BOY PROJECT
BOY PROJECT is the recipient of a 2019 MAP Fund Award and was set to premiere at FringeArts in May 2020 as part of the High Pressure Fire Service Festival. Work on this project is currently on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but a works in progress showing was presented as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival in September 2020.
“Making of” Video by Thomas Clark Butler can be found here. (Password: boy)
This is a devised theater piece in which Philadelphia boys ages 12-15 imagine their futures as men. This production is the culmination of months of outreach, story circles, and workshops with boys (non-binary, trans, and cisgender) around Philadelphia, using theater-making methodology rooted in civic engagement. These boys will generate the material for the show; telling stories, enacting fantasies, composing original songs, and contemplating questions of desire and power.
A celebration of a new generation, BOY PROJECT asks: what does it mean to become a man in an era where gender is fluid and masculinity is often villainized? What definitions and boundaries remain? What imaginative proposals reveal themselves? The kids involved in the production will be the central content-creators, supported by a professional artistic team. Nell Bang-Jensen is the Lead Artist and Director and Matthew Armstead, Brad Wrenn, Johanna Kasimow and Eva Steinmetz will act as Co-Creators, creating a radically vulnerable and playfully generative space for Philadelphia boys.
Please consider making a donation to make BOY PROJECT happen. BOY PROJECT is fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas through the Eva Steinmetz Project. Click here to donate.
(Photo courtesy of Jauhien Sasnou.)