Anissa Weinraub
Anissa (she/they) is a theater-maker, educator, and organizer living and working in Lenapehoking / Philadelphia, whose cultural work sits at the intersection of creativity, community-building, and political transformation. For over 20 years, Anissa has helped people connect to and claim their most expressive selves; facilitated and directed ensemble-based devised theater processes; and convened groups of people to strategize toward collective change.
Anissa has shown work/collaborated with Cannonball Festival, Philadelphia Fringe Arts, Bearded Ladies Cabaret, Cornerstone Theater Company, Wilma Theater, Simpatico Theatre, Directors Gathering, First Person Arts, Theatre Exile, CounterPULSE San Francisco, WHYY, Team Sunshine, ILL DOOTS, and the Academy at Palumbo. She has organized alongside Teacher Action Group, Caucus of Working Educators, 52nd Street Neighbors, and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Anissa is a founding member and co-artistic director of Practice Space Collective, which uses theater and storytelling to embody our curiosities and hypotheses about social, economic and political change. Their work unlocks radical imagination to practice confronting our current realities and move us closer to a transformed future. Employing a cultural organizing strategy, they use art to deepen community relationships and support social justice work to bring about the safe, healthy, joyous, and just world we all deserve.
Awarded Grants
2024
Window of Opportunity Grant (WOO)
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Overview
Anissa Weinraub will be producing and directing an original piece of politically-charged theater, entitled It’s Time We Pay Them A Visit, through her collective, Practice Space. Taking place at Christ Church Neighborhood House Theater in February 2025, this production aims to utilize the power of theater to deepen community relationships and support social justice work in bringing about a safe, healthy, and just world. The play is an allegory for getting unstuck and taking action to stop the imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy and straddles the line between performance and practice space for envisioning economic and social transformation.
The WOO grant will assist Anissa with hiring a video and audio crew to professionally document the show.
2019
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
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Overview
Anissa will co-create a piece of original theater with Philadelphia-based educators and students to explore their experiences of the dehumanization of schooling and their visions for educational transformation. Using theater as a cultural strategy, seeking to cultivate intergenerational solidarity, heal tensions within communities, and amplify participants' calls for systemic change in education.
Partner
2018
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
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Overview
Using story circles to document the experiences and beliefs of educators, students, and parents Anissa will co-create a piece of documentary theater that shares their visions for educational transformation in Philadelphia. Her cultural strategy through this project is to strengthen bonds and heal tensions within the education justice community and amplify participants’ calls for systemic change. Anissa will pull on her experience as a theater director to have youth participants answer questions about what liberatory education looks like and what skills and strategies we need to solve the problems of our world.
