The Cell Theatre Announces 2023 Programming Featuring Over 30 Resident Artists

Nancy Manocherian's the cell theatre (Artistic Director Kira Simring) has announced their 2023 season, featuring a year of full productions, art exhibitions, developmental workshops, and over 30 resident artists. The cell's residency program is awarded to individuals on a project by project basis and includes a grant of up to $2,500, rehearsal and performance space, as well as developmental and technical resources. Dates and additional team members to be announced soon.

Now through November 19, Abbe Tanenbaum's What Kind of Woman directed by Artistic Director of the cell, Kira Simring will be performing in a co-production with off the WALL Productions in Pittsburgh. The play is inspired by Tanenbaum's own experience working as a personal organizer and the letters she and a client unearthed from women seeking abortions in the 1970's.

In January, violinist, composer and music director Sita Chay will premiere her latest performance piece Unburdened i which will explore race, tradition, and identity alongside a score written by Chay as well as other collaborators to be announced. Also in residence in January, theatermaker James Clements will develop his piece Beauty Freak, a historical multi-media play about legendary and controversial German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl.

Company in residence The Why Collective (Artistic Director Sydney Anderson) will return to the cell with a series of events following their inaugural marathon piece, Vexations in Time, which premiered earlier this year. From January to May of 2023, The Why Collectivewill present a "festival series" of four separate interdisciplinary works, including The Smallest Sound in the Smallest Space, a new play by Bryce McClendon chronicling a scandal that is unearthed within a college vocal studio, Words of the Prophets, a new play by Vayl Larkin, which follows five homeless characters through their lives, turning a poetic lens on what it means to be unseen and unheard through the use of dance and ASL, and The Women Have Something to Say, a collection of personal stories told through monologues and song texts written by the women themselves, set to music by composer, Madeline Styskal, conceived and directed by Nicole Kenley-Miller. The series opens in February with Mixt: A Living Gallery, an immersive, durational performance exploring the collective processing of our intersectionalities of race, gender, and sexual orientation, set against the backdrop of an experimental soundscape, composed and performed by Julian Wild. Diverse artists from the collective's roster will be featured in both static and motion-based installations, in which guests are encouraged to participate.

In February Shuai Chen, founder of Gr8er Good Games will develop and present a new collaborative "culinary escape room" where teams of participants will solve puzzles to obtain delicacies to consume. Additionally in February, Trey Coates-Mitchell, Dale Sampson, Caitlin Bell, Marc Campbell and New York Theatre Barn (Artistic Director Joe Barros) will workshop and present a new version of the team's musical Sam's Room. This rock concert dramedy tells the story of a non-speaking teenager in 1998 who finds a massive communication breakthrough, told and performed through imagination.

In March, playwright Cate Wiley will develop and present a reading of her play Sheltered under the direction of Kira Simring. This ensemble piece, inspired by Greek tragedy, tells the story of Martha, a volunteer at a homeless shelter, who must face her own anxieties about home and family, as she tries to help her addicted mother, Helen.

Also in March, playwright Rae Binstock and director Emi Lerman will develop a new piece entitled The Untitled BBQ Play, a collaboratively devised piece that frames the United States - its history, its current reality, and its endless internal contradictions - within one of the oldest and richest theatrical traditions: family drama.

Rounding out March, the cell will collaborate with The New Amsterdam Singers in the world premiere of Michael Dellaira's latest opera, Arctic Explorations, directed by Kira Simring. This "folk opera" based on Elisha Kent Kane's 1856 huge bestseller, as well as period documents, private letters, and support from both the Greenland Cultural Center and the Inuit Circumpolar Council, tells the story of 19th century explorer, Elisha Kent Kane, and his curious romance with Maggie Fox, the noted spiritualist and medium.

