"THIS WAY OUT"
"Down in the streets, Beauty was hard to find, but I did it"
Now seeking local venues. If you have a
suggestion or a lead for a showing of the video, please send us an email.
In the meantime, you can download short clips below, or visit our
MYSPACE page and leave us a
message!
About the Musicians | Video Downloads Image Gallery
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"Life is the stem with thorns. Art is the Bloom"
- President Daisaku, Ikeda, Soka Gakkai International
THANK YOU MUSICIANS!
ABOUT THE VIDEO...
This Way Out is a short
film evolved from a 2003 Philadelphia Fringe Performance that was written, performed and
produced by Veronica Gledhill and Peggy Carrigan. It was first presented to the
public at the Ethical Society on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia with Poets &
Prophets Poetry Organization hosting.
Veronica Gledhill, Painter and Poet, met Peggy Carrigan, Poet, in the nineties on the
Philadelphia poetry scene. Both were involved with Poets & Prophets Founder and
President, Bob Small, they organized various venues while writing and performing their own
poetry. As they got to know each other, they often reminisced about the experiences they
had as children in South Philadelphia. The differences were as interesting as the
similarities. Their desire to create a piece together and the subject matter came together
as both agreed to use their experience as the basis to build upon.
The concept of diversity within the same ethnic group, geography and religious
indoctrination seemed a juicy bite to put out there for consumption. They decided to
use the bones of an original play written by Veronica Gledhill in a workshop at a
Philadelphia writers conference where the original two female characters were
sisters. Veronica and Peggy personalized and fleshed out the characters dialogue and went
about the creative process that followed of multi-layering various artistic expressions.
Joe Donato, a local film maker, was brought
aboard to film footage of South Philadelphia neighborhoods and city scenes. Veronica and
he had worked together on a 2002 Fringe piece, Wild Women Burn. The
footage was rolling as a stage backdrop behind the actors as Joe filmed the entire 2003
performance, hence another layer.
Joe was quickly in tune with the art of the piece and after the Fringe Performance the
three came together as full collaborators in taking the piece to another level. The film
was stripped down, re-acted in front of a blue screen, reproduced and
re-scored. Joe comments on the evolving process:
"We initially discussed the idea of staging certain sections for the video, but on
the editing table, I began to see that the vision of the project, the overall idea behind
it, requires me to "fill" all the dialouge purely with found
footage. The challenge for me is the same one that Peggy, Veronica, and all
Philadelphians for that matter, have for their very lives: to create an
aesthetically pleasing piece that is not only visually compelling, but that carries you
through it dramtically at the same time, with our only palette being the streets of
Philadelphia, and our own creativity ."
"This Way Out movie has been a work of love. We thank the people and art of Philadelphia for the beauty and
inspiration they have given.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS...
Veronica Gledhill is a
Philadelphia born artist who attended Lansdowne Institute of Art in Lansdowne
Pennsylvania.
Her doorway of expression in the visual realm opened wider through the creative process of
pregnancy, birth and motherhood coupled with continued study of master artists in the
museums, libraries and art galleries of the greater Philadelphia area, private lessons and
adult classes. Her emotional experience to life is the fabric of which the socially
conscious images she creates are explored. Relating to the struggles of people in
disadvantaged situations underscores the tensions in her strongly colored and powerful
depictions and edifying forms.
Her work has been included in juried exhibits including: The Tim Mark Endowment at Penn
State - Lima, PA Campus, The Creese Gallery at Drexel University, Highwire Gallery and
other Philadelphia Galleries, Delaware County Community College Media, PA,
Manayunk Art Center in Philadelphia, Community Art Center - Wallingford, PA, Tyme Gallery
in Havertown PA as well as numerous Cafés, bookstores and other fine art
shows. Veronica is a current member of the "Philadelphia Women's Caucus for the Arts" and the "Secret Path" Gift Shop in Gradyville, PA also features some of her works.
She was the co-producer, art director and performer in two Philadelphia Fringe Festival events at
“The Ethical Society” in Philadelphia: 2002 and 2003. Many of Veronica’s
sketches have been published in poetry chap books locally and were featured in
the international publication, “The Global Village”. She has created and produced a line of
hand-painted note cards that are sold locally in fine retail establishments as well as
retail shops in St. Petersburg, FL. She also teaches Creative
Painting with PastelAdult Night Classes at Springton Lake School.
Joe Donato has been pursuing creative ventures all his life, in one medium or another.
After three years of intensive Theater Study in High school, Joe pursued a degree in Film and Media arts at Temple University, where he was first introduced to new frontiers of non-linear editing. His senior project, "Citizen Ken, a controversial documentary about individuals who legally do not pay income tax was nominated for the Derek Freese grant award. After graduating in '97, he began to develop his unique shooting style, and hasn't stopped since. After realizing how few jobs there were locally in the field, but not wanting to be a starving artist, he began his own video and multimedia production business which he's been running for the last five years. He recently was the main cameraman and editor for "Rip Roarin' Lacrosse", a reality-based sports show revolving around the Philadelphia Wings 2004 season.
In 1999, Joe participated in the first class of "Act One: Writing for Hollywood", a month long screenwriting program based in Hollywood, focused not only on the professional business of writing for the entertainment industry, but on the spiritual aspects as well. His first completed screenplay made quarter finalists in this year's Scriptapalooza contest, and after a few more rewrites, will hopefully have an even more promising future.
Joe is also a musician and has been performing on and off over the years in the band Think of 3, and has also been working on his own recording of original music, which he hopes to finish within the year.
Peggy Carrigan bio coming soon.
VIDEO DOWNLOADS
Click below to download short Windows Media files of the final piece.IMAGE GALLERY:
Click on the thumbnail for a larger images
from the streets of Philadelphia featured in "This Way Out".
See if you can figure out where the image is in the city...
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UPCOMING SHOWINGS
CONTACT:
Contact Joe Donato for information about video performances, 610-420-4727, acappella@dvol.com
Contact Veronica Gledhill for information about showings or interests 484-422-8132, veroart@netscape.com
OTHER LINKS
A Cappella Productions Video production, webdesign and Multimedia services