Elephant Room Productions is proud to present the world premiere of Salamander, by Lisa VillaMil, in the 2018 Philadelphia Fringe Festival this September.  Salamander focuses on three women navigating a world where women everywhere are experiencing an unprecedented change. While artfully exploring themes of oppression and sexual violence, Salamander depicts a sobering parable of what it takes to adapt, and ultimately overcome in a world that can be unjust. 

We are proud to be partnering with Women Organized Against Rape (WOAR), Philadelphia’s only rape crisis center, for this production of Salamander.  As part of our commitment to create social change through art, a generous portion of the proceeds will be donated to WOAR.  In addition, WOAR will be providing programming alongside the production as well as advocates during the show for anyone who is triggered by the events of the play.

A Little About Us
Lisa VillaMil (Playwright) holds a Master’s in “Classical and Contemporary Text (Acting)” from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. Her writings include plays, short plays, a cabaret, and one-acts. Lisa is a co-founder of the TransAtlantic company Now What Theatre, which took her original, award-winning play, Kara Sevda, on tour in North America in spring and summer 2017, as well as to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  Other notable works include: Wilds, a one act, which received its premiere in Glasgow, July 2017 and is receiving further development in Orlando, Florida in June 2018; Le Coup de Foudre, a full-length cabaret, which received its premiere in Edinburgh, May 2017, through Adjust Productions; September 18th, a ten minute play, which won the June 2017 4x6 Fest in Tampa, Florida; Breadcrumbs, a ten minute play, which premiered through Philadelphia’s Revamp Collective in February, 2018.

Lauren M. Shover (Director) began her work in Philadelphia at Brat Productions working as the Assistant Director to Director, John Clancy, on their production of The Last Plot in Revenge.  Lauren has also worked with Simpatico Theatre Company as Assistant Producer on their Second Stage Series as well as Bucket List Productions as Associate Producer running their ongoing interactive theatre show, Trapped in a Room with a Zombie. In New York City, Lauren has worked with the Artful Conspirators as Assistant Director for their workshop of Bad Husband written by Dano Madden as well as the 92nd St. Y Resident Artists as Director of their workshop of First Snow written by Christopher G. Ulloth.  In 2014, Lauren co-founded the development and workshopping company, Elephant Room Productions.  Elephant Room Productions has workshopped new pieces such as Foothills Park and Beautiful American Soldier by Dano Madden, Whispers by Phil Czekner, Captive by Lauren M. Shover, Pis Allers by Titus O’Neill and Ventilator Blues by Bob Kerr. In 2017, Lauren directed Suicide Stories: Gallery of the Untold as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, which was quoted by the Broad Street Review as “dizzying and exhilarating” and by the Phindie as “a surprising reminder of how good it is just to be alive.”. Lauren currently works as a Prevention Specialist for Shalom Inc. educating todays youth about bullying, drugs, alcohol and violence.

Elephant Room Productions was founded in 2014 with the vision to address the metaphorical elephant in the room when it comes to various societal and cultural issues such as addiction, immigration, prejudice, tolerance, suicide, and more. With each project, Elephant Room Productions donates a portion of proceeds to a related foundation. In addition, ERP runs a continuous process called the Elephant Ears Reading Series, which is a journey for playwrights to develop and finalize their scripts. Since its inception, it has helped over thirty-six playwrights progress with their scripts.

Development History
Elephant Room Productions has been developing Salamander with Lisa VillaMil since early 2018.   Lisa first submitted her play to us through our Elephant Ears Reading Series.  From there we workshopped the play and had a presented a staged reading for audience feedback in May.  Lisa then took that feedback and worked on the play in the following months leading up to the production.

The journey to bring Salamander to Fringe audiences has been exciting and challenging.  We've been very fortunate to have received so much support for this production, including being awarded the Small But Mighty Arts Grant.  But it's not over yet!  We still need to raise $2000 in order to pay off this production.  Two very generous anonymous donors have pledged matching donations totaling $1000.  That means for every donation made, these unnamed heros will match each and every one until we reach our goal of $2000.

Why We Need Your Help
These funds will be used to provide proper stipends to the performers and production staff.  In addition, it will help pay for the production space, insurance, materials, technical elements and more. Covering these costs upfront is important as it will allow us to give more of our ticket sales to WOAR, providing further support to their mission to end sexual violence, and increase this production's impact on the community. 

We have a number of giving options available with some exciting perks to go along with them, including the debut of our new t-shirt design!  Made available first exclusively to donors of this campaign, our new "Join the Herd" t-shirt design comes in two styles, purple racer-back tanktop and charcoal v-neck.

Racer-back tanktop (XS | S | M | L | XL)

V-neck t-shirt (S | M | L | XL)

All contributions, no matter how small or large, are greatly appreciated and go towards creating art to promote positive social change.  Thank you for supporting the Salamanders!