New Paradise Laboratories (NPL) is a 501(c)(3)experimental theater ensemble based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1996, NPL collaborates with artists from a variety of disciplines, including web designers, visual artists, writers, philosophers, composers, and architects, as well as performers who work together to create interactive theater works and immersive experiences.
"NPL was founded to create surprising, meticulous, spiritually challenging, and wholly distinctive experimental theatre productions that investigate physical expression, on-stage and in life. These productions are assembled using collaborative creative processes developed by the company. The work tends to value wild humor, shock, a concern for history, a muscular visual sensibility, and a fascination with the utopian impulse. Furthermore, NPL uses the fruits of its experimentation to benefit the artistic and audience community as a whole."
Founded in 1996 by Whit MacLaughlin, New Paradise Laboratories (NPL) has created an average of one original performance work each year since its founding. Their work has been presented as part of the FringeArts Festival (formerly Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe), the Humana Festival of New American Plays, Children's Theatre Company, and in residencies with universities all over the United States.
Grants and recognition[]
2000: Obie Award for "The Fab 4 Reach the Pearly Gates"[2]
2002: Pew Charitable Trusts Fellowship in Performance Art Grant to Whit MacLaughlin
A 2006 reworking of the hit Prom by NPL for Children's Theatre Company, which in 2004 was deemed "Best Stage Production."
Whit MacLaughlin (Artistic Director) - he has conceived, directed, and designed 20 original performance works with the company since its inception in 1996. Since 1978, he has acted in, directed, or written over 100 theatre productions.[9]
KC Chun-Manning (Managing Director) - served from 2015 - 2020 and remains active on Board of Directors.[10]
Pete Angevine (Interim Consulting Managing Director) - Began serving in 2020
Emilie Krause (Performer) - has worked with NPL since 2011
Kevin Meehan (Performer) - has worked with NPL since 2011
Matteo Jones Scammell (Performer) - has worked with NPL since 2011
Julia Frey (Performer) - has worked with NPL since 2011
"Batch: An American Bachelor/Ette Party Spectacle"
Louisville, KY
World premiere: Humana Festival of New American Plays (Louisville, February 2007). Regional premiere: Philadelphis Live Arts Festival (Philadelphia, September 2007)
2008
"Prom"
Philadelphia, PA
Residency at Drexel University. Barrymore Award nominee for Outstanding Choreography/Movement (Lee Ann Etzold and Whit MacLaughlin)[15]
2009
"Fatebook: Avoiding Catastrophe One Party at a Time"
Philadelphia, PA
Presented by Philadelphia Live Arts Festival (Philadelphia, September 2009)
2010
"MORT"
Philadelphia, PA
Residency at University of the Arts (Philadelphia)
Philadelphia Live Arts/ Philly Fringe participant. A theater and online work in three acts, it included music videos and online social media, video-performances at set locations in the city, and a live concert of original music performed by the central character, Fess Elliot.
2012
"27"
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Live Arts/ Philly Fringe participant
2013
"Prom"
Wilmington, NC
Professional Partnership with the University of North Carolina at Wilmington Department of Theatre
2014
"27"
Philadelphia, PA
Remount at The Painted Bride
2014
"The Adults"
Philadelphia, PA
Presented by FringeArts and supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
2016
"O Monsters"
Philadelphia, PA
Presented by FringeArts and supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
2017
"Hello Blackout!"
Philadelphia, PA
Presented by FringeArts, and supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage with additional support from the Independence Foundation New Theatre Works Initiative and the National Endowment for the Arts
2017
"Gumshoe"
Philadelphia, PA
An immersive adventure experience in the main branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Rosenbach Museum and Library
2018
"O Monsters"
Washington, DC
Re-mounted by the Capital Fringe Festival on the Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater