Creators — Lancaster Fringe Fest

Circumstantial Saint

Thursday
5:00PM-6:45PM - Spoken Word (ACT NAME?), with Circumstantial Saint @Hempfield Apothetique
Friday
5:00PM-6:45PM - Spoken Word (ACT NAME?), with Circumstantial Saint @Hempfield Apothetique
Saturday
5:00PM-6:45PM - Spoken Word (ACT NAME?), with Circumstantial Saint @Hempfield Apothetique
Circumstantial Saint is a multidisciplinary artist—poet, spoken word performer, journalist, activist, and community builder—using art as a tool for liberation, healing, and truth-telling.

Known for his emotionally charged performances, Saint blends vivid storytelling, introspective lyricism, and self-produced beats into what he calls Spoken Music. His work explores racial injustice, police brutality, grief, healing, identity, and the beauty and burden of Black life in America. Every line is intentional. Every word is resistance.

Drawing from hip hop, house, Baltimore club, neo-soul, jazz, ambient, and electronic music, his sound honors Black and queer traditions of freedom and self-expression.

With over a dozen self-published books, music on all major platforms, and events like Puff & Poet, Circumstantial Saint creates immersive experiences that move people toward reflection, connection, and revolution.

Jennifer L. Conley.

We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
Jennifer Conley - an artist, scholar and educator with a twenty-year performance career based in NYC, is described by the NYTimes as “bringing to life the artistic foundation upon which generations of choreographers have built.”

She danced with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Pearl Lang Dance Theatre, Sokolow Theatre Dance Ensemble, as a legacy artist for ten years at 92nd St Y and as founding member of Deborah Zall’s Company of Women.

She is excited to debut her fire dance photographic essay in this Lancaster Fringe Festival this spring! Jennifer is Associate Professor of Dance and Chair at Franklin & Marshall College while also serving on faculty at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance.

Christopher Brooks

We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. I began playing the violin at P.S. 29. I attended the Third Street Music School, the Manhattan School of Music, and spent summers at the arcadian Kinhaven Music Camp, which engendered my passionate love for chamber music.

I have played in numerous orchestras, including the Vermont State Symphony, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Orquesta Bética Filarmónica de Sevilla, Het Frysk Orkest, Harrisburg Symphony, and Lancaster Symphony. I have always played chamber music. I would rather play string quartets than eat.

As for my work, I have always been fascinated by the efflorescence of creativity in the beatnik period of the late 1950s and early 1960s: all those crazy avant-garde experiments. As Morton Feldman said, “For about fifteen minutes, we forgot what music was for.” I love that.

But all too often those experimenters forgot beauty. And I believe that beauty is essential, fundamental. Beauty is not the same as pretty, though they are related. Beauty is profound; pretty is superficial. Something beautiful may not always be pretty. But never, ever, ugly.

So, I strive for the wacky, the unexpected, the compelling (I hope), but always the beautiful. Listen, damn it!

Gwen Tulin

We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
Gwen is a copywriter, theater person, playwright, teacher, and now parent to two medium-sized, partially feral children.

After almost 15 years as a music director, performer, and general jack-of-all-trades in the Chicago theater scene, she resides in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (“the Brooklyn of Pennsylvania,” if you will,) and writes copy for some of the biggest brands in the world.

She also facilitates interdisciplinary theater workshops for actors, non-actors, young people, and people who are terrified to be in an improv class. Originally from Lexington, Massachusetts, Gwen is a graduate of Brandeis University.

The things she found in her pocket today were a booger-covered mask, peppermint Hershey Kiss wrapper, and Welch’s fruit gummies that had been washed and dried inside the pocket of the garment, creating a thick, immovable layer of gelatin.

What The Float

We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
What The Float is a silent disco dance adventure, designed for you to experience joy. (Remember joy??)

We walk and dance as a group out around the neighborhood, listening to music in the provided special headphones. The bespoke mix is curated to our surroundings as we pass them in real time, guiding you through a dance party odyssey.

Founded in NYC in 2014 with branches operating across the country, Float will be the final event of the Fringe, brought home by Lancaster native Mary Ann Pianka. We can’t wait to celebrate you :)

Libby Modern

We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
Modern Art is a storefront studio and graphic design business focused on social issues, neighborhood engagement, and hope. Run by Libby Modern, but fueled by collaboration with all sorts of thinkers, artists, neighbors, and friends, Modern Art is interested in how art can serve the residents of our town, Lancaster, PA and beyond.

