Elegy for the Anthropocene
This article about The Quiet Circus appears in the January 2018 issue of PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. Writing is dramaturg and director Jessica Rizzo who attended many of the weekly performances, River Charrettes and Reflection Events that comprise The Quiet Circus.
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Reflection As Structure
Reflection as Structure – The Wisdom of Mary Jane Jacob We spent a lot of time in Dunkin’ Donuts. It was the nearest bathroom and there was coffee and sugar. After the Saturday performances we invited the audience and participants to meet up at the Double D to share experiences and I always loved…
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Experience and Reflection Video
I am excited to share Experience and Reflection, a video about The Quiet Circus. It is the closest thing to a bird’s eye view of this project with its multiple layers, phases, and programs. My hope is that, together with the River Charrettes video posted a few months ago, this video will communicate the values and proposals…
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River Charrette Video
Jillian Jetton and I have been working with Byron Karabotsos on a video about the four River Charrette events that functioned in relationship to the three phases of weekly events at the Washington Avenue Pier. In looking through this footage I was moved by just how much happened, and the hugely different expressions…
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Audience and Performer are Not One and Not Two
The Quiet Circus River Charrette #3 took place at the Andalusia estate along the Delaware River— a strikingly bucolic contrast to the previous River Charrette, which took place a short distance downstream at an industrial recycling operation. Andalusia was built in response to the 1793 Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia, in which 10% of the…
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Kay Larson Reflects on The Quiet Circus
I was beside myself when Mary Jane Jacob invited Kay Larson to The Quiet Circus to present at one of our Reflection Events. Kay wrote Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism and the Inner Life of Artists, a moving and beautiful book in its intricate eloquence about struggle, transformation, and the deep coherence of…
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Blossoming – Phase 3
Please join us throughout the Fall as we enter the final, blossoming phase of The Quiet Circus! Weekly Saturday performances resume on September 2 at the Washington Ave Pier, beginning at 11am sharp and ending promptly at 1pm. These performances are difficult for me to describe, accumulating and building as they have over the past…
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Observe Yourself Observing – Phase Two
Please join us this Saturday at the Washington Avenue Pier in South Philadelphia from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. We are more than midway through The Quiet Circus, a year and half long residency at the Washington Avenue Pier, a complex and riveting site in South Philadelphia along the Delaware River. Among the many histories…
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Island Score
The Island Score (as of May, 2017): The Island Score is an invitation to contemplate our human community. It grows as a weekly practice and performance as part of the weekly Quiet Circus events at the Washington Avenue Pier, the historic site for waves of immigration into Philadelphia that occurred in the late 19th…
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River Charrette #2: Billy Dufala & Maiko Matsushima at RAIR
At our second River Charrette on Saturday, visitors participated in an intimate Silent Walking Tour through the grounds of a construction waste recycling facility in northeast Philadelphia that processes 450 tons of material a day. Passing sorting piles, operation facilities and an open field overseeing the Delaware River and the city of Philadelphia, the tour physically…
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