About

PhysFestNYC debuted in January 2024 thanks to a grassroots crowdfunding campaign and the generosity of our hosts at Stella Adler Center for the Arts in Downtown Manhattan. We define Physical Theater as any performing art form that centers the body in space. This includes Dance Theater, Commedia dell’arte, Clown, Mime, Butoh, Mukabhinaya, and limitless genre-mixing or -defying styles.

Vision 

PhysFestNYC is a community-focused festival that celebrates, enriches, and envisions our field of physical theater. As an annual gathering, it will provide space for practitioners, audiences, and the physical-theater-curious to share in presented works, diverse workshop offerings, and community-building events. Together, they will deepen our understanding and appreciation for what physical theater can be. In 2024, we hosted 7 events per day over 10 days. This is the first Physical Theater Festival in NYC, and there is only one other festival of its kind in the USA.

Context

Physical theater tends to be experimental, innovative, and genre-breaking, and its methods are increasingly used in larger commercial productions. Despite this, physical theater practitioners are under-resourced and often siloed in their practice. We seek to create a festival that opens pathways of communication and opportunities for shared resources, thereby supporting artists in their work and deepening their impact. There were 143 artists represented in PhysFest 2024.

What is “Community-Focused?”

  • Horizontal Leadership. Instead of being led by a singular party, the leadership team of the festival consists of various cohorts in order to better reflect the varying desires and perspectives of the physical theater community.

  • Access and Inclusion. Though we all have a body in common, those bodies are incredibly diverse in shape, politicization, performance style, lived experience, ability, etc. We want PhysFestNYC to be an accurate reflection of the range of practitioners in our field, as well as a rich space for discourse that pushes us toward increased inclusion field-wide. All parts of the festival will be designed with access and inclusion in mind. 

  • Responsive Planning. We began developing the festival in 2022, highlighted by various open events for community input. With a tiered rollout, the festival’s design was an emergent response to the desires, ideas, and needs of those in the physical theater community and its audiences. We are continuing this precedent in 2025.

Ethos: Our ethos is the ethics of the soul of the festival, representing the collective agreement and plan that underlies our creation.

  • Inclusivity: We are dedicated to creating an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming environment for all individuals interested in physical theater, irrespective of their background or ability.

  • Collaboration: We foster a collaborative and supportive community, encouraging participants to work together and embrace the collective creative process.

  • Artistic Excellence: We strive for artistic excellence, providing outstanding workshops, performances, and growth opportunities to nurture participants' artistic journeys.

  • Safe Space: We prioritize the creation of a safe and supportive space as much as is possible within our control, allowing participants to freely express themselves and explore their artistic potential.

  • Empowerment: We empower participants to discover their unique artistic voices, develop their skills, and embrace their creative potential.

  • Mind-Body Connection: We recognize and explore the profound connection between the mind and body in physical theater, promoting holistic well-being and self-care practices for all bodies.

  • Cultural Awareness: We celebrate cultural diversity, promoting cultural exchange and fostering understanding and appreciation among participants.

  • Ethical Engagement: We uphold ethical standards in all aspects of our festival, valuing consent, boundaries, and the ethical treatment of others.

  • Community Engagement: We actively engage with the local community through outreach programs, public performances, and collaborations, aiming to create a positive impact.

  • Joy: We wish to create a space that is joyful for all who participate in and/or encounter it.

Open House Report

The Open House on January 29th at Stella Adler Center for the Arts was a beautiful event. To see pictures from the event and read the unedited brainstorm of those who participated in person and remotely, Click This Link.

Photos by Bjorn Bolinder

Meet the Artistic Leadership Circle

The Artistic Leadership Circle is responsible for high-level artistic design, including crafting the curation criteria, festival schedule, curation process, and more. They will perform at the festival in a multi-bill evening. Learn about the ALC below!

