From the company who brought you Overseers and Vainglorious, a new work that sends its stout-hearted underdogs into battle to vanquish their fears and discover mysterious truths. The physical world transforms around the audience as they witness acts of bravery small and large.
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Applied Mechanics is director Rebecca Wright, designer Maria Shaplin, and performers John Jarboe, Jessica Hurley, Thomas Choinacky, Kristen Bailey, and Mary Tuomanen. This ensemble of artists collaborate to make work that challenges conventional ideas of theatrical space, narrative, and performer-audience relationship. Their pieces include the apartment plays Selkie and Ses Voyages Sauvages; It’s Hard Times at the Camera Blanca (Fringe 2009) which took over a Fishtown Bar; the invasion play Portmanteau (Fringe 2010) which, following its Philadelphia premiere, toured from Texas to Louisville to Maine; the dystopic environmental piece Overseers (Fringe 2011); and the large scale historical fantasia Vainglorious: Epic Feats of Notable Persons in Europe After the Revolution, which involved a cast of 26 Philadelphia actors and which was supported by the inaugural grant from the Philadelphia Performing Arts Kitchen. Vainglorious will remount in the Kimmel Center’s Philadelphia International Festival of Art (PIFA) in April 2013. Some Other Mettle will play at the Annenberg Center in February. Applied Mechanics explores the relationships between bodies and space, audience and performers, and art and other kinds of sustenance. The group’s work is characterized by immersive sets, parallel narrative structures (with many scenes happening simultaneously, and the audience free to wander and watch how they want), and the incorporation of food, drink, and other intimate sensory experiences. Their process is collaborative, democratic, and based on a commitment to organizational and artistic innovation. They eat a meal together at every rehearsal. They are based in Philadelphia.
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