SENSES is FPTC's very informal, very eclectic series of short performance events. Always free (donations requested), it takes place at various venues in the Fort Point area of Boston but mostly at Midway Studios, 15 Channel Center Street.

Metaphors Are Not Enough

Poetry and Prose by
The Streetfeet Women

Sunday, March 7, 2021
3:30-5:00 pm on Zoom

On the eve of International Women’s Day, FPTC hosted six members of The Streetfeet Women 
Elena Harap, Christine Liu, Lymyn O’Sing, Andrea L. Humphrey, Mary Elizabeth Birnbaum, and Mary Millner McCullough. They shared pieces, some with music, from their recently published anthology of poems and prose, Metaphors Are Not Enough. All the work celebrates and honors women and girls. 

The anthology is available for purchase through Lulu Bookstore.

This anthology spans themes of freedom and justice, identity, culture, love, and friendship. Throughout, the women offer wisdom, humor, and the unique perspective of a diverse company of writers and performers. 

The Streetfeet Women was founded in 1982 by Elena Harap and Mary McCullough. The anthology begins with an introduction on how the group got its name and tells the story of how social movements affected the group through the decades, how they shared the work, and how they got to this place we are now. It celebrates the dignity and creativity with which ordinary and diverse women live their lives.

For forty years, The Streetfeet Women has produced socially conscious work and brought the work to women and girls in their neighborhoods—where they live and work. The group performed at the NGO Forums of two United Nations World Conferences on Women: in Nairobi, Kenya, and Beijing, China. The women’s language is universal—uplifting and encouraging one another and their audiences to find out who they are, find their inner strength, and be open to other people, other societies, by finding and trusting their voices.

These women are anything but ordinary.

Click here for more about StreetFeet Women.

“Où est Fleuri Rose?” Revisited

Friday, January 1, 2021 @ 7 pm

Click here to enjoy the show.

We presented FPTC’s 2012 animated film based on the programmatic music of FPTC co-founder Mark Warhol, brought to visual life by the animation of Nick Thorkelson and Amy MacDonald.

Warhol, Thorkelson, and MacDonald talked about the genesis and development of this animated adventure which tells the story of Fleuri Rose, a teddy bear torn from his Quebecois home and thrown into a maelstrom of fearsome and magical adventures on his way to being reunited with his beloved Catherine.

"Où est Fleuri Rose?” (Where is Fleuri Rose?”) in Recent Film Festivals

• Monaco International Film Festival, February 2020: "Où est Fleuri Rose?" was an Official Selection in the 17th Annual Angel Film Awards, a celebration of non-violent film. Shown at the festival in Monaco, it received the "Independent Spirit Award for Animation" and was the only animated film to receive an award.

• Los Angeles Underground Film Forum, June 2020: Although not an official selection, the LAUFF gave "Où est Fleuri Rose?" “the Honorable Mention title, for your vision and the film's unique contribution to cinema."

• London International Motion Picture Awards, December 2020: "Où est Fleuri Rose?" was an Official Selection and is under consideration for "Best Animated Short" and "Best Composer." LIMPA will announce the award winners in January 2021. Usually held in London, LIMPA was virtual in 2020, and "Où est Fleuri Rose" was streamed on the online television platform "Films On Go TV" on December 3.

"Où est Fleuri Rose?” premiered at FILMSTOCK, FPTC’s Exclamation Point! 10.

TWEETING TRUTH TO POWER:

Chronicling our Caustic Politics, Crazed Times, & The Great Black & White Divide

FPTC Presented Comedian and Cultural Critic Cyrus McQueen in an Online Reading from his New Book

Tuesday, December 1, 2020
Click here to view the event recording online

A global pandemic and a national uprising over racial injustice evince a country thrust into unceasing turmoil. With Donald J. Trump exacerbating and perpetuating both of these burgeoning challenges, social media plays a pivotal role in our nation’s recurring strife.

Click here to order Cyrus McQueen’s
Tweeting Truth to Power.

Tweeting Truth to Power is an in depth chronicle of living day to day through the Trump era. As this mercurial president uses the Twitter megaphone to divide, an emboldened community has taken to the platform to unite. A Top 20 Finalist on NBC’s Last Comic Standing, comedian Cyrus McQueen embodies the spirit of “The Resistance.” Tapping into the pulse of a nation and this defining moment, McQueen’s tweets have routinely gone viral, landing in such publications as TIME, BuzzFeed, Cosmopolitan, and Variety, in addition to a host of media outlets like CNN, BET, and Entertainment Tonight.

