CornuCopiaFest 2023

Fri Nov 17 – Sun Nov 19, Tickets $5 – $20

This November, Yellow Bicycle Theater runneth over with food for the soul—theater, film, comedy, music and more. The fun begins Friday night with an evening of short plays and comic interludes inspired by the winter at Valley Forge, followed by a documentary about the 2023 Philadelphia Mummers Parade and a BYOB karaoke party. Saturday’s highlights include a film  by local filmmaker Nia Primus, two shows by visiting NY actor and comic Michael John Ciszewski and a dark comedy about 9/11. Sunday is family day, with a father opening for his son’s band, a staged reading of a play about four kids who find a bomb in the woods, and a block of award-winning short films. Buy your tickets now—before the horn of plenty runneth out!

Jump to [THEATER]  [FILM]  [COMEDY]  [MUSIC]  [COMBO DEALS]

THEATER

Voices in the Valley

Fri, Nov 17 at 7:30 pm, Sat Nov 18 at 4:30 pm, Sun Nov 19 at 6:30 pm, 45m, $20
[BUY TICKETS]

World premiere! A mischianza of short plays & comic interludes inspired by the winter at Valley Forge, written by Kirill Antonin Zakharov, Max Raab, Sebastian Middlesex and Cricket O’Connor and featuring Thoeger Hansen as Baron von Steuben, Nell Fossa as Peggy Shippen and an English manservant and Alan J. Krier as Steuben’s aide de campe, an unknown Irish soldier and Captain John André. “The next best thing to being there” -B. Franklin, Pennsylvania Gazette, “Fast so gut wie da zu sein.” – B. Fränklin, Philadelphische Zeitung. Directed by Joshua Crone. Executive produced by Seth Hammerman. Flyer design by the very late John André.

Squatters

Sat, Nov 18 at 8:30 pm, 1h, $20 [BUY TICKETS]

In an abandoned building overlooking Ground Zero, a woman pieces together a story that gives her grief meaning, only to have it demolished by the man who brought her there. Did they really just meet in a bar? Did she really lose someone in the Towers? Competing narratives abound in the Philadelphia premiere of a play that had audiences talking in London, Berlin and New York. A darkly comic look at the aftermath of 9/11, with asides on the geopolitical ramifications of bad sex, the art of tactical bed-making and the occult significance of sharing a hairbrush. Featuring Meghan Sudol Crook and Joshua Crone.

NY critics say: “It is hard to begin to describe Squatters in a way that both keeps the mystery of the show alive and accurately presents it in the light that it deserves, though I will start by saying this: I left the theatre feeling very moved.” – Max Berry, Onstage Blog.  “Though Squatters is just now making its New York stage premiere, this neat little nesting doll of enigmas has already had a long and varied life, having enjoyed stages success in Germany and London.” – Robert Viagas, Arts Independent

Broken Arrow

Staged Reading, Sun, Nov 19 at 4 pm, 2h, $10 [BUY TICKETS]

Four children find a nuclear bomb in the forest and fight over who gets to keep it. A staged reading of a new play by Timothy Henderson Jr., directed by Dakota A. Adams and presented by Convergence Theatre Project.

Timothy Henderson Jr. (playwright) Born in Hazelwood, MO, Timothy Henderson Jr. is a lifelong storyteller who has been working in theater on the tech side for the last five years and is currently props carpenter at Goodspeed Musicals.

Dakota A. Adams (director) A theater artist currently based out of Philadelphia, Dakota received a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Furman University in Greenville, SC and has worked in nearly every aspect of theater as an actor, director, lighting and costume designer, stage manager, and production manager at regional and touring theaters.

FILM

City Sway

Narrative, U.S. 2023, 20 min. [BUY TICKETS]
Director: Nia Primus
Featuring: Nia Primus. Jessa Jordan, Korin ‘Skoop’ Pridgeon, Tina Kortland, Adrian Espinal

Imani and her friends Prez and Doni are young black queer women who are struggling to make ends meet. When they decide to embark on a business venture with a local drug dealer, the situation proves to be an troubling experience for the trio. The film has been featured at Bicycle Shorts Film Festival, Film Collective Short Film Festival and Lift-off Global Network’s Hollywood First-Time Filmmakers Showcase.

Mummer Time

Documentary, U.S. 2023, 1h 10m, $5 – $10 [BUY TICKETS]
Director: Joshua Crone

A behind-the-scenes look at Philly’s storied New Year’s tradition. Strut down Broad Street with the Comics, tour an old meat packing plant full of floats with the Fancy Division, suit up with the String Bands, dance at dawn with the Wenches, and compete for bragging rights with the Fancy Brigades in this playful documentary about the 2023 Mummers Parade. Friday night’s screening is a casual BYOB affair, with the doc playing in both the theater and lobby, so you can mingle with the cast of Voices in the Valley and wet your whistle for karaoke.

COMEDY

LOVEFOOL

Sat, Nov 18 at 3 pm & 7 pm, 1h 10m, $20 [BUY TICKETS]

NYC actor and comic Michael John Ciszewski’s LOVEFOOL is a dazzling and deliciously silly romp through his flings, flirtations, and first loves that brims with heart and hilarity. You’ve heard of LOVE before… You knew it was kinda gay, but you just WAIT till this big queer lovefool gets his limp wrists on it!!! 

Featuring dazzling and deliciously dumb multimedia outbursts, LOVEFOOL plays like the queer party playlist of your dreams set to shuffle. The show invites audiences to laugh and cry, sing and dance, flirt and fall-in-love along with Michael John as he engages a life-long commitment to unrequited love. 

A *very* GAY hour that bridges stand-up COMEDY and CONFESSIONAL, LOVEFOOL has packed raucous, rapt houses in New York City (Asylum NYC, The PIT, Pete’s Candy Store), Boston (The Rockwell & New Rep Theatre), Provincetown MA (Redroom), and New Jersey (Jersey City Theater Center), earning raves from critics and audiences who call it “exactly the audacious celebration of queer love that we need in this moment!”

MUSIC

Potential Spam – with special guest Brian Shapiro

Sun, Nov 19 at 2 pm, 1h 15m, $10 [BUY TICKETS]

What happens when you put 3 pre-teen/teens into a basement with a drum set, guitar, keyboard, and a microphone? You get an undeniably full-throttled punk/post-punk energy that transcends time. Come and check out Potential Spam, the stellar trio of Logan Lederer (drums), Oliver Orlowski (guitar), and Asa Shapiro (keys/vocals), as they magnificently express a raw intellect and emotion that will leave you longing for more!

Open Bike – BYOB Karaoke Party

Fri, Nov 17 at 10 pm, Free

These anonymous stock models say it all. Sing and drink like you just closed a hit show. Submit nameless slips of chickenscratch for DJ Cronus and the Thoegermeister to puzzle over. Smile for Instagram as the Meghanphone captures your Britney-inspired butter knife dance for @yellowbicycletheater. Join Yellow Bicycle Collective Friday night as we celebrate the opening of CornuCopiaFest 2023 and the world premiere of Voices in the Valley. And while you’re at it, why not bring your resume and headshot? We’re always casting.

COMBO DEALS

Save $5 when you buy tickets to Voices in the Valley and Mummer Time

Save $10 on tickets to Voices in the Valley, Mummer Time and Sunday Shorts