{"id":131912,"date":"2025-08-09T14:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T14:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/131912\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T14:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T14:25:11","slug":"how-cannonball-festival-founders-learned-to-slow-down-a-little","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/131912\/","title":{"rendered":"How Cannonball Festival founders learned to slow down (a little)"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was sort of a miracle the way Cannonball<\/a> erupted onto Philly\u2019s theater scene in 2021 \u2013 Nick Jonczak<\/a> and four of his theatery-circus friends trying something new after the COVID awfulness.<\/p>\n

That first year, Cannonball, a subset of Philly\u2019s Fringe Festival,<\/a> offered 150 performances of 28 shows at a former brewery turned trolley car repair garage turned performance hub. In 2022, there were 300 performances of 65 shows at two hubs. In the heart of it all, four of the five founders (not Jonczak) were incapacitated by COVID. Aargh.<\/p>\n

By 2023, the founders and a growing crew produced 587 performances of 154 shows in four venue hubs. Satisfying by the numbers, yes, but overwhelming for the organizers.<\/p>\n

Jonczak needed a rest. They all did.<\/p>\n

But what should they do? Should they just abandon all they had built? The Cannonball, which offers theater, dance and circus artists technical support (lighting, sound, box office) and places to perform, had become an important part of Philly\u2019s experimental theater ecosystem.<\/p>\n

They decided to rest.<\/p>\n

That simple. That difficult. That profound.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever again, at that size. It was too big. It was a lot to manage,\u201d Jonczak explained, doing the 2023 math. On any given weekend night, there\u2019d be three to four shows at each of four venues, 12 to 16 shows total. Weekends were even more intense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the guy that ran all the box office managers and dealt with the ticketing issues. I felt really responsible for the smooth running of the audience experience at four venues happening simultaneously,\u201d Jonczak said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Nick Jonczak is one of the founders of the Cannonball Festival. (Courtesy of Cannonball Festival)<\/p>\n

At the end of the 2023 season, co-founder Ben Grinberg<\/a> presented his colleagues with a fabulous pizza and, more importantly, a four-year rotation plan<\/a> meant to protect the producer cohort from burnout.<\/p>\n

Newcomer associate producers would help with all aspects of the Cannonball festival. Second-year core producers assume responsibility for selecting artists and for overseeing all the production requirements. Third-year mentoring producers would train the newcomers.<\/p>\n

And the fourth year? \u201cThey REST. It\u2019s mandatory,\u201d says Cannonball\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hungry \u2013 not for a break, but for a small reprieve,\u201d Jonczak said. So, in 2024, he negotiated part-time hours at his IT day job, relinquished his Cannonball leadership roles, and spent the time working on playwrighting, his artistic passion<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt I had put my artistic career on hold,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rest, for Jonczak, wasn\u2019t exactly rest, but a stepping away from feeling responsible for everything and every show. Instead, he oversaw just a component of Cannonball.<\/p>\n

In 2024, while \u201cresting,\u201d Jonczak landed a spot in The Foundry<\/a>,\u00a0 a three-year playwrighting mentorship program affiliated with PlayPenn<\/a>. He went to 50 Cannonball shows \u2013 more than he had seen in the previous three years combined. \u201cI learned more of what it is like to be an audience member.\u201d<\/p>\n

For this year\u2019s Cannonball, Jonczak has returned to a hybrid role as core and mentoring producer, making a deliberate effort to step back so others make decisions.<\/p>\n

Along with preventing burnout, the idea of stirring the decision pot is part of what Grinberg envisioned in devising the rotation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really interested in not recreating models where there is one central group of people making all the artistic decisions,\u201d he said, telephoning from the granddaddy Fringe festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. There, he was joining alums from Philly\u2019s Circadium School of Contemporary Circus to present \u201cI Think It Could Work.\u201d<\/p>\n

(If Grinberg hadn\u2019t been able to step aside from his responsibilities, he wouldn\u2019t have been able to be in a show across the ocean in the frantic weeks leading up to Cannonball\u2019s Sept. 1 opening night.)<\/p>\n

Static leadership, Grinberg said, can lead \u201cto the same artists being platformed all the time and the same work being platformed all the time,\u201d making the Cannonball less responsive to changing dynamics in the artistic community.<\/p>\n

Both he and Jonczak say that the break has given them fresh perspectives. For example, Jonczak said that as an audience member, he saw how important it was for shows to start on time, despite Cannonball\u2019s more laidback vibe. Punctuality mattered to audience members trying to see multiple shows in a night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an intrinsic value with rest,\u201d Jonczak said. \u201cI had thought that I had to deserve rest, but there\u2019s value in being required to take rest after a set period of time. I think being forced to take rest has shocked my system. You have to go and rest before you are ready, but it is when you go before you are ready that you find what you really need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cReminiscenia,\u201d in which Chilean artist Malicho Vaca Valenzuela tells the story of three generations of his family, will be performed Sept. 15-16 at Icebox Project Space Gallery. (Courtesy of Cannonball Festival)<\/p>\n

