PHANTASMAGORIA
APRIL 29 - MAY 30
A year of stay-at-home got you feeling like a ghost in your own personal haunted house? Don't bemoan! Your inner ghoul has friends in Phantasmagoria: a brand new, stream-from-home theater oddity from Cutting Ball Theater.
Horror fantasia, psychedelic creature-feature, and an escape room all-in-one: twin spirits Ghosty and Ghostie must free themselves from their 2-dimensional boxed confines after transformative visitations from monsters-of-the-beyond.
An other-worldly rumination on how we return as our world calls us back from isolation, Phantasmagoria combines collaged classic texts by Lewis Carroll, all new music by Bay Area Theatre Cypher, and non-stop visual surprises from Mugwumpin.
GIFT PHANTASMAGORIA !
HOW TO STREAM
Phantasmagoria will be available to stream on demand through Vimeo, the world's leading professional video platform. Vimeo On Demand makes it easy to experience this Virtual World Premiere from home — just like renting a movie!
Phantasmagoria will be available to stream on April 29 and streaming access will remain on sale through May 30. Once you purchase streaming access, you’ll have a 7-day window to watch. You’ll be able to stream Phantasmagoria on your computer, your tablet, or even your television through an Apple TV, Amazon Fire, or Roku device.
To experience Phantasmagoria, you will need a Vimeo account. The good news: Vimeo accounts are quick and easy to set-up, and totally free!
Have any questions about streaming from home? Feel free to email our Box Office at boxoffice@cuttingball.com or call us at 415-525-1205.
CUTTING BALL'S CREATIVE TEAM
Ariel Craft (Director) is Cutting Ball Theater’s Executive Artistic Director. Ariel’s directing credits include Utopia: A Virtual World Premiere, Free For All: A New ‘Miss Julie’ for a New World (SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award, Stage Direction), La Ronde, and Phèdre (Theatre Bay Area Award, Direction of a Play) at Cutting Ball; Vinegar Tom and Dry Land at Shotgun Players; an acclaimed adaptation of Kate Chopin’s feminist novella The Awakening and a wild re-imagining of Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding. Before Cutting Ball, Ariel founded and led a theater company called The Breadbox and previously directed at Custom Made Theatre Co. and Impact Theatre. pronouns: she/her
Akaina Ghosh (Actor - Ghostie) is a non-binary Bay Area theater artist. They are passionate about reconstructing historically significant narratives through a gender expansive lens and generating new works that center queer voices and perspectives. Akaina is a Resident Artist with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, producing annual Free Shakespeare in the Park across the Bay Area. Visit akainaghosh.com to follow Akaina's work. pronouns: they/them.
Maya Herbsman (Associate Director) is a director, intimacy choreographer, teaching artist, and Cutting Ball Theater’s Associate Artistic Director. Maya has worked with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Idiot String, We Players, New Conservatory Theatre Center, Z Space, Shotgun Players, Bay Area Children’s Theater, and TheatreFIRST. Directing credits include Ways to Leave a Body at Cutting Ball; Medusa’s Tale, a radical re-imagining of the myth; Nocturne, a new devised work; and Things I’ll Never Say, an original, immersive jukebox musical. pronouns: she/her
Maria Marquis (Actor - Ghosty) has been acting in the Bay Area since 2008, and is a theater and voice-over actor as well as corporate trainer committed to making work less boring. Learn more about Maria at mariagmarquis.com and find her audiobooks on Audible. pronouns: she/her
James Ard - Sound Designer / pronouns: he/him
Cassie Barnes - Lighting Designer / pronouns: she/her
Sarah LeFeber - Wardrobe Designer / pronouns: she/her
Caitlin McFann - Production Stage Manager / pronouns: she/they
Gwen Park - Film Editor / pronouns: she/her
Adeline Smith - Art Director / pronouns: she/her
COLLABORATORS
Bay Area Theatre Cypher is a collective of artists who live at the crossfader of theater and hip hop. Founded by Dan Wolf and Phil Wong during a period of deep disappointment with traditional American theater, Bay Area Theatre Cypher is a space for multi-hyphenate artists to dismantle the traditional power structures found within the theater-making process by channelling the Hip Hop Cypher as a conduit for inclusive storytelling. During the pandemic, the collective has created dozens of long and short form theatrical media, centering community-building and speaking truth to power. Learn more about Bay Area Theatre Cypher
“Bay Area Theatre Cypher is collaborative at its core, and we immediately jumped at the opportunity to join forces with the creative powerhouses that are Cutting Ball and Mugwumpin. Phantasmagoria marks a milestone in creative conversation with the greater Bay Area Theatre Community as well as an opportunity to focus on a more introspective exploration of our own personal demons through verse.”
