Gas & Electric Arts - Performances

Gas & Electric Arts is instrumental in introducing Philadelphia to exemplary, nationally-recognized women playwrights who are boldly redefining American theatre. Since 2005 we have produced Lisa d’Amour, Abi Basch, Kira Obolensky and Deb Margolin, none of whose work had ever been presented here before our productions despite their national reputations.

These are playwrights who are in love with the art of theatre as a way to respond to the ever-shifting cultural and political landscapes that comprise our lives. Their plays lead us to unchartered theatrical territories and enable us to make total, fresh theatre whose images and stories linger long after the show is over.

What distinguishes Gas & Electric Arts is the powerful combination of our hybrid performance style that emerges out of rigorous physical and vocal training followed by collaborative creation during rehearsals and exceptional production values (within our means), paired with our deeply-rooted investment in educational workshops and storytelling events as catalysts for social change and community building.

Our performance style exists at the intersection of a spectrum of theatrical forms--from the epic, disciplined work of the Théâtre du Soleil  to the joys of stage clowning and puppetry, from choreographic, movement-based art to adventurous vocal exploration as advocated by Roy Hart practitioners & others, as well as new kinds of sung music. Thus we have begun to develop our niche in Philadelphia for a type of theatre that combines a commitment to playwrights with a performance style that leaves quotidian expression behind as the actors devise vivid, extra-ordinary forms for their bodies which enable them to be instruments of passion, to be resonators of our time.

Photos: Seth Reichgott & Vivian Appler in Kira Obolensky’s Quick Silver

Elena Bossler in Anna Bella Eema by Lisa D’Amour.