In Tweeting Truth to Power, McQueen shares the personal and political journey he began in 2016, when he put aside the microphone to get serious about inequality. Exploring his own painful story alongside the nation’s past and present, McQueen offers a rich, nuanced look into America’s racial legacy. His insightful, layered analysis offers a unique context to current events and the movements they have ignited. Be it #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, or #TakeAKnee, Tweeting Truth to Power is a remarkable, real-time account of enduring an unprecedented time.

According to McQueen, the Trump presidency seemingly overnight ripped apart the incisive work of his predecessor and centuries of resistance, exposing the racial wounds of a country once on the mend. Today, as ghosts from America’s unresolved past haunt our present, McQueen asks us: how far have we really come as a nation?

Cyrus McQueen is a comedian, cultural critic, and writer whose mirthful and insightful analyses of race and politics have resonated throughout Twitter. Cyrus’s first book Tweeting Truth to Power: Chronicling our Caustic Politics, Crazed Times, & The Great Black & White Divide, is currently available on his website CyrusMcQueen.com and will be available on Amazon soon.

Andrew Neumann:
“Two Video Project(ions)”

Andrew Neumann:
“Two Video Project(ions)”

• “Synesthesia (part one)”

• ”Activity Pockets, 1-6”

Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Midway Artist Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

“Synesthesia” is a visual tone poem, a combination of footage captured over the past years. For this screening, Neumann performed with a live electronic score.

“Activity Pockets 1-6,” a continually evolving project, was realized using a unique, hybrid real-time video switching system. The source material here features Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth, performing impossible dance routines, with a musical score by Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra.

What more could one ask for?

Fort Point Theatre Channel and AgX Film Collective presented

VISIBLE / INVISIBLE

A 16mm film screening program
curated by AgX members Ernesto Livon-Grosman and Susan DeLeo

Saturday, October 19, 7:00 PM, during Fort Point Open Studios

Midway Production & Performance LAB
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

In film, between one image and the next, there is an invisible moment that our consciousness does not recognize and yet it makes possible the next visible image. With every frame a formal device becomes a metaphor of the medium and a paradox of our perception: the presence of an image depends on the absence of the previous one.

The Program

• Sense(s) of Time (2018), by Wenhua Shi

• Oracle (2014), by Douglas Urbank

• Le Trésor (2016), by Stefan Grabowski

• Walden (2016), by Susan DeLeo

• Story of the Dreaming Water - Chapter One (2018), by Brittany Gravely

• Cuts and Shifts - After Potteau (2018-19), by Nicole Prutsch

• Deer Island (2017), by Tim Wojcik

• Te Quiero Tanto (2018), by Anto Astudillo

• The Same (2019), by Ethan Berry and Douglas Urbank

• Fable (1999), by Robert Todd

AgX is a Boston-area collective of artists who share resources, equipment, camaraderie and knowledge with a focus on the creation and appreciation of the moving image arts. Part of an international circle of artist-run film labs, AgX is open to collaboration and experimentation with other entities while it cultivates and supports a diverse community of filmmakers, photographers and interdisciplinary artists.

Herbert Marcuse,
Philosopher of Utopia

A Graphic Biography

A Book Talk by Author/Artist Nick Thorkelson 

Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Midway Artist Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Boston, MA

Nick Thorkelson, Boston-based political cartoonist and a founding member of FPTC, presented his graphic biography, Herbert Marcuse, Philosopher of Utopia, hot off the presses from City Lights Books.

Herbert Marcuse was one of the twentieth century’s most unlikely pop stars: a celebrity philosopher. His ideas and popularity were formed by moments of great hope and great disappointment, most notably 1919 when he took up arms in Berlin against the proto-fascist Freikorps militia, and 1968 when his ideas were embraced by youth uprisings from Berkeley to Paris and beyond. The comic delves into Marcuse’s life and ideas but also the world that formed him: World War 1 and the revolutions it inspired; Weimar culture in Germany and Hollywood, the New Left; hippies and disco; and Angela Davis, the radical intellectual who regarded Marcuse as her mentor.

