top of page

ENSEMBLE PROJECTS

TOUR DE FAT
 
 

"Bikes, Beer and Bemusement..."

Vanessa was a proud member of the Tour De Fat performance ensemble from 2011-2016, co-devising and performing mainstage ensemble vaudeville and street performance style shows as well as roving acts and parade-launching performances. She created and performed solo shows for Le Tigre, the one hundred seat on-site tent. Sponsored by New Belguim Brewery, this national summer/fall tour donated all of its proceeds to local nonprofit bike organizations. Tour De Fat featured delicious beer, a bike parade, musicians like Devotchka and Reggie Watts, two outdoor stages, one delightfully unexpected tent, and a stellar seven-person ensemble. 

MUCCA PAZZA
 

Mucca Pazza is a Chicago-based thirty piece circus punk marching band for which Vanessa is a nerd clown cheerleader. Known for their outstanding musicality and unique theatricality, Mucca Pazza's tours include the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, The Lincoln Center Out of Doors Fest, the Kennedy Center For the Performing Arts, and Globalfest in NYC. Mucca played for a crowd of 10,000 at Festival International de Louisiane and made a guest appearance on the Conan O'Brien show. They opened for the Dresden Dolls, Primus, and Balkan Beat Box. We were featured in an Andrew Bird video and later opened for several of his shows. They also did a Tiny Desk Concert in 2015.

​

 

​

 

 

 

 

 

MANUAL CINEMA
 

Vanessa has toured nationally and internationally (France, China, Berlin, The Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal) as Ada in Manual Cinema's production of Ada/Ava and has also toured in the company's original production of The End of TV. 

MANUAL CINEMA is a performance collective, design studio, and film/ video production company founded in 2010 by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller, and Kyle Vegter. Manual Cinema combines handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and innovative sound and music to create immersive visual stories for stage and screen. Using vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-channel sound design, and a live music ensemble, Manual Cinema transforms the experience of attending the cinema and imbues it with liveness, ingenuity, and theatricality.

 

 

​

​

 

 

 

 

THEATER UNSPEAKABLE
 

Inspired by the physical performance techniques of Jacques Lecoq, Theater Unspeakable tells epic stories with pocket proportions. Theater Unspeakable uses seven performers to create shows that take place on a 3 x 7 platform that is 2 feet high. Vanessa was was a co-deviser and performer on The American Revolution, a production that has toured nationally and was presented by Lincoln Center Education. She also played Jimmy in the company's production of Superman 2050 and was a deviser and performer with Theater Unspeakable's production of Moon Shot. In 2019 she was the rehearsal director for the company, directing several productions of The American Revolution, one of which went to Lincoln Center Education.

bottom of page