For Immediate Release:

Contact: Ruchama Bilenky
ruchama@comcast.net
267-679-4098

DysFUNctional Theatre’s
Female Performance Artists
Present
Resistance Is Fertile: Seeds of Spring – Night of Feminist Performance Art  to Raise Funds for Project Safe

All proceeds will benefit Project Safe (http://www.safephila.org/ and 866-509-SAFE), an organization promoting public health and safety for sex workers in Philadelphia.

Conceived by Ruchama Bilenky, Kate Black-Regan, and Jana Nogowski, Resistance Is Fertile: Seeds of Spring is a night of empowerment through music, poetry, movement, and theatre arts.  Ruchama Bilenky, founder of DysFUNctional Theatre, has appeared in numerous productions in her company’s 10-year history.  In addition, she is the bass player for Sylvia Platypus as well as a certified yoga therapist and yoga teacher.  Kate Black-Regan is a Philadelphia-based actress who not only has performed with DysFUNctional Theatre, but also with the Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, The Renegade Company, and PuppeTyranny among others.  Jana Nogowski is an actress and poet who has performed with Green Light Arts, Vagabond Acting Troupe, and South Camden Theatre Company.  Performances will feature not only the show’s organizers, but also the performance work of both up-and-coming and seasoned Philadelphia-based artists, including Amanda Geraci, Kathleen Harmer, Denise Shubin, Sammy Shuster, Natanya Apfelbaum, and Kira Darian.

The show’s beneficiary, Project Safe, is an organization promoting targeting public health and safety to women prostitutes on the streets of Philadelphia.  Specific services include conducting outreach, dispensing information about HIV and other STD prevention, condom use, and Bad Date sheets.  Other programs include client referrals to welfare, detox/drug treatment, housing, shelter, medical care, public assistance, mental health care, and legal aid.  For more information Project Safe’s mission and services visit http://www.safephila.org/ or call 866-509-SAFE.

DysFUNctional Theatre was founded in 2001 by Ruchama Bilenky (bass player for the band Sylvia Platypus) with the mission of bringing obscure, female-oriented works to the Philadelphia stage. Recent past productions have included the world premiere of Le Mirage/Dead City Philly, Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act by Athol Fugard, and Fefu and Her Friends by Maria Irene Fornes

Admission is sliding scale from $5 to $20.  All proceeds will benefit Project Safe