Project Created: “Hello Sadness”
"Hello Sadness" was produced by the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
World Premiere: June 11 - 13, 2015
Quote: “She baits us in with her charm and holds us in the palm of her hand as she eviscerates the patriarchy.” -Joshua Millhouse, DC Metro Theater Arts
Bio: Mary Tuomanen is a Philadelphia-based theatre artist who graduated from L'Ecole Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq in 2008. She creates and tours original work with her company, Applied Mechanics (Portmanteau 2010, Overseers 2011, Vainglorious 2012, Some Other Mettle 2013) as well as with her partner Aaron Cromie (Sycorax 2010, A Paper Garden 2011, Saint Joan, Betrayed 2013). She and Aaron recently received a two-year grant from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage to develop The Body Lautrec -- a meditation on the art and maladies of painter Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, which is set to premiere in fall 2014. As a performer, she has worked with Actor's Theatre of Louisville, the Arden, the Riot Group, the O'Neill Playwright's Conference, New Paradise Laboratories, the American Philosophical Society and the Centre Pompidou. In Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre's 2011 season Mary became the first woman to perform the role of Hamlet in Philadelphia since Charlotte Cushman, 150 years before.
Project Description: This one-woman dark comedy traversed the themes of feminism and madness, and featured Joan of Arc, Emily Dickinson, The FBI, The Black Panther Party, New Wave star Jean Seberg, saints, sex workers—and a dog named Blanco.
Residency Public Sharing: 12/12/13