The in Our Voice series
The "in Our Voice" series curates small ensembles who each share an under-represented identity. folkLAB challenges the ensemble members to create a new performance piece inspired by the melding of folklore, myth, an archetypes of their choice with their personal narratives, identities, and their analysis of how these intersect. Each ensemble has about three weeks of devising and rehearsals to create their world-premiere, work-in-progress performance. The project culminates in one week of public performances. The artist and production staff share in ticket profits.
Paige Borak (Mother Page) and Asia Bey (Bean Girl) performing in FEMME (December 2017). Photo by Molly Derwig
Our first production and first installment of this series was FEMME: a new american folktale which was created by and featured an entirely female-identifying ensemble and premiered in December 2017 (pictured above) at The Glitter Box Theater in Pittsburgh, PA.
The second installment of the series, QUEER: new american tall tales featured an entirely queer identifying ensemble and production team and ran August 2018 at 3577 Studios in Pittsburgh, PA.
Princess Jafar as The Bird Lady of Pittsburgh in QUEER (August 2018)
The third installment, OTHER: multiracial folklore was created by a team of multiracial artists lead by folkLAB alum Kelsey Robinson and ran in December 2018 at Community Forge in Wilkinsburg, PA.
The cast of the immersive experience OTHER (December 2018) from left: Brenden Peifer, Jalina McClarin, Diane Ghogumo, Jason Gordon, and Kelsey Robinson (director)
The next installment, working title MAD, will feature artist with personal mental health narratives. It is currently on hold until quarantine is fully lifted.
The miniMythologies residency
Puppet from The Ironweed Tales (May 2018) created by resident artist Felicia Cooper
miniMythologies is a residency series with the goal of creating new myths by promoting resident artists to explore their concepts of IDENTITY and MYTHOLOGY. folkLAB challenges each resident artist to incorporate a new skill within their discipline into their final product, Our first resident Felicia Cooper (www.feliciatcooper.com) was a Poconos native and Pittsburgh based puppeteer and performer. Felicia created The Ironweed Tales, a story of the women who champion the environmental justice movement in rural Appalachia told through live original music (composed by folk musician Juliana Carr), dance, found text and puppetry. The Ironweed Tales ran May/June 2018.
The second installment, mija: one bitch’s tale, was a one-woman show about activist, artist, and storyteller Nicole Gallagher’s life (follow Nicole’s storytelling work on Instagram with the #storiesinthetimeof) and was directed by Ayne Terceira (Uncumber Theatrics) and ran in August 2019.
If you’re interested in becoming a miniMythologies resident for miniMythologies III, e-mail folklab.series@gmail.com
Nicole Gallagher (creator) in mija: one bitch’s tale (August 2019) photo credit: Livy Ciotoli