BIRD
New York City, New York | Theatre
Comedy, Drama
A solo show using elements of stand-up & memoir to tell the relevant story of BIRD. The personal story begs the question, can Bird soar above sexual abuse? She disassociates imagining people as animals, coping through comedy and imagination.
BIRD
New York City, New York | Theatre
Comedy, Drama
1 Campaigns | New York, United States
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This campaign raised $2,045 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
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A solo show using elements of stand-up & memoir to tell the relevant story of BIRD. The personal story begs the question, can Bird soar above sexual abuse? She disassociates imagining people as animals, coping through comedy and imagination.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
BIRD is a solo play: part stand-up, part memoir, part fever dream.
*TW: This show's content deals with sexual assault*
A young woman sits alone at a bar, and with Gen Z dark humor, unburdens herself to Tim, an unseen bartender. When our narrator, self-identified as Bird, attempts to grapple with her past trauma, she dissociates into metaphor—sometimes to humorous effect, sometimes with heartbreaking imagery and honesty—transforming her family members into animals.
After the Gorilla’s assault, she struggles to confront her trauma and dissacoiates by seeing those around her as other animals. Bird can only follow her instincts. But can Bird trust her own memories? Can she soar above her past child sexual assault and neglect, while dealing with a present world on the brink of extinction? BIRD is a hybrid stand-up/solo show that demands to exist, much like Hannah Gatsby’s Nanette or Jacqueline Novak’s Get On Your Knees. And, like What the Constitution Means to Me, by telling her personal story, Vincent reveals a larger truth: that young women’s bodies are still never really safe from the grasp of predators.
Why BIRD?
Not enough women's stories are being told right now. BIRD takes on telling the story of a survivor through stand-up comedy and physical theatre. Now is the time to make women & survivor's mediums accessible to all.
BIRD Timeline:
Spring/Summer 2020 (Quar Times): Kylie Vincent, barred from her usual stand-up and sketch comedy opportunities, begins writing. BIRD emerges. With strong language, imagery, metaphor and jokes, she pens something authentic, quirky, and theatrically compelling.
March 2021: With Barb Pitts McAdams on board, BIRD receives a space grant from New Georges for The Room. COVID-safe work begins: the play is organized into “chapters.” Pitts McAdams and the design/movement team explore theatrical forms and content using devising techniques learned from 20 years of collaboration with her mentor, Moisés Kaufman of Tectonic Theater Project.
Summer 2021: Rehearsal and script reinvention at Ripley Grier Studios with BIRD team.
November 2021: First public performance workshops throughout the month of November at Under Saint Marks Theatre & Kraine Theatre in Manhattan, New York.
*Performance dates are November 6, 7, 10th at The Kraine & November 18th & 27th at Under Saint Marks*
Beyond: Off-off Broadway run with an eye toward festivals and/or college campuses.
*COVID-19: The venue requires for all to be vaccinated and masked, so it is likely that show will go up in November, in the event that it gets postponed, funding will go toward future show!
@birdonewomanshow
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Therapy & Outreach
Costs $300
Because of Bird's sensitive topics, we want to provide someone present for sensitivity outreach.
Promotion
Costs $1,000
putting advertisements out, promoting BIRD, getting promo photos for BIRD.
Share this update!
About This Team
Kylie Vincent (writer/performer)
Vincent is a stand-up, activist, and theatre artist in New York City. Previously, in her capacity as March For Our Lives NY State Action Director, Kylie is a frequent speaker & producer for art & activism events. As an actor/sketch artist, Kylie has been seen in NBC’s pilot “Gen Z,” Adult Swim’s “Digikiss,” and UCB NYC’s Hells Kitchen, Main Stage. Kylie has traveled to Europe for Stand-up in her Amsterdam Tour & been published in multiple outlets for her comedy writing such as LOL Comedy & Points In Case. With her first full-length play BIRD, Kylie brings her loves of comedy, activism, and theatre together, sharing her story and a cathartic, empowering message about sexual violence and survivorship.
Barbara Pitts McAdams (Director/Lead Deviser/Producer)
McAdams has devised and directed numerous plays, often with social change themes, since her work on Tectonic Theater Project’s The Laramie Project (original actor/dramaturg company: Union Square Theatre, BAM, LaJolla Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, Denver Center). Barb has a shared Emmy nomination for the HBO FIlms screenplay of Laramie. With Moisés Kaufman, she co-authored Moment Work: Tectonic Theater Project’s Process for Devising Theater. Barb is currently an associate writer on a play in progress with Tectonic. BIRD marks her producing debut.