Speaking of rest, we couldn\u2019t let Jonczak rest without asking him for a preview of this year\u2019s Cannonball.<\/p>\n

Cannonball runs Sept. 1-28 with about 140 shows and 400 performances at four venues \u2013 two theaters at the Drake in Center City, the Icebox Project Space<\/a> in the Crane Arts Building<\/a> in Kensington, and three performance spaces at the Asian Arts Initiative<\/a> in Chinatown, plus more shows at Christ Church Neighborhood House<\/a> and Smith Memorial Playground<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many independent artists bring their shows to Cannonball, but Cannonball also distributed $40,000 in grants to artists producing work in particular genres: new performance work from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color artists; SWANA awards for artists of Southwest Asia and North African descent; support for artists creating work for children and families; CSAW awards for circus artists of color, support for artists doing immersive work, and scriptwriting and development support in partnership with the Philadelphia Theatre Co.<\/p>\n

What should you see? Here are a couple of Jonczak\u2019s suggestions:<\/p>\n

Reminiscenia<\/a>: During Jonczak\u2019s rest year, he traveled to a theater workshop in Spain where he saw Chilean artist Malicho Vaca Valenzuela perform his one-man show. Valenzuela uses digital platforms to tell stories that span three generations, including his grandparents\u2019 love story \u2013 all the more poignant as his grandmother slides into dementia. Next stop for this show? Lincoln Center in New York. Sept. 15-16, Icebox Project Space Gallery<\/a>, 1400 N. American St., Phila.<\/p>\n

Ethiopian Dreams<\/a>: Circus Abyssinia, a 14-person circus troupe from the UK, tells the story of two young Ethiopian boys who wish upon a moon to join a circus. Cue jugglers, acrobats and contortionists. Sept. 15-22, Icebox Project Space Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Spank Bank Time Machine<\/a>: \u201cAngels in America\u201d meets \u201cSnakes on a Plane\u201d in John Michael Play\u2019s one-man show that includes a theatrical tutorial on how to use NARCAN. Sept. 12-17, Louis Bluver Theatre at the Drake<\/a>, 302 S. Hicks St., Phila.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cI Found the Sun Will Rise Tomorrow\u201d is being performed Sept. 13-27 at The Proscenium at The Drake (Courtesy of Cannonball Festival)<\/p>\n

I Found That The Sun Will Rise Tomorrow<\/a>: Jonczak said he appreciates Anna Snapp\u2019s fresh perspective on her struggles with sexual trauma and her mental and physical health challenges. Sept. 13-27, The Proscenium at The Drake<\/a>, 302 S. Hicks St., Phila.<\/p>\n

An Evening With Complicity Huffman<\/a>: A one-woman show from Fargo Nissim Tbakhi, an Israeli-American poet who intermingles literary capitalism, settler colonialism and the crisis of the Palestinian people. Sept. 11-16, Louis Bluver Theatre at the Drake<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zap<\/a>: From the Antihero Theatre Co., a detective murder mystery involving magic and the laws of the universe \u2013 completely acted in American Sign Language with an English voiceover. For Jonczak, this is part of Cannonball\u2019s effort to make the festival accessible to more kinds of people. Sept. 2-28, Louis Bluver Theatre at the Drake<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Americannibal<\/a>: During his rest year, Jonczak expanded on an earlier version of this dark musical comedy produced during the 2021 Fringe. The plot? A Washington, D.C. server kidnaps U.S. Sen. Joe Mansion (D-PA) and eats him, piece by piece. Sept. 12-20, Louis Bluver Theatre at the Drake<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can search shows on both the Cannonball<\/a> and Fringe<\/a> websites. Tickets are available online via the Philadelphia Fringe Festival<\/a>. The Fringe Festival, with a total of 1,197 performances of 340 shows, including Cannonball\u2019s, runs Sept. 4-28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was sort of a miracle the way Cannonball erupted onto Philly\u2019s theater scene in 2021 \u2013 Nick…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":131913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,648,80074,80075,80076,80077,80078,80079,1448,2830,1311,80080,1148,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-131912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-cannonball","11":"tag-cannonball-festival","12":"tag-drake-theatre","13":"tag-fringe-festival","14":"tag-fringearts","15":"tag-icebox-project-space","16":"tag-pa","17":"tag-pennsylvania","18":"tag-philadelphia","19":"tag-philadelphia-fringe-festival","20":"tag-theater","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114999271514584439","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}