TILDA SWINTON ADOPT ME PLEASE (2017)
"Both laugh-out-loud funny and intensely affecting... highly intelligent and profoundly touching." Set in the childhood bedroom of an unusual pair of twin siblings, Tilda Swinton Adopt Me Please is a mash-up of theatre, dance, and performance art, exploring obsession, celebrity stalking, adolescence, and the acceptability of love – even in its strangest forms.
TSAMP was presented in the 2017 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, in collaboration with Minding Your Mind, an organization promoting adolescent mental health. A representative from MYM conducted a post-show talkback with director Maura Krause, and audience members received literature about the organization after every performance. The show was a top-pick for the entire 2017 Fringe festival, and sold out its run. Top Pick // DC Metro Reviewed // Broad Street Review Reviewed // DC Metro |
Co-Creators: Nicholas Scheppard & Hannah Van Sciver; Director: Maura Krause; Set/Costume/Props Design: Sara Outing; Lighting Design: Michael Lambui; Sound/Projection Design: Lucas Fendlay; Production Manager: Grayce Hoffman; Stage Manager: Kat Kelly
*funded in part through a grant from Small But Mighty Arts 
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THE ART OF LOSING"...compelling and soulful...allowed just enough personal connection and psychic space for the audience..." What do a loved one, an election, baby teeth, scribbled notes, and your mind have in common?
The Art of Losing is a meditation on loss, in all of its ugly splendor and beautiful mess. Co-created by Emily Fernandez, Christine Freije and Hannah Van Sciver, and incubated by The Greenfield Collective, The Art of Losing was presented at Headlong Performance Institute in the 2017 Philadelphia Solow Fest. Reviewed // Bonaly |
Co-Creators: Emily Fernandez, Christine Freije, Hannah Van Sciver; Director: Christine Freije; Design Consultation: Sara Outing
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THE FUTURE IS FEMALE (2017)
".....Fantastic. On March 27, we hosted an evening of brave new works by women-identified and non-binary theatre makers as a part of the month-long, nation-wide Future is Female Festival. We donated half of our proceeds from the evening to Women Organized Against Rape, Philadelphia's only rape crisis center. The event, which took place at Headlong Performance Institute, featured four new ten-minute plays responding to the prompt "The Future is Female," three devised works in progress, and original music and visual art. The event sold out completely, and traversed three different playing spaces throughout the premises of Headlong. Top Pick // Philly Mag Press Release // BroadwayWorld Learn more about the nation-wide festival: The Future is Female |
ROSTER: Attempts At Finding Footing, by Lauren Feldman; I Was Born (An Excerpt), by Maya Peniazek with Philadelphia Young Playwrights; All Girl, by Stephanie Walters; Warrior Pose, by Cara Blouin; Tilda Swinton Adopt Me Please, co-created by Nicholas Scheppard and Hannah Van Sciver; It's a Big Scary World Out There, Jub-Jub, Eyes Up, co-created by Emily Fernandez, Christine Freije, Kelsey Hodgkiss, and Minou Porshariati; Buzz Buzz Magnifying Glass Emoji It's Me Bitch Here I Am, co-created by Bailey Roper and Nicholas Scheppard; music by Gracie Martin, and visual art by Emily R Johnson. SEE THE FULL LINEUP.
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THE MAGNUS EFFECT (2016)
"...an exponentially superb show with a wonderfully constructed panoramic view..." Five unlikely strangers come together with a common goal: overcoming their fear of flying. One part play, one part dance and one part airline jingle, The Magnus Effect is an exploration of how and why we've come to dread the world around us. The Magnus Effect was performed in July 2016 at Vox Populi, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Service's Healthy Minds Philly initiative. All audience members were given access to mental health first aid information when entering and exiting the theatre, and our opening night performance featured a talkback with their program director. Reviewed // Broad Street Review Reviewed // DC Metro |
Playwright/Lead Artist: Hannah Van Sciver; Director: David O'Connor; Lead Designer: Sara Outing; Sound Design: Sarah Van Sciver; Lighting Designer: Noah Lee; Costumes Assistant: Grayce Hoffman; Music Composition: Richard Chan; Choreography: Joseph Ahmed; Production Stage Manager: Stephanie Sintef; Assistant Director/Assistant Stage Manager: Sarah Zerod; Outreach Coordinator: Rowan Hepps Keeney; Ensemble: Richard Chan, Amanda Jill Robinson, David Pica, Zoe Richards, Hannah Van Sciver
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BAD HAMLET (2016)
"It’s like writing a review of a party I attended...the chaos was fantastic..." Bad Hamlet was a roulette style drinking-game reading of, well, the "bad" quarto of Hamlet. Presented the summer of 2016 in the Headlong Performance Institute garden by Joseph Ahmed & Lesley Berkowitz in association with The Greenfield Collective, Bad Hamlet was as much a celebration of the cacophonous genius of Shakespeare, as it was a ridiculous romp through a play scholars like to pretend doesn't exist. Actors drew roles out of a hat each night, and were assigned *power-ups* by the audience (e.g. an outlandish accent or physical choice). Each show also featured a pre-show performance by a guest company, and one of their members in the role of Horatio. Guest Artists included Almanac, Tribe of Fools, PHIT and Revolution Shakespeare. Bad Hamlet marked the continuation of a Shakespeare Roulette experiment that began with Reject Theatre Projects's Coriolanus. Reviewed // Bonaly |
Director: Joseph Ahmed; Producing Team: Joseph Ahmed, Lesley Berkowitz, Hannah Van Sciver; Design/Dramaturgy: Christine Freije; Production Assistant: Rowan Hepps Keeney; Ensemble: Lesley Berkowitz, Ife Foy, Michael Gamache, Amanda Jill Robinson, Jenna Kuerzi, Hannah Van Sciver
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LOSING BACK THE SLEEP YOU'VE GAINED (2016)
"When your friends need you/ LBTSYG was a collaborative effort with Philadelphia Young Playwrights. As part of the culmination of the Paula Vogel Young Mentors Program, high schooler Helen Everbach spent the fall and winter of 2015 working on this script under the guidance of New York playwright and mentor Lucy Thurber. In the spring, PYP approached The Greenfield Collective to produce the work. The show, which sold out its run in May 2016, tracks the lives of queer high schoolers living with depression with tremendous grit and nuance. It featured original music by Gracie Martin and Jake Innerst, and was staged in a dance studio surrounded by mirrors. |
Written by: Helen Everbach; Paula Vogel Mentor: Lucy Thurber; Director/ Production Designer: Hannah Van Sciver; Production Assistant/Technical Director: David O'Connor; Music Composition: Gracie Martin, Jake Innerst; Ensemble: Ife Foy, Jake Innerst, Emily R. Johnson, Gracie Martin, David O'Connor
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I CARRY YOUR HEART (2016)
"...(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life..." Based on the poetry of e.e. cummings, featuring the music of Collector Amanda Jill Robinson, and inspired by movement workshops for The Magnus Effect, "I Carry Your Heart" features fifty of our favorite Philadelphia humans, artists, babies and dogs, in public locations across the city. "I Carry Your Heart" is at once a song, a dance, a performance art poem for public spaces, a community engagement experiment, a mission statement, and a love letter to the artistic community of Philadelphia. It premiered at "The Lift-Off" - The Greenfield Collective's official Launch Party, at Headlong Performance Institute on April 15, 2016. |
Conceived by: Hannah Van Sciver; Filmed/Edited by: BornLucky Studios; Poetry by: e. e. cummings; Music Written/Performed by: Amanda Jill Robinson; Featured: Richard Chan, David Pica, Zoe Richards, Hannah Van Sciver; Choreography: The Magnus Effect creative team/Joseph Ahmed; Production Manager: Emily Fernandez
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FIFTY DAYS AT ILIAM (2015)
"...beautifully affecting...richly impressionistic...deep, daring."
Developed over an eight month workshop period, Fifty Days at Iliam explores the relationship between abstract expressionist painter Cy Twombly and his iconic Fifty Days at Iliam paintings via poetry, physical theatre, dance, and live music. The piece was a top pick for the 2015 Philadelphia FringeArts Festival, received rave reviews, and sold out its run. Plus, we totally rained paint from the ceiling. Reviewed // CityPaper Reviewed // Phindie Interviewed // Phindie Top Pick // Phindie Top Pick // Classicizing Philadelphia |
Lead Artist: Hannah Van Sciver; Director: William Steinberger; Set/Costume/Props Design: Sara Outing; Lighting Design: Eric Baker; Music Composition: Sarah Van Sciver; Music Director: Amanda Jill Robinson; Choreographer: Joseph Ahmed; Ensemble: Joseph Ahmed, Elizabeth Audley, Richard Chan, Amanda Jill Robinson, Megan Slater, Hannah Van Sciver; Stage Manager: Kat Kelly
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BICYCLE FACE (2015-2016)
"...smart, funny, and provocative." Set in Philadelphia and framed by a feminist theory class taught in the year 2125, Bicycle Face tells the interconnected stories of three women, separated by a century each, navigating the changing landscape of feminism, censorship and cycling. Bicycle Face premiered in Philadelphia's 2015 Solow Fest. The following November, it toured New Orleans in the Razor's Edge Solo Performance Festival, and in February 2016, it toured Cape Cod. In November 2016, it toured Off-Broadway at Theatre Row through the United Solo Festival. Both the Philadelphia and New Orleans productions engaged and cross-promoted with local women’s cycling groups. The Cape Cod production benefited women's organizations Independence House and WE CAN. Top Pick // City Paper Top Pick // Phindie Reviewed // Phindie Interviewed // Rep Radio |
Playwright/Actor: Hannah Van Sciver; Director: David O'Connor; Set/Costume/Props/Projection Design: Sara Outing; Lighting Design: Devin Barney; Stage Manager: Travis Braue-Fishbach
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MARBLES (2014)
"...complicated, beautiful, painful." Staged in the round in the basement of Chapterhouse Coffee Shop, this forty-minute one act play tells the fragmented story of the relationship between two millennials working together in a post office. It's an exploration of anxiety, intimacy, technology – and the strange area of overlap between the three. Everyone who attended got a free cup of coffee to sip during the show. Marbles premiered in the 2014 Philadelphia FringeArts Festival. It was selected early as a festival favorite, and sold out so quickly that its run was extended for an extra performance. Top Pick // Phindie Reviewed // Phindie Reviewed // CityPaper |
Lead Artist: Hannah Van Sciver; Director: William Steinberger; Costume/Props Design: Violette Rivera Carb; Lighting Design: John Campbell; Sound Design: Chris Burcheri; Ensemble: Sam Sherburne, Hannah Van Sciver
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