MiMi Scardulla (Movement Designer)
Scardulla is an actor, dancer, and choreographer living in New York City. She has been honored to work with and learn from many incredible talents such as Keone and Mari Madrid, Kristin Chenoweth, Colman Domingo, Chase Brock, Lorin Lotarro, and Spencer Liff. She is a fierce advocate for Size Diversity on Stage and is also a Body Positivity educator. With the arts organization Broadway Dreams, MiMi has loved traveling around the country training the next generation of well rounded performers. She believes dance is our first communicator and enjoys finding new stories to tell through the art form.
Tasja Drahveen (Dramaturg)
Drahveen is a New York City based dramaturg, playwright and actor who will be graduating with a BFA in Dramatic Arts, this Spring, from The New School of Drama. Tasja’s credits include work performed at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, The New School’s blackbox theater and the beloved Zoom theater. She includes devising and collaborative theater practices in most of her work and has loved continuing those practices in BIRD.
Anja Hose (Media Designer)
Hose is a digital media and projections designer originally from Boulder, CO. Recent NYC credits include assistant projection design for Unknown Soldier (Playwrights Horizons) and media design for Young Gods (The New School). She has also designed for numerous plays, musicals, operas, and dance pieces as part of her MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Brandon Reed (Sound Designer)
Reed is a sound designer, composer, and audio engineer originally from the midwest. Recent regional credits include PlayMakers Repertory Company, American Players Theatre, Cape Fear Regional Theatre, Lake Dillon Theatre Company, and more. His work has received awards and nominations from USITT, Joseph Jefferson Awards, and more. He has also designed for dance, podcasts, audio dramas, opera and live streams on Zoom. Currently he is the resident Sound Designer for PlayMakers Repertory Company. MFA from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a BS from Ball State University.
Andrea Allen (Stand-Up Consultant)
Allen is a comedian podcaster based out of New York. Andrea is the
co-host of the popular podcast The Hot Mess Comedy Hour, which has been written up by Elite
Daily and featured in The New York Comedy Festival and The Cinderblock Comedy Festival.
The podcast gets up to 50K monthly downloads and 10K weekly downloads.
Andrea has guested on several prominent podcasts including Guys We Fucked, Risk!, Keith and
The Girl, Robert Kelly's 'You Know What Dude!', This Is Why You’re Single. and John
Fugelsang's Sirius XM radio show. Andrea was selected for the Caroline's Comedy Competition and has also performed stand-up in The New York Comedy Festival. In July of 2019 Andrea released her debut Comedy EP
GONZO. It immediately went to #1 on the iTunes charts and also charted on Billboard.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
BIRD is a solo play: part stand-up, part memoir, part fever dream.
*TW: This show's content deals with sexual assault*
A young woman sits alone at a bar, and with Gen Z dark humor, unburdens herself to Tim, an unseen bartender. When our narrator, self-identified as Bird, attempts to grapple with her past trauma, she dissociates into metaphor—sometimes to humorous effect, sometimes with heartbreaking imagery and honesty—transforming her family members into animals.
After the Gorilla’s assault, she struggles to confront her trauma and dissacoiates by seeing those around her as other animals. Bird can only follow her instincts. But can Bird trust her own memories? Can she soar above her past child sexual assault and neglect, while dealing with a present world on the brink of extinction? BIRD is a hybrid stand-up/solo show that demands to exist, much like Hannah Gatsby’s Nanette or Jacqueline Novak’s Get On Your Knees. And, like What the Constitution Means to Me, by telling her personal story, Vincent reveals a larger truth: that young women’s bodies are still never really safe from the grasp of predators.
Why BIRD?
Not enough women's stories are being told right now. BIRD takes on telling the story of a survivor through stand-up comedy and physical theatre. Now is the time to make women & survivor's mediums accessible to all.
BIRD Timeline:
Spring/Summer 2020 (Quar Times): Kylie Vincent, barred from her usual stand-up and sketch comedy opportunities, begins writing. BIRD emerges. With strong language, imagery, metaphor and jokes, she pens something authentic, quirky, and theatrically compelling.
March 2021: With Barb Pitts McAdams on board, BIRD receives a space grant from New Georges for The Room. COVID-safe work begins: the play is organized into “chapters.” Pitts McAdams and the design/movement team explore theatrical forms and content using devising techniques learned from 20 years of collaboration with her mentor, Moisés Kaufman of Tectonic Theater Project.
Summer 2021: Rehearsal and script reinvention at Ripley Grier Studios with BIRD team.
November 2021: First public performance workshops throughout the month of November at Under Saint Marks Theatre & Kraine Theatre in Manhattan, New York.
