On March 5th, 2020, in conjunction with the exhibition, Invisible City: Philadelphia and the Vernacular Avant-garde, organized by the University of the Arts and curated by Sid Sachs with Jennie Hirsh, Alex Da Corte reinvented Allan Kaprow’s Chicken in the same location it was originally performed in 1962.

Chicken variously dramatized, commodified, and deconstructed the trope of the chicken. In 1962, the work was staged on ad-hoc wooden stands and booths with “pitchmen” plucking real chicken feathers, live chickens being vacuumed, people behaving like chickens, records playing chicken sounds, and so on. In 2020, Chicken no longer promised the “new vocabulary” it once did. Rather, Da Corte staged a progressive, animal-friendly reconsideration of what the “avant-carnival” originally considered itself to be.

Costume Designers - Carolyn Anello and Gwendy Smith

Choreographers - Kate Watson-Wallace and Gwendy Smith

Performed by Kristel Baldoz, Melanie Cotton, Danielle Currica, Julia Eichten, Jessica Emmanuel, Ya-Ya Fairley, Ann-Marie Gover, Imma Asher, Gwendy Smith, Kim Thompson, Wilmer Wilson, Kate Watson-Wallace and Alex Da Corte

Music composed by Marco Buccelli and Xenia Rubinos, with Sunny Ali and Karna Ray.

Elaine C. Levitt Auditorium
Gershman Hall
University of the Arts
401 So. Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147