A Toast to Talent!

On May 16th, SpArc Philadelphia hosted A Toast to Talent!, an annual talent show celebrating everyone's abilities. Hundreds of audience members enjoyed a matinee show and an evening show. Both shows featured the enthusiasm and talent of Cultural Arts Center artists, including a drum circle, a rousing rendition of "Down by the Riverside," and Morgan Taraska reinterpreting the classic song "My Heart Will Go On."

Pictures from Shaky Shaky Planet

Shaky Shaky Planet debuted at the Painted Bride Art Center on Wednesday, September 7. Emily Schumacher co-wrote and co-directed this original performance with the Shaky Shaky Players of the Cultural Arts Center.

Over a hundred people were introduced to the denizens of the planet of Jupiter-Venus, where Goblins, Robots and Blob People worked together to overthrow their evil employers Roberta and Villina with help from the Ghost-Slayers and, of course, an epic dance-off!


Ashley backstage getting ready to go on


Our fabulous director Emily


Monica the narrator


Villina and Roberta, the evil mermaid proprietors of the Blue Lobster


Richard, Jason, Sharay and Tyree as Blob People


David, Mike S., Sarah and Murph as Goblins


Charles, George, Marcos and Mike G. as Robots


The Ghost Slayers!


Miss Charlene sings her solo


DANCE OFF!!!


Joanna Quigley as the Referee




The cast takes a bow

The Cultural Arts Center at PDDC Presents "Shaky Shaky Planet"

The Shaky Shaky Players of the Cultural Arts Center at PDDC are proud to present an original theater project created in collaboration with artists Emily Schumacher, Michael Gerkovich and Emilia Brintnall. 1950s sci-fi meets telenovela meets seafood restaurant in Shaky Shaky Planet, where blob-men, robots and goblins break into song for no reason and the bad guys sometimes poison your Alaskan crab legs with Potion #52.

Shaky Shaky Planet debuts at the Painted Bride Art Center on Wednesday, September 7 at 7 PM as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. The Painted Bride Art Center is located at 230 Vine Street in Philadelphia.

Tickets are available by contacting Linda Price at lprice@arcpddc.org or through the Fringe Festival Box Office.

More Photos from "House of Dreams"

Our director Jerry Perna with Mike S., Laura, and Linda before the performance


Tom and usher Rasheed


Richard chases Keith as a muskrat.


David emerges from a giant egg as a baby dinosaur.


Richard leads the audience in a game of "Simon Says."


Taking a bow


Ashley and her friend after the performance

These photos from the debut of House of Dreams were taken by Bonnie Squires unless otherwise noted.

"House of Dreams" Debut

Our play, House Of Dreams, premiered at The Rotunda in West Philadelphia yesterday to a very supportive and receptive audience.

It encompasses the main goals of the program by showcasing the various creative talents of the individuals within the Cultural Arts program through acting, writing, performance art, choreographed movement, live and recorded music, 2 and 3 dimensional visual art, and multimedia outlets, all under the umbrella of theater.

The project was headed by Jerry Perna, Michael Gerkovich, and Alie Vidich, with the rest of the Cultural Arts staff contributing in a strong way. Linda Price and Gina Renzi facilitated its creation.


Richard contributed a great deal of his creative energy to this project. He played beautiful songs for the audience as the cast took their places backstage.


Mike S. narrates.


Eyes in the dark, at the bottom of the sea


The cast focuses their collective energy to become The Blob


David emerges from a dinosaur egg.

Special thanks to Nofre Vaquer for taking these photographs!

House Of Dreams opens Saturday!

House Of Dreams, the play we've been working on throughout the summer, will be premiering this Saturday, September 25th at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut Street, West Philadelphia) at 1:00pm. We look forward to once again sharing our work with the community.





http://www.therotunda.org/calendar/house-of-dreams/

building the moon

Fabric collage has become a dominant aesthetic in the set design for our upcoming play, House Of Dreams. It will be performed at The Rotunda on Saturday, September 25th.


Ashley, Yvonne, Mike S., and Sarah hot glue the surface patterns.


Ashley adds fabric cuttings to the endless pile of colors and shapes.

Things to do with your friends

Rasheed took these photographs on Friday...


Ashley recorded some guitar


Hector tagged school property in graffiti club



Mike S., Pietro, Richard, Tyree, and Yvonne are constructing a car for our fall theater production

Puppets, Textures, and the Moon

We have been preparing some puppets and set design pieces for an upcoming play at The Rotunda scheduled for this fall.


The Dream Weaver awaits the attachment of his limbs.


Yvonne, Richard, and Emily construct The Dream Weaver


Sharay and Shawn create multicolored paper cut textures.


Mike S., Yvonne, and Richard have begun the construction of the moon.

Theater

Today we performed theater exercises as a group with Jerry Perna and broke into smaller groups and played the "Magic Box", an imaginative game where you figure out what is in the box. In photos: Larry, Tyree, Jerry and Floyd.

Video of 'Elevated' performance

Elevated Debut!

Today we finally put on our debut performance of Elevated! an epic adventure through PDDC, the jungle, outer space and the fortress of Queen Brenda. We had a full house and it was a great hit with the audience. Broadway here we come!

Special thanks to Jerry Perna, Sarah, Mike, Kim, Tonya, Eph and everyone who worked so hard to make this show such a success.

'Elevated' Dress Rehearsal

This morning we went our our lines for 'Elevated' with help from our crew, dj, and stage coaches. We have a lot of work to do in the next few days, but it will definitely pay off in the end!