BEing/With

About the Show

Two solo audience members connect in virtual space from opposite sides of the city. Through the use of live-feed technology, participants are guided through a movement duet and conversation with a stranger in another room, known only in this fleeting digital space. Being/With is a meditation on separation and connection, loss and embodiment, and the power of listening.

Creative and Production Team

Written and Directed by Nichole Canuso in collaboration with Pablo N. Molina (Video and Lighting Designer/Software Architect), Jesse Garrison (Co-Video Designer and Software Developer), Sadah Espii Proctor, (Composer/Sound Designer), Christopher Ash (Set and Installation Designer), Tojo Rasedoara (Assistant Sound Designer), Adiah Hicks (Assistant Programmer), Emily Schuman (Props Designer), Tenara Calem (Audience Engagement Liaison), Jennifer Turnbull (Workshop Facilitator and Community outreach Facilitator), Rebecca Kanach (Costume Designer), Nic Labadie Bartz (Production Stage Manager), Payton Smith and Brandon Ehrenreich (Stage Managers), Mel Leeds (Assistant Production Manager), Peter Smith (Technical Director), Colin J Sass (Lighting Director and Systems Engineer), Meredith Boggia (Producer), Suzanne Snider (Oral History Interview Consultant), Sasha Kostyrko (Audience Communications) and Annie Wilson, Lillian Ransijn, Izzy Sazak, Rhonda Moore, Jennifer Kidwell (Performer/Guides)

Community Interviewees: Liljana Alimadhi, D’Wayne Drummond, Victoria Ellis, Linda Furia, Cass Green, Bruno Melone, Veronica Michael, Brother Rahim Muhammad, Derrick Pratt, Jade Rota, Terri Shockley

Our gratitude to collaborators who contributed to the production in earlier development phases: Mikaal Sulaiman, Chris Saninno, Sarah Gardner, Elizabeth Scanlon, Matt Saunders, Robin Stamey, Chelsea Murphy, Eun Jung Choi, Guillermo Ortega

About the Artists

Nichole Canuso, artistic director of Nichole Canuso Dance Company, is interested in the stories we tell ourselves and the stories we tell other people. This artistic obsession manifests in performances that explore presence and absence, participation and spectacle. She is committed to long-term development processes that enable relationship-building with artistic collaborators, community partners, and audiences. Together with her collaborative teams she designs immersive worlds for audience members to inhabit. For the past two decades, sitting at the crossroads of movement, visual art, and theater, Canuso’s choreographic projects have been presented nationally (New York Live Arts (NYC), American Repertory Theater (MA), Los Angeles Performance Projects (CA), Velocity (WA), HERE (NYC), The International Festival for Art and Ideas (CT), among others) and internationally (Hungary, Mexico, UK and others). Choreographic residencies include the Maggie Allessee National Center for Choreography (FL), MacDowell (NH), Millay Colony for the Arts (NY), NCCAkron (OH), Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences (GA). Support for her choreographic work includes The National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, National Dance Projects Funding, The Knight Foundation, a Bessie Shoenberg First Light Commission, the Leeway Foundation, the Independence Foundation, The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the Ellen Foreman Memorial. Canuso has been commissioned to create new work for The American Philosophical Society Museum, Axis Dance Company, Drexel University, Dickinson College, Bryn Mawr College, The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Choreography for theater productions includes Arden Theater Company, Theatre Exile, Theater Horizon and most recently The Institute on Disabilities’ production of A Fierce Kind of Love. She is a faculty member of the MFA program at University of the Arts/Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training (APT). She is a 2017 Pew Fellow and a 2021 New York Stage and Film NEXUS fellow. nicholecanusodance.org

Supporters

Being/With is being developed with support from The National Endowment of the Arts, a William Penn Foundation New Audiences / New Places grant, New England Foundation for the Arts, National Dance Projects Award, and FringeArts. Being/With has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Development residencies include MacDowell (NH), Bryn Mawr College (PA), Swarthmore College (PA), and Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences (GA).

Festival Producers: Ed and Anne Wagner

About FringeArts

FringeArts is Philadelphia’s home for contemporary performance, presenting progressive, world-class art that expands the imagination and boldly defies expectation. Our programming exposes audiences to genre-defying dance, theater, and music performances by accomplished and emerging innovators who push the boundaries of art-making and redefine the artistic landscape worldwide. The lineup for our 2019 Fringe Festival this September is now on sale at FringeArts.com.

The Philadelphia Fringe Festival is a 4-week long, city-wide celebration of innovation and creativity in contemporary performance. Each September, the Festival explodes into every nook and cranny of Philadelphia with more than 1,000 artistically daring performances, including national and international performances curated by FringeArts, and works that are produced by independent artists and promoted by FringeArts.

FringeArts Staff + Board

FRINGEARTS STAFF

Nick Stuccio, President & Producing Director
Zach Blackwood, Artistic Producer
Zoe McNichols, Associate Producer
April Rose, Fringe Festival Coordinator

Carolyn Schlecker, Senior Adviser Operations
Melissa E. Bridge, Director of Finance
Margaux Cattelona, Finance Associate
Alexa Teves Mani, Office Manager & HR Assistant
Mary Menchel, Client Services Manager
Genevieve Chapin, Donor & Volunteer Coordinator
Marissa Both, Box Office Manager
Claire Frisbie, Marketing and Communications Director
Isabella Raposa, Marketing Manager
Amy Kurzban, General Manager
Keighty McLallen, Director of Production
Kelly Orenshaw, Associate Production Manager
Evelyn Swift Shuker, Master Electrician

Joanne Marder, Senior Director of Development
Anna Buller, FEASTIVAL Development and Event Coordinator

Fringe Festival Box Office:
Becca Bernstein
Cecily Chapman
Jill Chiaro
Alaina Clune
Kaela Dudek
Anna Fiscarelli-Mintz
Courtney Giugliano
Jamie Hafner
Tiffany Hall
Marion Horowitz
Mads Klemm
Leslie Miller
Emma Noel
Brianna Peguero
Cinco Placensia
Shawn Porter
Dan Shade
Joey Tabasco

INTERNS

Rachel Adler, Marketing
Siani Beckett, Artistic Programming
Sarah Bhalla, Development
Maria Dragone, Photojournalism
Kaela Dudek, Marketing and Communications
Anna Fiscarelli-Mintz, Fringe Festival Guide
Courtney Giugliano, Guide Information Management
Kevin Grace, Graphic Design
Jamie Hafner, Marketing and Communications
Ryan Henry, Podcast Production
Ayouni Kromah, Artistic Programming
Haven Ogbaselase, FEASTIVAL
Hansel Quezada, Podcast Production
Abi Sanie, Artistic Programming
Joey Tabasco, Venue and Patron Services

BOARD

Richard Vague, Chair
Jennifer Bohnenberger, Vice Chair/Secretary
Lisa P. Young, Treasurer

Donald Baines
Juliana Carter
Mark Dichter
Denise DiSimone
Tony P. Forte
David Hoffman
Kevin Kleinschmidt
Kathy Lentini
David Lipson
Tom Lussenhop
Clement D. Pappas
Jake Reardon
Darryl Ridgeway
Michael Solomonov
Stephen Starr
Nick Stuccio
Audrey Claire Taichman
Max Tuttleman
Paul Wright