The popular, long running works-in-progress series on the first Monday of every month.
Come see a roster of Philly’s most talented artists perform new material from shows they are working on in this fast-paced sampling of contemporary theater, dance, performance art, and everything in between. Scratch Night features short performances by four-to-six companies/artists, offering an inside look at the future of performance.
60 minutes
FREE / Suggested Donation
May Lineup:
Plant Me Here by BRAT Productions/ Emma Arrick
Plant Me Here is an experiment in the collaborative process that is part immersive installation experience, part modern dance and part noise. The piece asks the question “how can we be happy if we are going to die?” and grasps at the absurdity of mortality through the employment of simple audio and visual paradoxes. Inspired by the poetry of Jason Rosenberg, curated by Emma Arrick for the BRAT Productions Resident Artist Program.
Let the Dog See the Rabbit by Lightning Rod Special
Let the Dog See the Rabbit is Lightning Rod Special’s investigation into how we look at animals. Steering clear of pink elephants, paper tigers, early birds and night owls, LDSR refuses to restrict animals to the metaphorical margins. Instead we gaze unblinking into the animal eye and reflect what we see there.
Photo by Kate Raines
10,000 Movements by Gregory Holt
Holt is working on a choreographed solo of 10,000 unrepeated sequential movements, and will show a couple hundred in 7 minutes. Rather than a mechanical display, the process he has adopted is more of an unfolding- constantly changing his perspective and looking for distinction.
Photo by Ian Douglas
Boing! by Vervet Dance
Boing! is the latest Vervet Dance collaboration between artistic director and choreographer Loren Groenendaal and percussionist Flandrew Fleisenberg. This work features an ensemble of dancers moving with thousands of ping pong balls, forming a visually stunning and sonic experience with “a satisfying cacophony of pings and pops. . . and delicious silence”, in the words of Beau Hancock from thINKing Dance.
Photo by L. Browning Photography
Broads Having a Blow by Kelly Powers & Rachel Carrico
In Broads Having a Blow, the artists explore issues faced by women breaking into a man’s world. (“Blow” is a British term for a jam session, with obvious sexual connotations for unwitting American musicians.) The piece responds to gender issues currently surfacing in popular culture, such as viral videos of women walking in New York, best-selling books about women succeeding in business, and media coverage of sexual assault on college campuses. Inspired by a range of textual, visual, and anecdotal sources, Carrico and Powers use music and dance to bring these issues to life.
Photo by Derek Burdette
The Gathering of the Mother Moth by Olivia Jorgensen
Calling all peoples of diverse religious beliefs, curiosities, and skepticism – Come celebrate spring, nature, abundance, love, fertility, birth, sex, and fire with some newly baptized neo-pagans. Watch these earth-based spirituals give thanks to the great Goddess(s) with ritual: wild, reverent, loud, and sexually loaded. Who are these Mother Moth People ring leaders?… These well-intentioned, bright eyed, self-educated – and somewhat misguided – spiritual leaders? Faking it to make it right in front of your very eyes.
Photo by JJ Tiziou