Jennifer Kidwell (she/her) is a performing artist. Recent projects – Underground Railroad Game (Obie Award, Best New American Theatre Work; 2018 Edinburgh Fringe First Award; Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes nominations), Home (Bessie Award, Outstanding Production), Demolishing Everything with Amazing Speed, I Understand Everything Better (Bessie Award, Outstanding Production), Antigone (The Wilma Theater), Superterranean, Fire Burns Hot: Little Reno!, I Promised Myself to Live Faster, 99 Break-Ups (Pig Iron Theatre Company), Dick's Last Stand (Whitney Biennial 2014, as Donelle Woolford), Zinnias: the Life of Clementine Hunter. Wilma Theater Associated Artist, & JACK co-founder. Published in movement research Performance Journal #45 and hyperallergic.com. 2013 TCG/Fox Resident Actor Fellowship (with PITC), 2015 Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant, 2016 Pew Fellow, 2017 Independence Fellow, 2020 Ruthie Award & Hodder Fund Grant.
JENN KIDWELL
Mel Krodman (they/them) is a 41-year young, White, Anti-Racist, Anti-Patriarchal, Gender Non-binary, Queer, Ashkenazi Jewish, Creator, Collaborator, Performer, Writer, Teaching Artist, Griever, Vaginal (Breech) Birther, Community Member, Mind-Expander, Heart+Brain Trust, Partner and Parent.
Professionally, Mel has a decade-long career as a collaborative maker of original, contemporary performance, incorporating dance, theatre, performance art, comedy, music, and video production. From 2015 - 2020 they were a member of Pig Iron Theatre Company, co-creating new works and envisioning the future Company (A Hard Time, Superterranean, A Period of Animate Existence, Swamp Is On, Gentlemen Volunteers). Other significant collaborations include: The Sincerity Project iterations 1, 2, 3 (a 24-year long documentary play w/ Team Sunshine Performance Corporation); A Potential Performance (w/ Nina Lampic and Urska Brodar); Colony and JEAN&TERRY: Your Guides Through Dark, Light & Nebulous (w/ Kelly Bond); The Top (w/ No Face). From 2003 - 2011 Mel was a creator of educational media in both grassroots non-profit, as well as large, international global development settings, both involving deep community investment. In Covid-era Mel is a Homemaker, Parent, and avid Learner, while facilitating workshops on Gender, Time, and Curiosity for organizations like Chairman Mom and The Femme League. Mel lives with their family on occupied Lenni-Lenape land (colonially Cobbs Creek area of West Philadelphia).
MEL KRODMAN
Jess Conda (she/her) is a Philadelphia based performer, producer, teaching artist and cultural connector. From 2003-2013, Jess performed with BRAT Productions, a former non-profit theater company known for their influence on Philadelphia's early "Fringe" performance scene. From 2013-2017, she worked as Artistic Director, serving a mission to produce original rock-theater performance while providing creative opportunities for emerging Philadelphia artists. In 2019, Jess co-hosted The Barrymore Awards, a nationally recognized award program for professional theater productions in the Greater Philadelphia area.
Regional Theater performance credits include: Arden Theatre, 1812 Productions, Pig Iron Theatre, Shakespeare in Clark Park, Bearded Ladies Cabaret, Martha Graham Cracker Cabaret, The Peek A Boo Revue. Touring backing vocals: Peter Matthew Bauer; opener for The War on Drugs and Delta Spirit.
Jess is a three-time Barrymore nominee for Outstanding Ensemble in a Play. In 2019, she received a Barrymore Nomination for Outstanding New Play for Those With Two Clocks (then known as A Hard Time), co-written by Conda, Mel Krodman and Jenn Kidwell for Pig Iron Theatre Company. Jess was one of Philadelphia Magazine's Best Stage Talents to See This Season, 2013. She is currently Learning and Unlearning while working as both an artist and a K-8 Educator. She lives on the unceded Lenni Lenape land currently known as Philadelphia.
