InFLUX Theatre Collective Announces Premiere Of Interactive New Work THE CHOICE In Philadelphia Fringe Festival

This September, Philadelphia's newest women-run theatre company will present The Choice. inFLUX Theatre Collective, founded by Jacqueline Libby, Christine Octavia Shaw, and Jacinta Yelland will premiere an interactive new work of theatre under the direction of Sarah Sanford (Pig Iron Theatre Company, dir. Underground Railroad Game, Barrymore award winner). The Choice welcomes an audience into the 'womb where it happens.' Three women tackle the existential question: "Should we be having children?" Comical, controversial, and uninhibited, The Choice puts a woman's womb into the audience's hands, asking them to decide - should she, or shouldn't she?

Performances will be held September 9th-11th and 15th-18th at Christ Church Neighborhood House as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Tickets ($12-20) are available at Fringe Arts https://fringearts.com/box-office/

Pack a lunch for your children while 10 months pregnant! Laugh with a middle aged Australian mum! Panic about the future of the human race amidst climate catastrophe! Tell a woman what to do with her body! All this and more await audiences of The Choice. A highly interactive show, The Choice places a woman's decision to have children into the audience's hands - inviting them to experience the joys, confusions, pressures, and failures of a woman's reproductive decision.

The Choice premieres at a particularly potent time as the declining fertility rate reaches newspaper headlines. A story on the declining United States birth rate filled the cover of the New York Times only two months ago, in an article that included interviews with women about the issues facing this generation of potential mothers: lack of government support, climate change, and an uncertain economy. The Choice unpacks these issues onstage drawing from the performers' life experiences and inviting the audience to be part of the discussion in real-time. On the relevance of this project, director Sarah Sanford says, "The Choice recognizes that a woman's right to choose gets more complicated when positioned next to the planet's lack of voice. It asserts that in our society, women often find themselves at the center of a public debate that careens from the moral, to the scientific, to the political, and this show searches for a new way to talk about all these things."

The Choice serves as Chapter 1 of The Motherhood Project, a decade long series of performances by inFLUX Theatre Collective. The members of inFLUX - Jacqueline, Christine, and Jacinta - are currently ages 25, 29, and 35, respectively, and are facing down the decade in which their reproductive choices become more important, more scrutinized, and more impactful. In response to these pressures, the company came together to create The Motherhood Project where they will create five live performances over the next decade exploring their evolving relationship to motherhood. On the project, performer and creator Jacinta says, "So often discussions about having or not having children are stigmatized, pushed to the side, or just too difficult to have. The goal over this decade is to create space for honest conversations around these deeply personal and often hidden topics. In doing so we hope to create a community that will support and uplift women as they define their own relationships to motherhood."

The Choice invites an audience into the wild world of women's reproductive decisions! Christine says "I could not be more excited to be part of the return of live theatre - especially with a show that is so truly live - the audience actually impacts the show each night, ultimately taking a stance on whether Jacinta should have a child. It's a scary but thrilling ride! Even in building the show I've learned to rethink so many things about having children and I hope we can do the same for our audiences!"

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