Humble Materials and SKIN WARS Season 1 Winner Natalie Fletcher to Collaborate in THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
The production will run from September 14-16.
Philly-based physical theatre company HUMBLE MATERIALS is excited to collaborate with body-painter and Netflix's Skin Wars season 1 winner Natalie Fletcher from Portland, Oregon. Natalie and Humble Materials co-founder Jessica Noel are sisters. This is their second time collaborating on a body-paint-dance-theatre project. Natalie will body paint five ensemble members, camouflaging them into a yellow wallpaper backdrop. The result is sure to be a production design unlike anything audiences have seen.
"Our Yellow Wallpaper, like the Perkins-Gilman original, is attempting to shine light on the American mental health crisis," Noel says. "Through a modern, post-pandemic lens, we're asking audiences to consider the pressures our society demands of women."
"If your mental health is deteriorating, you're likely to be swept under the rug...or painted into the wallpaper," Fletcher elaborates. "It's always been our solution. Back in the 1800s, women were hidden away in institutions if they couldn't function productively because of anxiety or depression. Today, we have new methods of masking mental health issues, but these cures are only camouflage. They're not actually fixing any problems. The problems are systemic."
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER script was devised by the ensemble with featured writing by Natalie Fletcher, Jessica Noel, Lauren Leonard, Monica Flory and Amy Henderson. Characters were developed in rehearsal by Chachi Perez, Carolyn Breyer, Lisa Vaccarelli and the ensemble. Yasmin Roberti will play Jane, the story's central narrator who finds herself trapped in a strange, unfamiliar room with wallpaper that talks-and dances-with her. Additional set design, as well as featured puppet design by Humble Materials' resident production designer Kat Caro. The project is directed by Monica Flory with choreography by Carolyn Breyer, Amy Henderson, Jessica Noel and Chachi Perez.
Born in 2021, Humble Materials physical theatre collective produces femme-centric work at Philly PACK garage theatre in Pennsport, South Philly. Recent work includes MEDEA (February, 2022) and SCARLET LETTER (September, 2022, Fringie winner).
Fletcher and Noel first collaborated in September 2018 with Paprika Plains, a body-paint-dance-theatre project about pregnancy loss.
The Yellow Wallpaper will run at Philly PACK 233 Federal Street, Philadelphia PA 19147 on September 14-16 at 8pm, 2pm on September 16th.
Tickets at http://phillypack.org/pack-events/
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