Nick recited (with illustrations) a few sequences from the book, told (with illustrations) the story of how it came to be, and sang the song that appears on Page 1.

CLOWNS ARE US

Sunday, May 5, 2019
Midway Artist Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

We all are CLOWNS in the World Circus while interfacing and interacting with the reality of our life. A reality best described by famous Shakespeare’s phrase All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players…

But:

What is a CLOWN?

Aren’t we the ones? Are we not carrying ourselves “clownishly” within our inner selves, or enveloping our outer selves in such a way? And ‘’the other’’? Our fellow-human beings?

We watched a video by Olga Shmuylovich and her collaborators, perused and played with props, sets, costumes, and miscellaneous objects used in creating the video, and enjoyed a discussion of this ongoing project with the artist.

By the Book

A reading of a play by Amy Merrill
Directed by Amy West

Sunday, March 31, 2019 @ 2 pm
Midway Artist Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

Featuring David Anderson, Kathy LaShay Berenson, Dave DiLillo, Russ Gannon, Louise Hamill, Eric McGowan. and Karin Trachtenberg

It's six months after Black Monday  (late 1980s) and George, a recent immigrant from Bulgaria, has just landed a job at a venerable Wall Street brokerage house. George is thrilled, his parents are alarmed. Did they raise their only son to be a stockbroker?  When the boss tells George to find more wealthy clients or else, George must hustle. Can the American Dream be a nightmare?  Featuring Bulgarian accents, dialogue, and jokes. 

LEFTOVERS

Amy Oestreicher, playwright
Ingrid Oslund, director

a reading of a full-length play with music

featuring Victoria Isotti, Katharine Mayk, Sebastian Espinosa, Sara Kerr, Padraig Sullivan, and Bobby Zupkofska

Sunday, January 27, 2019
Midway Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

Patricia, a high school senior, wakes up in a surgical ICU and to find her teenage world forever changed. But even this new medical reality has not erased a secret only her mother knows - Patricia was sexually abused by her voice teacher for months preceding her coma.  Forced to come to terms with a past she's hid from even herself, Patricia struggles with her emotional repairs as doctors work to save her life. The play follows her physical and emotional battle with recovery through 27 surgeries, and the battle to reclaim her voice, from the abuser who took it away.

Click here for more information.

SPEAKING IN TONGUES

a staged reading of a new play

Saturday, November 10, 2018
Midway Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Boston, Massachusetts

In Speaking of Tongues, a crumbling family of small-time Boston criminals scrap over love, memory, and the specter of a lost treasure trove that just might deliver them from ruin--or at least keep them from being buried alive at Tenean Beach. Of course, there are a few road blocks along the way and just enough "speaking in tongues" so that no one knows the truth.

CAST
Jasmine Brooks
McCaela Donovan*
Mark Manley*
Christine Power
Davis Robinson*

* Members of Actors' Equity Association

Fort Point Theatre Channel
presents

THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO

Written by Edgar Allan
Adapted by Mare Freed
Directed by Naomi Ibasitas

A Live Reading of a Radio Play

Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Midway Studios
15 Channel Center St
Fort Point, Boston

CAST

Mitchel Ahern (Mr. Monstresor)
Vickie Wu (Miss Fortunado)
Danny Gessner (Mr. Luchresi)
Sara Dion (Mrs. Luchresi)
Jackie Freyman (Party Guest [A])
Maddi Freundlich (Party Guest [B])
and
Renee Goodreau (Sound Designer)

It’s Edgar Allan Poe’s original short story with a dark twist. All is lively at the Luchresi’s New Year’s Eve party during the height of the Roaring Twenties. But a certain Mr. Montressor has his mind set on revenge and his eyes set on the culprit who did him wrong. Experience the horror of a woman being buried alive.

FPTC presents a staged reading  of

REQUIEM

By Hanoch Levin
Translated by Lee Nishri-Howitt & Leland Frankel

Directed by Caley Chase
with original music by Jonah Godfrey

Monday, September 24, 2018
Midway Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

At once grotesque and melancholy,  spirited and grave, Requiem is the sprawling, final masterwork of Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin, artfully woven from three short stories by Anton Chekhov.

A coffin-maker loses his wife. A young mother searches for a cure for her dying baby. A bereaved wagoner carts drunkards and whores in pursuit of happiness. Cherubs tickle the souls of the dead. The journey is long. . . .

