During his childhood in the early 80s, Gerad Argeros fell victim to the Reverend James Brzyski, the most prolific known abuser in the Archdiocese of the Philadelphia Catholic Church. In 2017, the first in a series of tragic deaths of Brzyski’s other victims from the neighborhood made it clear the time had come to tell the survivor story of Fox Chase Boy. Drawing on humor and nostalgia, Argeros developed a script to confront the collective demons of his community’s past through a one man show. These early neighborhood performances serve as the backbone of Fox Chase Boy weaving super 8 footage with live storytelling to construct a cohesive narrative from a fragmented mosaic of trauma and abuse. Raw testimonials and reflections from family and the broader community reveals a neighborhood finding its language to describe and confront their collective trauma. With love for his Northeast Philadelphia hometown, Argeros memorializes those lost as he struggles to regain agency in his personal narrative.
READ Philadelphia Inquirer Article 11/26/19