Making Art in 2017: Joshuah D. Simpson on It Takes One
Name: Joshuah D. Simpson
Company: The University of the Arts
Show in 2017 Festival: It Takes One
Role: Performer, Writer
Past Festival shows: You Can’t Put Me in a Box
FringeArts: Tell us about your show.
Joshuah Simpson: This show came out of my problematically zealous passion for musical theater, but more specifically Into the Woods. This show has taught me a great deal about the world around me, and made me realize that in a world where we’re used to all necessary information being spoon fed to us through social media, hidden messages from shows like this are often looked over. My hope is that It Takes One reminds audiences of the connective tissue that all humans share as moving cogs in this world, and find the innate similarities between us while getting a good laugh and maybe even a few tears.
FA: How have your interests in or approach to art making changed in the last year?
Joshuah Simpson: I have undergone a lot of changes this year as a theater artist, the most important being the realization that none of us are held to any one position in the grand scope of theater. There are so many roles to take on, and realizing that I’m capable of more than just one or two things really turned me around a bit. More specifically to this show, before this year I had only ever been a spectator of cabarets, but have found myself taking a more and more of an active part, and finding a new love with in the theater world that I’m really excited to share with the Philly community.
FA: Tell us about an instance from 2017 where your interaction with art provided some much needed solace or refuge from outside troubles.
Joshuah Simpson: I actually just finished a run of Seussical about a month ago, as Horton the Elephant. This is actually a show I’ve always written off as just a silly little kids show, but once I got to be apart of it found a lot of cool nuisances. One of the shows big themes, is about equality, and about the way we treat each other. As silly as it sounds, while I wept over my egg about my elephant woes, I felt my heart warm as a little black boy managed to sing his way into the tear ducts of the elderly folk of Central PA.
It Takes One
Joshuah D. Simpson & Ethan Abrams
$10 (Free for UArts Students) / 90 minutes
Sept. 8th-9th at 7:30pm, 9th-10th at 2pm @ Arts Bank at The University of the Arts, 601 S Broad St