double bill

Configurations of a Divine Bitch

CONCEIVED & created by plump olive productions. Created in Collaboration with the Ensemble.

Configurations of a Divine Bitch is all about the private, unspoken experiences that accompany having a uterus. Things are about to get weird. It’s OK though, laughter is encouraged. An ensemble of seven bodies guides audiences through a kaleidoscopic array, celebrating bodies that experience menarche, periods, pregnancy, birth giving, and menopause. It’s gross, it’s funny, it’s beautiful, it’s reverent, and yes, there will be blood.

Image Designer: Oliver Jane

In 2013, Plump Olive Productions (POP) began creating and producing original ensemble-driven works in Philadelphia. Now based out of Toronto and New Jersey, POP brings together ad-hoc ensembles to train in the theatrical languages of Jerzy Grotowski and Jacques Lecoq to create immersive installations and theatrical experiences. To date, POP’s work weaves together clown, dance, performance art, art-installation, and ritual experience. In Philadelphia, POP has presented work as part of Between A Boat and Green Place at Bartram’s Garden, Four Weeks in January, FringeArt’s Scratch Night, and SoLow Fest. Recent works include The Gathering of the Mother Moth People; an exploration of ritual and spiritual pursuit guided by some widely naïve clowns (1fiftyone Gallery, 2015), David & Oliver: Mystic Masters; a collaboration between Artistic Director Oliver Jane and playwright David Jacobi about their collective experiences as students of metaphysics (SoLow Fest, 2016), and Oliver & Jane Make a Baby; Oliver Jane and Maria Wodzinska’s collaborative tongue-in-cheek feminist tear down of the domestic goddess trope.

Milkdrunk

Written & Performed by Cathleen O’Malley. Directed by Elaine Feagler.

A frank, funny, physical solo performance tracing a year in the life of a first time, full-time, exclusively breastfeeding mother. Milkdrunk explores what it means to be a mammal in 2018, illuminating a universal path cloaked in infinite mystery, littered with laughter, tears, and drops of Liquid Gold.

Sound Designer: Brian Bacon
Lighting Designer: Wes Calkin
Photo Credit: Steve Mastroianni

Cathleen O’Malley (Playwright & Performer) is a theatre director, writer, educator, voiceover artist, and creator of original work. She is a graduate of the London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA), where she trained in Lecoq-based physical theatre, movement, mask, and mime under the pedagogical direction of Thomas Prattki. Cathleen has created and performed with companies regionally and abroad, including Akropolis Performance Lab, Relax Your Face (co-founder), Zany Umbrella Circus, Touchstone Theatre, Talespinner Children’s Theatre, and with inmates of the Washington State Corrections Center for Women through Freehold’s Engaged Theatre Project. From 2013-2017, Cathleen was the Director of Audience Engagement and Media Relations at CPT and was recently seen onstage in a workshop production of her whimsical original play Noonday, created with Lauren Joy Fraley and Renee Schilling. Cathleen holds an MFA from Naropa University. www.cathleenomalley.com

The goal of Test Flight is to support new work and local/national artists.

CPT provides:
– The James Levin Theatre
– Basic production staff, stage management, box office support
– Marketing and advertising support

The artists provide the rest!

The writers, directors, actors and designers selected for Test Flight dedicate themselves to creating new and original work, or stretching their artistic powers by working in new disciplines.

THANK YOU TO OUR NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT SUPPORTERS