August 24th - September 4th, 2011

Black Rd and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, PA

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A performance journey through early Philadelphia history where audience members experience the hidden histories of the Schuylkill River.

The Lenape People

Runaway slaves traveling along the Underground Railroad

Water borne diseases

The Shadfish's journey of rebirth

The history of Philadelphia is layered and complex, and many stories have not had the chance to come alive, lying in the shadows of more iconic symbols such as Benjamin Franklin and the Liberty Bell. CONSTANTS, a historic performance journey on and about the Schuylkill River, brings to life some of these less-known tales.

Audience members travel with performers on land and in canoes, witnessing first-hand stories from the river's past. This year's performance of CONSTANTS will be created using a fusion of dance, theater, music and sculpture.

Movement Brigade premiered CONSTANTS in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival from September 13th-18th, 2010 and quickly sold out during the performance run. We are expecting to do the same for our August/September 2011 performances, but unfortunately we cannot rely solely on ticket sales to support our budget.

Why We Need Your Help!

We're doing 20 performances of CONSTANTS this summer! We are bringing life to histories that are not often discussed. We are asking audiences to look at history from an ecological perspective. We are celebrating the river and creating a community of audience members who will be inspired by its greatness.

We are offering 2 performances free of charge for Philadelphia public high school students. Before and after each performance, a workshop will be hosted for each group of students. The workshops aims to connect the material from the performance to an educational experience. We hope that the students attending the performance see the connections between geography, history, and the performing arts to connect it back to their own lives and education.

Your support allows us to share the work of CONSTANTS with audiences in the Greater Philadelphia area. We need to raise $3,000 to meet our budget for the production of CONSTANTS 2011. Your support will help us with the following costs:

* Building Materials

* Costumes

* Creation of a professional video document of the work 

* Printing of our flyers and postcards for promotion

* Stipends for our Performers

* Teaching Artist Fees for out Educational Programming

* Wages for our Technical Assistant and Costume Designer

Any and all contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law, as Movement Brigade is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas. Fractured Atlas is a non-profit arts service organization.

CONSTANTS Artistic Team :

For Bios and more info click here

Elise Moreau, Musical Composer

Naomi Littell, Sculptural Performance Artist

Alie Vidich, Project Director

What People Said about CONSTANTS 2010 (taken from an audience survey)

* I loved it and wanted more! I loved learning about the history of water quality and would love to know more.

* I loved traveling in the canoe, it was a whole new way of giving oneself over to a performance ... to literally be guided by the performer through space and informed by them. I loved the minimal lighting that occurred at night and the way the performers were lit by other people ... I loved the monologue on the island and the ducks/geese all around.

* The location was perfect. The canoe ride was awesome. The storyline was clear and precise. Also the storyline was to the point. The piece was short, informative, and fun. It did not drag on with excessive details. It left me wanting to research the river's history. This work inspired me to learn more about the river.

* Philadelphia has so much history. You must be selective. The piece contained information that has not been discussed much. I appreciated the information concerning the river.

* CONSTANTS is surprisingly one of my highlights of this year's festival. Movement Brigade has crafted a fascinating piece of theatre / dance better than any other tour Philly has to offer. Riding a canoe down the Schuylkill River at night while being sung to and told the history of our fine city - who could ask for anything better? An absolutely magical experience and I hope this one comes back.

* I worked in marine fisheries back in the late 80's and the segment about Shad hit close to home and I shed a few tears.

* Creative, unusual, heart-felt. It was a delight to be on the River in the evening. I enjoyed the stories. The performers were good. I would love to see it expanded...more stories and performers. The personalization of the run-away slave story was great.

Hope to hear from you soon, and thanks for reading!!

Sincerely,

Alie Vidich

Movement Brigade

Tel: 267-467-0657

Email: movementbrigade@gmail.com

Web: www.movementbrigade.org