Levin's lyricism and wit are brilliantly sustained in this new translation by Lee Nishri-Howitt and Leland Frankel.

Fort Point Theatre Channel
presents

Don't Mean a Thing

Great American Songbook Dance Party

Caitlin Djerdrum (vocals), Nick Thorkelson (keys), Mike Moss (sax)
 

Thursday, July 12, 2018
Midway Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

Fort Point Theatre Channel
presents

PASSOVER

by Rick Burkhardt

Sunday, May 27, 2018
Midway Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston
 

Performed and commissioned by thingNY, PASSOVER is a performance-ritual by Obie-winning writer/composer Rick Burkhardt for six singing/speaking performers, seated at a dinner table on which there lies a double bass. Each performer relates the story of a friend's escape: from a bad marriage, from an unfair situation at work, from a run-in with a traffic cop, from an ethically compromising opportunity, from an awkward family dinner. Ultimately, it becomes clear that all of these friends form one collective identity. Written specifically for thingNY’s unique blend of chamber music, theatre and improvisation, this tabletop work explores the vocalizing instrumentalist in disjointed modes of storytelling. This commission has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund.

Fort Point Theatre Channel and the Fort Point Arts Community
present

Sunburst and Luminary: An Apollo Memoir

A Book Talk by Don Eyles

Monday, May 14, 2018
Barlow’s Restaurant
241 A Street
Fort Point, Boston
 

Get a glimpse into a complex story never before told from an Apollo insider and Fort Point artist Don Eyles. Sunburst and Luminary: An Apollo Memoir is a complex insider's story about the development of the onboard software for the Apollo spacecraft, as told by a junior engineer just getting his feet wet in the new field of flight software. Meet the author and enjoy an evening of space exploration. Books will be available for purchase.

Fort Point Theatre Channel
presents

Pangyrus LitMag

readings from a community of creative individuals & organizations dedicated to art, ideas, and making culture thrive

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Midway Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

Pangyrus is the work of a talented team, many of its members writers.  On March 22nd they stepped out from behind the curtain and read from their own works!  We heard. . .

Anne Bernays, Fiction Editor
Cheryl Clark Vermeulen, Poetry Editor
Cynthia Bargar, Managing Editor
Greg Harris, Editor
Yahya Chaudry, Social Media Director
Chris Hartman, Reviews Editor

Fort Point Theatre Channel
presents

McFarland

a reading of a new comedy

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Midway Studio
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

A story about McFarland, Tess, Irv, Sonny, Raj, botox, logistics and $600.

Creative Team:     Josh Faigen, playwright
                                 Hailey Klein, director

Cast:     Jesiah Hammond
              Kimberly Holliday
              Allan Mayo
              Robert Murphy

Fort Point Theatre Channel
presents

Boston Letterpress

The History of Letterpress Printing in Boston and Today's Practitioners

Thursday, January, 2018

Arts and Business Council of Greater Boston
Midway Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston
 

Frank Romano, author of over 60 books on type and print, professor emeritus, and president of the Museum of Printing, will discuss the history of letterpress printing in Boston. Short presentations by contemporary letterpress printers will augment the talk.

Ted Ollier, pressmaster at Bow and Arrow Press and Arbalast Press, will give a short presentation on letterpress in Boston today.

Fort Point Theatre Channel presents this event in conjunction with Boston Letterpress, the entry by the Museum of Printing and FPTC in the current round of Art on the Marquee at the Boston Convention and Exposition Center.

Before or after the talk—or anytime—drive around the corner to view the Boston Letterpress video on the 80-feet-tall display in front of the BCEC at 415 Summer Street, South Boston.

Fort Point Theatre Channel
presents

A Documentary
by Lillie Paquette

Friday, December 8, 2017
Midway Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

We Are Egypt

Going beyond the headlines, this story—filmed in the 14 months leading up to the 2011 Revolution in Egypt—highlights the years of mounting resentment against the ruling regime. Filmmaker Lillie Paquette follows key opposition figures and young democracy activists as they struggle against extraordinary odds to remove an uncompromising US-backed authoritarian regime determined to stay in power.

The evening will begin with a brief introduction to the Her Story Is project as Lillie Paquette and the other Boston-area women in the project head to Dubai for a workshop with Iraqi women artists.

