Almanac Dance Circus Theater's CANNONBALL FESTIVAL Returns to the Maas Building

After "making a splash" during the 2021 Fringe Festival, Cannonball Festival is back with Miniball. This eclectic, weeklong performance festival will feature seven extraordinary shows from risk-taking independent artists that run the gamut from contemporary circus, erotic performance and burlesque to clown and immersive works.

The festival will feature 20 performances and 4 special events over six days alongside a vibrant garden bar, taking place April 3-8 at the Maas Building, 1320 N. 5th St. Events will take place indoors and outdoors. Tickets for all shows are $20 general admission, with a select number of tickets for each show available for $15 through Theater Philadelphia. A special opening night celebration to benefit the festival will be held on April 3 at 6:30pm; tickets are $75 and include food and drinks. Full festival passes are available for $250 that include admission to all Miniball shows and events, plus drink tickets and other goodies. More information can be found at the festival's website www.cannonballfestival.org.

Additionally, Cannonball Festival is announcing the launch of their 2022 Open Call. Running from September 1-30, 2022, Cannonball Festival will take place at both the Maas Building and the Icebox Project Space. This artist-produced festival will feature a cost-sharing buy-in model, in which participants can pay a flat fee for production services, marketing and space rental. The festival also offers opportunities for co-presentation, and at least three performance projects will be selected for the BIPOC New Work Presentation track, which offers additional marketing support and a $2,500 stipend for artists who identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color. Applications will be accepted from March 1 - April 15. For more information, artists, producers, and supporters can visit www.cannonballfestival.org/opencall.

With Cannonball and Miniball, Almanac Dance Circus Theatre is creating small-scale, high-impact production opportunities for emerging and independent artists, tending to a part of the arts eco system that can be overlooked both locally and nationally. All Miniball artists will be paid a stipend of $500, and receive most of the revenue from their ticket sales. "As independent artists ourselves, we know how powerful even small commission and presentation opportunities can be - and how hard they can be to find" says Almanac co-founder Ben Grinberg. "Independent artists take an opportunity like this, and return the energy to the community tenfold. We think artist-to-artist presentation models represent a more sustainable and potentially more equitable part of our industry's future."

The seven Miniball shows are:

Dirt Trip

Alex Tatarsky

April 6, 7, 8 @ 9pm

Philadelphia's favorite clown is back. "A hilarious, finely tuned absurdist" (Theater Jones) and "one of the most exciting and hilarious performance artists around" (ArtSpace), Alex Tatarsky careens between tightly scripted sequences and wildly improvised experiments.

An etymological foray, essay as sashay, clown dance in the abyss. Through choreographies of falling and failing, Tatarsky embraces the poetics of rotten language and the arts of breaking down. Why are we so scared of falling down? Why are we so scared of things falling apart? Contents may include: an unhinged triptych, the ballad of an unemployed court jester who desires to be a rotting vegetable, a talk that decays into a heap of dirt.

F Surface Tension

Company To X For
April 3 @ 4pm, April 5 @ 6:30pm, April 6 + 8 @ 7:30pm

From the minds of emerging contemporary circus artists Liam Bradley and David Chervony comes the premiere of Surface Tension, a beautiful and daring look at a queer friendship. At points ecstatic, dark, searching, and joyful, this intimate show celebrates vulnerable connection through sincere juggling. Utilizing acrobatics, weight-sharing, object manipulation, and dance, Surface Tension addresses the fear of loss, the power of trust, and the joy of vulnerability.

Sophie Sucre: A Study in Sensual Performance via the Humanist Gaze

Danielle Currica
April 3 @ 8:30pm, April 4 @ 6:30pm, April 5 @ 8pm

Danielle Currica has been performing as burlesque persona Sophie Sucre since July 2009.

Sophie Sucre will perform a long-form burlesque act, exploring gender expression, sexuality, sensuality, and erotic displays of power and play. Join her in this journey of public pleasure seeking and self discovery, with considerations to her race, her gender, and her agency.

F Happy Hour

Almanac Dance Circus Theatre
April 4 @ 8:00pm, April 7 @ 6:00pm

Come as you are. Drink it in. Dance. Happy Hour is a semi-improvised, immersive performance piece from Almanac Dance Circus Theatre. Sensing, feeling, listening, queering, climbing, balancing, and weaving, an ensemble of acrobats, dancers, and fools combine childlike curiosity, playfulness, and wonder to challenge an adult world too full of unspoken rules and stubborn habits. In a future where the only certainty is uncertainty, Almanac converts its improvisational creation process into a shifting ephemeral performance that melds itself to every space and circumstance. Featuring both Almanac veterans and newcomers, Happy Hour blends the edges of circus, dance, and physical theatre, creating authentic emotions and absurdity in equal measure.

Whale Fall

Iris McCloughan and Mike Lala
April 7 @ 7:30pm, April 8 @ 6pm

A "whale fall" is a deceased cetacean who has fallen to the deepest zones of the ocean floor. Here, where life and resources are scant, the introduction of a large body generates a local, multi-species ecosystem that, while finite, can sustain itself for decades. Taking this phenomena as inspiration, Whale Fall: A Monologue enacts a similar catalysis, propagating new imaginings of how we should structure our relationships with each other and our world after social and ecological crisis.

Out of Eden

Inversions
April 8 @ 10:30pm

A provocative polesque show that will take you on a journey from the heavens, into the fall, out of Eden, and through the depths of hell.

Artifacts of No Consequence

Jeff Evans and Bayla Rubin
April 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 @ 7:30pm

This interactive exploration and solo show invites you to an effort of self-construction and archivism. Not your own self, someone else's...
Every act of remembering changes the memory. How do we see ourselves, when the most often-remembered stories become the most changed? Over the course of 50 minutes, you'll see decades' worth of diaries, photos, relics, and toys, and ideally stumble upon whatever brilliant revelation must be hidden in them - because why else would you have kept them?

Located in South Kensington on the unceded land of the Leni Lenape people, Cannonball celebrates forward-thinking, adventurous artists who take risks, rethink the present, and imagine a better future. Our goal is to provide a safe(r), fun, energy-filled environment for everyone. To learn more about our values and code of conduct please visit cannonballfestival.org.

Cannonball adheres to all local and federal guidelines for Covid-19 safety. We will continue to update the festival website with more information. As of February 28, 2022, Cannonball will require all attendees to wear face masks in both indoor and outdoor performance spaces. Proof of vaccination will be required to enter the venue. Performers will not be required to wear face coverings. Masks will not be required in the outdoor Garden Bar.

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