The Choice

Overview

Pack a lunch for your kids while 10 months pregnant!
Laugh with a middle-aged Australian mum!
Panic about the future of the human race amidst climate catastrophe!
Tell a woman what to do with her body!

Join us as we decide whether or not to have children! Better yet, decide for us!

Welcome to the womb where it happens: The Choice, an interactive theatre show by inFLUX, unpacks the decision to have children, exposing the most intimate parts of a woman’s choice. Jacinta, age 35, must confront this life-altering choice before it’s too late for her: how will she decide? On the one hand there is the joy of raising a baby and watching them grow, on the other is the undeniable contribution to overpopulation that is dooming the earth. Christine, 29, deeply wants children, but faces the fear of becoming “just a mom” and losing a career she’s only just beginning. Jacqueline, 25, wishes she was being asked any question but this one. They invite the audience to join them as they dive into it all: financial realities, personal relationships, societal and family pressure, a changing climate, and the morality of bringing new life into today’s world. They lay it all bare for an audience, ultimately asking the existential question – should we be having children?

The Choice is the first chapter of The Motherhood Project, a decade-long series of performances by the members of inFLUX – Jacqueline Libby, Christine Octavia Shaw, and Jacinta Yelland. Facing down the decade where their reproductive choices become more important, more scrutinized, and more impactful, they came together to create The Motherhood Project to examine their evolving relationship to motherhood in five new works of theatre over the next ten years.

* While in Christ Church Neighborhood House, audience members are required to wear a mask regardless of vaccination status. Performers will be unmasked<

inFLUX Theatre Collective

inFLUX is a women-led theatre collective based in Philadelphia founded by Jacqueline Libby, Christine Octavia Shaw, and Jacinta Yelland. inFLUX creates meticulous and raucously uninhibited new works of live performance. They seek to upend the conventional - exploring the hidden parts of themselves to explode the taboos of our society. inFLUX was in residence at Bethany Arts Community where they developed The Choice, Part 1 of The Motherhood Project.

Christine Octavia Shaw is a devised theatre creator and performer making work that asks her audiences impossible questions. She is an inaugural artist-in-residence with Yale University Schwarzman Center. She studied theatre and dance at Yale University and received an MFA from the UArts/Pig Iron program in devised theatre.

Jacqueline Libby is a theatre creator whose work focuses on the intensity of human connection. With intricately ordinary choreographies, stripped back dialogue, and operatic images, she invites people to think about the world around them in deep and personal ways. She has an MFA in Devised Performance from UArts/Pig Iron Theatre Company.

Jacinta Yelland is an Australian theatre performer and creator. She holds an MFA in Devised Performance from UArts/Pig Iron. She has collaborated with David Gordon, Quintessence Theatre Group, PAPA, Almanac, PAC and Tribe of Fools. Her projects have been supported by Australia Council, Arts Queensland, Network of Ensemble Theaters, and American Australian Association.

Sarah Sanford is a Philadelphia-based theatre artist and director. Directing credits include the Obie Award winning Underground Railroad Game. A member of Pig Iron Theatre Company, Sarah co-created and performed in Shut Eye, Hell Meets Henry Halfway and Twelfth Night, among others. Additional credits: Arden Theatre Company, The Wilma Theatre, Theatre Exile, Lantern Theatre, Jo Strømgern Kompani and The Riot Group. Sarah is a winner of the 2010 Haas Award for Best Emerging Theatre Artist.

Credits

Lead Artists/Performers: Jacqueline Libby, Christine Octavia Shaw, Jacinta Yelland; Director: Sarah Sanford; Scenic Designer: Lisi Stoessel; Lighting Designer: Maria Shaplin; Stage Manager: Jamel Baker; Technical Director: Carlton Ward