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American Wisdom: all done!

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smokeyscout productions presents

AMERICAN WISDOM

a trio of one acts about dogs, neighbors and bosses

Directed by
Chris Czyz and Josh McIlvain

Written by
Josh McIlvian

Starring
Thomas DeMarcus
Josh Lay
Paul McElwee
Ed Miller
Valerie O’Hara
Anna Watson

April 3-5 at 8pm

JUNK Performance Space
2040 Christian Street
(South) Philadelphia, PA

Read the article in the Philadelphia Inquirer!

Read the interview in Phindie.com

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American Wisdom includes . . .

THANKS FOR THE PLANT, THANKS FOR THE CONE.
The world premiere of a skewed morality tale about a neighbor whose plant has just died, a neighbor whose cone is missing, and a neighbor who just wants everyone to get along.

For The Dogs
Debt, dogs, and love demand a complicated balance in the search for a decent life in this humorous one-woman play.

Waiting For The Boss
A tense, comedic drama about the intimate revelations between day laborers who care nothing for each other.

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Founded in 2008, SmokeyScout Productions 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. Based in Philadelphia, the company’s production of American Wisdom is their first New York City show since 2008, and features performers from both cities.

“Brings on the funny, tinged with an urban edge.” –Philadelphia City Paper

waiting for boss

Nice and Fresh: Winter Series

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SmokeyScout Productions presents

Nice and Fresh: Winter Series

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Pop up Performances of New Theater and Dance and Circus Arts

Hosted by the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts in Germantown

Featuring Amazing New Creations

by

Megan Mazarick and Les Rivera

Kendra Greaves and Cole Della-Zucca

Josh McIlvain of SmokeyScout Productions

John Rosenberg of Hella Fresh Theater

Philadelphia School of Circus Arts
5900 Greene Street (entrance on Rittenhouse St), Germantown, Philadelphia

Nice and Fresh: Winter Series

kendra cole

“We find an exciting partner in Josh McIlvain and SmokeyScout Productions’ commitment to curating a cross section of Philly’s performing arts community. Circus is often overlooked as a distinct art form, and we are looking forward to presenting work alongside the dancers, movers, playwrights and art-makers that populate this series.” –Marc Miller, managing director of the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts

“I’m interested in the many artistic forms that constitute performance and yet exist separately: theater versus dance versus multimedia and all the subgroups within artistic disciplines, which tend to isolate themselves from each other. I like putting these different forms side-by-side in one show. For audiences, it’s a snapshot of the directions various artists and disciplines are stretching themselves—and for me, it’s fun to see all this wildly different work in one place.”—Josh McIlvain, series curator and contributor, director of SmokeyScout Productions

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Return of Confession of a Plate and Shoe–all done!

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Return of Confessions of a Plate and Shoe: the best ever evening of outrageous short comedies by Josh McIlvain. Performed by Danielle Adams, Sebastian Cummings, Sarah Knittel, Katherine Perry, Jennifer Summerfield, and Ryan Walter.

THANKS FOR COMING TO THE SHOW, AND IF YOU DIDN’T COME, YOU SHOULD FEEL VERY BAD ABOUT IT. READ THE REVIEW FROM PHINDIE.COM!

RETURN OF CONFESSIONS OF A PLATE AND SHOE (SmokeyScout): 60-second review

June 28, 2013 – Jessica Foley

Josh McIlvain’s RETURN OF CONFESSIONS OF A PLATE AND SHOE should be put in a time capsule and used by future generations as a how-to manual titled “How-to-produce-the greatest-show-ever.” Okay, calling this show, “the greatest show ever” may seem like an overreaching marketing phrase, but I assure its not. RETURN is the greatest show of the 2012/13 theater season. Not to disrespect the larger Philadelphia theater companies, SmokeyScout Productions is reaping one of the benefits of mounting a low-budget, black box minimal production they can afford to make bold choices. McIlvain makes all the right choices. Not a minute is wasted, every inch of the Adrienne’s Sky Box is utilized. The fearless ensemble of six actors dressed in Stanislavski-neutral black crash their bodies into walls, and floor stretching their protean muscles to the max portraying a variety of species, monkeys, fish, psychopathic caterers. I am not sure if there is anything Danielle Adams, Sebastian Cummings, Sarah Knittel, Katherine Perry, Jennifer Summerfield, and Ryan Walter can not portray. June 19 to 29, 2013; smokeyscout.com.

ReturnClownFront_72dpiRead what audiences  posted about the show:

“All I will say for now: Go see it, if you’ve ever wanted to quit the theater because you wanted to own a house in New Jersey near a duck pond, and have a toddler named Vivian. Josh McIlvain’s Confessions of a Plate & Shoe will remind you why you opted to endure abject poverty to work in theater to begin with.” JF

“Loved the show, excellent actors, would like to see anything you do.” MG

“Funny, funny show. I was kind of sorry when it was over- I could have laughed longer.” AP

“Saw opening night. Veery funny. Thanks plate. Thanks shoe.” MK

“What a fantastic opening!” JR

“It was so much fun!” TVA

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BROTHER HOUSE begins its journey

Chris and Ed

Thanks to all who came to the script-in-hand performance of a work-in-progress play.

Brother House is about an architect who is lives in the shell of a house made of wood paneling that only rises three feet off the ground. When the architect’s old college friend visits the structure after if has won an architecture prize for best conceptual dwelling, buried tensions come to the fore, including who had the idea for this house first. This seriocomic examination of the absurd meeting the mundane digs into the myth of normalcy, the desire to appropriate others’ living spaces, and the diverging paths of old friends.

Written and directed by Josh McIlvain, Brother House is being developed with the creative contributions of Ed Miller and Christopher McGovern in an intensive five-week rehearsal and workshopping process that culminated in the reading. The work will be revisited and further developed later this year.

Thanks to Underground Arts for hosting!

Ed Miller.

Ed Miller.

WILD PUNCH finished its run, thanks to all who came!

John Rosenberg, Josh McIlvain, Annie Wilson. Photo by Erin Desmond.

Wild Punch: Dance Theater Adventures in Kensington

A joint presentation between SmokeyScout Productions and Hella Fresh Theater, Wild Punch features new plays by Josh McIlvain and John Rosenberg, and a dance work created and performed by Annie Wilson. Audiences experience these three bold works in three separate spaces created within the Papermill Theater. 1 show. 3 perspectives. 3 original works.

WILD PUNCH PRESS RELEASE

Wild Punch features: dancer-choreographer Annie Wilson’s dance graceful frsutrated expletive, a solo about her personal evolution as a dancer that involves a hilarious and touching first person narrative, dance, and an anything goes approach; Josh McIlvain’s play Waiting For The Boss (with James C. Tolbert & Josh McIlvain), a comedic drama about maintaining your sense of worth as you grow older in menial, underpaid labor, and the intimate personal revelations between coworkers who care nothing for each other; and John Rosenberg’s play Automated Fault Isolation (Anna Flynn-Meketon & John Rosenberg), a dark romance set in 1950s Alabama about a white high school girl and a soldier waiting for the person she has lured to a motel room.

Wild Punch promo features co-creator Josh McIlvain discussing the show.

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