MISSION
Practice Space is a collective of theater artists, facilitators, media-makers and cultural workers living in Lenapehoking/Philadelphia. We seek to embody our curiosities and hypotheses about social, economic and political change. Our work unlocks Radical Imagination so we can practice confronting our current realities to move us closer to a transformed future. We employ a cultural organizing strategy, using art and creativity to deepen community relationships and support campaigns that bring about the safe, healthy, and just world we all deserve.
Anissa Weinraub / Co-Artistic Director / Co-Founder (she/femme)
Anissa is a theater-maker, educator, and organizer, living and working in Lenapehoking / Philadelphia. Her cultural work sits at the intersection of creativity, community-building, and political transformation. Her days are spent helping people claim their expressive, whole selves; facilitating ensemble-based devised theater processes; and convening groups of people to strategize toward collective change.
Anissa has shown work/collaborated with Cannonball Festival, Philadelphia Fringe Arts, the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, Cornerstone Theater Company, Wilma Theater, Simpatico Theatre, Directors Gathering, First Person Arts, Theatre Exile, Liberty Cabbage Theatre, BareTeeth Crew, CounterPULSE San Francisco, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, WHYY, Team Sunshine, ILL DOOTS, Kamara Thomas, and the Academy at Palumbo. She has organized alongside the Teacher Action Group, Caucus of Working Educators, and the Philadelphia Student Union. Awards include two Art & Change Grants from the Leeway Foundation, the Lindback Award for Excellence in Teaching, two Independence Public Media’s Community Voices Grant, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others. She also ventures into audio and film production, serving as director/producer/story doula on the podcast Philly Education Stories and as executive producer on the web series, Resistance: the battle of philadelphia.
Anissa attended Brown University (B.A.) and Temple University (M.Ed).
Chantelle Bateman / Co-Artistic Director / Co-Founder
(she/they/jawn)
Chantelle is a mama, organizer, and mixed medium artist based in Philadelphia, PA. After returning home from Iraq in 2005 and battling years of undiagnosed post-traumatic stress, Chantelle met other veterans using art as a tool for truth telling and direct action. Chantelle believes deeply in the praxis of creativity and the power of experiential art to facilitate the kind of collective imagination we need to build a more loving and just future.
Chantelle has performed work at Dodge Poetry Festival, CannonBall Festival, Kimmel Center, and the NY Public Theatre. They are a member of About Face Veterans Against War, Warrior Writers, and a founding member of Practice Space Collective as well as a 2013 Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant recipient, and she currently serves as the Executive Direct of the Philadelphia Student Union. Their creative works have been published in three Warrior Writers publications, featured in the film, Out of Step, and exhibited at the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago.
MISSION
Practice Space is a collective of theater artists, facilitators, media-makers and cultural workers living in Lenapehoking/Philadelphia. We seek to embody our curiosities and hypotheses about social, economic and political change. Our work unlocks Radical Imagination so we can practice confronting our current realities to move us closer to a transformed future. We employ a cultural organizing strategy, using art and creativity to deepen community relationships and support campaigns that bring about the safe, healthy, and just world we all deserve.
Anissa Weinraub / Co-Artistic Director / Co-Founder (she/femme)
Anissa is a theater-maker, educator, and organizer, living and working in Lenapehoking / Philadelphia. Her cultural work sits at the intersection of creativity, community-building, and political transformation. Her days are spent helping people claim their expressive, whole selves; facilitating ensemble-based devised theater processes; and convening groups of people to strategize toward collective change.
Anissa has shown work/collaborated with Cannonball Festival, Philadelphia Fringe Arts, the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, Cornerstone Theater Company, Wilma Theater, Simpatico Theatre, Directors Gathering, First Person Arts, Theatre Exile, Liberty Cabbage Theatre, BareTeeth Crew, CounterPULSE San Francisco, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, WHYY, Team Sunshine, ILL DOOTS, Kamara Thomas, and the Academy at Palumbo. She has organized alongside the Teacher Action Group, Caucus of Working Educators, and the Philadelphia Student Union. Awards include two Art & Change Grants from the Leeway Foundation, the Lindback Award for Excellence in Teaching, two Independence Public Media’s Community Voices Grant, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others. She also ventures into audio and film production, serving as director/producer/story doula on the podcast Philly Education Stories and as executive producer on the web series, Resistance: the battle of philadelphia.
Anissa attended Brown University (B.A.) and Temple University (M.Ed).
Chantelle Bateman / Co-Artistic Director / Co-Founder (she/they/jawn)
Chantelle is a mama, organizer, and mixed medium artist based in Philadelphia, PA. After returning home from Iraq in 2005 and battling years of undiagnosed post-traumatic stress, Chantelle met other veterans using art as a tool for truth telling and direct action. Chantelle believes deeply in the praxis of creativity and the power of experiential art to facilitate the kind of collective imagination we need to build a more loving and just future.
Chantelle has performed work at Dodge Poetry Festival, CannonBall Festival, Kimmel Center, and the NY Public Theatre. They are a member of About Face Veterans Against War, Warrior Writers, and a founding member of Practice Space Collective as well as a 2013 Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant recipient, and she currently serves as the Executive Direct of the Philadelphia Student Union. Their creative works have been published in three Warrior Writers publications, featured in the film, Out of Step, and exhibited at the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago.