Welcome to ARTFARM!

  
ARTFARM is a non-profit, professional theater organization, based in Middletown, CT, USA 

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Middle East, Middletown - featuring
Heart of Afghanistan 


Heart Of Afghanistan an American Voices Productioneventbrite - Bend Ale Fest

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CIRCUS for ADULTS!

Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30pm,   Sept. 20– Nov. 29

in Middletown CT

Whether you have No Circus Experience or are a Circus Vet–

ARTFARM CIRCUS ENSEMBLE (ACE) leader,

the amazing Allison McDermott,

creates a safe, inclusive, dynamic space for all-embracing PLAY!

$180 for Ten Weeks

contact info@art-farm.org to register

 


The ARTFARM community is working with internationally acclaimed
Congolese theater artist, Toto Kisaku
delving into the themes of & developing material for
Six Feet Under the Losers- Toto's current Work In Progress
exploring the living conditions of modern society
in a time of pandemic through the lens... of an undertaker.

---
Keep Your Ears to the Ground for the Next 
CULTURAL HEALERS WORKSHOP
in this Dynamic Series:

        ARTIST AS CULTURAL HEALER            
        WORKSHOP        
Are you called to be a community leader through your work-
and trying to figure out what that now looks like?

Are you struggling to keep up with or to cultivate practices that help you 
feel equanimity and equilibrium?

          Are you seeking to integrate the parts of you that are 
the artist, the spiritual being, the healer?

          Do you believe that societal transformation is possible through personal
          inquiry and applied presencing and of cultivating compassion?
 

Working towards embodied self-realization as a path for artists
as cultural change-makers & community leaders.

 This will be an on-your-feet, multi-modal/inter-disciplinary, 
safe-space exploration for all types of artists.
We will move, work with expressive arts materials,
have space for personal reflection and group collaboration.
We will cultivate practices that support a quest towards autonomy,
increased consciousness and, if it's your thing-
the capacity to serve- through creative expression.


 ARTFARM Artistic Director, Marcella Trowbridge, is  
    delighted to bring this internationally cultivated work to her local community,
inspired by her work in Germany as well as Sri Lanka. Marcella is a long time physical theater artist.
She is a soul-activist, healer and Community Ritual Keeper.
Marcella is a Justice of the Peace and a certified Death Doula. 

                                                                            Questions? email info@art-farm.org


 



 
                                                  

WHERE ARE WE NOW?: 
A PERFORMATIVE GRIEF & HEALING RITUAL TO TEND OUR RACIAL WOUNDS

 A few Audience Responses:

"This expressive performance evoked deep, profound, and thought-provoking feelings, emotions, revelations and reconciliations. You had to be there. That said, we’re all human and it would be a blessing if we acknowledged our humanity and our connectiveness."

"I was held in arms I did not know were waiting to hold me - Seriously- That Deep."

Upon walking to the setting my husband and I were greeted with the magical sounds of the sound bowls. To add to the sound healing, natural sounds of the land tapped into all my senses. I felt the wind, I heard the birds, I smelled the fire, I observed Ms.Gail sitting still and all I could taste was the sense of peace. As this performative piece took place it unexpectedly took me to places in my childhood that I suppressed for so long and hadn't acknowledged. In the silent moments of this play I reflected. I was able to acknowledge the hurt and pain I've carried as I let go of the rock that I placed on my heart. I was brought to tears and I left with understanding. I understood the biases that took place in others as well as those that I endured and projected. Marcella and Anitra did an incredible job portraying the gold in our hearts. Thank You for this moving piece that brought so much meaning  

      ARTFARM's new work-in-development: 
                             UMBRA  
                an exploration of grief as a threshold to increased consciousness 
                                             and bouffon as shaman

      


CIRCOPHONY 2022- The Things That Go Creep
 

              SHAKESPEARE ALIVE
   BARD AROUND THE BLOCK!




Anitra Brooks and Marcella Trowbridge in rehearsal for Where Are We Now? -2021


ARTFARM EQUITY, DIVERSITY and INCLUSION COMMITMENT

ARTFARM recognizes that many existing systems of power grant privilege and access unequally.

