Mission

Rough & Tumble Productions is an interdisciplinary ensemble that creates gut-punching performances wrapped in glitter and grief. Through a fusion of burlesque, clown-theater, and contemporary dance, we give voice to emotions often suppressed in American culture. Our work transforms both makers and audiences by making the unbearable bearable through communal witness, honest physicality, and surprising bursts of joy.

We believe the body tells the most honest and immediate story. Through collaborative risk-taking, we blur the boundaries between dance and theater, creating work that celebrates the tragic while finding humor in the heart-breaking. Our ensemble-driven process embraces fluid rather than linear narratives, staying ruthlessly true to what's artistically, personally, and culturally relevant

Core Values

• Physical authenticity is the essence of human behavior and therefore the heart

  of our work

• Our audience and community are our most vital collaborators

• Original creation through unexpected partnerships drives innovation

• We pursue fluidity over linearity in both process and performance

• We remain committed to what's truthful over what's comfortable

Artistic Approach

Our performances, workshops, and advocacy initiatives create spaces for processing complex emotions like grief, ambiguous loss, shame, sexuality, rage, and longing. By capitalizing on the immediacy of the body and the accessibility of character, we deliver work that embraces and inspires diverse audiences while maintaining artistic integrity and supporting artist growth.

History & Impact

Born from the artistic confluence of Philadelphia's Pig Iron Theater School for Advanced Performance Training and Urban Movement Arts, Rough & Tumble has evolved from three dance-theater devisers into a dynamic ensemble of six core artists and four associate performers. Our members bring diverse backgrounds as directors, writers, designers, conceptual artists, educators, farmers, activists, and performers.

Key Milestones:

• 2016: Founders collaborate on "Fourth Quarter," an experimental musical exploring climate change, grief, and motherhood

• 2018: National tour of "Rough & Tumble, Show & Tell" to Philadelphia, Atlanta, and San Diego

• 2020: Artists-in-Residence at Urban Movement Arts, developing "Good Grief!"

• 2022: Premiere of "Good Grief!" at Philadelphia Fringe Festival's Cannonball

• 2023: First full season, including touring productions, Grief Cabaret Fundraiser, and development of children's programming

Current Programming

We create work in multiple mediums to raise the visibility and accessibility of physically-driven performance:

• Main Stage Productions

• Site-Specific Performances

• Educational Workshops

• Community-Engaged Development Processes

• Touring Productions

Through thoughtful collaboration with ensemble members, artistic partners, and communities, we design work for both traditional theaters and unclaimed territories. Working from the physical essence of subjects that matter, we push creative boundaries by continually seeking new collaborators and innovative presentation methods.

Our current project, "Magic Trash Day," exemplifies this approach by transforming everyday refuse into portals for processing grief and loss with young audiences, proving that even the most challenging emotions can become opportunities for wonder and connection when approached through the lens of play and physical storytelling.

Co-Artistic Directors Lillian Ransijn and Dylan Smythe:

Lillian Ransijn  is a multi-modal performance artist who implores the moving body and personal storytelling to plumb the depths of grief, loss, and missed connection. Driven by what some call the 6th stage of grief—meaning-making— their works for stage and screen find beauty in the grotesque and humor in the ludicrous challenge of moving through and metabolizing every day life/inheritedlifetimes. They seek to see and be seen through the power, complication, devastation, intimacy, and immediacy of the body and through their work as a performer, teaching artist, director, and intimacy coordinator. They are a graduate of Emory University’s Dance and Movement Studies and Theater Programs (2005) and Pig Iron/UArts M.F.A. in Devised Performance Practice (2016).

Dylan Smythe (Co-Artistic Director) is a lover of rhythm, bodies, people, and movement. He strives to apply lessons learned as a student of music, dance, and bodywork towards moving through instead of around/over/away from. Interest in play and improvisation has led him to work with creators such as Lily Kind as a member of the Wolfthicket ensemble, and with Lillian Ransijn in their 2020 workshop showing of Good Grief! Following a decade-long passion studying the Afro-Brazilian art of capoeira, he continues training in multiple queer-rooted Afro-diasporic dance styles, including House and Waacking, at Urban Movement Arts.