food

About the Show

An intimate dinner party performance of smell, taste, and touch, FOOD offers a meditation on the ways and whys of eating. The audience gathers around a white linen-covered dining table, engaging with each other and their empty plates in an immersive, constantly transforming performance. Sounds, scents, and tactile elements shape a conversation about personal memories, consumption, and the evolution of food production over generations.

FOOD is the third work in a trilogy by renowned clown and devotee of the “sublime ridiculous” Geoff Sobelle. Continuing the investigations of The Object Lesson and HOME, FOOD provokes questions about everyday experiences that many of us take for granted, served with Sobelle’s signature flavor of rigorous design, stage illusion, and an absurdist sense of humor.

A Note from Geoff Sobelle

A quick caveat to the show’s crediting…

While the following people absolutely did the following jobs, each and every one of them did much much more – and in a manner that is difficult to describe exactly. All of these humans, including most of the people in the “special thanks,” contributed not just their skills, but their ideas. Their opinions, taste, personal experiences, and generosity of spirit created a culture for FOOD that has been specific, vibrant and vital. Their collective imagination (as well as their labor) has fueled the integrity and delirium of this show.  – Geoff Sobelle

Credits

Created & performed by Geoff Sobelle

Director, Lee Sunday Evans

Co-Creator/Magician, Steve Cuiffo

Sound Design, Tei Blow

Lighting Design, Isabella Byrd

Props Creation, Jessie Baldinger, Julian Crouch, Steve Cuiffo, Nathan (Pierre) Lemoine, Raphael

Mishler, Connor O’Leary, Geoff Sobelle, Matthew Soltesz, Christopher Swetcky

Chandelier Creation, Steven Dufala

Associate Sound Design, Ryan Gamblin

Creative Stage Manager, Lisa McGinn

Production Manager, Kevin Hanley

Technical Director, Nathan (Pierre) Lemoine

Creative Producer, Jecca Barry

Funder Credits:

FOOD is commissioned by Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), FringeArts Philadelphia, Allen &

Meghan Thorpe, and Garth Patil. Additional support provided by the Wyncote Foundation.

Developmental support provided by Mercury Store.

Festival Producers: Bob Dever, Andy & Bryna Scott, Larry and Ann Rosen Spector

Festival Co-Producers: Shelley Green & Michael Golden

Special Thanks:

Adam Blumenthal, Sophie Bortolussi, Ryan Bourke, Violaine de Carné, Ernesto Collado, Joey

Cosio-Mercado, John Del Gaudio, Jim Findlay, Will Frear, Tyler Gunther, Hermitage Artists

Retreat, Jeremy Lydic, Dick & Liz Sobelle, Matthew Soltesz, Tannen’s Magic, UCDavis – and all of the cast/crew of the first FOOD show

About the Artists

Geoff Sobelle (Creator/Performer) is a US-based actor and creator devoted to making original actor-driven performance works.  His shows include: HOME, The Object Lesson, The Elephant Room, all wear bowlers and machines machines machines machines machines machines machines (among others).  He has received commissions from BAM, Lincoln Center, Arizona State University, Center Theatre Group, Edinburgh International Festival and The New Zealand Festival. His shows have been recognized by two Bessie Awards, an Obie Award in design, two Edinburgh Fringe First Awards, the Best of Edinburgh Award, a Total Theatre Award and an Innovative Theatre Award.  He is a Pew Fellow and a Creative Capital Grantee.  Geoff was  a company member of Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theatre Company from 2001-2012.  He trained in physical theater at the Lecoq school in Paris and is a graduate of Stanford University.  www.geoffsobelle.com

Lee Sunday Evans (Director) is a New York-based, two-time Obie Award-winning director and choreographer. Recent stage credits include acclaimed production of Heather Christian’s ORATORIO FOR LIVING THINGS  (Lucille Lortel Award for Best Director), DANCE NATION by Clare Barron (Playwrights Horizons, OBIE, Lortel Award), THE COURTROOM by Arian Moayed (Waterwell; NYTimes Best Theater of 2019 List), DETROIT RED by Will Power (ArtsEmerson), IN THE GREEN by Grace McLean (LCT3), MILLER, MISSISSIPPI by Boo Killebrew (Dallas Theater Center, Long Wharf Theater), THE WINTER’S TALE (The Public), HOME by Geoff Sobelle (BAM), FARMHOUSE/WHOREHOUSE by Suzanne Bocanegra (BAM), BULL IN A CHINA SHOP by Bryna Turner (Lincoln Center/LCT3), CAUGHT by Christopher Chen (The Play Company), [PORTO] by Kate Benson (WP Theater/The Bushwick Starr), A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN NOVEMBER ON THE BANKS OF THE GREATEST OF THE GREAT LAKES by Kate Benson (OBIE Award; WP Theater, New Georges). Lee’s work has been presented/developed at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Sundance Theater Lab, BAX, CATCH, LMCC, Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, and Juilliard among others. Her feature-film debut, THE COURTROOM premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2022 – www.thecourtroomfilm.com. She is the Artistic Director of Waterwell.

STEVE CUIFFO (Illusion Design): Lucas Hnath’s Dana H. (CTG/Broadway), The Thin Place (Playwrights Horizons) and A Public Reading…About The Death of Walt Disney (Soho Rep.); Geoff Sobelle’s Home and The Object Lesson (BAM); Elephant Room (CTG); Antipodes, Old Hats (Signature Theatre); Lypsinka’s The Passion of the Crawford; Lenny Bruce at Carnegie Hall (St. Ann’s); North Atlantic & Brace Up! (The Wooster Group); Magic Director for David Blaine Live. Co-Founder of Secret Arts.

