Performance ensemble the Up & Rising Collective, born out of The Pennsylvania State University is premiering the professional restaging of their abolitionist experiment Damned Without Vision at Yellow Bicycle Theater (1435 Arch St Fl. 2, Philadelphia, PA 19102) as part of The Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Performances run September 20 through 22, 2024. Using a combination of stage combat, scene work, poetry, voiceovers, satire, and contributions from folks whose lives have been and continue to be impacted by our carceral systems, the devised theatrical piece is an exploration and community call to creatively imagine a world beyond Policing and Incarceration.
“The Philly Fringe Festival encourages experimentation, discovery, and exploration. They have cultivated a space where pieces that push the boundaries of theater and audiences are celebrated. We think this is the perfect environment for Damned Without Vision to take its next steps. The urgent goal of our project is reclaiming our individual abilities to combat systemic inequity and violence. By providing a space for people to share wisdom and imagination, we get down and grab the issue at the root. We hope to spark an investment into communities and relationships, instead of outsourcing issues to institutions that have a vested financial interest in keeping people in cages for as long as they possibly can.”
If policing and prisons were the answer to safer communities, The United States– with the highest incarceration rates in the world– would be the safest society that has ever existed. But do you actually feel that way? Clearly, it is time to focus our energy and resources on what actually keeps us safe— not on strangers with guns and death making institutions. Damned Without Vision is an effort to begin asking how to practically make these same structures obsolete. When we acquiesce to the caging of members of our community, we strip away each other’s humanity. Stories have the power to reflect that humanity back at us and expose our complicity. Utilizing techniques of Theater of the Oppressed and based in principles of Transformative Justice, Damned… empowers audiences to imagine those practical strategies needed to address the root causes of person to person harm and dares us to envision a world beyond prison and policing.
Damned… is a devised work by the Up & Rising Collective, a group of current and recent graduates from The Pennsylvania State University including PJ Witkowski, Shane Troxell, Lauren McKee, Mal MacKenzie, Em Presely, and Dylan Henderson. The original performances– staged in February of 2024 at Penn State by Troxell, MacKenzie, Presely, and Henderson (with design elements by McKee, Finn Gavelli, and Mo Millikan)– spawned fiery discussion and impassioned reviews among audience members.
Tickets to Damned Without Vision are currently on sale by visiting fringearts.com. General admission is suggested at $20 with Pay What You Can options available. More information on the show can be found @damnedwithoutvision on Instagram.
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