As co-director of groundbreaking theater company Lightning Rod Special, this 33-year-old South Philly actress conceived 2019’s highly controversial abortion musical (yes, an abortion musical) The Appointment, which picky New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley called a “profoundly imaginative … remarkable phantasmagoria.” Read More »
With an impressive onstage range and a brain built for crafting memorable scripts, Tuomanen, a 34-year-old Center City dweller, is one of the best -- and busiest -- on the local scene. This past year she co-founded a playwriting collective and debuted a one-woman show; soon she'll star in Local Girls at Azuka Theatre, participate in a UArts incubator, and -- something that's really not to be missed -- play Andy Warhol in the Bearded Ladies Cabaret-Opera Philadelphia collaboration Andy: A Popera at FringeArts. Read More »
No other local actor has the comic timing and powerful stage presence demonstrated by this 44-year-old veteran of the Philly theater scene, who has performed more than 30 times at the Arden alone. See him kill it again in the lead role of the Beast in La Bte, opening at the Old City theater in September. Read More »
The problem with a lot of things classified as "fringe" or "avant-garde" is that they suck. Not so this Bryn Mawr grad, who has worked her strange magic both onstage (Welcome to Yuba City and That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play) and behind the scenes (the Obie-winning Machines Machines Machines Machines Machines Machines Machines) to much acclaim. Look for her to make waves with her upcoming Live Arts Festival production, Bang, an all-female clowning piece about sex. Read More »
We've been a fan of the 34-year-old Swarthmore grad since her debut with Pig Iron Theatre Company in 2001. She dazzled us in Pig Iron's Shut Eye (as the distressed sister of a man in a coma), The Lucia Joyce Cabaret (as a drum-playing mental patient) and the Obie-winning Hell Meets Henry Halfway (as the ice-queen protagonist). But the obviously versatile Sanford proved her independence from the charmed group last spring with her successful directorial debut, dance-theater piece Appetite, and we look forward to seeing more of her own work as well as her appearance next month in Pig Iron's Welcome to Yuba City at the Live Arts/Fringe Festival. Read More »