Applied Mechanics

Applied Mechanics is a collaborative ensemble that has been making original, immersive theater since 2009. Founded by director Rebecca Wright and designer Maria Shaplin, the company’s inaugural show put a fishing village in a West Philly apartment and invited audience members to explore the town as the myth of the Selkie unfolded around them, complete with a saw-playing seal. Since then, Applied Mechanics has become a standing ensemble of five artists and created ten original works. Their adventures have included touring from Texas to Maine with their invasion play Portmanteau, condensing the Napoleonic Empire into an hour-long movement opera with 26 actors, and winning a cult following with their revolutionary feminist punk play We Are Bandits. 
 
 Applied Mechanics has been featured in American Theater Magazine and in the book Audience Revolutions: Dispatches from the Field (edited by Caridad Svich). They have been presented by the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts and the Annenberg Center for Performing Arts. Based in Philadelphia they share a home-cooked meal at every rehearsal. Applied Mechanics is Rebecca Wright, Maria Shaplin, Jessica Hurley, Thomas Choinacky, Mary Tuomanen, Izzy Sazak, Anita Holland, and Brett Ashley Robinson. 
 
 Applied Mechanics conducts workshops on immersive storytelling at numerous universities and Microsoft HQ, Turner Broadcasting, among others. They have garnered grants from the Wyncote Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Fels Foundation, Network of Ensemble Theatres, Charlotte Cushman Foundation, among others.