Following the film, a discussion with Paquette and Soha Bayoumi, lecturer in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University, will offer context on the Egyptian situation. 

"To most of the world, the protests in Egypt looked like a spontaneous uprising. But according to filmmaker Lillie Paquette, it was actually the culmination of years of methodical organizing. We meet her and get a behind-the-scenes view of the buildup to a revolution."—The Current, CBC

“An important and ambitious documentation of the roots of the Egyptian Revolution. We are very fortunate to have this historic record."—Tom Brokaw

Lillie Paquette is a filmmaker and photographer with experience as a producer for Reuters Video News and as an independent documentary producer for We Are Egypt. Currently a multimedia producer for MIT’s School of Engineering, she focuses on creative online video stories that bring to life the people and research of the MIT community. She has a Master of Arts in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and is fluent in English, Spanish, and Russian.

Fort Point Theatre Channel
presents

The Three Births of Wadih Alwani

Friday, September 22, 2017
Midway Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

A monodrama written and read by Mahmoud Nowara and translated by Julia Gettle.

Mahmoud Nowara is a Palestinian journalist and creative writer born and raised in Damascus. He spent twelve years writing for news outlets across the Arab world, while also publishing creative pieces in numerous local journals. After the eruption of the Syrian conflict, Nowara fled to Beirut, where he composed the original Arabic version of this monodrama. 

Fort Point Theatre Channel
presents

Olivia Brownlee's
Songography Tour

Monday, August 28, 2017
Midway Studio
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

An evening of music by Olivia Brownlee, vocals and guitar, accompanied by Nick Thorkelson on keys and Tim Lewandowski on trombone. Olivia will showcase songs from her forthcoming musical (working title "A One-Woman Show") wherein the author's Inner Housewife ("Virginia") and Inner Pirate ("Maria") battle against and beside each other.

Fort Point Theatre Channel
presents

THE LIZ BORDEN BAND

Saturday, April 22, 2017
Midway Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

A melodic rock band with a love of vocal harmonies, a dose of punk, and a punch of attitude... Playing original songs, some new ones, even crossing the Dixie line... You'll be dancing all night long!

"Liz Borden Band ups the indie ante. She leads the band through a slew of catchy rockers. The vocal harmonies enrich the tunes. She’s generous with her time. Mo Kavanaugh takes a couple of emotive lead vocals. Ditto for Seth Kellog’s sweet take on the Velvet’s Oh! Sweet Nuthin’." --Boston Groupie News

Fort Point Theatre Channel
presents

On With Living and Learning's

UNSAFE ALL AROUND

Excerpts from Humanity NOT Statistics

Friday, April 14, 2017
Midway Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

A workshop performance from On With Living and Learning (OWLL), with original music composed by the Sociedad Latina Youth Music Ambassadors.

The full script of Humanity Not Statistics, written by Mary Driscoll with seven middle school girls from six Boston schools in collaboration with Sisters on the Move, was presented as a staged reading in Boston at the Franklin Park Zoo in spring 2016. For this workshop, OWLL has collaborated with Sociedad Latina to compose original music by the Sociedad Latina Youth Music Ambassadors, a group of 15 talented young musicians. Youth Music Ambassadors receive intensive training in music and use those skills to perform in the community and create an original CD at the end of the year.

OWLL is a collective of artists who use art for activism. OWLL brings together underrepresented women and at-risk youth with community elders and teaching artists in leadership workshops that culminate in culturally specific theater productions focusing on the social justice issues most relevant to the participants. OWLL’s collective art serves as a basis for deep community listening, transformation, and the development of a new narrative for participants’ and their communities’ future.

Fort Point Theatre Channel
presents

FORT POINT-INSPIRED FILMS

written by Rocco Giuliano & directed by Henry Dane

Sunday, February 19, 2017
Midway Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

featuring "Landfill: From Guppies to Yuppies" and "Exile on A Street"

plus Rocco's Emmy-nominated commentary segments - as seen on TV!

 

We invite you to an evening of sometimes arrogant, often hilarious commentaries about life and movies, and movies about life . . . in Fort Point.

You’ll see Emmy-nominated vignettes aired on Boston TV as well as short films currently clogging up the festival circuit.

