About this project

In 2009, Performers Exchange Project (PEP) premiered an original performance, Our American Ann Sisters, a rollicking vaudeville-style fantasia on being a woman, an artist, an intellectual, and an American. Inspired by the Peabody Sisters of Salem, MA, an extraordinary family of female intellectuals and artists from the 19th Century, the play asks pertinent questions about feminism, femininity, and the progress of women and men in our society.

Daily Progress reviewer Clair Aukofer said of Our American Ann Sisters:

"This is creative theatre at its finest, with a whole host of creative minds to credit...It’s all good, they’re all good and this is a really funny show that remembers the audience while not neglecting creative integrity for its creators. In short, it’s really good theater.

Now PEP wants to take our show and our unusual way of developing theater on the road. We have a bunch of small theater venues in NY, Providence, Staunton, Savannah, Richmond, Roanoke) who want to present this new work, but they lack funding to cover all of our expenses.

We intend to use the money raised to defray our brush-up rehearsal time, travel costs and performer, stage manager and tech person stipends.

Your donations are tax deductible through our 501(c)3 umbrella, Piedmont Council for the Arts.

Our play features performers Sian Richards, Doreen Bechtol, performer/playwright Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell, director Martha Mendenhall, and performer Kara McLane Burke. Costumes by Jenny McNee, Set by John Paul Scheidler, Lights by Mark Schuyler, Sound by Thadd McQuade, Dances by Katharine Birdsall and original music by Shannon Worrell.

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Project By

Jennifer Tidwell

Charlottesville, VA

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PEP is an all-female collective of 5 Virginia theatre artists with a two-fold mission:

* To develop and perform original works in and for our own communities. To date we have created three original performances (Zelda & Lucia’s Loony Bin Tragedy, Dido Versus The Squid Monster, and Our American Ann Sisters), produced two large-scale collaborative carnivals (Wunderkammer and Shentai) at the Ix Building in Charlottesville, and toured a working demonstration called “Building Performance: A Look at Actor-Created Physical Actions.”

* To host like-minded performers and theater companies from around the U.S. and the world for residencies of performance, workshops, and exchange. Our first exchange, in 2005, was with Serbia’s Dah Theatre/Jadranka Andjelic Project. To maximize the human contact and conversation, we provided food, shelter and performing space to our guests. In exchange for their performances and workshops, we offered our experience of living/working in this community, as well as our own performances and training demonstrations. We believe that the interaction instigated by our collective can serve as an example and catalyst for an ever-widening network of like-minded artists opening their doors and sharing their communities.

Though we have all worked together in different configurations for over 10 years, PEP formed in 2005. PEP is Martha Mendenhall, Sian Richards, Kara McLane Burke, Doreen Bechtol, and Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell.

1. performers-exchange.org