SOLO NOVA: A Solo Performance Festival at The John and Joan Mullen Center for the Performing Arts

Villanova Theatre Presents Solo Performance Festival SOLO NOVA

Produced by Villanova Theatre Artistic Director Michael Hollinger

RUNNING: September 18th - 29th, 2024

We are so excited to kick off our 24-25 season with our first ever solo performance festival! Audiences will experience a bold array of thrilling solo performances in a festival format featuring Villanova alumni, current students, and guest artists. Funny, poignant, irreverent, profound: these tour-de-force works span period and genre, showcasing historical figures, poetic text, evocative movement, innovative multimedia, and personal journeys of discovery.

SOLO NOVA HEADLINER: 

I WILL SPEAK FOR MYSELF written by Dr. Valerie Joyce ‘95 and performed by Villanova alum Kimberly S. Fairbanks ‘11

(September 18th & 19th @8pm | September 22nd @2pm)

Can you name three African American women who lived in America before Emancipation? If you can name three, can you name three more? Often names like Harriet Tubman or Sojourner Truth leap to mind. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of thousands of  African American women, who lived in America before Emancipation, who made bold choices in the confines of their circumstances, at a time when society believed they were incapable of doing so. Why can't we name some of them? I Will Speak for Myself  by Valerie M. Joyce seeks to fill in the gaps left by our history textbooks. This riveting one woman play, performed by Barrymore Award-nominated actress, Kimberly S. Fairbanks, tells the stories of 16 real women. Some of them have had books written about them; others only exist as a sentence or a name in a source document. Through a combination of rigorous archival research and performance technique, Valerie and Kimberly have reconstructed their voices, and breathed life into silence and absence.

SOLO NOVA LINEUP:

SHE WAS A CONQUISTAWHORE 

Written and performed by Rachel O’Hanlon-Rodriguez ‘17 

(September 20th & 28th @8pm)

Smith Lab, John and Joan Mullen Center for the Performing Arts

They say the Conquistawhore drinks her weight in whiskey, brawls her own vagina (which sounds fun, but he is a true madman), and wanders the Wild West – or is it just the Main Line? O’Hanlon-Rodriguez’s experimental blend of standup comedy and theatrical poetry weaves a legend to poke fun at (and holes into) our internalized narratives of oppression while celebrating our ability to transform.

DEMONIAC 

Written and performed by Kate Fischer ‘22

(September 27th @8pm | September 29th @2pm)

Smith Lab, John and Joan Mullen Center for the Performing Arts

It's the reign of Louis XIII, the Ursuline Sisters of Loudon are bewitched, Cardinal Richelieu is pissed, and there's an insurmountable outbreak of lip-synching. Fischer’s ecstatic Demoniac hysterically explores the (true!?) story of a mass possession at a 17th-century French convent via the medium of Real Housewives, glitter, and flogging.

STORIES IN MY MOTHER TONGUE 

Written and performed by Noelle Diane Johnson ‘24 

(September 21st & 26th @8pm)

Smith Lab, John and Joan Mullen Center for the Performing Arts

How, when, and why do we tell the stories that make us whole? Through dance, poetry, music and movement, Johnson explores what it means when the body remembers, how to reclaim lost languages and find your way home, all while dancing to a rhythm uniquely yours. Stories in my Mother Tongue examines the inextricable relationship between joy, grief, return and rediscovery through the power of healing and acceptance.

ONE-OFFS 

Written and performed by current MA in Theatre Students 

(September 25th @8pm)

Smith Lab, John and Joan Mullen Center for the Performing Arts

Experience a colorful array of “fresh-out-of-the-oven” works by the next generation of groundbreaking solo performers. Employing a dazzling assortment of theatrical styles and forms, these emerging artists explore and push the creative boundaries of this dynamic and ever-evolving medium.

*For more information about performance dates and purchasing tickets, please visit this link https://villanovatheatre.org/solo-nova/