Visual installation comes to life through movement, music and story in White Box Theatre’s 60-minute performance of Kea and the Ark, taking place at South Philly’s Theatre Exile, 1340 S. 13th St.
Using electric cello, puppetry, dance and storytelling, lead artist Sebastienne Mundheim, in collaboration with Harlee Trautman, Payton Smith, Kennedy Candra, Peter Jacobs and Barrymore Award–winning musician Daniel de Jesus, shares the story of Kea Tawana, a self-taught engineer, artist and visionary who single-handedly built an 86-foot-long, three-story ark in Newark’s Central Ward.
Kea lived a life of displacement, invention and resilience, from internment camp, to Hopi reservation, to ever-moving life in Newark. She was a naturalist, an architect, an activist and a maker. Her ark was an act of protest, tenacity and imagination.
Kea and the Ark was commissioned by ArtYard and premiered to sold-out audiences there in 2023. Since then, it has toured twice to the Kohler Foundation in Wisconsin, and to Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington.
Shows are Dec. 20 (5 p.m. and 8 p.m.), Dec. 21 (2, 5 and 8 p.m.), Dec. 22 (11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.) and Dec 23 at noon. Tickets at theatreexile.org are $35 for general admission/Arts Supporter, $25 for general admission and $15 for child/student/senior. Tickets do not include processing fees.
