Koal

Overview

Part climate-catastrophe, part clown show—Koal is a one-woman show for the end of the world. As wildfires tear through Australia, a baby koala, a coal miner and an Indigenous girl desperately strive to hold onto their homes before all burns and turns to ash.

Koal is an interactive solo-show, performed by Jacinta Yelland and directed by Trey Lyford, that immerses the audience in the middle of the 2019 Australian bushfires. The show follows two eyewitnesses to this climate catastrophe; Koal, a baby koala recovering at a wildlife sanctuary after being severely burned, and Stevo, a career coal-miner trapped in a collapsed mine hundreds of meters underground. Woven throughout is the story of Minah, an Indigenous girl who was removed from her home and interned by her government during WWII.

Using documentary theatre, clown, and audience interaction, Koal takes the audience from laughter to tears as it explores what is lost when your home is erased.

Koal has been developed with the assistance of The Work and The Puffin Foundation.

Cannonball, produced by Almanac Dance Circus Theatre, is the first and largest independent festival hub of the Philadelphia Fringe that presents risk-taking independent artists in back-to-back performances next to delicious lounge spaces, fostering creative collisions and community conversation.

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About the Artist

Jacinta Yelland (Performer/Creator) is an Australian theatre creator and performer of Chinese and Torres Strait Islander descent based in Philadelphia. She has collaborated with David Gordon, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Quintessence Theatre Group, PAC, Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists, and Tribe of Fools. She holds an MFA in Devised Performance from UArts and studied at École Philippe Gaulier, Paris. Jacinta is the co-artistic director of inFLUX Theatre Collective. Their debut show, The Choice, won the Philly Fringies Award for Best Theatre at the 2021 Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

Trey Lyford (Director/Creator) has been creating original works for the stage for nearly two decades and most recently with his theatre company - gimmick. He is the founding Co-Artistic Director of rainpan 43 and Associate Artist with The Civilians. Support for his work includes Creative Capital, NEFA, NYSCA, and PEW Center for Arts & Heritage.

Tuçe Yasak (Lighting) has created over 100 site-specific light installations for performance in the US and abroad. Yasak received the 2018 and 2019 BESSIE for Outstanding Visual Design.

Ethan Mentzer (Original Music) is a musician, composer, producer, and engineer based in Philadelphia. Mentzer holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Production and Engineering from Berklee College of Music. He is the recipient of a Boston Music Award and the MTV VMA Knockout Award.

Payton Smith (Set)

Grace Lillian Lee (Costume Consultant) is the founder of First Nations Fashion and Design. Her works have been collected by the National Gallery of Victoria and Art Gallery of NSW.

You-Shin Chen (Set Consultant) is a Taiwanese scenic designer for live performance and film. You-Shin is the recipient of the 2019 Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, Lucille Lortel Award, and Connecticut Criti

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