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Event
Parrot Talk
An original play by Julius Ferraro
Directed by Jack Tamburri
Sound by Liz Atkinson
Starring Dan Higbee, Christina May, Hallie Martenson, Dani Solomon, and Alexandra Tatarsky
Orlando feels like she has been alive forever. Sick of friends, sick of love, sick of existence, and just plain sick, she walks the long and treacherous route to the grocery store. But the words which surround her, the ads, the sidewalk etchings, the distant whispers, the voicemails, are getting seriously creepy.
Picking up the breadcrumbs of language playwrights like Mac Wellman, Julius Ferraro writes characters who speak in invented dialects; he takes outrageous verbal and formal leaps, leaving theatrical norms behind and inventing new ways of conveying meaning. Meaning is the primary tool we use to define ourselves, and yet nothing but noise surrounds us; noise finds its way into our awareness through the corners of our eyes and unfamiliar languages and ingenious ads and barely understood, distant whispers. Will noise eventually control and become us?
Parrot Talk utilizes a unique production format, taking place over two weekends in March and April, separated by a month of re-thought, revision, and re-working. Between these performances, the team will work with Parrot Talks sound designer Liz Atkinson to develop a new soundscape for the play, finding new direction and new opportunities for meaning.
After the performance on Friday, March 31, audience members are invited to stay for a Write Back Atcha, facilitated by thINKingDANCE.
Write Back Atcha is a post-show talk-back combined with a mini-writing workshop. It's perfect for anyone who:
Isn't always sure how to talk about live art
Enjoys thinking about what they've just seen
Has opinions
Everyone is invited to stay for this free, 30-minute exploration. We'll talk and write and process together. Your responses (with your permission) may form part of a crowd-sourced response to the performance published on thINKingDANCE.
Julius Ferraro is a playwright, journalist, performer, producer, and project coordinator in Philadelphia. Recent original performances include Micromania, The Death and Painful Dismemberment of Paul W. Auster, and The Mysteries of Jean the Birdcatcher. As a journalist he is editor-in-chief of thINKingDANCE, co-founder of Curate This, has served as theater editor of Phindie, and has been published internationally. With Mural Arts Philadelphias Restored Spaces Initiative he coordinates community-led environmental arts projects.
Jack Tamburri is a director based in New York and Philadelphia. Recent work includes PEER GYNT & the Norwegian Hapa Band with Ma-Yi Theater Co. of New York, Antagonyms withCurio Theatre Co, Philadelphia; Bruce Graham'sThe Outgoing Tide, Dreamcatcher Rep, Summit, NJ; Ravel and Colette'sL'enfant et les Sortileges,Opera at Rutgers. Jack is the co-creator ofSchool Playwith Terry Brennan for Tribe of Fools in Philadelphia. He co-created and produced the comediesNot For ProfitandGAYZEwith writer MJ Kaufman. He assisted director Sarah Sanford on the first production of Jennifer Kidwell and Scott Sheppard'sUnderground Railroad Game. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the Yale School of Drama.
Elizabeth Atkinson (Sound Designer) is currently based in Philadelphia, after many years in Pittsburgh where she was Resident Sound Designer at the City Theatre Company. Her freelance career includes regional theatre credits at The Wilma Theater, Simpatico Theatre Project, InterAct Theatre, Peoples Light and Theatre Company, Walnut Street Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, Quantum Theatre, and Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette named her sound designer of the year in 2003, 2006, and 2007. She is a faculty member at Swarthmore College, and previously at Point Park University and Carnegie Mellon University. Liz has also had the honor of exhibiting at the 2007, 2011 and 2015 Prague Quadrennials.
Dan Higbee has been performing in and around Philadelphia for the past 13 years. He recently received his MFA in devised theatre at the Pig Iron school.
Hallie Martenson is a playwright and performer, who by day is the Communications Director at FringeArts, producer of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Her most recent projects have been You're Not Special, a bouffon clown show about millennials, which she co-created with collaborators Meghan Winch and Tara Demmy, and her original solo show MonkeySong, which was produced as a part of the Jilline Ringle Solo Festival by 1812 Productions. She is currently a member of the playwriting think-tank Writers on the Rocks. She received her Masters degree in Theater from Villanova University in 2015, after three years building New Haven Theater Company in Connecticut. She has known and been a fan of Julius's distinctive writing for over a decade, and is thrilled to be a part of this wholly original play.
Christina May is a lover, artist, and educator who lives to love, createand inspire. She is the Founder and President of Image of The Word, LLC, established in 2008. She developed her own company to serve as an acting coach for aspiring artists, and to create and showcase her original works as an artist.You can currently catch her at the Painted Bride Arts Center where she is curating the Secret Show Series for the 2017 Season: paintedbride.org/secretshow2017/.
Dani Solomon (Performer) is a Philadelphia-based performer maker and member of the Renegade Company and Medium Theatre Company, Companies she's worked with include Lightning Rod Special, Team Sunshine Performance Corporation, and the Institute for Pschyogeographic Adventure. She trained at the Headlong Performance Institute 13 after earning BAs from Colgate University in physics and theater.
Alexandra Tatarsky is a performer from New York City. Called endlessly entertaining (NY Theatre) and a hilarious, finely tuned absurdist (Theatre Jones), she experienced fleeting fame as Andy Kaufmans daughter and often performs as a mound of dirt. Her solo shows Beast of Festive Skin, SIGN FELT! and Americana Psychobabble were commissioned by Poetry Electric at La Mama ETC and have toured around the country. She was a member of X-ID Rep at the New Museum, an ensemble devoted to investigating the ethics of intercultural cross-play, and has continued to explore the construction of selves and communities in real time at theaters (The Brick, Dixon Place, JACK, EXIT), galleries (Maccarone, Metro Pictures, Coustof Waxman, US Blues, Vox Populi, Bronx Art Space), bars (KGB, Zinc, Half Moon, Bizarre) and brave peoples living rooms and backyards. She teaches classes on holy fools at the School of Making and Thinking (Abrons Art Center) and on performance as community organizing at the School of Authentic Journalism (Mexico City). Current research interests include Russian futurist zaum poetry and Lecoq movement pedagogy as twin practices of embodied resistance to totalitarian thinking. Tatarsky is a 2016-17 Movement Research artist-in-residence. Her work is largely inspired by street mimes and fake nails.
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LocationDa Vinci Art Alliance (View)
704 Catherine Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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Contact
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