*Performance dates are November 6, 7, 10th at The Kraine & November 18th & 27th at Under Saint Marks*
Beyond: Off-off Broadway run with an eye toward festivals and/or college campuses.
*COVID-19: The venue requires for all to be vaccinated and masked, so it is likely that show will go up in November, in the event that it gets postponed, funding will go toward future show!
@birdonewomanshow
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Therapy & Outreach
Costs $300
Because of Bird's sensitive topics, we want to provide someone present for sensitivity outreach.
Promotion
Costs $1,000
putting advertisements out, promoting BIRD, getting promo photos for BIRD.
Share this update!
About This Team
Kylie Vincent (writer/performer)
Vincent is a stand-up, activist, and theatre artist in New York City. Previously, in her capacity as March For Our Lives NY State Action Director, Kylie is a frequent speaker & producer for art & activism events. As an actor/sketch artist, Kylie has been seen in NBC’s pilot “Gen Z,” Adult Swim’s “Digikiss,” and UCB NYC’s Hells Kitchen, Main Stage. Kylie has traveled to Europe for Stand-up in her Amsterdam Tour & been published in multiple outlets for her comedy writing such as LOL Comedy & Points In Case. With her first full-length play BIRD, Kylie brings her loves of comedy, activism, and theatre together, sharing her story and a cathartic, empowering message about sexual violence and survivorship.
Barbara Pitts McAdams (Director/Lead Deviser/Producer)
McAdams has devised and directed numerous plays, often with social change themes, since her work on Tectonic Theater Project’s The Laramie Project (original actor/dramaturg company: Union Square Theatre, BAM, LaJolla Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, Denver Center). Barb has a shared Emmy nomination for the HBO FIlms screenplay of Laramie. With Moisés Kaufman, she co-authored Moment Work: Tectonic Theater Project’s Process for Devising Theater. Barb is currently an associate writer on a play in progress with Tectonic. BIRD marks her producing debut.
MiMi Scardulla (Movement Designer)
Scardulla is an actor, dancer, and choreographer living in New York City. She has been honored to work with and learn from many incredible talents such as Keone and Mari Madrid, Kristin Chenoweth, Colman Domingo, Chase Brock, Lorin Lotarro, and Spencer Liff. She is a fierce advocate for Size Diversity on Stage and is also a Body Positivity educator. With the arts organization Broadway Dreams, MiMi has loved traveling around the country training the next generation of well rounded performers. She believes dance is our first communicator and enjoys finding new stories to tell through the art form.
Tasja Drahveen (Dramaturg)
Drahveen is a New York City based dramaturg, playwright and actor who will be graduating with a BFA in Dramatic Arts, this Spring, from The New School of Drama. Tasja’s credits include work performed at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, The New School’s blackbox theater and the beloved Zoom theater. She includes devising and collaborative theater practices in most of her work and has loved continuing those practices in BIRD.
Anja Hose (Media Designer)
Hose is a digital media and projections designer originally from Boulder, CO. Recent NYC credits include assistant projection design for Unknown Soldier (Playwrights Horizons) and media design for Young Gods (The New School). She has also designed for numerous plays, musicals, operas, and dance pieces as part of her MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Brandon Reed (Sound Designer)
Reed is a sound designer, composer, and audio engineer originally from the midwest. Recent regional credits include PlayMakers Repertory Company, American Players Theatre, Cape Fear Regional Theatre, Lake Dillon Theatre Company, and more. His work has received awards and nominations from USITT, Joseph Jefferson Awards, and more. He has also designed for dance, podcasts, audio dramas, opera and live streams on Zoom. Currently he is the resident Sound Designer for PlayMakers Repertory Company. MFA from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a BS from Ball State University.
Andrea Allen (Stand-Up Consultant)
Allen is a comedian podcaster based out of New York. Andrea is the
co-host of the popular podcast The Hot Mess Comedy Hour, which has been written up by Elite
Daily and featured in The New York Comedy Festival and The Cinderblock Comedy Festival.
The podcast gets up to 50K monthly downloads and 10K weekly downloads.
Andrea has guested on several prominent podcasts including Guys We Fucked, Risk!, Keith and
The Girl, Robert Kelly's 'You Know What Dude!', This Is Why You’re Single. and John
Fugelsang's Sirius XM radio show. Andrea was selected for the Caroline's Comedy Competition and has also performed stand-up in The New York Comedy Festival. In July of 2019 Andrea released her debut Comedy EP
GONZO. It immediately went to #1 on the iTunes charts and also charted on Billboard.