From ferns to fights: The STEAMpunk Expo takes over Morris Arboretum

Sunday, June 12 will be a wild early summer’s day out at Morris Arboretum, with the 2016 STEAMpunk Expo happening all day, and the latest serving of Nice and Fresh performances from Mt. Airy art-makers Josh McIlvain and Deborah Crocker.

McIlvain and Crocker have just re-branded their company, formerly known as SmokeyScout Productions (the parent of the Nice and Fresh series among an expanding array of interdisciplinary offerings), as Automatic Arts. (Here’s a previous WNWN look at Nice and Fresh.)

“We began SmokeyScout Productions by creating and producing comedic evenings of theater, for which a company named after our cats made sense,” the founders note on their website. But their offerings have since evolved into original plays, a range of multimedia work, and dance and circus arts performances, branching into larger productions for other institutions, too. They’ll move forward under the name Automatic Arts and continue their popular and accessible Nice and Fresh series.

STEAMpunk Expo

Steampunk enthusiasts should come in costume to the arboretum’s events: there’ll be an Instagram fashion contest for those with the best “steampunk finery.” Stop by the Japanese Bell (near the Visitor Center) for a photo between 10am and 4pm. The winner will be announced the next day on Instagram.

Other fun includes Science Discovery Stations that will be throughout the garden from 11am-3pm, with partners like the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society. The Language of Flowers, at 10:30am in the Visitor Center Classroom will introduce participants to the “talking bouquet” of the Victorian age, when every flower had a meaning. The Visitor Center will also host a look at past and present technologies with the help of the New York-based traveling exhibition the Museum of Interesting Things.

“Spontaneous” performances from The Secret Circus, from 12-5pm in the Azalea Meadow, will happen with silks, trapeze, and more from over 18 feet in the air.

There will also be Pterodomania — The Victorian Craze for Ferns at 1pm at the Visitors Center, a session from the Arboretum’s Shelly Dillard, exploring what really lit the Victorians’ fire.

Fight Like a Girl (or Kicking Ass in a Corset), at 3pm at the Visitor Center, covers the art of self-defense in the age of women’s suffrage, when early 20th-century English women trained as bodyguards to protect their compatriots fighting for the vote in the streets. Bartitsu instructor Mark P. Donnelly will reveal the history of these defenders, and then lead a workshop outdoors for those who want to try the moves for themselves.

Nice and Fresh

Automatic Arts’s Nice and Fresh Expo Experience: New Theater and Dance will happen at 11:30am and 2pm. Bring your own blanket for this performance kicking off on the east side of the Swan Pond and moving to three other locations for three other shows in the course of an hour (to attend, arrive at least 15 minutes early to make it from the Visitor Center to the pond).

Participating artists include comedy troupe Awful DJ, dance from Annie Wilson, description-defying physical feats from Almanac Dance Circus Theatre, and new work from Josh McIlvain and Automatic Arts (Ren Faire Lunch Break). Nice and Fresh art installations along the way will incorporate poetry from Yolanda Wisher, and “rock installations” from John Rosenberg and Anna Kroll.

Plus: “MANNEQUINS in ANIMAL MASKS!”

Alright.

The 2016 STEAMpunk Expo is coming to Morris Arboretum, 100 East Northwestern Avenue, Philadelphia on Sunday, June 12 from 10am to 5pm throughout the garden. It’s free for Arboretum members; all events are included for the regular price of admission: $17 for adults and $9 for ages three to 17 (kids under three are free); $9 for students, military members, and seniors. For those walking or biking in, there’s a special admission price of $9 ($5 for kids). All tickets will be sold onsite.