Carlos Aguirre is an actor, emcee, vocal percussionist, and educator who has been performing and educating in the Bay Area for over 20 years. He has shared the stage with The Roots, Eryka Badu, Black Eyed Peas, Mary J. Blige, Jam Master Jay, and L.L. Cool J, among others. He is currently producing his original rap and beatbox adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart. Carlos shares his experience by teaching at various schools and at-risk environments throughout the Bay Area. pronouns: he/him
Dan Wolf is a hip hop artist who works with rap, theater, personal narrative, and history to give voice to the problematic world we live in. His projects have travelled all around the world from concert halls to museums to schools and memorial sites where he engages history and culture as a prompt to make vital music and theater that can only live in this moment. pronouns: he/him
Phil Wong is a theater artist, writer, and musician from Oakland, California aka xučyun (unceded Chochenyo Ohlone land). He is co-founder of Bay Area Theatre Cypher and is constantly working to make his art more conscious, empathetic, relevant, and revolutionary. pronouns: he/him
May Ramos is a queer Ilokano artist, educator, and activist based in Berkeley. They have worked with Shotgun Players, Killing My Lobster, Z Space, Inferno Theatre, and other theaters around the Bay Area. They have also worked with San Francisco Strips and hope to continue burlesque and stripping after the pandemic. Currently, May teaches preschool and continues to experiment with all kinds of art-making! pronouns: they/them
Mugwumpin creates art that ignites radical collaboration, empathy, and curiosity. An award-winning San Francisco theater and performance company, Mugwumpin is part of a wave of young American companies who are expanding the artform by questioning the primacy of text and narrative in theater and playfully transgressing perceived notions of the audience-performer relationship. Mugwumpin makes performances for people with an appetite for questions and visceral experience. Learn more about our collaborators at Mugwumpin.
“As a company that values collaboration and curiosity, Mugwumpin is delighted to be working with Cutting Ball and Bay Area Theatre Cypher on this exciting original production during this wildly unique time.”
Christine Crook designs costumes for theater, dance, opera, and strange performance art. Her work has been presented through American Conservatory Theater, West Edge Opera, Z Space, Lincoln Center, Shotgun Players, Ballroom Marfa, and upcoming productions with San Jose Opera and The Broad Stage in Los Angeles. Her installation and studio work channels the atavistic instinct of "costume" as an ancient ritual of wildness, and is inspired by blended traditions in folk art, the occult, ceremonial masquerade, and contemporary pop culture. pronouns: she/her
Natalie Greene is a multidisciplinary performing artist who has been working in the Bay Area since 2003, and has served as Mugwumpin’s Artistic Director since 2016. She teaches in the Department of Performing Arts & Social Justice at the University of San Francisco. Her choreography has appeared at the California Academy of Sciences, Cal Shakes, Dance Mission, ODC Theater, San Francisco Airport, Shotgun Players, Z Space, as well as in schools, senior centers, and site-specific locales throughout the Bay. pronouns: she/her
Ray Oppenheimer is a scenographer, educator, creator who has been bringing his boundless curiosity, chimerical aesthetic, and a sisyphean perseverance to scenography and education since 2005. Ray has been dabbling in modern manufacturing techniques creating whimsical one-of-a-kind art since 2008. He is currently a company member with Mugwumpin and Shotgun Players. pronouns: he/him
Michelle Talgarow is a proud Mugwumpin company member, and also part of the artistic company at Shotgun Players. She’s a director, performer and theater-maker in the Bay Area for over 25 years with roots in the collaborative and devised process. pronouns: she/her
Wolfgang Wachalovsky is a director-turned-designer with a special emphasis on video in performance and how to integrate video/projections into the performative space. This includes creating fully immersive video environments for audience and performers, live video manipulation, and perspective shifting with video. He is a proud company member and the former Managing Director of Mugwumpin. pronouns: he/him
Creative Team:
Gabriel Armstrong, Madeline HD Brown, Archibald Cariño, John Michael Crotty, Stevie DeMott, Susannah Martin, Erin Mei-Ling Stuart, River Nguyen-Talgarow, Julie Schuchard, Ericka Sokolower-Shain
Special Thanks:
Sam Barnum, Marcy Chapman, John French & Diana Market, Jon Retsky & Got Light, Don Wood, Talgarow Family