Volta
Wren arrives at the Mariposa Hotel looking for her sister Lottie but finds the Hotel has other plans. Amid shape shifting hallways, memory palaces, and lost connections, Wren must make the choice to move forward into the unknown with Lottie, or stay alone in the comfort of the past.
by The Hum
Sun, Apr 19, 2026 8:30 PM
Christ Church
Neighborhood House
Walk-up tickets ($5-50) available for all shows after online sales end!
When Wren arrives at the Mariposa Hotel, she is certain something bad has happened, and that she will fix it by finding her sister Lottie. Yet nothing at the Mariposa Hotel moves or functions in quite the way Wren expects. Staff pops out of walls, doors lead to museums where memories stand like sculptures, people call loved ones from other dimensions, and she keeps just missing Lottie. And throughout, a writhing, pulsing, shifting mass invites her to join blissful oblivion. As Wren searches for Lottie, she revisits her life in fits and bursts, finding tenderness, bitterness, loss, and celebration in equal measure.
VOLTA is a physical theater piece informed by research in the anthropocene, the neuroscience of memory, and narratives of death and the afterlife. At the center of the piece is the question: will we recognize our loved ones in the afterlife? VOLTA is a dreamy, charming, echoey reflection on love’s enduring power even after the death of the ego and the self.
This show is for you if…
you loved laying in the grass looking at bugs as a child, if you fancy yourself an interdimensional traveler, if you resonated with the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, and if, despite everything, you trend toward a state of wonderment.
TEAM CREDITS
William Acker - Creator/Performer/Costume Designer
Aiden Ankli - Creator/Performer
Tenara Calem - Creator/Performer
Arantxa Chavez - Creator/Performer
Jo Kramer Bailey - Creator/Performer
Colby Calhoun - Sound Designer
Ashley Bailey - Stage Manager/Additional Sound Design
The Hum is an ensemble of movers, groovers, chip-lovers, play-seekers, and theatrical devisers. Hailing from Michigan, Louisiana, Peru, and Ohio, we make theatre that asks big, universal questions such as “what happens when we die?” and small musings like “what made you laugh hardest as a child?” We are fascinated by retracing our past to unlock hidden memories. We met at the Pig Iron School in Philadelphia and spent three intimate years of playing, giggling, crying, vibrating, and devising together.
We are a femme-forward, physical theatre, ensemble-driven collective based in Philadelphia, PA. We queer traditional theater processes by celebrating non-linear entry points and narratives; we turn the story upside down to see what new insights emerge. We reject the boundaries around “genre” and “form” as absolute truths, and make urgent space for joy, play, and celebration in our practice as an act of non-compliant resistance. We draw inspiration from the queer aspects of our natural world, and from nature’s ability to adapt in the face of adversity.
VOLTA is our premiere work as an ensemble. It has been featured in 2026 PhysFest in New York City and presented by the GhostLight Theatre in Benton Harbor, MI. The Hum is traveling to Las Vegas, NV next to present VOLTA in the Fall Out Fringe Festival in June.
