Short Summary
In the spring of 2015, Emma Arrick, BRAT Production's 2014-15 Resident Artist will curate and direct Plant Me Here a multidisciplinary immersive experience based on the poetry of Philadelphia playwright Jason Rosenberg. Plant Me Here will be a culmination of a creative exploration conducted by artists from various disciplines, curated by Arrick, working as ensemble to interpret Rosenberg's poetry. Plant Me Here is an evening of sloppy magical realism that asks the viewer to vilify the body and find the beauty in horror. Plant Me Here is the result of open studio cross disciplinary collaboration. Right now it feels like when you put your hand in a bowl of spaghetti in a haunted house and for half a second you think that maybe it really is guts. Maybe later it will feel like something else. The piece is changing daily.
BRAT Productions’ Resident Artist Program
BRAT’s Resident Artist program was created to give emerging artists with bold and unapologetic visions the opportunity to produce original work. The Resident Artist program is unique in that gives an artist the opportunity to have both total creative ownership of an idea and access to BRAT’s years of producing experience to make that vision come to life. By offering the combination of creative ownership and producorial mentoring, BRAT is supporting the true “emerging artist,” and empowering the next generation of theater makers in Philadelphia.
Emma Arrick
Emma Arrick is a 2014 graduate of the University of the Arts with a degree in Theatre and a focus in Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Physical Theatre. She is the co-founder of Cursed Church Art Collective, with whom she has played many roles including performer, stage manager, director, screenwriter, casting director and producer. Over the past several years Emma has allied herself with local experimental film company, Zimbo Films, Philadelphia based multi-disciplinary showcase series 5x7 Space Showing, BRAT Productions as well as individual artists spanning all mediums. She believes in collaboration and communication. Emma is interested in the hybridization of art forms, the malleability of structure, and the concept of producing work with a strictly aesthetic agenda. Her work asks the audience to project meaning, rather than being driven by a message or.
Jason Rosenberg
Jason Rosenberg is playwright, poet, and actor based in Philadelphia. He is currently a senior at the University of the Arts with a focus in Playwriting. He is the co-founder and resident playwright for Cursed Church and the development intern for BRAT Productions. His writing asks, “How can we be happy if we’re going to die?” and explores this idea through the interplay of poetic visuals and sparse, emotionally disarming language. He hopes that through his work in Plant Me Here, he can contribute to the ongoing conversation about the relationship between playwrights and devised theater.
Cursed Mission Statement
The Cursed Church Artist Collective is a group of multidisciplinary artists dedicated to the creation of visceral, innovative works of theater and film and anything that can be loosely categorized within those perimeters. We are a group of young artists based in Philadelphia. Our artistic pursuits range from the staging of original poetic and movement centric theater to long form improv comedy to experimental filmmaking to rock musicals. Our aesthetic interests are always changing. When a member of our ensemble has an idea for a project they are interested in working on under the umbrella of our company, we make it happen. We have found that the best way to ask a question is shamelessly and the best way to answer it is with as many voices as possible. We are 8 people lucky enough to be surrounded by people who want to help us continue to do what we love. We are spooky and funny mostly.
What We Need & What You Get
The first phase of this process is complete. We spent 3 weeks in open studio collaboration at Shiloh Baptist Church. 4 actors, 2 composers and a slew of guest collaborators, spanning all mediums, built a stand alone piece of theatre that will be used as the primary informant for the continuation of the building of this piece. BRAT supplied stipends for the artists involved as well as space rental for rehearsal and three work in progress showings at vastly different venues around Philadelphia.
But the piece does not end here. We need funds to pay a team of designers to interpret the piece and transform it into an installation. We need materials for the construction of sets and interactive sculpture. We need funds for the second round of stipends for the actors and composers when they revisit the piece in rehearsal this spring. We need to rent a projector. We need to make posters. We need all sorts of fun stuff that we don't even know WHAT yet, because this piece is changing and growing every day.
Check out our sweet perks!
The Impact
From what we can tell, no one makes work quite like this.
The way we have been operating is new, innovative and the entire process is open to the public. There has been an overwhelmingly positive response from the artists who have come to make with us during our first phase. Keeping the doors between artists of differing mediums open and creating a common vocabulary across disciplines has been of the utmost importance to this process and the budding careers of all the young artists involved. With your help. we can keep building an open, inclusive, nurturing artistic community, and make art in new, challenging, invigorating ways.
