Whisper Theatre Collective
Arachne Program​​​
Creative Team
Britt Anderson (playwright/performer)
Alex Mallory
(Director)
Alex recently directed the extended world premiere of Sadieh Rifai’s THE CAVE for A Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago and a touring, community-engaged production of MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE with The Metal Shop Performance Lab. She is a director and educator for The Theatre School at DePaul University and facilitates a healing-centered engagement program for military veterans. In New York City, Alex directed and developed new works as Co-Artistic Director of Poetic Theater Productions and Director of Culture Project’s Women Center Stage Initiative. Her award-winning production of Takeo Rivera's choreopoem GOLIATH toured for seven years through New York and California. She holds an MFA in Directing from Northwestern University and a BA from Stanford University, where she received the Louis Sudler Prize in Creative Arts and the Sherifa Omade Edoga Prize for work involving social issues. She is a proud member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society.​
sound design: Richie Schiraldi
Prop design and construction: Britt anderson
Additional collaborators:
michele stine, anthony hudson
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Britt is a non-binary physical theatre nerd who is originally from South Carolina, but they've been in Chicago since 2012. With Whisper Theatre, Britt co-created Shoop! and @midnight, performed in Oneironauts, and wrote and directed Wild Women. They have worked with The Artistic Home, the Second City Training Center, Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Theater Unspeakable, Aloft Circus Arts, and Broken Planet Show. They have toured nationally and internationally to scrappy and distinguished venues alike, such as Lincoln Center Education, the Kennedy Center, Katapult and Teatrehaus Mitte in Berlin, Germany, and twice to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They earned their MFA in Devised Performance Practice at Columbia College Chicago/Arthaus Berlin and completed the Professional Circus Training Program at Actors Gymnasium in Evanston, IL. Outside of Arachne, you can catch them around the midwest performing as one of the Well-Balanced Dads, a partner acrobatics comedy duo with Richie Schiraldi.​
Photos by Kate Smith of Mythos Lens
Director's Note
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One of only a few ancient Greek stories featuring an “everywoman” as its heroine, Britt Anderson has artfully framed the clash between Athena and Arachne as a battle over poorly-wielded justice. The powerful will always protect the powerful, and women who have been granted some measure of power will always act to maintain it, at the expense of protecting other women.
Arachne walks a tightrope between the joy of watching solo performance, complete with one-liners and musical interludes, and the deeper conversations at the core of the conflict. It is a privilege to collaborate with an artist like Britt, whose vision, voice, and technical skill in writing and performance bring Arachne to life with humor and compassion.
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Playwright's Note​​​
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I encountered the myth of Arachne and Athena in June 2020 in the wake of George Floyd's murder. This was the first major moment of my adulthood when I felt I was on one side of a value system, and my conservative Christian, Southern family was on another. The final cord felt cut - my choice to leave the South, my career choice, my gender and sexuality, my religious beliefs, my politics, and now my value system were in opposition to the way I was raised. I was angry and sad and confused and couldn't understand how we had become so distant. And yet...I wanted a relationship with my family. I still do.
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I needed to challenge myself to understand the toxic conservatism that was passed down to them...not to excuse it, but to find compassion so that I could love them and begin to untangle our relationship. In doing this, I had to face the fact that I too am from the South and embody its history and influences. There are many selves within me, and I found connections of these selves to the characters in the myth. What if Athena had tried her best within a deeply flawed system? How much should she be held accountable and/or redeemed? What would it take to challenge and unravel a figure of longstanding tradition? Perhaps it is through art.
I am so grateful to Athena and Arachne. They have reignited my hope for art-making while helping me confront and embody the messy, creative, beautiful selves that live in me.
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I hope you find hope and recognition in it, too.
If not here, then perhaps in another myth. ;)
Music Credits
Queen
ABBA
Poppy
Madonna
Nine Inch Nails
Special Thanks​​
​Jaime Gutfeldt
Amelia Gutfeldt
Scott Dare
Zoe Kriegler-Wenk
Jessa DeLuca
Emily Mange
Ryan and Becca Liddell
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​​Mary Tilden
Kat Hoil
Michael Brown
Brooke Allen
Jamie Olah
The Theatre School at DePaul University
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Arachne was aided in its development by a Part-Time Faculty Development Grant from Columbia College Chicago.