  • Ran Xia (she/her) is a Shanghai-born, Brooklyn-based Playwright/Director/Audiogremlin. Member of WP Lab (2022 - 2024); Member of Soho Rep's Writer/Director Lab (2022-2023); Beatrice Terry Resident at the Drama League (2021/22); Chava the Giant and the Oldest Bird at Rattlestick Global Form Festival. Resident Director at the Tank where she directed and composed for the film adaptation of Prometheus Bound (inaugural Artist of the Year 2019, In Blue, Tallest Man in the World, etc.); Guest director ar Barnard (Orlando, fall 2021), Montclair State (Randi & Roxanne), Commissioned playwright at Vanderbilt University (To Stab a Butterfly Through the Heart); Usual suspect at Exquisite Corpse Co (Sound Design for the NYT critics' pick Zoetrope, audio installation for Memory House, and many more); audio producer at Black Revolutionary Media. Playwright/Director for the theatrical portion of Risa Puno's The Privilege of Escape with Creative Time. Assistant/Associate credit include: Grey House on Broadway, The Atlantic, Long Wharf, The Flea, etc. She's also designed sound for productions at LIU Brooklyn, John Jay College, Theater Lab, and more. ranxia.info | thearcticgroup.org/echo

  • Selma Trevino (she/her) is a Brazilian performing artist based in New York City who specializes in Corporeal Mime. She co-founded Corporeal Arts Incorporated, a physical theatre company which devises original shows, offers professional training workshops, and promotes intercultural exchanges. Her choreography has appeared at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Lincoln Center, Dixon Place, and Green Space as well as in California, Paris, Finland, and throughout Brazil. Informed by Alexander Technique, Flamenco, and Grotowski’s Plastiques, her physical research seeks to employ Corporeal Mime to develop the personal movement of performers. She holds an MA in Performance Studies from NYU and full certification in Pilates.

  • Lou Sydel (he/they) is a choreographer whose work draws from the study of gesture as well as experiences of transness, imagining movement as a living journal for a body moving towards new directions. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College with a degree in performance and anthropology, and has studied physical theater at LaGuardia Arts HS and Accademia Dell’Arte. Past work has been shown at New York Live Arts with Ellen Robbins, as well as the Celebration Barn, Westbeth, PortFringe, Norte Maar Dance at Socrates, Sokolow Theater / Dance Ensemble, Rascal Arts at Theater Row, and the International Society for Gesture Studies. Lousydel.com

  • Akil Apollo Davis (him/them) is a full-time Theatre Professor of Mask & Art Aesthetic, and a Performing Artist whose disciplines include Mask work, Dance, Acting, Music, MCing, and Poetry. He is the Founder of the transdisciplinary performance company, LoudSol, the founding MC of one NYC’s “Top Dance Parties”- The Get Down, a resident performer at the sober morning party, DayBreaker, and a regular collaborative performer at The House of Yes and other artistic events around the city and the world.

  • Bill Bowers’ (he/him) Broadway credits include Zazu in The Lion King, and Leggett in The Scarlet Pimpernel. A student of the legendary Marcel Marceau, Bill is hailed by critics as one of the great mimes of our generation. An award-winning performer and playwright, Bill has created numerous solo plays that have garnered top honors in festivals throughout the world. He is featured in the film Two Weeks Notice, on television in Out of the Box, Remember WENN, and the PBS documentary series, Brief But Spectacular. Bill serves on the faculties of Stella Adler Center for the Arts, NYU Tisch, Esper Studio. www.Bill-Bowers.com

  • Margarita Blush (she/her) is a Bulgarian American theatre artist. She works in the field of devised physical and visual theatre as a creator, director, performer, and educator.

    Margarita is the Producing Artistic Director of Margarita Blush Productions, an ensemble-based company which performs nationally and internationally. Margarita’s work has been supported by The Jim Henson Foundation, NET, TCG, USArtists International, and many others. She has also received an Asian Cultural Council and a Grant Wood Fellowship.Margarita is passionate about meaningful collaborations with artists and organizations from around the world. She has performed, taught, directed, and studied in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Turkey, Germany, France, U.K., Japan, Indonesia, and USA.

    www.MargaritaBlush.com