Creating a more interdisciplinary, collaborative, socially-engaged approach has allowed Modern Art to cross the boundaries between the artist’s studio and the community. Our projects range from spontaneous interventions on the block to large scale installations.

All use elements of surprise, curiosity, empathy, humor and art to encourage neighbors, both near and far, to experience effective ties with one another and participate in the process, and the aesthetics, of community building.

Check out more about Modern Art on www.itsmodernart.com !

S.J. Lynne

We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
S.J. Lynne is a modern-day metaphysical poet, mystic, and seminarian living in Lancaster, PA. You may occasionally see S.J. in the wild offering “poems for strangers.”

When the weather is fine, she’ll appear at local farmers markets and town events with her typewriter, Emerson. Her work employs evocative imagery that is at once personal and universal, drawing inspiration from childhood nursery rhymes, timeless bards, musical theatre, astrology, and Christian tradition.

Her debut poetry collection, Flying Each Other Home, is available for purchase wherever you buy books.

See more about S.J. Lynne and her work on her website, sjlynne.com !

Dana Kinsey

We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
Dana Kinsey, Lancaster City Poet Laureate, is a spoken-word artist, actor, professor at Goldey-Beacom College, and teaching artist with PA Council on the Arts, DE Division of the Arts, and Attollo. She is the founder, director, and a performer in The Lancaster Living Poetry Museum.

Her writing is published in Fledgling Rag, SWWIM, SoFloPoJo, Wild Roof Journal, Passengers, Anti-Heroin Chic, and more. Dana’s play, WaterRise, was produced at the Gene Frankel Theatre in Greenwich Village.

Her chapbook, Mixtape Venus, and her forthcoming book, Before & Afterglows, are published by I. Giraffe Press.

See more about Dana and her work on her website, wordsbyDK.com !

David Nice

We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
David Nice’s plays have been produced by Creative Works of Lancaster, Reading Theater
Project, Gamut Theatre Group, Winters Theatre Company (CA) and Playwright’s Round Table
(PRT) in Orlando, Florida.
Other plays by David have been selected, developed, or presented as staged readings by York College, Maryland Ensemble Theater (METLab), Our Lady of the Lake University (TX), Fulton Theatre, Theater of the Seventh Sister, Albright College, Lancaster Dramatists’ Platform, and Creative Works of Lancaster.

David has participated in workshops sponsored by PlayPenn in Philadelphia. A graduate of
Franklin and Marshall College and Saint Joseph’s University, he is a founding member of the
Lancaster Dramatists’ Platform.
The Demuth-Williams Project in the Lancaster Fringe presented at the
Demuth Museum (May 23 & 24)
Charles Demuth is one of Lancaster’s most famous citizens. A modernist painter of the early 20 th
Century, his influence on American art grew beyond his life time, continuing throughout that
century. William Carlos Williams, a medical doctor and poet from New Jersey, shaped American
poetry. Demuth and Williams met as young students in Philadelphia and formed a life-long
friendship.
Fringe audiences will see a live excerpt from a full-length play about Demuth and Williams
entitled “The Pulls of Blossom Seekers.” David Nice’s play explores the fascinating relationship
between these two creative masters, as well as the different paths they took toward artistic
achievement and fulfillment. Three Lancaster actors will perform this 18-minute “piece” from
the play.

Mimi Shapiro

We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
Mimi Shapiro is a mixed media visual artist, and sometimes poet ! Bling Babes was written in a fever dream...Greek Goddesses, going forward and backwards in our time : With the echo of an idea, following the universe with its own cosmic clock, a work in progress for eternity. An experiment with the creative process and seeing it performed wow with awe and inspiration !
Playwriting is very much a collage, a work in progress for eternity. On stage, the spoken word poets bring Bling Babes to life in real time.
A huge thank you to Dana Kinsey for believing in me and the idea. Loving Fringe Fest with all the creativity spinning around our City of Lancaster.

Bill McCardell

We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
Bill McCardell, lifetime Lancaster resident, had his first play performed at the age of ten at the Grubb Mansion which is now Lancaster Museum of Art. At the beginning of his adult phase of playwriting, his play USHERETTE was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and then went on to Liverpool and London, so he is thrilled to be a part of the very first Lancaster Fringe Fest!
His past productions include five premieres at Theater Center Philadelphia, where he was a longtime board member, and numerous productions and workshops in New York City at various venues including Lincoln Center, where his play “Gone Fission” can be found in their film library. Dr. McCardell taught theater, playwriting and film at Community College of Philadelphia for forty-five years. He has received three Pennsylvania Playwrights Fellowships.