In April of 2023 will be a presentation of If Pat Comes Back, the "untold story of Bunny Yeager" by Susie K. Taylor. Additionally, Kat Mustatea will develop and present their latest work lelele, consisting of a series of narrative portraits incorporating human and computational vocalizations, livecoding, and fantastical body augmentations-with costuming influenced by Kia Labeija's queer body-morphisms and the Bauhaus body formalisms of Oscar Schlemmer's Triadic Ballet. April will also play host to a developmental reading of June Carryl's new play N*GGA B*TCH under the direction of Taylor Reynolds (Plano, Tambo and Bones). Exploring the intersection of race, gender, and resilience, this play tells the story of Nambi, a woman who periodically dies and comes back to life as different figures throughout history. Rounding out April, Clown Gym, led by performer and educator Julia Proctor in collaboration with members of the Examining Clown Cohort, will devise and share a new show called Today's Mess, a "funny, surprising and confusing clown show about diversity and inclusion."

May of 2023 will see the development of four new pieces. Rebecca Hart will develop and present her new one-person play How to Read Tarot Cards under the direction of Chloe Treat, based on Hart's own experience with the art of Tarot, the desire for magic, and its ability to lift us up as well as crush us. Playwright Stephen Kaplan will develop and present a reading of his new play The John Wilkes Booth High School for the Performing Arts Presents: The Most Inclusive, Least Offensive Play Ever about a group of parents who threaten to remove the theater program after realizing that all theater is offensive. Dancer and choreographer Ragin Smith will develop and present her latest piece Tastes Like Your Tongue exploring the differing levels of intimacy and tension surrounding a group of characters around a table.

Rounding out May of 2023 will be the first public workshop of Calvin Hitchcock's PROPHET$, a multimedia opera-theatre work with co-librettist Delilah McCrea. An original concept developed by Hitchcock, McCrea and David Grandouiller, this work explores the complexity and liminality of religious experience growing up in American Evangelicalism. By interweaving hymn tunes, Sunday school songs, sacred classical music, children's literature, and 1950s military propaganda with the parables of Jesus, PROPHET$ lives in the space between the Sacred and the Profane, challenging binaries, certainties, and ultimately cynicism. The production will be directed by George R. Miller, and features costume design by Weijing Xiao. Casting and dates to be announced soon.

In June, Persephone and the Phoenix (comprised of musicians Nicole Brancato and Teagan Faran) will premiere their performance piece 9 Ways to Destroy a Violin, an interactive installation piece that repurposes instruments past the point of repair in new musical ventures. The cell will also present in June, visual artist Kamari Carter-along with collaborator Ololade Adeniyi-will present METACOGNITION, an exhibition which seeks to open a dialogue about black culture, black youth, and about the power of the hopes, dreams and visual prophecies that continues to empower Black communities in their resistance towards social and political erasure.

June will also usher in the Off-Broadway premiere of Sam Hurley's play I'm Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire. To cope with the absence of her father, neglect of her mother, and ridicule by her classmates, eighth grader Shelby Hinkley decides to risk it all for love, kidnap famous actor Tobey Maguire and marry him in her basement. Her fantasies of happily ever after start to crumble as she realizes Tobey may not be the charismatic, heartthrob actor she thinks she knows while Tobey does whatever he can to escape the clutches of his number one fan. The play is directed by Tyler Struble and produced by Watermark Productions, led by Jacob Stuckelman. Cast and dates to be announced.

In September Suzanne Karpinski, will mount a fully immersive piece The Tiger's Bride, a musical circus theater exploration of classic fairy-tales, retold through a feminist perspective. Based on the novella "The Bloody Chamber" by Angela Carter, each tale employs a physical approach to storytelling through live music and contemporary circus disciplines including aerial arts - fabric, rope, trapeze; as well as contortion, acrobatics, and flow arts. Anton Nickel and Shiny Galeani will serve as additional producers with lighting design by Liquid Light Lab's Steve Pavlovsky.