Tei Blow (Sound Designer) is a media designer and performer based in Brooklyn, NY. Tei works with sound, photography, video, and computers. His work has been featured at Hartford Stage, Dance Theater Workshop, PS122/PSNY, Lincoln Center Festival, The Roundabout, The Kitchen, BAM, The Public Theater, The Broad Stage, MCA Chicago, MFA Boston, Kate Werble Gallery, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Roundabout, and The Wadsworth Atheneum. He is the recipient of a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for Outstanding Sound Design for David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group’s “I Understand Everything Better,”. Tei is one half of Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble, whose ongoing multipart series “The Art of Luv” is a recipient of the Creative Capital and Franklin Furnace Awards.

Isabella Byrd (Lighting Designer) is a Brooklyn-based designer developing new works.  Notable NYC credits include Sanctuary City and Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (New York Theatre Workshop), Epiphany at Lincoln Center, and ongoing collaborations with Will Arbery, including world premieres of Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Corsicana (Playwrights Horizons), and PLANO (Clubbed Thumb).  International work: Cabaret (West End, Olivier nomination), Endgame (Gate Theatre, Dublin), “DADDY” A Melodrama (Almeida, London.)  Awards: Obie, Lortel, and Henry Hewes. Proud union member (USA829) and pay equity advocate.  www.isabellabyrd.design

Lisa McGinn (Creative Stage Manager): Recent credits: Geoff Sobelle’s Home and The Object Lesson; Elephant Room: Dust from the Stars (Center Theatre Group); Underground Railroad Game (Jennifer Kidwell, Scott R. Sheppard, Ars Nova, tour); A Hard Time (Pig Iron Theatre Co), Ocean Filibuster  and How to Build a Forest (PearlDamour/ART); Detroit Red (ArtsEmerson); Sleep (Ripe Time Theatre); Chimera and The Wholehearted (Stein | Holum Projects); This is Reading (Lynn Nottage, Kate Whoriskey);  LA Dance Project (European tour); Jacuzzi (The Debate Society/Ars Nova); The Light Years (The Debate Society/NYSAF); Revolt. She said. Revolt Again and Winners and Losers (Soho Rep); Rememberer and Open House (Steven Reker); Eager to Lose (Ars Nova); Forbidden Creature Virgin Whore; From the Spot Where We/You/I Stand (Stood) (Miller Rothlein Dance); You, My Mother (Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf); Card and Gift and Baby Screams Miracle (Clubbed Thumb); The Seagull and Ivanov (Chekhov at Lake Lucille); The Room Sings, The Peripherals; Hot Lunch Apostles (Talking Band).

Kevin J. P. Hanley (Production Manager) is a Brooklyn-based stage and production manager working in theatre, public art, and events. Theatre credits include: New Repertory Theatre, Central Square Theater, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Reagle Music Theatre, ArtsEmerson, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Suffolk University, Boston, TheatreWorks Hartford, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Ars Nova, Little Island’s NYCFREE Festival, The Fisher Center at Bard College.

Nathan (Pierre) Lemoine (Technical Director): Nathan’s eclectic background has given him the opportunity to work with numerous independent and commercial artists, theaters and dance companies across the country and internationally. Some of those companies, artists and venues include Baryshnikov Productions, Lviv Theater Voskresinnia, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Big Dance Theater, Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company, Frank Ocean, Christine Jones, Mimi Lien, Bergdorf Goodman, Jeff Becker and ArtSpot Productions, Rebecca Mwase, Tina Satter and Half Straddle, Every House Has A Door, Susan Marshall and The Ontological Hysteric among many others. Before moving to New Orleans, LA in 2016 he was the Technical Director at Paper Mache Monkey Art and Design Studio in New York. While there he was a lead project manager working with a variety of renowned clients from the worlds of dance, fashion, theater, music and visual arts. Nathan is currently creating a new, NOLA based design and fabrication startup called SuperGay Design Workshop.

Jecca Barry (Creative Producer) is an opera, theatre, film, and music producer, as well as a nonprofit arts leader. From 2012-2022, she served as Executive Director of the acclaimed production company Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) and was a Co-Director of New York’s annual PROTOTYPE Festival from 2017-2022. Jecca has overseen the commissioning, development, production and touring of over 30 new theatre, music-theatre, and opera works, and has toured those works to over 40 national and 15 international venues. Works produced have won a Total Theatre Award and Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Bessie, Helen Hayes, Theatre Bay Area, and Elliot Norton Awards in cities around the US. The PROTOTYPE Festival was nominated for Outstanding Festival at the 2019 International Opera Awards.

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.

FringeArts Staff + Board

FRINGEARTS STAFF

Nick Stuccio, President & Producing Director
Zoe McNichols, Associate Artistic Producer
April Rose, Independent Artist Program Manager
Mikaela Boone, Artistic Programming Assistant

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Will Lincke, Finance Associate
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Alexa Perillo, Marketing Manager
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Kristen Hammer, Production Manager
Kelly Orenshaw, Associate Production Manager
Chuck Whitters, Technical Director
Sydney Norris, Master Electrician
Josh Bruton, Head of Audio

Joanne Marder, Director of Strategic Partnerships
Anna Buller, Development Manager

BOARD

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

Donald Baines
Mark Dichter
Tony P. Forte
David Hoffman
Virginia G Susini
David Lipson
Tom Lussenhop
Jake Reardon
Darryl Ridgeway
Theresa Spencer
Nick Stuccio
Max Tuttleman
Paul Wright