Cliveden of the National Trust and Automatic Arts Present HOME ENTERTAINMENT .  An evening of live theater, dance, and multimedia performance events by Putty Dance Project, Yolanda Wisher, Brent White, Josh McIlvain, Ed Miller, Asya Zlatina, Chickabiddy, Deborah Crocker, Wyl McCaul, Joshua Millhouse, John Rosenberg, and more, with lighting design by Catherine Lee.
Inspired by and complementary to the Living Kitchens at Cliveden project.

Outside…Inside…With Beer!
Pre-show 7:00pm
Performances 7:30pm

Cliveden
6401 Germantown Ave. | Enter on Cliveden St. near Morton St.

$5/Person. Pay at door. Complimentary beer included!

NOTE: Some works include mature content and themes.

Automatic Arts brings a fast-paced evening of theater, dance, and multi-disciplinary pieces to Cliveden, with audiences watching performances outside on the grounds, on the back terrace of the house, and even walking through the historic kitchens and encountering random acts of theater. All this while enjoying a summer evening with beer.

7.00pm
Preshow: Mill about the Cliveden grounds, enjoy a beverage, and random art encounters

7.30pm
The Show Begins!

About the Artists

Putty Dance Project / Brent White & Lauren Putty White
She’s the dancer-choreographer and he’s the musician-composer. Together they are PUTTY DANCE PROJECT (Putty Dance) – the most recent independent dance-theater arts company to emerge on Philadelphia’s vibrant scene. Putty Dance Project produces new choreographed works that explore the topic of social consciousness in our evolving world. Melding live instrumentation, multimedia, and elements of theater these works respond to diverse issues impacting modern-day life and allow for active audience participation through open conversation following performances. Whether exploring society’s everyday intimate interface with social media (Going, Wanting 2014), improvising a beautifully executed jazz dance solo about schizophrenia with live accompaniment on drums and trombone (Hello? 2012), or asking “How moral are we when it comes to defending our human right?” (iStand 2015), Putty Dance offers a dais for the audience to participate and explore the motives and emotions surrounding human nature.
Yolanda Wisher is a multidisciplinary poet and educator. Currently the 3rd Poet Laureate of the City of Philadelphia, Wisher is a Hedgebrook Writer-in-Residence (2016), Pew Fellow (2015), Catalyst Initiative Grantee (2015), Leeway Art & Change Grantee (2008), Cave Canem Fellow (1999-2000), and the first Montgomery County Pennsylvania Poet Laureate (1999). She received a B.A. in English/Black Studies from Lafayette College, and an M.A. in English/Creative Writing-Poetry from Temple University. Wisher is the author of Monk Eats an Afro (Hanging Loose Press, 2014), and her work has been featured in numerous publications and anthologies. She founded and directed the Germantown Poetry Festival, and served as Director of Art Education for the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Wisher is a Founding Cultural Agent and the Chief Rhapsodist of Wherewithal for the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture. She lives in Philadelphia. Click HERE for more.
Josh McIlvain is the artistic director of Automatic Arts. He is curating the programming for Home Entertainment and will debut a new one-act play,Thom Jack and the Caretaker, a humorous drama about a cantankerous caretaker at a historical home. Automatic Arts (formerly SmokeyScout Productions) is an independent performing arts company cofounded by husband/wife team Josh McIlvain and Deborah Crocker. The company creates work that brings the absurdity of contemporary life to the stage with brilliant acting, bold humor, inventive staging, and a respect for audience intelligence. In addition to producing the Nice and Fresh series, previous shows (written and directed by McIlvain) include SLIDESHOW (“Ingenious travel down memory lane.” Stage Magazine); American Wisdom (“McIlvain’s plays are snapshots of the lives that lie behind the lighted windows of the houses we walk by at night.” Philadelphia Inquirer); and Return of Confessions of a Plate and Shoe (“The greatest show of the 2012/13 theater season.” Phindie.com).
Ed Miller is an actor, director, and writer from the Philadelphia area. He has worked with the Arden Theatre, Theatre Exile, Swim Pony, The IRC, and Secret Room Theatre. Ed spent 3 years living and teaching in South Korea where he also made time to act, direct, and serve on the board of Seoul Players. He was a founding member of SCI: Seoul City Improv and graced the TV screens for young “English-hungry” Koreans on such programs as “Story Time”, “T-Girl!”, and “Cooking with Red Hood”. Click HERE for more.
Asya Zlatina immigrated from Moscow in 1992 and began training at the Kirov Academy. She continued dancing at Dance Explosion (Colleen Parker) and the Washington School of Ballet (Victoria Leigh). In 2008, she graduated from Goucher College with a B.A. in Psychology and Dance. At Goucher, she studied with such talented coaches as Chrystelle Bond, Liz Ahearn, Laura Dolid, Glenna Blessing, Amanda Woodson, Juliet Forrest, Kathi Ferguson, Linda Garofalo and guest artists Ann Hutchinson Guest, Tiffany Mills, Adrienne Clancy and Nilas Martins. Asya has performed at at the Kennedy Center (ClancyWorks Dance Company) and the DiCapo in New York City (Nilas Martins Dance Company). She joined Koresh Dance Company in 2008, training under Roni Koresh, performing and touring extensively. Asya completed her M.S. in Arts/Nonprofits Administration at Drexel University in 2013.

Chickabiddy is a Philadelphia based acoustic duo comprised of Emily Schuman and Aaron Cromie, two theater artists whose love of music sparked this musical collaboration. Inspired by such acts as The Milk Carton Kids, Punch Brothers and Mandolin Orange, Chickabiddy creates guitar and mandolin songs about love, loss and moving forward in a complicated world. They have performed locally at The Fire, Tin Angel, Trocadero and Quig’s Pub, and regularly play for local theatre companies and fundraising events.

Automatic Arts (formerly SmokeyScout Productions) creates and presents new and original performing arts. Their Nice and Fresh performing arts showcase features new works by the company and by Philadelphia-based and beyond theater, dance, and circus arts companies and artists. Since 2008, the company has produced more than 10 major works both in Philadelphia and New York City, from evenings of absurdist comedies to the highly acclaimed one-man play SLIDESHOW, a fictional family saga around found slides, to a trio of one acts around the theme of American Wisdom.
Click HERE for more.

Deborah Crocker, cofounder and producer of SmokeyScout Productions, appeared on stage. After training with The Barrow Group under the direction of Seth Barrish and Lee Brock, she danced professionally with Ballet Hispanico and New York City Opera and performed in the national tour of A Chorus Line and Man of La Mancha at The Goodspeed Opera House, among other credits. She left the stage, moved to Philadelphia (where she worked for PA Ballet and Koresh Dance Company), and launched SmokeyScout with husband-playwright Josh McIlvain.

John Rosenberg co-founded the award-winning Sleepwalkers Theater in San Francisco. He founded Hella Fresh Theater in 2009. In 2012 he and Hella Fresh Theater moved to Philadelphia and into the Papermill Theater as the resident company. For his inaugural season at the Papermill Theater he wrote and directed Cheap Guy HOF: Class of 2010, California Redemption Value, and Queen of All Weapon
Cliveden, Inc. | 215-848-1777 | info@cliveden.org | www.cliveden.org