DONNA OBLONGATA
Donna's Projects
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PRIVY PRIVY
An immersive installation in collaboration with Patrick Costello, interrogating questions of morality and pleasure by simulating a public restroom in a queer nightclub.
With ice cream.
THE VAN GOGH SHOGH
An evening-length solo performance.
One part deranged Sip 'n Paint,
one part karaoke night
and one part Christie's.
EF! (a new musical)
An immersive musical inspired by the Earth First! movement. Book & lyrics by Donna Oblongata. Music by Sequoia Sellinger. Currently in development (2024).
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Development supported by MacDowell, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, the Willhelm Family Foundation, Dr. Bronner's, Fund for Wild Nature, and the Dorothy Byrne Foundation.
All 100 Fires
"Inventive, brimming with compassion, and monstrously funny."
- Play On Milwaukee
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"Balances on the thrilling precipice of pleasure and danger...both hilarious, poking fun at its own absurdity, and deeply sincere, envisioning a better world."
- New Orleans Box Office​
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An evening-length solo performance that follows a commander in a guerrilla war as he evaluates and trains the new recruits (the audience) preparing them for battle. A dark comedy about guerrilla warfare, mass extinction, and what it means to die with dignity.Supported by the Puffin Foundation, Meow Wolf, and BSP Kingston.
My Pizza, My Idea! (collaboration with Patrick Costello)
A conceptual pizza business. People visited a gallery in lower Manhattan to make a pizza in our mobile kitchen, print a pizza box, and send the pizza (free of charge) to anyone they wanted. The recipients receive a surprise pizza handmade by someone they know, delivered by a uniformed cyclist.
My Pizza, My Idea! is a playful jab at the culture of convenience and on-demand-ness we’re living amongst. What is the actual price that we’re paying to have everything (music, avocados, infinite television) on demand? And what is lost when an entire culture shifts to give primacy to that? Surprise and real-life interactions are important and precious, and that gets lost in a culture where surprise is sacrificed in the name of commerce.
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Commissioned by 601 ArtSpace (NYC).
Voices of the Unhoused
(collaboration with Ro Adler)
A series of portraits and first-person accounts, telling the stories of homeless activists in Philadelphia. Created during the summer of 2020, when over 150 unhoused Philadelphians successfully fought for the transfer of Housing Authority-owned homes to an independent land trust to house people for free.
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Original prints acquired by the Philadelphia Free Library.
Less Miserable
An unauthorized, rogue production of the Broadway musical, Les Miserables. Produced completely off-the-grid in the woods of Vermont, and toured in vegetable-oil-powered school buses with a volunteer cast and crew of 55. Performed all 402 pages of the original score, with a live orchestra and homemade revolving stage. Sold-out tour to five different cities.
The 7-Person Chair Pyramid High Wire Act
"One of the best productions of the year."
-Milwaukee Examiner
"Whip smart and dirt poor."
-Broward New Times
"A welcome oasis of imagination."
-DCMetro Arts
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Written by Donna Oblongata. Designed and performed by Donna Oblongata and Patrick Costello. ​​​​​​​
A two-person, multi-character play performed on a 6' x 6' stage, 3' off the ground. It centers around Charles Darwin's (fictional) search for the Yeti. On that quest, he's accompanied by his pet bat. Along the way, he meets a lonely ropemaker who lives in a cave. All of this is narrated by the electromagnetic spectrum, who is the target of the bat's unrequited affections.​Two national tours, as well as tours throughout New Zealand and Europe.
Other Work
Donna's work spans two decades and a variety of media. She has written, directed and performed innumerable works under the collectives The Missoula Oblongata and Wham City, as well as collaborating with grassroots and non-profit campaigns for social and environmental justice.
Donna has created visual spectacles and designed protest art for the Natural Resources Defense Council, Philly Thrive, the 2014 People's Climate March, Center for Popular Democracy, Election Defenders, Amistad Law Project, Rabbis for Ceasefire, Jewish Voice for Peace, and many other groups.