In October, playwright and director Wendy Biller will develop and present a workshop of her latest play with music Beatrice, featuring original compositions by Caroline Hawthorne. This dark comedy explores the universal effects of trauma and the people often forgotten in the wake of tragedy: with the help of a chorus of Carmelite nuns.

In November Evan Silver aka Tiresius will premiere the third installment of their triptych of performance works entitled CRYPTOCHROME, a collective ritual meditation on "wayfinding beyond the limited scope of the visible". Featuring original sound, music, text, and composed using musical chromaticism as its dramaturgical spine, CRYPTOCHROME asks audiences to look within-and without-to reflect on how we navigate through the world. Rounding out November David Finnigan will present his piece You're Safe Until 2024. In a performance that interweaves 75,000 years of humanity with the incredibly personal account of his best friend's escape, Finnigan calls on scientific research, phone footage and storytelling to illuminate unprecedented global change and how we've arrived here. Shot through with humor, pop culture and a rich electronic soundtrack, You're Safe Til 2024 speaks of resilience and hope. Dates to be announced later.

2021 Resident Artist, Rachel Rampleman will continue her work into 2023, chronicling alt-drag performers through video portraiture while also documenting and archiving the cell's 2023 resident artists. Also slated for 2023, Founding Artistic Director Nancy Manocherian and director Joseph Hendel will develop her new piece Alice In Phallusland: dates and casting to be announced.

ABOUT THE CELL:

Nancy Manocherian's the cell theatre (Artistic Director Kira Simring) is a not-for-profit dedicated to the incubation and presentation of new work across all artistic disciplines. Through the creative process, the cell community aims to mine the mind, pierce the heart and awaken the soul. Founded in 2006 as a "21st century salon", the cell has provided a developmental home in the heart of Chelsea for the performing arts, food artists, cyborg theatre artists, musicians, installation artists, choreographers and more. Past projects include when the blossom passes what remains?, The Final Veil, the revival of Elizabeth Swados' Nightclub Cantata, What Keeps You Going? by HOLDTIGHT, Fruma-Sarah (Waiting in the Wings) (starring Jackie Hoffman), Life is Drag by Rachel Rampleman, Persou by Ellpetha Tsivicos and Camilo Quiroz-Vazquez, Tolerance Party, Found, Hoard (co-produced with Off the Wall), The Evolution of Mann, Bastard Jones (a Drama-Desk Award nominee), Crackskull Row, Hey Jude, Rady & Bloom's Peter/ Wendy, The McGowan Trilogy, Horse Girls, Hard Times: An American Musical (now the Tony-Award Winning Paradise Square) and Dinner and Delusion. Work developed at the cell has been seen on Broadway, Irish Repertory Theatre, MCC, Rattlestick Playwrights' Theatre, New World Stages, Cherry Lane Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Portland Stage, Toyohashi Arts Theatre, Kino Theater, UK, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Carnegie Stage, Carnegie Museum of Art, and Art Basel Miami

ABOUT THE ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE:

Sita Chay

is a violinist, composer, and a music director who won a 2017 Latin Grammy Award for Best Mariachi Album, as violinist of the Flor de Toloache. She is also an awardee of New York Foundation for the Arts Women's Fund, NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, New Music USA's Creator Development Fund, Joe's Pub Working Group Fund, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Creative Engagement Grant for various projects she is envisioning. Ms. Chay is the director and a founder of the Korean Shaman Music Ritual, SaaWee, which was received by international critics as a "delicate powerhouse". For SaaWee, she has interwoven her theatrical experiences from Broadway shows, folkloric spirituality from Korean shaman rituals, and contemporary music flare from New York jazz scenes. SaaWee's Return of Songbirds debuted at the Lincoln Center as part of #Retartstage project in 2021 and was invited to Ars Electronica Festival 2021. SaaWee won the California Music Video Awards 2022 in Best World Music category.

James Clements

(he/him) is a Scottish writer, performer, theatermaker and arts educator based between New York and Scotland. Clements has performed at venues including La Mama E.T.C., HERE and MITU580, and has been on the creative team for projects at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Lincoln Centre LCT3 and the 92nd Street Y. His source-based experimental plays include "The Diana Tapes" (2016), "Four Sisters" (2017), "Beauty Freak" (2018), "MEDEA/BRITNEY" (2019), "Ellis Island" (2021) and "Brothers in Arms" (2022). These plays have been described by critics as "magnifying" (TimeOut), "intricate" (BroadwayWorld), "compelling" (The Guardian), "affecting" (Playbill) and "intellectual" (Theatre is Easy), and have been performed in cities across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. He has taught at CUNY Queens College and the Wuhan Institute of Design and Science and is an Affiliated Instructor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. He is Co-Founding Artistic Director of What Will the Neighbours Say? and an Artist-in-Residence with the Brooklyn Arts Council and Culture Lab. His work has been recognised by the Queens Council for the Arts, DCLA, NYFA, A.R.T./NY and Creatives Rebuild New York, amoungst others.

The Why Collective

is a collegium of creators and thinkers, seeking to find deeper truths through the art of questioning. Founded in 2021 by Sydney Anderson, the organization invites a rotating roster of artists of various disciplines to play together in a round-table style of inception and creation. The Why Collective's launch project, Vexations in Time, was premiered in October 2021 in Anita's Way (Times Square), and remounted at Nancy Manocherian's the cell theatre for an overnight immersive experience, featuring sixteen hours of unbroken performances by musicians, dancers, poets, visual artists, Burlesque artists, and more. www.thewhycollective.art Founder and Artistic director, Sydney Anderson, is a versatile soprano, actor, educator, and producer. A contemporary classical music enthusiast, Sydney has participated in numerous World Premieres and workshops at various stages of creation. She has most recently been featured with Beth Morrison Projects, HERE Arts, American Lyric Theater, Opera Saratoga, and Opera Neo. Last season, she created the roles of Dalinda in Being Ariodante (Jonathan Dawe) with Ensemble Échappée, and One in it is a comfort to know (Liz Gartman and Susan Bywaters) with Contemporaneous, and this season will sing Lover in the World Premiere of Uncovered (Lori Laitman and Leah Lax) with City Lyric Opera. Sydney was named an Eastern Region Finalist after winning the Eastern District of the 2019 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and went on to win the Audience Favorite Award at the Region Finals. www.sydneyandersonsoprano.com

Julian Wild

is a music producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor, and experimental sound artist. NPR Music says he has a "Sultry, swoon-worthy voice," and his original music has been streamed in over 50 countries. Juls is the Director of Production for The Why Collective, a Recording and Mixing Engineer at The National Opera Center of Opera America, and an Audio Technician and Crew Chief for Bentley Meeker Lighting and Sound. Recent clients include Rockefeller Center, World Wildlife Fund, HERE Arts, Gotham Hall and Emitha Records. He is also a creativity and wellness coach for artistic individuals and organizations via his service Let Me Help You Love You. His teachings, compositions, and talents have recently been featured at Santa Fe Opera, Detroit Youth Symphony, ArtPark, American Ballet Theater, Collective Conservatory, Princeton University, and The University of New Mexico. linktr.ee/actualjulian

Vayl Luella Larkin

is a trans/enby, wheelchair-enhanced writer and all-purpose nerd. A New York native, past employment ranges from Opera Singer to Exotic Dancer, but they have settled happily in Pittsburgh, where they write poetry, short fiction, theater, and sometimes impassioned essays. They have been published in Drunk Monkeys, the anthology Love Letters to Gaia, and received a 2021 Brooklyn Poets fellowship. Vayl's new play, The Words of the Prophets, will be premiered during The Why Collective's residency. https://linktr.ee/vayllarkin