We believe that equity and access are essential for a vibrant, healthy, stable society. Since our inception, ARTFARM has been dedicated to social justice, and we will maintain accountability as we acknowledge and commit to dismantling inequities. We will commit to community growth, service, inclusivity, diversity and increased understanding as an organization and as we continue to pursue cultural consciousness and transformation through the arts.

For more ARTFARM video samples, scroll down to the bottom of this page.
Scroll down to Our Latest 'State of the Onion' Newsletter below.


Malenky Welsh -Terpsichore, Anitra Brooks & Marcella Trowbridge of Where Are We Now?, Cecelia McCarthy-Reid - Terpsichore

Please listen to our newest Audio Project:
RELEASE. FORGIVE. A Soundscape for Dying (with Buddhist Sutras)
Marcella Trowbridge & Joseph Getter


If you missed our BLACK PRESENCE CONCERTS, you can still check them out on FB



        
Keep your ears out for our next Community Grief Ritual as the weather gets warmer.


Juggling with Allison was a smash-hit with on-line students from throughout New England!

This just in from our friend, Jonathon Ellison, Environmental Architect & Clown Extraordinaire- and Founder of Water for African Women
Senegal
"Thank you again to the great folks at ARTFARM in Middletown, CT.
Aissatou and Lala, and their moms, their aunties, their sisters, and their grandmothers, are about to have a 2-acre, solar-powered garden installed in their village.
A whole lotta women's lives are about to experience a massive, positive and sustainable change. Hallelujah, and ARTFARM is a part of this great success!"

***

IN THESE TIMES

An Embodied Community Grief Ritual with Marcella Trowbridge

was held outdoors at The Sanctuary in East Haddam, CT

This is what it was all about:

We will come together to honor our sorrows- personal, for other beings, and for the planet. We will create a container for what the individuals and the group need to navigate. We will journey together through the waters of these uncharted times. 

We will look at grief as a threshold – or gateway- towards more integrated Selves, increased consciousness, healing and a deeper connection to, appreciation for- and even celebration of the now.

Movement. Fire. Contemplative Practice. Space for Personal and Group Work.          Contact with the Earth.

Ritual and community are in our bones. Re-igniting these spaces holds the potential to shift the collective consciousness and help us to bring our individual purposes forward into the world.

Marcella is a long time physical theater artist. She is a soul-activist, healer and Community Ritual Keeper. Marcella is a Justice of the Peace and a Certified Death Doula.

        Keep your ears out for our next Community Grief Ritual as the weather gets warmer.
                                                                 
ARTFARM receives Environmental Award from the 
Rockfall Foundation!
"for providing high quality theater that promotes a connection to the land, environmental sustainability, social justice, and an understanding that the choices we make today as individuals and communities will impact the planet for decades into the future."
Thank you Rockfall!

    ARTFARM Friends.    
        We hope you are feeling safe and sane and healthy
If your body is healthy, 
    we hope that you are finding connections 
  that are nurturing your Essence
in this time.
We are reckoning with 
the soul of a nation- of a world.
         Creativity. Compassion. Nature. Loved Ones. Equity.
     May we open our hearts
       and be able to un-clench our fists.
    May we operate not from a place of fear,
  but of Love.
Wishing for World Peace & Wellness & Safety
                           - FOR ALL                                 
                

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                          ARTFARM's new work-in-development
UMBRA



                          - with it's earliest feedback audience





______


Circophony Teen Circus





Little Apple Circus
at Annie Fisher School on March 17 (Canceled, due to Covid)

Circus for a Fragile Planet
May 1 at Central Connecticut State University
as Keynote Performance
for statewide Climate Action Conference (Canceled, due to Covid)

 

ARTFARM is back in the research laboratory and studio development stage for our next generative work; UMBRA. 
Keep your ears out for any community opportunities.



