“[Endure’s story] lifts the spirit as effectively as the elegantly executed production moves the body.”
Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker

It’s A run woman show

ENDURE is an outdoor immersive theatre performance roving through iconic public spaces and beautiful parks. The story follows a woman running her first marathon—and the life events that inspired her to run.

A story of starting over and what it takes to make it to the finish line.

Our #1 most frequently asked question: Do I have to run?
No! The whole show can be enjoyed at an easy walking pace.
a walk in the park

ENDURE is a theatre performance that is, quite literally, a walk in the park.

The show was created for the outdoors, immersing audiences in the world of marathon and the natural beauty of public park land.

The Start Line

Meet at the Start Line (our box office) and pin on your numbered race bib.

Follow the performer on a 5km (3mi) site specific journey — walking, optionally running, observing at your own pace, distance, and discretion.

Hear her thoughts

You’ll receive a sanitized and synchronized audio player with the runner’s inner monologue set to a musical soundtrack—an intimate audio backdrop to the live performance unfolding in front of you.

Safety & comfort

Our show is designed to be pleasantly Covid-safe.

It’s outdoors with intentionally small audiences (10-15 people max). Enjoy the performance from your own vantage point.

It’s about marathon running—but really, it’s about the strength to endure.

We all know what it’s like to get through a hard time that lasts longer than we want it to.
This show is a kind of magic we need right now.

WHY A RUN WOMAN SHOW?

Our show was created long before Covid-19 reshaped our collective theatre practice. So why did we make art this way in the first place?

Why Art About Sport?

Sports stories are full of inherent drama and theatricality. But broadcasting and magazine profiles don’t tell the whole story.

Run Woman Shows celebrate the creative potential of sport to tell deeply relatable human stories.

Mental health is a major theme of the play—ENDURE is proud to be part of our national conversation about sport and mental health. At its best, long-distance running is a healing experience: uplifting, clarifying, and transformative.

Why Art Outdoors?

Our set and backdrop is your local public park. ENDURE is accessible public art that draws from—and adds to—the beauty and delight of public spaces. ENDURE doesn’t take up space in a theatre. It is affordable, high-impact additional programming that adds value to a theatre season and local public space.

Why Roving Theatre?

A marathon is a race of 26.2 miles. To bring that journey to life, ENDURE moves audiences through a park, each scene a conversation between the character’s internal state and the aesthetic of the park. A moment of power and domination may be set on a high rocky outcropping. A solitary moment of suffering in a shadowed grove of pines. A comedic celebration near a children’s merry-go-round.

The play is really a duet between two characters: our marathon runner and your favorite park.

Why Women?

ENDURE centers stories about women. It centers women creators and creators of color. It offers an empowering, relatable story that honors the unseen achievements of women. ENDURE also acknowledges that at every contemporary marathon race in the world, 60% of the people toeing the start line are women.

Why ENDURE?

ENDURE is critically-acclaimed, cutting edge immersive, interactive, site specific audio theatre. It expands the possibility of what a theatre audience is, creating glorious micro-communities of athletic enthusiasts and theatre fans.

Why we make art this way is simple: to immerse everyone who encounters a Run Woman Show in the magic of running and theatre.


PERFORMANCE HISTORY

ENDURE was first created in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park with support from the Old Stone House, Piper Theatre Productions, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. We won two New York Innovative Theatre (NYIT) Awards for Outstanding Original Full-Length Script and Outstanding Solo Performance, and were nominated for Outstanding Innovative Design.

In 2012, we received support from Alberta Foundation for the Arts and Calgary 2012 to represent Alberta in London during the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. We were presented by Riverside Studios in London, and Assembly Rooms at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. ENDURE was shortlisted for the Arches Brick award.

In 2013, we were presented in Calgary, Canada by the Scotiabank Calgary Marathon and East Village (a real estate development project revitalizing the city’s river walk).

