"Gas & Electric Arts has developed

into an indie theater force." -- Metro Philadelphia

 

Contact Gas & Electric Arts


Lisa Jo Epstein - Artistic Director

David Brown - Managing Director



Admin & Tickets 215.407.0556

info@GasAndElectricArts.org

6703 Cresheim Road,

Philadelphia, PA 19119


COMPANY PROGRAMS


Performance: We are committed to corporeal,visual, vocal and spatial investigations on stage, resulting in a rigorous physical performance style that simultaneously embraces richly textured language--the linguistic poetry of written scripts that reflect the non-linearity of humanity-- and the choreographic possibilities of a body in space, thus giving density, desire, meaning and matter to the air on stage. We bridge the gap between ensemble-devised physical theatre and text-based approaches, creating a unique hybrid performance style where text and the physical, choreographed body meet, each complementing, expanding, challenging and liberating the possibilities of the other, together forging compelling imagistic, emotionally and intellectually-relevant theatrical experiences.


Workshops & Training: We train youth and adults alike in interactive Theatre of the Oppressed-based techniques and related process-based strategies for personal and group transformation, enabling participants to animate real stories through the fiction of theatre, and collectively rehearse possibilities for taking action and making change in their lives.

COMPANY HISTORY

Gas & Electric Arts was co-founded by Lisa Jo Epstein and David Brown in 2005 so that they could mesh their respective strengths and passions in a multi-faceted theatre organization that would match their desires for the stage equally with their commitment to activism through theatre in the community. We chose our name because we believe that theatre should be an essential part of a community's life, an accessible, vital utility that ignites introspection even as it generates dynamic dialogue around who we are and what we desire. Like electricity in action, the intangible that sparks energy, we created Gas & Electric Arts to make theatrical work that stimulates us to think again, to live more fully in the present moment, and to never forget the power of our five senses.


Gas & Electric Arts produces plays by living playwrights who are boldly redefining American theatre. It was thus that we launched the company by mounting Lisa d’Amour’s Anna Bella Eema in 2005 in a tiny theatre with few resources. The excitement around our debut propelled us to obtain our non-profit status so that we could institutionalize our vision. Our second show, in the fall 2006, was the first of three national theater companies to produce the world premiere of Abi Basch’s expressionistic play Voices Underwater. We mounted it at the Adrienne Theatre mainstage for three weeks during the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Our multi-layered performance style was considered innovative, thought-provoking and completely different than any other theatre in Philadelphia. In September 2007, we mounted the East Coast premiere of Kira Obolensky’s play Quick Silver to great acclaim. We collaborated with Tim Harbeson, a composer and puppet designer, to forge a striking new production with all original music and puppets. 2008 marked Gas & Electric Arts fourth year and our first two-play season: O Yes I Will (I will remember the spirit and texture of this conversation) by Deb Margolin and a completely re-imagined production of Anna Bella Eema. In 2008 we received our first Philadelphia Theatre Initiative Award (PTI) to commission Obolensky to write and collaborate on the creation of an original work for Gas & Electric Arts. This world premiere, Cabinet of Wonders: An Impossible History was performed in the fall of 2009.


Since 2006, Gas & Electric Arts has expanded its theatre-based education program, designed primarily for non-actors, by offering short workshops and longer-term residencies which enable participants to explore the self, society and how to make individual and community change. Participants gain playful yet powerful new tools for negotiating conflict, addressing personal and group struggles, dreams, and building community. Through interactive activities rooted in the work of Augusto Boal (Nobel Peace Prize Finalist 2008) with whom Epstein trained extensively in the USA and at the Center for the Theatre of the Oppressed in Paris France, this work is designed to awaken participants to their own capabilities, explore challenging issues in non-competitive, open ways and offer a chance for honest dialogue through the moving language of images and theatre. We regularly train artists, educators, activists, and social service professionals in these techniques.



Lisa Jo Epstein (Artistic Director)

Lisa Jo is a theatre director, educator and community-based artist. Her foray into physical theatre began in Minneapolis at Theatre de la Jeune Lune. She continued her explorations in physical and intercultural theatre and socially-engaged theatre practices at the University of Texas at Austin where she obtained a Master's and Ph.D. She then moved to Paris France where she served as Ariane Mnouchkine's assistant during the Théâtre du Soleil's creation of Molière's Tartuffe.  While in Paris, she also worked at Augusto Boal's Center for the Theatre of the Oppressed.Prior to returning to Philadelphia, Lisa Jo was an Assistant Professor of Theatre in the Department of Theatre & Dance at Tulane University for seven years where she won awards for teaching and directing, both inside the university and in the community. Lisa Jo regularly facilitates interactive, experiential theatre workshops with a variety of populations around issues of identity and empowerment, community and social justice.  Recent productions include: Cabinet of Wonders, An Impossible History (Kira Obolensky), Anna Bella Eema (Lisa d'Amour)--2008 Barrymore Award nominations for Best Ensemble and Best Lead Actress , O Yes I Will (Deb Margolin), Quick Silver (Kira Obolensky), Voices Underwater (premiere, Abi Basch) for Gas & Electric Arts, Pop Out (Jessie Bear) and Everlasting Father: A Religious Fantasy (premiere, Hannah Harvester) at Swarthmore College; O Wholly Night and Other Jewish Solecisms (remount, Deb Margolin) at Painted Bride Art Center; What the Moon Saw; or, I Only Appear to be Dead (Stephanie Fleischmann), The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek (Naomi Wallace) and The Love of the Nightingale (Timberlake Wertenbaker) at Ursinus College; Spinning into Butter (Rebecca Gilman) Southern Repertory Theatre, New Orleans. In Philadelphia, she has taught at Temple University, Arcadia, and University of the Arts, guest artist residency at Towson University’s MFA in performance, and most recently she taught movement for the stage at Rutgers-Camden.