Local and Regional Artists Present and Perform a Stunning Variety of Projects at the Venice Island Performing Arts Center
Approximately 100 artists will participate in the Shoe Box Theatre Festival, Friday-Sunday, May 17-19 at the Venice Island Performing Arts Center in Manayunk, Philadelphia. The Shoe Box Theatre Festival exists to highlight short performance pieces that may never have been brought to fruition otherwise. The collective’s third annual festival celebrates Philadelphia’s live theatre community with a full weekend of diverse interdisciplinary performances: drama, comedy, Clowning, live painting improvisation, interpretive dance, experimental music and film, and much more. Shoe Box seeks to minimize the financial and bureaucratic barriers that stifle art-in-progress at other institutions. The artists are provided with access to rehearsal space, optional dramaturgical consultation, and tech time with our resident professional tech team. The vision of the artists, and the art itself, is always centered. Each year the festival is a rich amalgamation of experimental devised work, exploratory first drafts, and polished final projects.
The pieces are arranged in four blocks with a maximum runtime of three hours each. No individual piece is longer than 45 minutes, so each block will contain four to five pieces with special guest artists performing in the downtime. Audience are encouraged to attend entire blocks, or specific pieces, as they see fit.
The Shoe Box Theatre Collective was born from the technical theatre team at the Venice Island Performing Arts Center. Frustrated by the flatness of so much performance art, Shoe Box set out to push the constraints of the proscenium theatrical experience. In live art, the audience must be engaged as active participants rather than passive observers. Shoe Box is committed to strengthening the Philadelphia Theatre Community at large by offering a high-tech venue and technical resources for theatre makers at any stage of artistic development.
Ticket Information and Performance Schedule Festival performances take place Friday, Saturday, and Sunday May 17-19, 2019 at The Venice Island Performing Arts Center, located at 7 Lock Street in Manayunk. Tickets range from $15 for a 3-hour block of performances to $35 for a full festival pass. Refreshments will be sold at the venue. For more information, visit the festival website at www.shoeboxtheatrecollective.org/short-theatre-festival; to purchase tickets, follow this link https://2019shorttheatrefest.brownpapertickets.com.