Nicole Kenley-Miller

is a maker-of poetry, music, theatre, film, and visual art. She is the founder of Intersection Arts in Houston, most recently conceiving The Women Have Something to Say, a genre-bending theatrical music work about women's voices. Excerpts of the show were featured on the Kennedy Center's virtual series, and a new version of the work will be premiered as the final installation of The Why Collective's residency. Nicole is known for her direction of colorful opera and music theatre productions, both on stage and film. As a performer, she explores the analog of the "singer-songwriter" tradition in classical music, singing her own poetry and lyrics set by contemporary composers.

www.nicolekenleymiller.com

Bryce McClendon

(they/them) is an accomplished countertenor, writer, and early music vocal coach. Their new play, The Smallest Sound in the Smallest Space, will be premiered during The Why Collective's residency. As a singer, they were a Regional Finalist in the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, they originated the title role in the world premiere of Jonathan Dawe's opera, Being Ariodante, with Ensemble Échappé, and they were a 2019 Eva & Marc Stern Fellow at SongFest in Los Angeles. Their writing can be sampled on their blog, The Scale. www.brycemcclendon.com.

Shuai Chen

is a community builder and experience designer based in NYC. She currently runs Gr8er Good Games / Patchwork Adventures, which focuses on creating playful team-building experiences (virtual, hybrid, and in-person). Since the rise of virtual events, she's expanded her company to include over 100 artists, facilitators, actors, and game creators. Before pivoting to working with corporate team-building, Shuai hosted games and puzzle-experiences as public events, private events, birthday parties, community festivals, and more. She also co-founded several nonprofit initiatives based around community and authentic connection, wellness through community, and female entrepreneurship. Before that, Shuai ran SCRAP, a nonprofit dedicated to creative reuse in San Francisco.

Trey Coates-Mitchell

Directing credits: Sam's Room at The Cell (New York Theatre Barn's New Works Series). Choreographer credits: The Pirates of Penzance and Hairspray at Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre, Wonderful Town at The Gallery Players, Harold Pinter's The Lover at Gamut Theatre, Goodnight Moon and Nine at Hollins University, and Product Test for Sideways Contemporary Dance Company. Associate Choreographer credits: A Little Night Music at The Gallery Players (NYIT Nominee for Outstanding Production of a Musical), Rent, Dreamgirls and Evita. As an Acting for Dancers guest artist: Joffrey Ballet School, Project HEAL, Broadway Boot Camp, Troy University, and NYCDA's Summer Dance Intensive.

Marc Campbell

is a member of indie rock band MisterWives, dubbed by MTV as "the golden children of pop." They currently have over 250 million streams and counting on Spotify and their first single was certified gold. The band recently played a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden playing with Brendon Uri (Panic! at the Disco). Marc has made numerous television appearances, including Jimmy Kimmel, James Corden, Seth Meyers, MTV, Good Morning America and The Today Show. The band has also received prominent billing in major U.S. music festivals including Bonnaroo, Firefly, Lalapalooza, Outside Lands, Bottle Rock and more.

Caitlin Marie Bell

is a songwriter, performer, and board-certified music psychotherapist based in New York City and originally from Atlanta, Georgia. As a performer, she has toured nationally and internationally, playing in renowned venues such as the Ryman Auditorium and Hammerstein Ballroom with bands Bell the Band and Handsome Ghost. Her songs blend traditional folk and blues structures, and weave together timeless tales with modern storytelling.As a writer, Caitlin is a core collaborator on the new musical theatre production, Sam's Room, a National Alliance for Musical Theatre New Works Series participant and recipient of honors from Nancy Manocherian's the cell theatre and New York Theatre Barn. The project has also collaborated with organizations such as Red Mountain Theatre Company's Human Rights New Works Festival, The Foster Schmidt Dancy Academy, and The Exceptional Foundation.Caitlin holds a master's degree in music therapy from New York University and is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory's vocal performance program. When not performing and writing, she practices music psychotherapy at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, providing inpatient and outpatient services across the lifespan.