In 2020, we refreshed ENDURE’s choreography and adapted the play’s audience interaction for COVID safety in advance of our 2021 Central Park, NY run.

In 2021, ENDURE enjoyed a sold-out and extended run in New York’s iconic Central Park with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and City Corps. The play was lauded by The New York Times (Critic’s Pick), The New Yorker, and No Proscenium.


OUR TEAM

Melanie Jones (Creator, Writer, Co-producer)

Melanie (she/her) is a Canadian marathoner, Ironman finisher and mother. She’s also a writer, performer, and producer whose immersive theatre, video, and performance works include JOYRIDE, In You (And You?), Run Woman Show (ENDURE and MOTHER), and Experiments In Delight. ENDURE won two 2012 NYIT Awards, was a Most Memorable Theatre Moment of 2011 (Calgary Herald), was shortlisted for the Brick Award (2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe). Melanie’s work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Calgary 2012 Cultural Capital of Canada, Alberta Foundation for the Arts. ENDURE has been presented in five cities and four countries, including the 49th Annual Calgary Marathon in May of 2013. Jones was a 2013-15 Artist In Residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and a 2014 New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Immigrant Artist.


Suchan Vodoor (Director, Co-producer)

Suchan (he/him) is a director, producer, and designer based in New York City. He specializes in crafting interactive, immersive experiences and directing devised physical theatre. His work has included a decade as Resident Director of Six Characters, a troupe of punk rock clowns from Alphabet City; Art Directing “You Are So Lucky”, a daring nightlife experiences at a 100-year-old mansion overlooking the Hudson River; and Creative Production of “Seeing You”, an immersive exploration of WWII from Ryan Heffington & Randy Weiner.


CHRISTINE OWMAN (COMPOSER/MUSICIAN)

Christine Owman (she/her) is a Swedish composer, multi-instrumentalist, recording artist and producer. Her music has its roots in indie- and post rock but Owman is also a trained cellist and combines the classical with the contemporary. The result is empowering, dreamy, eerie and raw and includes albums like When on Fire, Little Beast and Throwing Knives. Apart from her own project Owman is a member of several other bands, frequently works as a studio- and touring musician in other projects and has shared stage with a number of bands and artists including Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), Bob Dylan, Mark Lanegan, SoKo, Wovenhand, Chelsea Wolfe and Michael Gira (Swans).

Mary Cavett (Performer)

Mary (she/her) is an actor, dancer, and collaborator. She graduated from Juilliard with her MFA in acting in 2020. Theater work includes: The Shape She Makes (A.R.T.); Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, The Liar (Santa Cruz Shakespeare); Here In The Bright Colorado Sun (workshop O’Neill Theater Center); Macbeth, A Twelfth Night, Julius, Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing (Smith Street Stage); Romeo & Juliet (CRY HAVOC); ENDURE: A Run Woman Show (Edinburgh Fringe/ NYC). Film &TV: PAN AM; All My Children; Surrogate Valentine; Stage V; various projects with filmmaker Derrick Belcham. Mary also danced eight seasons with the Radio City Rockettes. Mary loves collaborating across artistic disciplines and finds the most compelling work to be that which does not fit neatly into any one box. She believes the arts help us learn and heal as a community and are a catalyst for understanding, unity, compassion and change.


Casey Howes (Performer)

Casey (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based dancer and choreographer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. Casey has been dancing her entire life, catalyzing her training at The Colburn School Under Leslie Carothers and Glenn Edgerton. During her studies, Casey performed works by renowned companies and choreographers like Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, Vim Vigor, Batsheva, to name a few. After graduating from the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance with a BFA in Dance & Choreography, she joined Pilobolus Dance Theater and started internationally touring both repertory work and a multimedia show called Shadowland. Over the past few years, she has performed and taught all around the world with Pilobolus and helped to create their first women’s trio, which debuted at The American Dance Festival in 2018. Casey is thrilled to be continuing her exploration of site-specific immersive theater, and is honored to join the Run Woman Show family.