The Renegade Company
About
MISSION
The Renegade Company creates original theatrical experiences that celebrate, challenge, and deconstruct iconic works of art. Residing in Philadelphia, Renegade is rooted in the community we call our home. By fostering local partnerships and collaborations, their voices and experiences influence the creation of our works.
VALUES
Creation of cycles of work:
A series of works that explores a variety of themes, subject matter, genres, locations, and movements
An investigation on new ways to present and address the above ideas
In addition to productions we hope to address the cycle through community conversations, pop-up happenings, literature, and social gatherings.
With partnerships with local artisans, from puppeteers to ice cream makers, Renegade incorporates myriad sensory experiences in each multidisciplinary piece.
A Renegade show can take shape within different locales, embracing the vibrancy and diversity of the city.
Renegade seeks to take familiar works and explore them through a modern lens, drawing on canonical memories and invigorating them with contemporary context.
Exploration of a distinct neighborhood of Philadelphia and through oral histories and community conversations those stories get incorporated into our productions.
COMPANY
Mike Durkin, Artistic Director
Adam Vidiksis, Company Designer
Dani Bryant, Managing Director
UNCONVENTIONAL COMMUNITY COLLABORATIONS
The Renegade Company creates art that connects to the city of Philadelphia and engages all five senses. From the first time you hear about a show, through your first step into the performance space, to days after the show has concluded, Renegade carefully calculates and designs each moment to stimulate full-bodied sensory experiences and illuminate the community in which we make our home. Partnerships and collaborations between similar-minded local artisans are integral to those experiences.
Works
(Kensington) Streetplay (2018)
(Kensington) Streetplay is a collaboration with residents of the Riverwards communities (Port Richmond, Somerset, Harrowgate, and Kensington) to understand their stories and perspectives on issues of their neighborhoods, particularly on substance abuse, addiction, and homelessness and its effects on the community.
Animal Farm to Table (2016)
This new take on dinner theatre uses subject matter, philosophy, and themes from George Orwell’s Animal Farm to explore ideas of food hierarchy, ethical food consumption, and where Philadelphia’s food comes from.
Beowulf/Grendel (2016)
A site-specific performance that takes the audience on a journey through historic Mount Moriah Cemetery, Beowulf/Grendel invites the audience into a world where storytelling is always suspect, and any deed can wear the guise of honor.
Damed Dirty Apes! (2015)
The Renegade Company, with Chris Davis and Sam Henderson, mashes the classic films Planet of the Apes, Tarzan the Ape Man, and King Kong into a theatrical expedition out-leaping the wildest imaginings. Our simian-sapiens storytellers blend Philadelphia with science-fiction to create creatures at war with themselves and with their natural world.
Barnes Art Alive (2015)
The Renegade Company and the Barnes Foundation partnered to create 4 pieces for the Free First Sunday Programs. Renegade created 15-minute pieces using iconic works from the collection as inspiration. Works include surreal Philadelphia artist Angelo Pinto, a triptych of works by Matisse, a religious sculpture from New Mexico, and British Metalwork.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (2014)
Inspired by the silent films of the 1920s and told through the deafened and disfigured perspective of Quasimodo, Renegade will transform Victor Hugo’s novel into a nightmarish expressionist landscape begging the question, what does it mean to be a monster? Featuring a collaboration with Le Puppet Regime to create visual elements incorporated into the performance.
Grimms' Juniper Tree (2014)
A boy punished by his wicked stepmother, a princess fleeing her wrathful husband, an imp spinning straw for a miller and his daughter: these characters and more await Hans and Greta as they wander the woods in search of a new home. Grimms' Juniper Tree examines the magic of choice in a black-and-white world of Good and Evil.
Bathtub Moby-Dick (2013)
Overwhelmed by his troubles, a man reads Melville's novel and begins a journey towards madness in his bathtub. With every page he turns, he slowly begins to believe he is aboard the Pequod and recreates moments from the novel. Set in a bathroom, Renegade creates an immersive audience experience.
Glass: Shattered (2013)
How much power do memories hold? Can they be altered and recreated? Can they be destructive? With the current digital climate it seems like it is easier and easier to recreate, reconstruct, and revision memories. Renegade uses Tennessee Williams’ iconic work The Glass Menagerie as a point of reference and brings their de-constructivist approach to this American classic.
Hamltemachine/Medeaplays (2012)
Heiner Müller’s Hamletmachine and Medeaplays connect with The Renegade Company’s mission to tell familiar stories in unfamiliar ways. Written in the 1980's, these works deconstruct the stories of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Euripides’ Medea and tells them from a post-modern view. Müller takes these myths and uses them as an allegory to express the angst of the sociopolitical catastrophe Germany was in during the Cold War.
The Amish Project (2011 & 2013)
A gripping and incisive exploration of the 2006 Nickel Mines schoolhouse shooting in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that quickly polarized the nation, united a community and forged an unexpected path of compassion and forgiveness in its wake. Imbued with great poetry and surprising humor, this seven-character, one-woman show investigates a divided community’s attempts to reconcile crushing loss and tested faiths in spite of a sea of cultural differences.
