The Body Lautrec

Independent theater artists Mary Tuomanen (a first-time Center grantee) and Aaron Cromie are collaborating on their first full-length theatrical work, The Body Lautrec, which will explore the life of French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The piece is a meditation on the artist's work, which equated the vulgar with the sublime, as well as on Toulouse-Lautrec's own body, deformed by childhood falls caused by a bone disorder. Tuomanen has taken on the role of director for the first time, and Cromie will perform as Toulouse-Lautrec alongside an ensemble of five female performers.

The creators and cast have used their development period to explore the life of the Moulin Rouge, 19th-century medicine, the circus, and drawing the nude form. Philadelphia's Mütter Museum served as the venue for a work-in-progress showing in April 2013, and the creators and cast were invited to further their puppetry work for the show at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Puppetry Conference in July 2014. The Body Lautrec will have its world premiere as a performance in the 2014 FringeArts Festival.

Click here to see a short video of this work in progress.