SILOS, transpires over one day at a hospital, two years into a global pandemic. Over the course of this day, we see first hand how shared trauma has strengthen the bonds between people while they rely on each other for support, strength and hope.

Did you know there’s music on the moon? Astronaut is a nurse, treating patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dad is one of them, trying to get better. Child is a poet, struggling to understand. All are alienated, pining for reconnection with the world. Tonight, will they land in a place where they can better care for themselves and each other? A Soft Landing is an intimate, grounded look at the public health issue plaguing the nation.

Gabe Moses (he/him) is a multi-faceted theatre and art maker. He is a graduate of DeSales University’s theatre program. As a theatre artist, he thrives on being able to use his platforms to amplify black and brown voices. Gabe has been seen at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival in their productions of Ragtime, Crazy For You, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, and Julius Caesar (WillPower Tour). Gabe also serves as a committee member of PSF's Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Anti-Racism Working Group. As a director, Gabe has recently directed a play reading of Twang by Cris Eli Black for The Makers’ Ensemble Short Play Festival and TJ Young’s Dark Skinned Pavement for the Palm Beach Dramaworks New Play Festival. He has previously directed and choreographed his original piece, run 4 ur lyfe, centered around police brutality and being a black man in America. www.gabemoses.com; @gabejmoses.

Iamwe ThePhilosopher, born, Timotheus "Moe" G. Peay, in Norristown PA, has been singing since the age of three. He has sang on many stages including the Gospel Music Workshop of America and The White House for President Bill Clinton. Timotheus joined the drama team in high school and developed a great passion for acting as well. He has written and performed in many stage plays, musicals, and productions, including Porgy and Bess, and, Your Arms are Too Short to Box With God. In 2015 Timotheus was blessed to be a part of the cast as well as assistant music director of Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity which won the 2016 Barrymore Award for Best Ensemble in a Musical, Best Choreography, and Best Music Direction. Timotheus has also been blessed to share the stage with, and, learn from some very talented, and, highly respected artists over the years such as R&B legend Stephanie Mills, and, Gospel Super Star Bee Bee Winans. Since 2011, Timotheus has been privileged to be a part of various productions with Irving Street Rep out of Newark, NJ. Timotheus has had the position of the Music Director and Production Coordinator at the former Tabernacle International Deliverance Church(now Tabernacle Harvest Church) performing for over 1000 people every Sunday. He is currently soliciting investors as he prepares to film his first written movie, and, to record his solo project. His sound is what he calls Inspirational Soul which mixes his spirituality with his life experiences. He likes his art to be complex enough to be intriguing; yet, simple enough to be enjoyable, and, to be relatable.

Rae Venna is a Washington DC-based actor who was most recently seen in The Hub Theatre’s productions of American Spies and Other Homegrown Fables and The Burn. Film credits include Chocolate Cake (Agastar Video & Multi Media), Prosperity Creek (Zack Walsh Productions), and Living With A Ghost (Alex Rice Productions). Outside of acting, Rae is a video game content creator, former small business owner, and published model. She is also an advocate for Pacific Cultural International as the 2018 Pacific Miss Asian American. Through all her endeavors, Rae strives to create more opportunities and representation for minorities. She hopes to inspire other minority women in pursuing leadership positions.

www.raevenna.com

Maya is a multi-hyphenate artist + cultivator of joy; living and working on the unceded land of the Lenni Lenape and Canarsie People. As an artist educator, they seek to decolonize access to artistic practice. Maya also facilitates the development of new plays and devised work in various capacities, including: Direction, Dramaturgy, Choreography, and Writing. Maya's generative work is an examination of the queer utopian ideal as it relates to the bodies + hearts of Black queer folk who grew up/out of/through trauma in Faith Communities. An excerpt of their play, How We'll Get Over was commissioned for the Poetic License Festival in March of 2020. Recent projects include: The Incomplete Collection with Linked Dance Theater, and We Are Only Dead If We Are Forgotten with Long Wharf Theatre. Maya is delighted to return to Elevate Theatre Company and journey through Nikki Brake-Sillá's poignant work with friends, old and new.

Matthew Armstead practices cultural organizing, which brings together arts and activism, just as they interweave blackness, queerness, faith, doubt, and curiosity. Matthew weaves together community organizing, popular education, and physical theatre techniques to create performances that engage audiences as active participants. Recent performance credits include: Pirate Queen & Visions (Philly Fringe); Myth Seeds (self-produced); and Inspira: The Power of the Spiritual (Theatre for Transformation). Matthew has a M.F.A. with Pig Iron Theatre Company, and a B.A. in Theater and Women's Studies from Swarthmore College.

