Line-Up Set for 2nd Annual PhysFestNYC This January

Broken Box Mime Theater has revealed the complete line-up for the second annual PhysFestNYC, New York City’s only festival dedicated to physical theater. Supported by Parallel Exit and LubDub Theatre Co., PhysFestNYC is a community-led festival that celebrates, enriches, and envisions the field of physical theater. Over 100 artists and companies will participate in the 11-day festival with performances, workshops, panels, and community events from practitioners, makers, and companies from all genres of physical theater. Running January 9–19, 2025, PhysFestNYC is hosted by Stella Adler Center for the Arts across two theaters, two studios, and a community-gathering space. 

The 2025 edition of PhysFestNYC features seventeen unique performances that range from evening-length works with multiple showings to one-off events to split bills that include two to three distinct acts. Highlights include KOAL, part climate-catastrophe, part clown show, this one-woman show for the end of the world is created and performed by Jacinta Yelland and directed by Trey Lyford; MOVE IT!, a cabaret-style evening of circus and physical theatre from Parallel Exit; a best-of collection of original short stories from Broken Box Mime Theater told entirely through movement; The Fluxus Brothers Present: Good Art Bad Art, a collection of scores from the historic Fluxus art movement of the 1960s including George Brecht, Alison Knowles, and Yoko Ono, alongside Fluxus-inspired originals; and It Goes Without Saying, a fun and unflinching look at the life and mimes of Bill Bowers. Performance tickets are $20.

Fifteen one-of-a-kind workshops will also take place throughout PhysFestNYC including fundamentals of clown work, devising, juggling, mask work, mime, and soundscapes. Some of New York City’s leading physical theater teachers including Luther Bangert, Quinn Bauriedel, Ellen Ko, Marissa Molnar, Julia Proctor, and Sheriden Thomas, will participate. Workshop tickets are $30.

PhysFestNYC also includes nine free public events, parties, and panels that look at the varied and too-often siloed history of physical theater in the United States along with practical advice on producing and marketing your own show. The goal of these panels, in addition to the workshops and performances, is to create a physical theater festival that opens pathways of communication and opportunities for shared resources, supporting artists in their work and deepening their impact. Moderated by thought leaders and celebrated artists in the field, panels include subjects like Clown: Past, Present, Future; Making Theatre for Kids; and Festival as Collaboration: How it Was Made.

Becky Baumwoll, Artistic Director of Broken Box Mime Theater and Co-Executive Producer of PhysFestNYC, remarked, “The performing arts create spaces for connection, and physical theater has a unique lens on this process by centering what we all have in common: the body. We believe our field should be an extension of this ethos of connection, and PhysFestNYC is a response to that need.”

Mark Lonergan, Artistic Director of Parallel Exit and Co-Executive Producer of PhysFestNYC remarked, “As a practitioner of physical theatre in New York City for over 20 years, I’ve always hoped there would be a festival to highlight this art form in the biggest theatre city in the country. I’m thrilled to be part of the producing team to help elevate physical theatre into the cultural consciousness of our city.”

PhysFestNYC runs January 9–19, 2025 at Stella Adler Center for the Arts, which is located at 65 Broadway, 2nd Floor, in the Financial District of Manhattan. Stella Adler Center for the Arts is accessible via the R, W trains at Rector St, 4, 5 trains at Wall St, J, Z trains at Broad St, and the 2, 3 trains at Wall St. 

PhysFestNYC Performance Line-Up

January 10 at 7pm & 8:30pm

MOVE IT! - Parallel Exit's Evening of Circus and Physical Theatre
Mark Lonergan, Artistic Director
Performers: Kyle Driggs, Joel Jeske, Randy Kato, Book Kennison, Logan Kerr, Everett Lonergan, Ermiyas Muluken, Ryan Shinji Murray, AJ Silver, Spencer Novich, and Saffi Watson
Ages 6 and up
MOVE IT! is a cabaret-style evening of circus and physical theatre, featuring some of our favorite artists. Join us for a sneak preview of Parallel Exit’s newest circus/physical theatre work performed by Kyle Driggs, Joel Jeske, Ryan Shinji Murray, and Saffi Watson, and enjoy special guests Randy Kato (cyr wheel), Book Kennison (juggling), Logan Kerr (unicycle), Ermiyas Muluken (freestanding ladder), Spencer Novich (eccentric performance), AJ Silver (roping), and newcomer Everett Lonergan (juggling).

