Lost, I was shocked by his depiction of both Eve and Satan,” the Boulder-based writer said of a formative undergraduate Milton class. “They were the most developed, interesting, empathetic characters, and you ended up following their storylines more emotionally than any of the others.”

Something about Milton’s Eve resonated more with O’Connor as time passed. “As I grew and became a mother, a teacher, and a wife, I felt Eve’s story in my core,” she said.

Hired by Louisville Middle School in 2021, she wrote Eve, her first work of fiction, alongside her narrative unit students.“It had just been on my mind, the way that women are kind of put out to pasture,” said O’Connor, “and what society expects from a woman, a mother, a teacher, and a wife.” Milton’s Eve flowed from her bones onto the page and took the form of a novel: Eve.

The book has completely changed O’Connor’s writing trajectory; she has since completed four-and-a-half manuscripts, vicariously living through these exciting adventures instead of feeling cramped in a cubicle.

These myths are particularly relevant for O’Connor now. The half-Israeli woman led Palestine youth camps in her college years, and she and her father happened to be on-site during the antisemitic Pearl Street attack. For her, retellings like this give these myths more of a humanist perspective.

“Eve really picks apart our inherited beliefs and analyzes the impact of inheriting blindly, versus inheriting critically, these stories,” says O’Connor, “especially on women, but I think on anyone looking to exist in a meaningful way.”

Becky O’Connor’s debut novel, Eve, is published by Histria Fiction, and it released widely on March 3rd. Her audiobook reading is released through Simon and Schuster Audio.

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