Cassidy is a Brooklyn-based actor and writer. She holds a BA in Theatre & Dance from Dickinson College, a certificate in physical theatre from the Headlong Performance Institute in Philadelphia, and studied classical theatre at the Pearl Conservatory in New York City. She’s performed on regional stages, off-Broadway, in workshops, under circus tents and in fringe festivals throughout the Mid Atlantic. Most recently she appeared with Big Apple Circus and is a lead voice-actor for the animated TV program, Treasure Trekkers. Cassidy has authored and produced several original musicals (book and lyrics) and holds a certificate in creative writing from Wesleyan University. www.cassidydermott.com

Marion Leary is the Director of Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing. As the Director of Innovation at Penn Nursing she works to amplify and educate nurses as leaders in health and healthcare innovation. Ms. Leary is a member of the American Nurses Association’s Innovation Advisory Committee and a Founding member of the Society of Nurse Scientists, Innovators, Entrepreneurs and Leaders (SONSIEL). She is a host of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing podcast, Amplify Nursing, and a contributor to the American Nurses Association’s official journal, the American Nurse as part of the My Nurse Influencer’s column. In August 2019 she was named as an Influencer of Healthcare winner in the category of Excellence in Innovation by the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 2017, she was named Geek of the Year for her outstanding achievements in Philadelphia’s vibrant geek community in the areas of innovation, technology, and activism.

Staff RN at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health for 20 years this October. I currently work on an outpatient observation unit and represent our floor as both the Professional Developement Council and the Nursing Inclusion and Diversity Council.

My name is Horace Hubbard, I’m part of the Dispatch Management team servicing Patient Transport, Clinical Emergencies & ER Radiology. I’ve been employed at Penn for 16 years. Aside from my Penn Commitment and duties, I hold a passion and love for Creative Performing arts, Theater and Film.

Zachary F. Meisel, MD, MPH, MSHP is Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and director of the Center for Emergency Care Policy and Research and at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He serves as Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs in the Penn Department of Emergency Medicine. His research interests include pain treatment and opioid prescriptions, narrative communication, guideline adherence, opioid use disorder, patient safety, emergency medical services, and patient centered comparative effectiveness research. He has a specific focus on using and testing persuasive narratives to promote evidence translation to patients, providers and policy makers. Dr. Meisel studies ways to improve the translation of research evidence, particularly around prescription opioids. He was the principal investigator of the Life STORRIED study (Life Stories for Opioid Risk Reduction in the Emergency Department) a multiyear, multicenter Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) funded clinical trial focusing on the comparative effectiveness of probabilistic versus patient narrative enhanced risk communication for pain management following emergency care. He also directs the Policy and Dissemination core for the NIDA-funded Center for Health Economics of Treatment Interventions for Substance Use Disorder, HCV, and HIV (CHERISHresearch.org). He has served as principal investigator or co-PI of major grants from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the WT Grant Foundation, focused on the translation of evidence to providers and patients. He is also member of the executive committee for the Penn Injury Science Center (PISC). Dr. Meisel has also served as a medical columnist for Slate and Time with expertise in dissemination translation of health services research results for audiences such as patients and policy makers. He is Senior Associate Editor for Health Communication for the journal Academic Emergency Medicine. He served on the Philadelphia Mayor’s Task Force to Combat the Opioid Epidemic in 2017.

Playwright Silos

Nikki Brake-Sillá is a playwright and filmmaker. She is the Founder of DrAW (Dramatists At War) and an inaugural member of Jouska PlayWorks. Nikki’s full-length plays include TROUBLE OF THE WORLD, Finalist (Terrance McNally Award, Lark Apothetae, Space on Ryder - Family Residency), Semi-Finalist (Princess Grace, O’Neill, Bay Area Playwrights Festival), DEAR ANN, Residency (The Mitten Lab), Semi-Finalist (Premiere Stages), IN DEFENSE OF OURSELVES, (MadCow Women’s Voices Play Festival), GTFOH (Orlando Shakes Play Fest), SAY IT AIN’T SO (Philadelphia Fringe Festival). Her full-length narrative, A WEATHERING was a Semi-Finalist (Middlebury Scriptlab) and Second Round Selection (Sundance Narrative Lab). L&D, a one-hour pilot was a 2021 Semi-Finalist (The Orchard Project and Middlebury TV Scriptlab). She has been commissioned by EST/Sloan, RECPhilly, Revolution Shakespeare, and Philadelphia Women’s Theater. Nikki has received funding from Black Spatial Relics, The Sachs Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, Jody Falco and Jeffrey Steinman, The Lark, the Princess Grace Foundation, the Leeway Foundation, and the Regional Center for Women Artists. Nikki received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and her M.F.A. from the City College of New York. She is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and Directors Gathering. Ginifilms.com