TERPSICHORE:
The Women's Movement
received rave reviews and performed to sold out audiences.
"This changed my life."
"I couldn't stop crying- except when I was laughing!" 
"I just can't can't believe it. You got it. You really got it."
"...and that woman! with all of the recycling in her clothing...she was stuffing it in and it was exploding out- all of it, this being a woman..."
part of the proceeds were donated to 
New Horizons Domestic Violence Services

Terpsichore was developed from COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & INTERVIEWS EXPLORING   
THE EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN, CULMINATING IN this  
MOVEMENT-BASED WORKSHOP PRODUCTION.

Samantha Sutton, Marcella Trowbridge, Cecelia Mccarthy Reid, Malenky Welsh, 
Summer Northup and Joyce Dilauro in Terpsichore rehearsal


----------------------------------------------------

ARTFARM's CIRCUS FOR A FRAGILE PLANET

is available to tour! ...well, when it's Covid -safe!



Interested in bringing this show to your 
school, environmental festival, nature space, kids/family fest?
Contact us!  Eventually- we will all be able to paly together again...

________________________________________________
 Antigone, Directed by ARTFARM Artistic Director Marcella Trowbridge, received a beautiful response. 
Some unsolicited responses:
ANTIGONE is ExTrAOrdINarY. Beautifully directed!

Gripping, moving, perfectly analogous to us (We the People Ruled by Agent Orange), gorgeous minimal  and flexible stage set and 45-degree-angled-dynamic room, and beautifully acoustically balanced, subtle, minimal sound track, powerful acting, perfect pacing, choreography, and a strong strong sense of group dynamics. 

 a family of actors, auteurs, and Arcturians (who teach that the most important ingredient for thriving in the fifth dimension is: LOVE).

Antigone. She’s going places.  Such classic demeanor, countenance, and a stage presence so finely honed and projected... 
she leaves us breathless!

Antigone was an enormous gift. You are a masterful director. We  who have grown together for years, are now confronting national and global problems together. And I like to think that you, Marcella Trowbridge, in your directing of Sophocles' Antigone, were holding hands across the generations with him and with Brecht and Malina, carrying forward their intents as with a huge banner..

 Antigone is the perfect Greek play for these times. And you were the perfect director.

Thanks. We all resonated with the words...with the Chorus...with the powerful figures of Antigone, Kreon, Ismene and Tiresias. Because of your  careful, passionate directing, every line they delivered was strong, clear, evenly enunciated. The Directors Note in the program said it all: 
in directing Antigone, you used your Craft to speak to the world of Justice, Betrayal and Hope.

Antigone was incredible.  Your Kreon: nasty and hateful, Trump on steroids, convincing both in spoken expression and body language. 
The choreography of the chorus was so well done.                                       
The Elders' ensemble work, their pounding,  masks, and  coordinated movements made our hearts pound. Beautiful production!  

\
ARTFARM Artistic Director, Marcella Trowbridge, collaborating with Oddfellows Playhouse on a production of ANTIGONE.

                                              Teen actors during the first rehearsal for Antigone


---------------------------------------------

Artistic Director, Marcella Trowbridge, as Artist in Residence at Wesleyan University, 2018. 
Mixed in America; Race, Religion and Memoir.
photo (and article) by Olivia Drake 


Link to Radio Interview with The Rockfall Foundation on All Things Green: Marcella speaks about ARTFARM, Circus For a Fragile Planet and our Environmental Work

_______________________________________________________________________________________________



To see photos by Bill De Kine of ARTFARM's Hamlet production, link to


Thank you!




 ARTFARM Videos   

Brand new 3 minute promo video for 
Thanks to Lloyd Langevin and Dan Nocera at MxCC for helping to make this happen!
For more info about Little Apple Circus, look HERE or contact info@art-farm.org.  

More videos on our YouTube channel!

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what's going on at ARTFARM!


Thanks to our Funders: 111 Sunnyside Charitable Trust; Middletown Commission on the Arts; Pratt & Whitney; Community Foundation of Middlesex County; US Department of State; Network of Ensemble Theaters/Andrew Mellon Foundation; Fidelity Trust; Connecticut Office of the Arts/REGI Grant; The National Endowment for the Arts; & many generous individual donors & volunteers!




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