You’ll also get the chance to demand answers from writer/performer Rocco Giuliano and producer/director Henry Dane (who reserves the right to shift blame back to Rocco)

Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind event that won’t change Fort Point one iota, but will help you avoid another depressing episode of 60 Minutes.

Landfill: From Guppies to Yuppies: This refreshing take on gentrification is an hilarious exploration of the social dynamics of “the innovation district” vs. “the artists co-op.” As the narrator points out, Fort Point was originally part of the bay and the original victims of gentrification were the guppies.

Exile on A Street: An independent writer and consultant with a very private existence relocates from a quiet, suburban community to an inner-city artists’ co-operative. ‘Exile on A Street’ explores the pleasures and purgatories brought on by his move. IMDB.

Rocco Goes to the Drive-In & 38Late: Rocco Giuliano first appeared on Boston independent TV station WSBK-TV38 hosting the summer movie presentation “TV38’s Saturday Night Drive In.” Rocco’s presence generated enough buzz that two summers later he returned with a regular slot as “Boston’s only ‘Underground’ movie host” of his own movie presentation venue, “38 Late.” Rocco received Emmy nominations in hosting and writing for his work on the show.

About Rocco Giuliano
In Rocco’s varied (some would say “checkered”) career, he has worked as a medical photographer, media personality, rock band roadie, college lecturer, and communications consultant, as well as a freelance scriptwriter. Recent film projects include Please Remove Your Shoes: The Myth of America’s Airport Security; The Strange Name Movie; Aside From That: A Film About Everyone’s Least Favorite Topic; Landfill: From Guppies to Yuppies; and Exile on A Street.

Henry Dane
Henry’s passion for TV and movies has dominated his career, from Emmy-award-winning stints creating promos for MASH and The X-Files, to original programming for Major Market TV stations to short documentary films. If you’ve ever seen a tease for the 11:00 News along the lines of “The Hidden Danger in Your Basement: Is Your Child at Risk?” chances are Henry is responsible for keeping you awake and nervous.

Fort Point Theatre Channel
presents

Great Small Works

with Trudi Cohen and John Bell

Sunday, January 15, 2017
Midway Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

Featuring. . .

A Short Entertaining History of Toy Theater

Resident singing professor Dr. John Bell, accompanied by toy piano, tells the history of Toy Theater (also known as paper theater or model theater) and its importance for 21st century world citizens.

Living Newspaper, Episode 2: Sidewalk Ballet

A Toy Theater production, in which Jane Jacobs, Robert Moses, and a burning bush battle over the right to public space.

Ode to Common Things

A cranky (paper movie) based on the poem by Pablo Neruda.

Trudi Cohen and John Bell are theater makers, puppeteers, festival organizers, musicians, and founding members of Great Small Works, a visual theater collective created in 1995 in New York City, whose six members share roots in Bread and Puppet Theater. Its members are now dispersed, with outposts in Brooklyn, Montreal, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Bell and Cohen anchor the New England base in Massachusetts.

John Bell directs the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and is Associate Professor of Dramatic Arts at the University of Connecticut. He was a member of the Bread and Puppet Theater company from 1976 to 1986 and received his doctoral degree in theater history from Columbia University in 1993. He is an editor of Puppetry International, the publication of the U.S. branch of the Union Internationale de la Marionnette; an organizer of the Honk! Festival of Activist Street Bands in Somerville, and a trombonist in the Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band.

Trudi Cohen was a full-time member of Bread and Puppet Theater's resident company in Vermont for 10 years, and has performed as puppeteer in productions directed by Peter Schumann, Janie Geiser, Amy Trompetter and David Neumann. She directed Great Small Works' 2008, 2010 and 2013 International Toy Theater Festivals and has curated dozens of the company’s Spaghetti Dinner events. She plays bass drum with the Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band and is a founder and organizer of the HONK! Festival in Somerville. She is secretary of the Board of Bread and Puppet Theater, and on the board of Parts & Crafts, a maker space for young people in Somerville, MA.

About Great Small Works

"Great Small Works’ mission is to draw on folk, puppet, avant-garde, and popular theater traditions to address contemporary issues. We value the beauty and potency of puppet theater, the urgency of speaking out about the news of the day, the power of creating theater with diverse groups of citizens and of bringing art to public spaces. We work for intelligent and engaged content in our work. We teach in public schools and at universities, and mentor young artists who are learning how to integrate critical thought into their creative work. Great Small Works performs in theaters, schools, parks, libraries, museums, prisons, street corners, and other public spaces, producing work on many scales, from gigantic outdoor spectacles with scores of volunteer participants, to miniature shows in living rooms. The individual members of the Great Small Works collective are each engaged in writing, scholarship, mentorship, and community organizing.

