LaunchPoint:
Unorthodox Methods of Cosmic Flight
How to build a slingshot big enough to shoot yourself into the cosmos: A comical journey of begrudging allies, a few Big Questions, and no helpful answers. Inspired by Ilya Kabakov’s visual art installation “The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment”, Theatre and Installation Art combine into a show for anyone who has ever looked up at the night sky and felt the incomprehensible need to go.
Two cosmonauts of varying degrees of legitimacy “collaborate” to find a way into space, creating their own art installation in response to one made so many years ago.
Read our review HERE!
Photo Credit: Doriane Feinstein
The Living Gallery at Launch Point
The gallery comes to life in a love letter to the Cosmos. Guests wandered through Launch Point, a warehouse turned art installation and maze-like gallery, discovering artwork and hidden performers along the way. The gallery included painting, illustration work, light sculptures, visual installations, and performers of various backgrounds, with each artist responding to space flight and exploration.
We were proud to reach our goal of 80% of the venue installation being sourced from recycled, borrowed, salvaged, or sustainably sourced materials.
Ulysses Missa
Nominated for Best Direction in the New York Theatre Festival Summerfest 2022 Season!
Celebrating the work of James Joyce and celebrating the communion we find in connection with each other, Ulysses Missa is an 80-minute a capella musical and joyous ritual of finding new family and rediscovering old.
Photos and Videos Coming Soon.
Unorthodox Methods of Cosmic Flight
Part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2021,
A mostly devised performance inspired by Ilya Kabakov's "The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment" (pictured, the second photograph), two dubious characters fight over which one of them will be flung into space in their makeshift slingshot, as the actors create in real-time a visual installation in conversation with Kabakov's earlier work.
Read about the production HERE
Photo Credit: Colin Sass
We're Here Because You Are
What happens when you mash up a theatrical production, a gallery, and a choose-your-own-adventure story? We're Here Because You Are was developed for the 2020 Philadelphia Fringe as a virtual production because of Covid 19. Audience choose their path through a custom-built website by selecting artwork or following actor prompts
The gallery was curated using a telephone-style game where artists were sent work from previous artists, and made images, sculptures, prompts, or written work based on what they received. Actors created monologues also through this process. Overall we had about 30 to 40 participants from 5 different countries and 10 different states
The Illustrated Woman
Produced in the 2019 Fringe Festival through the University of the Arts, Vertjanova's The Illustrated Woman, written by Nancy Kiefer, is a constructivist-inspired and design-led exploration of what it means to look to the women of our past for our present strength.
A livingroom drama turned experimental, some key moments of this production include the use of a puppet as a character and the prevalence of non-dance-specific movement as a secondary language.
Photo Credit: Paola Nogueras
Zachary Hates Everything...
A staged reading, written by Doriane Feinstein and produced by the Philadelphia Women's Theatre Festival, deals with mental illness and consent through the eyes of hallucinated classical composers. The play was recorded by "The Upstage" and the podcast can be found here!
Read more about "Zachary Hates Everything..." on Broadwayworld.com/Philadelphia
Photo Credit: Kristen Elizabeth Photography
King Lear Abridged
A one-act adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear, produced in the University of the Arts Director's Workshop, this version explores the similarities of Cordelia and Edmund's paths in relation to their familial dynamics through dreamlike physicality and a little paint.
Photo Credit: Lindsey Silver