Jessica Warchal King

We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
JCWK Dance Lab's mission is to Create Joy, Connection, and Wellness through Kinesthetic stories. Founded and directed by Jessica C. Warchal-King, the company builds community through performance and education in Reading, PA. JCWK Dance Lab also develops Creative Placemaking projects and is available for touring and teaching. jcwkdancelab.org
Jessica C. Warchal-King, described as a “post mod(ern) ballerina” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, is founder and director of JCWK Dance Lab, a Reading- based contemporary dance company; she has performed, taught, and presented nationally and internationally. Warchal-King’s research incorporates and demonstrates STEAM concepts through education and performance. She has been developing programs that integrate dance and physical/ mental well-being for much of her career. jcwkdancelab.org
“Glacier” is JCWK Dance Lab’s latest research on

Michael Zerphy

We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
BEDUTZED! Is an autobiographical story of the journey from
Zerphy's childhood on a farm in rural Pennsylvania Dutch Country to a life on the road as a clown, fool, and storyteller. It's about the discomfort and necessity of finding a home somewhere in the in-betweenness of things.

Bedutzed! is a fool-
ish hybrid performance blending stories, songs, banjo and clowning into a show full of surprises and complex emotions called “a joyful, human work creating a shared experience transcending his singular voice” by Leah Stein Artistic Director,
Leah Stein Dance Company.

Michael has toured across the United States and Europe for decades including appearances at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The New York International Clown Theater Festival, The New England New Vaudeville Festival, The Detroit Art Institute and The Brooklyn Academy of Music. Bedutzed! is a featured performance at the Zagreb Clown Festival in Croatia this year just prior to the Lancaster Fringe Fest.
His past productions include five premieres at Theater Center Philadelphia, where he was a longtime board member, and numerous productions and workshops in New York City at various venues including Lincoln Center, where his play “Gone Fission” can be found in their film library. Dr. McCardell taught theater, playwriting and film at Community College of Philadelphia for forty-five years. He has received three Pennsylvania Playwrights Fellowships.

Moxie Miller

We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
This is Moxie Miller with Street Cat Studio bringing you Death Or Love Tonight, a multimedia experience of queer community, handling loss, and the beauty of being alive even when it comes to the small, silly stuff. They hope to deliver something you haven't seen before with a plethora of media styles coming at you that'll make you... you know it's really cliched to say make you laugh and cry but I mean it, it will. At the very least you'll go "wow, that was a thing I took in" and isn't that what Fringe is all about?"

Meet the Team

Caleb Corkery

TREASURER

Other artists inspire me, so I love feeling part of a community like fringe. Creative Works of Lancaster has been a great outlet for me, producing and reading many of my dramatic works over the years.
Ava Morgan

INTERN

My name is Ava Morgan, and I am an illustrator and designer living in Lancaster. My heart has always belonged to art, and I find myself drawn to it in visual, literary, and musical forms.
Frith Rooney

PRESIDENT

Frith Rooney is a stagehand, educator, and bard raised in the Susquehanna watershed and planted in the Patapsco.
Barry Kornhauser

COMMUNITY CULTIVATOR

Just fishing in the bathtub. (See Albert Camus’ “The Myth of Sisyphus.”)
Taylor House

COMMUNITY CULTIVATOR

Taylor Clark Housel is excited to be part of Lancaster’s first Fringe Festival! Taylor is a Fringe Community Cultivator and will be performing as an actor during the festival.
Griffin Yeyna

COMMUNITY CULTIVATOR
Griffin Yeyna wears many hats, and it’s not because he’s bald. Griffin is an actor, director, teaching artist, photographer, juggler, musician - too many things! He’s also a proud member of the heartwood team and a community cultivator for fringe.
Lucas Almeida

COMMUNITY CULTIVATOR
Lucas Almeida is a multi-disciplined creative and woodworking enthusiast making Lancaster their adopted home.
Julissa Santiago

ANIMATOR/ILLUSTRATOR
My name is Julissa, and I am an Animator and Illustrator based in the East Coast! I absolutely love bringing stories to life and have a grand adoration for many different mediums of art, including writing! I had the honor of being a Creative Intern during the beginning of the Fringe making a lot of fun promotional material!
Rasha Clark

COMMUNITY CULTIVATOR

This is Rasha Clark! She’s a theater, music, food and adventure loving, hot sauce fan: who somehow always has energy for the people and things she loves, even after the kids are in bed.