Adapt!

A WORLD PREMIERE Written and Directed by Blanka Zizka

March 22 – April 22, 2017

“Your play is very you! – East Europeanish, quirky and eccentric, personal and political, and very much a director’s play… congratulations on writing a play of real individuality.” – Tom Stoppard

It’s the summer of 1977 and 22-year-old Lenka is fleeing authoritarian Czechoslovakia for the art and beauty of New York City. At the start of her journey, Lenka is confronted by an Old Woman from an extinct Slavic tribe who guides her through a dream-like world where the past and future meet and multiple realities collide. From a refugee camp to Central Park, Blanka Zizka’s Adapt! is a kaleidoscopic look at a young immigrant’s journey in a surreal world full of surprises, accompanied by a musical landscape ranging from traditional folkloric songs through Czech protest ballads to the pop sounds of the late 20th century.

Major support for Adapt! has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

Click here to see photos from the first workshop of Adapt!

PORTRAITS OF PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

During the run of  Adapt!, The Wilma Theater will remount Jennifer Baker’s exhibit “Portraits of People on the Move,” originally presented as a companion to Cardell Dance Theater’s “Supper, People on the Move,” choreographed by Silvana Cardell. The exhibit features first-person stories and photo portraits of individual Philadelphia immigrants from Argentina, Pakistan, Honduras, Italy, Albania, Iraq, Haiti. and elsewhere — journeys undertaken for many different reasons,  traversing many different landscapes, and completed with many different consequences.

Click here to explore the exhibit’s online blog or to read stories from the Wilma community click here.