Followspot Series
In December of 2020, Solo Project Fund joined forces with wild project to co-produce a series of digital performance projects intended to bring awareness and support to the community theater, now struggling to keep it’s doors open during Covid-19, as well as allow artists to get back to the process of making. #Savewildproject!
wild project & Solo Project Fund present:
FOLLOWSPOT: a series of digital comedic performances to save our theatre!
Performances by Becca Blackwell, Brandon Collins, Manning Jordan, Jill Pangallo, and Paul Soileau with Roddy Bottum & Frank Haines.
Streamed VOD beginning March 19th, 2021 on wildprojectTV
2021 Followspot Grant Recipients
Production grants were awarded to the the following artists to produce a 30 – 60 minute “special” which will debut on Wild Project’s V.O.D. channel, wildprojectTV, in March and April of this year. Series Photography by Eric McNatt.
Becca Blackwell is an NYC-based trans actor, performer and writer. Existing between genders, and preferring the pronoun “they,” Blackwell works collaboratively with playwrights and directors to expand our sense of personhood and the body through performance. Blackwell was a recipient of the Doris Duke Impact Artist Award, the Franklin Furnace award and the Creative Capital Award. Collaborating with Jess Barbagallo (Director) and Nick Zeig-Owens (DP/Editor).
Brandon Collins — unfiltered, uninhibited, and always authentic — is both a versatile stand-up veteran of MTV, VH1, and CollegeHumor, and the raucous co-host of celebrated film podcast Medium Popcorn. Hailing from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Collins was shaped by the liberal college mecca’s embrace of creative expression. A 2004 move to New York resulted in a blooming career in producing comedy showcases, hosting podcasts and interviewing celebrities for AAFCA (African American Critics Association). Collaborating with Ian Havens (DP/Editor).
Manning Jordan is a published monologist, comedian, and playwright. She is published in Rowman and Littlefield, Inc. entitled 100 MONOLOGUES FROM NEW PLAYS 2020 – WOMEN. Her monthly show is at Brooklyn Comedy Collective and called Monologues with Manning. As a playwright, Manning has self produced five plays, three of which were in Fringe’s FRIGID festivals for three consecutive years (2017, 2018, 2019). She has had two plays go up at Dixon Place, Les Museums July 2019, and The Brewery in March of 2020. Her work has been shown at Dixon Place, The Kraine Theater, Manhattan Rep, Theater Under St. Marks, Vital Joint, The Footlight and more. Collaborating with Ryan Leach (Director) and Hil Steadman (DP/Editor).
Paul Soileau is a performer engaged in numerous creative disciplines carving paths to connect his art to the world. His work infiltrates institutions, breaks down social norms, shatters expectations of respectable living, and encourages spiritual surrender to space. He has gathered critical acclaim for his high-octane, radical creative vision/persona, CHRISTEENE, which presents itself as a volatile host thinning the veil between truth and illusion and functioning as a mythological trickster and spiritual/metaphysical conduit to the masses through music and imagery. Collaborating with Roddy Bottum and Frank Haines (Co-performers) and Brendan McGowan (DP/Editor).