DARES 2023: Student Highlights
The Class of ’23 has something special for you. Each of these eight artists have been dared to dream up a piece of theater that is boldly original and uniquely their own. What arises when they follow their brightest desire into the darkest unknown? Come experience the culmination of Cohort 10’s second year!
Two nights. Each wildly different. Anything can happen.
Dare to meet our eight artists?
"I'm interested in how artistic research can be used to inform the devising process. How can I draw inspiration from paintings, music, and poetry and bring those themes into my work?"
—Flora Aubin
Performance: Bridge Over a Chasm, May 9th
"I am in search of THE PLAY. I take the familiar and make it unknown. I follow a structure then I break it. I embrace the magic of invention and transformation. I acknowledge my own foolishness, but I use some oil and wet wipes to make it shine. My audience often participates in the celebration of our collective silliness. I strive to tell impossible stories that elicit laughter and tears."
—Faysal Can Dakni
Performance: Twice The Effort, Half The Gain, May 9th
"A campfire. The corner of the bar. A bedroom. A warehouse. That dingy stage above the town hall. I am a theater pirate. I tell stories of terror and heartbreak. Stories that sing, where music is part of the fabric of the world itself. A storm. A shoestring. A killer band. A secret kiss. My theater will ignite imagination, inspire vulnerability, soften holdings, and strengthen community."
—Jonah Godfrey
Performance: A Feast for the Senses, May 9th
"I am interested in verbatim text i.e. voice notes, vlogs, old text messages, stream-of-consciousness Google docs, letters, diary entries, and online forums, to crack open the meaning of 'endings.'"
—Alyse James
Performance: Nothing Left Unsaid, May 9th
Patrick Burke believes in the ability of small ensembles to create lived-in worlds that provoke audiences to reexamine their circumstances and the life around them. He cherishes legacy and wishes to honor the power of a memorable night: a single performance can alter the trajectory of someone for all to come.
—Patrick Conner Burke
Performance: Before The Gates Had Opened, May 10th
"I make works of physical performance encompassing various forms, including bouffon, clown, dance theatre, and drag. Ignited by constraint, I create raging fires that are simultaneously oceans; collisions of fluidity, virtuosity, and humanity through a queer lens. Poems of the body that live in the limbo between escapism and confrontation."
—Mitchell Nease
Performance: Thrown in an Arc, May 10th
"I'm exploring the intersection of what is real and what is performed. We always have a level of "on" that we can turn up or down, but at which point are we our truest selves? But with everything that I do, I stay curious and change my whims as questions come."
—Sarah Owens
Performance: The Biggest Bite, May 10th
Kathleen Taylor is an artist whose performance-based practice lives between the clown and the bouffon. By moving between incarnations of the idiotic and the haunting, proficiency and incompetence, ecstasy and restraint, her work is adamantly directed towards the hogwild. Through viscous play, she summons brutish femininity, grotesque eroticism, and unbridled nonsense.
—Kathleen Taylor
Performance: Beyond the boundaries, May 10th
Performance Details
Tuesday, May 9th | 7:30pm
Wednesday, May 10th | 7:30pm
Pig Iron Studios
1417 N 2nd St
Philadelphia, PA 19122
This event is FREE.
Reception to follow.