top of page

PRODUCING

Ryan Rebel is Artistic Director and a founding member of Shoe Box Theatre Collective, the resident theatre group of the Venice Island Performing Arts Center. Shoe Box works to creatively push the constraints of the proscenium theater and engage our audience with the unique immediacy of live theatre. Our challenging, untraditional work ranges from adaptation to devising to scripted work to new play development, always with a diligent focus on why each piece feels essential now. Shoe Box is committed to strengthening the Philadelphia theatre community at large by offering a high-tech venue and technical assistance for theatre makers at any stage of their artistic development. Shoe Box has partnered with various artist groups seeking a platform for their work, such as Iron Age Theatre, Yes Ma'am Collaborative Arts, and Ash Theatre Company.

The Shoe Box Short Theatre Festival is an opportunity for artists of all disciplines to develop their work onstage, in a public forum, with professional technical assistance. Now in its fourth year, the Festival has attracted an interdisciplinary array of performance styles: comedy and drama, dance and movement, cabaret and acrobatics, puppetry and improv.

Ryan is also the founder and MC of Improv Island, an improv comedy showcase held at Venice Island. Improv Island gives teams a chance to improvise in a fully equipped theatrical venue. There have been eleven Improv Island showcases, each of them featuring a mix of the newest and most veteran improv talents in Philadelphia. Buncha goofballs.

bottom of page