January 10 and 11 at 7pm & 8:30pm

KOAL
Created and Performed by Jacinta Yelland
Directed by Trey Lyford
Part climate-catastrophe, part clown show—KOAL is a one-woman show for the end of the world. As wildfires tear through Australia, a baby koala, a coal miner and an Indigenous girl strive to hold onto their homes before all burns and turns to ash. Performed by Jacinta Yelland and directed by Trey Lyford, KOAL takes the audience from laughter to tears as it explores what is lost when your home is erased.

January 11 at 1pm

My Little Eye: A Show about Climate & The Earth
Created and Performed by Broken Box Mime Theater
Follow our speaking emcee (who might be…a caterpillar?!) as she guides us through the mimes’ silent stories and interactive games. What is climate change? What big feelings come up around big changes of any kind? Audiences will leave with an activated imagination and a reminder of how powerful we are when we all work together.

January 11 at 7pm & 8:30pm, January 12 at noon

The ALCircle - Curators On Stage
Performances by Akil Apollo Davis, Bill Bowers, Lou Sydel, Margarita Blush, Ran Xia, and Selma Trevino 
The Artistic Leadership Circle (ALC) presents an evening of performance excerpts from the team responsible for the creative design of the inaugural PhysFest 2024: Akil Apollo Davis, Bill Bowers, Lou Sydel, Margarita Blush, Ran Xia, and Selma Trevino. This dynamic collage features a kaleidoscope of diverse forms, aesthetics, themes, and approaches that will captivate your senses. So join us in this jubilant celebration of unwavering passion and dedication to the festival, to the exhilarating world of physical theatre, and to the vibrant community that fuels our artistic fire.

January 12 at 4pm & 6:15pm

CHALK
Creator and Performed by Alex Curtis
Directed by Caitlin Ryan O'Connell
Ages 4+
If everything you drew became real, where would your imagination take you? A charismatic clown discovers magic chalk that makes everything he draws come to life in this fantastical one-man show guaranteed to delight audiences of all ages! A non-verbal physical comedy in the style of the great silent-film era comedians, CHALK is a goofy testament to the power of childlike imagination and a moving exploration of the adult search for romantic love and connection. With a perfect mix of play and pathos, CHALK is a whimsical romp guaranteed to “draw you in.”

January 12 at 6pm & 7:30pm

New Immigrants 
Directed by Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li and Nina Zoie Lam
Performed by Timmy Ong and Shan Y. Chuang
Veni Vidi Vici 
Created and Performed by Deborah Kaufmann
This split bill features two distinct shows. New Immigrants consists of two monologues about two International Artists’ first moments of moving to New York City and their subsequent breakdown living in the city, presented with humor and warmth in a theatrical manner, through acting, movement, and live musical accompaniment. They are excerpted from the Museum Of Chinese in America’s street performance Catching Silhouettes.
Embodying true mischief unfettered at maximum strength, Deborah Kaufmann’s Mud is not quite human, but she shows us our human charm, frailties, quirks and needs. Kaufmann has taken dance, mask work and clown (circus and theatrical), flavored them with a pinch of bouffon and a hint of Harold and the Purple Crayon” to create this spritely buffoon, Mud. 

January 13 at 7pm

EARLY DRAFTS I
Sailors
Directed by Rupert Krüger
now|here
Created by Françoise Voranger, Andrea Nicole Ortiz, Chauncie Parchment, and Maks Turner
The Early Drafts Series features works in development. Sailors tells the story of a ship out to sea for all eternity. However, the crew has no captain, no destination, and no memory of how they got there. Through labor the crew grapple with isolation, shame, and lost boyhood. now|here is a contemporary collage in motion reflecting perceptions of our own humanity. With each vignette, a collage in motion takes shape, forming a dynamic mosaic unveiling the paradoxes of our times and summoning our collective potential.

January 13 at 7pm & 8:30pm

A Good Woman
Created and Performed by Nerissa Tunnessen and Sam Xiao Cody
Dark Secrets and Other Stories
Created and Performed by Nancy Lyon
This split bill features two distinct shows. A Good Woman is an original dance theater and live music work reimagining of the story of the Odyssey’s Penelope. In a creative collaboration between two queer femme performers, a dancer and a violinist, and a loom, the work delves deeper into Penelope’s inner narrative, untangling relationships to gendered ideals, shame, and pleasure. Dark Secrets is a Mimodrame (a mime play) taking place on a split stage. Using masks, it explores the rivalry between two women and the identical faces they wear in public versus who they are in private. Seasons is a lyrical poem in the elliptical style of Marcel Marceau where a turn represents the passage of time.

January 14 at 7pm & 8:30pm

Goofballs Cabaret
Performed by Dick Monday, Tiffany Riley, Hilary Chaplain, Chet Monday, Lily Monday, Ben Villaseñoror
Goofballs Cabaret features a madcap group of physical comedians and variety performers led by comedy veterans Dick Monday and Tiffany Riley. With comedy at its core, Goofballs Cabaret features eccentric dancing, visual manipulation, musical saw, magic, a songbird from heaven, the fastest tap dancing in lower Manhattan and satirical attacks on the foibles and inconsistencies of the human race.