"We stumbled upon Toy Theater (also called Paper Theater or Model Theater) 20 years ago, and were inspired by its accessibility, scale and beauty. Since then, we have produced ten international Toy Theater Festivals, and have traveled around the world discovering practitioners of this arcane form of table-top storytelling. Through both workshops and performances, we have introduced Toy Theater to hundreds of artists and students. We believe that everyone has a story to tell, and with Toy Theater they can do it themselves."

Click here for more information about Great Small Works.

Fort Point Theatre Channel
presents

A Surreal Soirée

An Evening with Beatniks, Clowns, and Cleopatra

Friday, December 16, 2016
Midway Studios
15 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

A Cacophonous Cabaret of sound and light. movies, music, and performance by Mick Cusimano and friends.

Fort Point Theatre Channel
presents

SHORTS

from the AgX Filmmakers Collective

Friday, October 21, 2016

@ Midway Studios
35 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

A program of short films from members of AgX, a recently formed filmmakers collective based in Waltham. AgX has joined a growing international movement of artist-run film collectives and laboratories uniting to share resources, equipment, camaraderie, and knowledge in order to build a vibrant space that focuses on the creation and appreciation of photochemical filmmaking. The program will include a variety of styles ranging from documentary to experimental and abstraction. Curated by Fort Point Theater Channel and AgX member, Douglas Urbank.

Music of Diverse Influences

Joshua Owsley - bass, bass VI, synthesizer, electronics
Elliot Hughes – alto saxophone, synthesizer, percussion
Frank Aveni - drums, percussion, synthesizer, electronics

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Internal Matter Restaurant
35 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

Geoglyphs is a Boston-based trio. Drawing from diverse influences in instrumental rock, punk and hardcore, jazz, classical minimalism, and experimental electronic music, their dynamic compositions build and deconstruct multiple sonic and rhythmic layers, mixing tightly composed passages with bursts of free improvisation and noise, tempered with waves of ambient and textural sound.

Click here to learn more about Geoglyphs and to listen to their music. Click here to follow Geoglyphs on facebook.

Bittersweet 

a jazz/art happening

featuring Roberto & Kathryn

Thursday, June 2, 2016

a mix of original songs, spoken word
and projected images/film,
plus a set of standards

Internal Matter Restaurant
35 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

Internal Matter Cafe
35 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

The program for ANIMATION: The Next Generation was as follows:

 Opening Graphics / Parkour by Juiana Nunez, Mount Ida College
Portal by Rongxin Liu, Emerson College
Convenient by Victoria Vega, Montserrat College of Art
One More Step by Victoria Le, Montserrat College of Art
New Dress by Michelle Moore, Montserrat College of Art
Late Night by Michelle Moore, Montserrat College of Art
Memory by Bin Xu, Emerson College
Muovi by Bronte Pirulli, Montserrat College of Art
Laundry by Haley Albanese, Montserrat College of Art
Do Not Pull by Meghan Higgins, Montserrat College of Art
Octet Galaxy by Ashli Hurt, Montserrat College of Art
Kirmo by Brian White, Montserrat College of Art
Game Grumps by Kelly Clarke, Montserrat College of Art
Force Cube by Bin Xu & Siming Xu, Emerson College
Closing Graphics by Aarin Taylor, Mount Ida College

Fort Point Theatre Channel and Tidal Theatre Company presented

The Mosquito Story Slam

Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Internal Matter Cafe
35 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

The Mosquito Story Slam is inspired by the popular Moth StorySLAM – where storytellers have 5 minutes to to tell a true story about themselves based on the night's theme. No notes, no props, just you. Come prepared to tell, or get inspired during the show.