Playwright A Soft Landing

Ang Bey (they/them) is a Black, Non-Binary multidisciplinary artist from Southwest Philadelphia. They create to inspire decolonization, honesty, radical empathy, and intracommunity healing. In all ways, it is their mission to build Utopia through the embrace of imperfection and play. Ang’s work has premiered in Philadelphia, New York, Denver, San Francisco, and more. Ang is founder of Upstream Performance Collaborative and the Co-Artistic Director of Shoe Box Theatre Collective. angelabey.com @tallblackcreative @theangbee

Director A Soft Landing

Marisol Rosa-Shapiro (she/her) is a Philadelphia-based actor, director, teaching artist, community builder, and creator of original works of theater. Recent credits include Theatre Horizon's HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble's AIRNESS, Shakespeare in Clark Park's EVERY EVERYMAN (co-creator/performer); Pace University's ALIVEAWAKEALIVEAWAKEALERT (director/co-creator); several episodes of Adventure Players Live (co-creator/writer/performer); and Theatre Horizon's Art House #4/The Peays (director/co-creator). Marisol particularly loves creating surprising, playful, sophisticated work for young audiences and families, and has had the opportunity to do so with Spellbound Theatre (WINK; SHAKESPEARE'S STARS), the Up Close Festival at the New Ohio Theatre in downtown Manhattan, and with her own SEVEN RAVENS PROJECT, developed in the LabWorks program at New Victory in NYC. She is a proud volunteer performer, educator, and board member of Clowns Without Borders USA, Director of Community Engagement for Shakespeare in Clark Park, Community Coordinator for Theatre Horizon's own OUR NORRISTOWN project, and a member of the teaching artist ensemble at the New Victory Theater. Marisol recently served as a member of the BIPOC in TYA Steering Committee for TYA/USA, the nation's foremost advocacy organization for artists and institutions creating theatre for young audiences.

Christina D. Eskridge, MPH (She/Her)

Christina is the Founder and Executive Director of Elevate Theatre Company LLC. She is a performing artist, teaching artist, director, playwright and public health professional, holding a Master’s Degree in Public Health from UC Berkeley. For the past decade, Christina has worked to fuse her two passions of health and theater through performance, her teaching artistry, and her extensive work in health care at Kaiser Permanente. Christina is also on the Board of Directors for the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH). From performances specifically for children with autism, to facilitating workshops using drama-based techniques in the corporate environment, Christina believes live theater is a healing tool, ripe with opportunity. This belief drove her to establish Elevate in 2020, during the historic COVID-19 pandemic, producing live, virtual theater about important health issues, for audiences across the country.

(BA in Theater/Dance, Rhode Island College, summa cum laude)

Stage Manager

A company member of Third Rail Projects since 2011, Mr. Denis has been an original collaborating cast member in several of the company’s preeminent works including their Bessie’s Awards winning “Then She Fell”. .Most recently he completed a 37 sold out run of “Confection” commissioned by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC in 2019. Throughout this time he has also supported his burgeoning career as international male burlesque sensation GoGo Gadget, with featured performances at almost 7 years of the New York Boylesk Festivals, featured in the 2012, 2013 & 2016 London Burlesque Festivals, performances in Boston, New York City, Denver, Toronto, Paris, Stockholm and Vienna. Mr. Denis is a hyphenate and has served as Technical Director, Stage Manager, Producer, Sound Engineer, Theater Electrician, and Guest Professor within the Dance and Theater sectors for the past 20 years.

Nurses are on the front lines of health and healthcare, and this affords nurses enormous opportunities to use innovation to improve health and well-being, design and create new approaches to the delivery of care, and communicate health information in a way that is easily accessible to patients, families and the community at-large. For a profession with a storied tradition as developers of novel ways to advance health and meet ever-evolving human needs, nurse innovators are more crucial now than ever as our nation and the world enters a new era of healthcare challenges.

Our history of patient care began more than two centuries ago with the founding of the nation's first hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital, in 1751 and the nation's first medical school at the University of Pennsylvania in 1765. Penn Medicine has pioneered medical frontiers with a staff comprised of innovators who have dedicated their lives to advancing medicine through excellence in education, research and patient care.

When you choose Penn Medicine, you benefit from more than two centuries of the highest standards in patient care, education and research. The caliber of comfort and individual attention you receive is unmatched by any other hospital in the Mid-Atlantic region.