Naming all the flowers I could

Naming All the Flowers I Could is a collective of multidisciplinary artists who seek to constantly challenge what we understand to be theatre through new technologies and modes of creation.Our company focuses on education and advocacy of socio-political issues, specifically issues distinct to the female experience and the LGBTQ+ community. Our team strives to cast a light upon stories that frequently don’t get air time, utilizing the shared vocabulary of love to make such stories accessible to audiences regardless of background. We also cater our original stories to appeal to audiences within the communities we seek to address, sharing the nuances in their authentic experiences rather than just their trauma.We are amorphous: always experimenting with new vehicles of storytelling in an effort to seek unique ways to connect with our audiences through empathy. Our group is composed of students from very different artistic and academic backgrounds with experience in theatre, film, politics and activism, virtual reality, computer science, and the fine arts which imbues us with the opportunity to explore inventive ways of sharing unique narratives.

Maddie Vassalo
Executive Producer

Maddie Vassalo is a senior at the University of Michigan from Washington DC, majoring in Interarts Performance with a minor in Computer Science. While her main concentrations are in game design, virtual production, and film, she has a wide range of experience in both the performing and visual arts, with background in technical direction, performance, stage management, animation, and garment design. While at Michigan, Maddie has been involved in numerous independent works, most recently a 40-minute virtual production film retelling the Greek myth of Iphis and Ianthe which she wrote, produced, and acted in, as well as creating the virtual backgrounds and real life set. Last year she co-directed and produced a devised theater piece called If the World Ends Tomorrow it’s all Your Fault which explored the pandemic’s impact through print media and photojournalism.Maddie is especially interested in exploring the connections between STEM and the arts and is continuously looking for ways to integrate her interests in engineering and storytelling.

Miles Hionis
Creative Director

Miles Hionis is a Junior at the University of Michigan from New Jersey, pursuing a BFA in Interarts Performance, a dual degree in visual and performing arts. Miles is a skilled makeup artist and scenic painter known for transforming faces and spaces with imaginative flair. While these are his main focuses Miles is an interdisciplinary artist blending together his wide variety of visual and performing arts. While at Michigan, Miles has been involved in many works as a makeup artist, director, actor, stage manager and writer. Using his skills to create immersive experiences that enhance storytelling on stage, screen, and beyond. He is currently based out of Ann Arbor Michigan and New York City.

Our Projects

When We Break, We Breathe

When we Break, We Breathe is an interactive film that builds on the FMV genre, utilizing new technology to give its message to the player. It will consist of a choose your own adventure film intermixed with a retro inspired third person adventure game. It will discuss themes of simulation theory, climate anxiety, and the lack of control we feel over our own future.

Written and Directed by Maddie Vassalo
Director of Photography: Catherine Miller
Assistant Director: Callista Brand
Art Direction: Miles Hionis
Set Design: Ren Kosiorowski
Virtual Set Design: Maddie Vassalo
Costume Design: Dana Gray
Audio Supervisor: Patterson McKinney
Cast: Miles Hionis, Coltrane Gilman, Maddie Vassalo

When We Break, We Breathe was filmed using virtual production techniques.
Edited in Premiere Pro, virtual set built in Unreal Engine, Programmed with Unity in C#.

Supported by: ArtsEngine, Arts at Michigan, SMTD Excel, The Social and Environmental Sustainability Initiative, and the Emerging Technologies Group

Conceptualized by Marta Frank
Directed by: Marta Frank and Maddie Vassalo
Dramaturgy: Rory Hunt
Writers: Marta Frank, Rory Hunt, Maddie Vassalo, and the cast
Stage Management: Miles Hionis
Lighting Design: Naomi Rodriguez
Sound Design: Elaine Cho
Actors
Isaiah Crawford
Ava Im
Rory Hunt

In If The World Ends Tomorrow It’s All Your Fault we explore how the media we consume comes out in us, how it not only ends up influencing how we think or feel but also alters our perception while fundamentally changing the world we live in both physically and socially. The show follows two twenty-something roommates stuck in their room (that limited but also limitless pandemic room). The script was directly taken or adapted from newspaper and magazine clippings of the past and the room itself was made of the script. Monologues guide how this media and interpersonal connection guides our perception, making the shift from a person choosing the stories they consume to now the stories choosing the person.

Supported by ArtsEngine, BasementArts and Arts at Michigan.

Set Design

Iphis and Ianthe

Written and Conceptualized by Maddie Vassalo, Miles Hionis, and Rory Hunt
Directed by Rory Hunt, Miles Hionis, and Maddie Vassalo
Director of Photography: Maddy Ringo
Sound: Josh Cheng, SinYu Deng Composition and Score: Maddy Ringo
Costume Design: Dana Grey and Venus Stanton
Environment Design: Maddie Vassalo

Iphis and Ianthe is a short film that places the Greek myth of the same name in a more contemporary framework.The original myth of Iphis and Ianthe tells the story of an impoverished couple in ancient Crete who is forced to give up their daughter due to their inability to afford her future dowry price. However, on the evening before the delivery of her daughter, Telethusa prays to the goddess Isis for a solution. Isis gives her word that she will have a son but the next day, Telethusa gives birth to a daughter. She hides her child’s gender to her husband and raises the baby as a boy, naming him Iphis. Iphis grows up unaware of his differences from his male friends. One day, he meets a young woman named Ianthe and they instantly fall in love. Iphis quickly asks for her hand in marriage but fears her discovery of his female sex. He begs Isis to make him a biological man and she grants his wish, fulfilling her promise to Telethusa 18 years prior.Our film updates this story, questioning the idea that all transgender individuals seek surgery to alleviate their dysphoria. Instead, we discuss Iphis’s process of learning how to accept his body and becoming comfortable sharing himself with another human being.Iphis and Ianthe takes influence from Wes Anderson’s work as well as experimental films, combining virtual production, unconventional script writing, and rich visual symbolism.Iphis and Ianthe ultimately begs the question “how do we discover safely how to share our bodies with our first love?”

Supported by ArtsEngine, Arts at Michigan, SMTD Excel, SMTD Wellness Initiative and the UM Library,

Set Design and Virtual Production

The production will be partially virtual production which means that the film will be shot almost entirely in the studio, with a background build in Unreal Engine and synced to the real life camera. We will continue to build this world through a variety of fake potted plants in the foreground and mirrors on the ground to represent water.