January 14 at 7pm & 8:30pm

The Fluxus Brothers Present: Good Art Bad Art
The Fluxus Brothers are a famous performance art duo made up of real-life brothers Ben and Mason with their Dada, Morgan. Attend all five senses to a performance art lecture demonstration featuring scores from the historic Fluxus art movement of the 1960s alongside Fluxus-inspired originals by The Fluxus Brothers and their Dada. Vintage Fluxus scores include: “Drip Music” by George Brecht (1959), “Proposition: Make a Salad” by Alison Knowles (1962), “Wall Piece for Orchestra” by Yoko Ono (1962).

January 16 at 1pm

Pat Frisk / Duck
Created and Performed by Joanne Edelmann
Stop, Replay
Created and Performed by Abhirami Rao
This split bill features two distinct shows. Pat Frisk / Duck is a fictional first two nights of female incarceration along with the trajectory of being released. Stop, Replay combines the rich vocabulary of the classical Indian dance Bharatanatyam with poetry, dialogues, and music, to craft a piece adapted from Indian mythology.

January 16 at 7pm

Early Drafts II
Before I Was an Egg I Was a Chicken
The Grim Reaper Presents: DEATH
Uninvisible
Early Drafts II features three works in development. Before I was an egg I was a chicken by Lulu Munteanu is a look into how we view different versions of the self are deeply informed by gender, transition, and absurdity. In The Grim Reaper Presents: DEATH by Ellena and Riley Soloner, join the Angel of Death for an absurd, life affirming(?) show to lift your spirits. Ian Farley’s Uninvisible is a one-man show exploring self-discovery and heroism that blends puppetry (object and shadow theatre) with contemporary theatre clown work.

January 16 at 7pm & 8:30pm

A Drag Is Born
Created and Performed by Edu Díaz
In a twist of fate, a man is thrust into the spotlight to become the Queen of the Carnival. With advanced age, abundant body hair, and limited talents, he is an unlikely candidate. Clown and magical realism fuel a nonverbal and whimsical quest accompanied by delightful music and colorful outfits, conveying a hopeful message: it’s never too late to embrace yourself. A Drag Is Born is a multi-awarded celebration of Queer discovery created and performed by Edu Díaz, a Fulbright-awarded artist from The Canary Islands.

January 17 & 18 at 7pm & 8:30pm

Broken Box Mime Theater
Broken Box Mime (BKBX) presents a best-of collection of original short stories told entirely through movement. Set to rich lighting and a heart-thumping soundtrack, our narratives range from realistic to metaphorical, heart-wrenching to hilarious, and cinematic to intimate, held together by a dedication to the empowered imagination and the collective artistic voice of our diverse company. Based in NYC and founded in 2011, BKBX reimagines French pantomime through the lens of contemporary US-American theater.

January 17 & 18 at 7pm & 8:30pm

The Triple Empathy Problem
Here is Siya
Do You Still Believe?
This split bill features three distinct shows. Noah Ortega's The Triple Empathy Problem considers how neurodiverse folks of all sorts navigate interactions with neurotypical folks within autonomous socio-cultural systems. Here is Siya by Joey Antonio is movement-based theater that merges ASL and dance, offering a multi-sensory experience that transcends sound. Noel Olson’s Do You Still Believe? takes place in a world that exists in the liminal space between the club and the church: Saturday night into Sunday morning.

January 18 & 19 at 1pm

Please Ship This Wet Gift
Created and performed by Marta Mozelle MacRostie
Please Ship This Wet Gift is one clown's presentation about terrible feelings, and provides an opportunity for family audiences to laugh together about feeling bad. Everyone can go home when she thinks you're prepared. This original work uses drawing, audience suggestions, made-up songs, puppetry, and cardboard sharks to explore dealing with the things in life that are unfair, scary, sad, and just really annoying.

January 18 at 4pm

It Goes Without Saying 
Created and Performed by Bill Bowers
Ages 13+
Join us for this fun and unflinching look at the life and mimes of Bill Bowers. It Goes Without Saying takes the audience on a scenic tour of Bill's life thus far: from growing up gay in the wilds of Montana, his outrageous jobs as a performer, studying with Marcel Marceau, and the whirlwind of working on Broadway. Bill observes the incredible power that silence can wield - whether on stage, between family members, among neighbors, or when we are alone. Bill talks (yes, talks) with sensitivity, precision, and constant humor about a life lived out loud.

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