 TONIGHT'S THEME: Escape

The Mosquito Story Slam is produced by the Tidal Theatre Company, Vanessa Vartabedian and Caitlin Langstaff. The Mosquito is podcast on Soundcloud.com/MosquitoStorySlam. For more information, like us on Facebook

Kathryn Howell (left), Gina Chiara (center), and Jerry Reilly (right) telling their stories of ESCAPE at Mosquito

Fort Point Theatre Channel and Crystal Cove Productions
presented selections from a musical set in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

by Ralph Tufo

music by the Squeezebox Stompers: Larry Plitt & Ralph Tufo

with Cristina Dones, Laura Edwards, Kendrick Terrell Evans, Tom Kilgallen, and Sharon Squires

Thursday, January 28, 2016
Internal Matter Cafe, 35 Channel Center Street, Fort Point, Boston

The music of New Orleans has always played a big part in the life of Ralph Tufo. The people of New Orleans who survived Hurricane Katrina in 2005 inspired him to put their stories to music in The Katrina Roadhouse.

Ralph traveled to the region three times to help with recovery efforts, starting in 2007. "I felt because I've been playing my Cajun and Zydeco music for 30 years that that was a payback in some ways, because I love the music."

While tearing out walls and floors from flood-damaged homes, he met the survivors of the storm. He learned about the obstacles they faced not only in rebuilding their homes but rebuilding their lives. "I was extremely impressed with their resilience and determination. I decided that these personal stories need to be told." Ralph shares these stories in The Katrina Roadhouse.

An Evening of Animation

Thursday, December 3, 2015
8:30 pm

Internal Matter
35 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

FREE

Où est Fleuri Rose? follows the adventures of a pink teddy bear in Quebec, set to the music of Mark Warhol with the artistry of animators Nick Thorkelson and Amy MacDonald.

Upgrades, by Anya Belkina, set to Rimsky-Korsakov’s "Flight of the Bumble Bee," is a breakneck-paced animated parody chronicling major upgrades in computer graphics software.

In Insurgency of Ambition, also by Anya Belkina, the illusion of success lures a man to the very threshold of glory only to unsheathe its true, frightening nature as he gets within reach.

Soup Opera, by Martha McCullough, asks, How deep is the palace of the Soupdragon? Beyond porcelain shallows suspended alphabets turn and sink with no trace. Inspect your bowl with care.

Break and Remake, also by Martha McCullough, came out of thinking about recombined creatures in myths and in the margins of medieval manuscripts. The whole video is broken and reassembled as are the griffins chimeras and other monsters within it. The text is also a hybrid combining overheard remarks, a line from a song, and text from computer-generated spam.

Plus Gabriela and Blue BUG vs. Soda Can, by Kevin Ferreira.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Jazz Saxophonist
Andy Voelker

with Luther Gray on drums &
Derek Van Wormer on bass

Internal Matter
35 Channel Center Street
Fort Point, Boston

FREE

Andy Voelker, a Boston-based saxophonist and jazz musician, has been prominent on the original jazz and improvised music scene for the last 20 years. Known for his sound and driving swing feel, Andy has made his way over the years playing countless gigs, shows, and events of all kinds. He has recorded several original jazz recordings with the groups Gypsy Schaeffer and Clear Audience.

Andy grew up on the New Jersey shore.  After high school, he moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music where he studied saxophone and improvisation with saxophone giants Frank Tiberi and George Garzone. 

Andy plays regularly in the Boston area and recently released a new album with Clear Audience. He is working on his new original jazz release as a leader in addition to a regular Wednesday night residency at Devlin’s in Brighton and a weekly jazz brunch at Barcelona in Brookline.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

songs by

MILO JONES

"One man, one 3/4 scale guitar, Milo Jones is an ascendant star in the elite pantheon of modern-day crooners. His super sensitive mix of Lee Hazlewood and Leonard Cohen is served up with just a hint of understated irony, while languidly oozing sincerity and warmth. Weird, but kind of heavy and beautiful, too." Don Bolles - (Germs, Psychic TV, Ariel Pink)

with projections by

DOUGLAS URBANK

Friday, June 26, 2015

Brendan Burns, Musician 

 Brendan Burns in an extra-special performance by the guitarist, educator, composer, and all-around experimental musician who composed the music for FPTC's 2012 production of Silvia Graziano's Indiscreet Discretion.

Special guest with Brendan: FPTC's Nick Thorkelson, who appears on his own at Internal Matter most Tuesdays.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Vocal Jazz By

Olivia Brownlee
    &
Nick Thorkelson

An hour of vocal jazz by our very own Olivia Brownlee and Nick Thorkelson!