Dale Sampson

is a Grand National Champion in public speaking. Dale is the creator of his first written work, Sam's Room, the 2017 inaugural recipient of New York Theatre Barn's IMPACT Award. National Tour: Seussical (Cat In the Hat), NYC productions: Rent (Mark), Evita (Che), Propaganda! The Musical (Rookie [lead]) at NYMF and workshop at Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, Kingdom Come(Freddy/Michael) winner: Best Musical at DUTF, Best Imitation at FestivALL, Emerging Artists, and Midtown International Theatre Festival, Regional: The View UpStairs regional premiere (Wes), The Last Five Years (Jamie), Cinderella with the American Pops Orchestra (Fairy Godmother/King/Step Sister).

Kat Mustatea

is transmedia playwright and artist whose language and performance works enlist absurdity, hybridity, and the computational uncanny to dig deeply into what it means to be human. She has written plays in which people turn into lizards, a woman has a sexual relationship with a swan, and a one-eyed cyclops tries to fit into Manhattan society by getting a second eye surgically implanted in his head. Her TED talk, about puppets and AI, takes a novel approach to the meaning of machines making art. She is currently an Artist in Residence at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, a member of The Orchard Project's 2022/23 Greenhouse Lab, and a project fellow at NYU's ITP/IMA Program. Her most recent hybrid work, Voidopolis, is forthcoming in 2023 from MIT Press as an augmented reality book. The work previously won the Arts and Letters Unclassifiable Prize for literature and the Dante Prize for art, and has been exhibited internationally in a variety of digital and physical formats, including at Ars Electronica. Her mixed reality play, Lizardly, premiered at MAXLive: The Neuroverse, co-produced by New York Live Arts, and was named among the Digital Dozen Breakthrough In Storytelling Awards from Columbia's Digital Storytelling Lab.

Sam Hurley

(she/her) is a Maine raised, New York City based comedy writer and theater educator. After receiving her BA in Theatre Studies from Ithaca College, Sam's work has been seen at Upright Citizen's Brigade, People's Improv Theater, and NY Winterfest. She's previously worked at the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY as their education intern.

Cate Wiley

Wiley's work is informed by her commitment to telling women's stories. Her characters resist the violence of being silenced; they insist on being heard. Her plays mostly end with the protagonist keeping on keeping on, having neither achieved what she thought she wanted, nor giving up completely. There is hope but not too much. There is a relationship but it is tenuous. She studied playwriting at the Kenyon Playwriting Conference, and community-based theater at Cornerstone Theater in Los Angeles. She holds academic degrees from the University of Chicago, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is the author of scholarly essays on feminist theory and theater. Cate moved from Denver to New York City just in time for the Coronavirus. She taught in the English Department at the University of Colorado Denver for many years and is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the WOW Café Theater Collective.

Rebecca Hart

is a writer and performer based in NYC. She studied Theatre at Brown, trained as an actor at the Maggie Flanigan Studio, then (later) got her MFA in Book & Lyric writing at NYU's The Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Acting credits include a CT Critics Circle 2019 Award and 2017 Best Actress Nomination, the 2019 Public Theater National Tour of SWEAT, and extensive regional work. As a songwriter, she won the 2017 NY Innovative Theatre Award for Best Original Music and her work has appeared in productions at Woolly Mammoth, Target Margin, The Public Shakespeare Lab, the NY Hip-Hop Theatre festival, the Village Theatre, The National Theatre of Oslo, and The Civilians Theatre Company (Associate Artist). She performs regularly as Rebecca Hart & the Wrong Band; recent shows include the Brooklyn Americana Festival, the Porch Stomp on Governors' Island, the Kripalu Yoga Center, the Irish Arts Center NYC, and the Rockwood Music Hall. Her 2018 album The Magician's Daughter is available to stream. She studied Theatre at Brown University, trained as an actor for two years at the Maggie Flanigan Studio, and (later) got her MFA from NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Her thesis musical IRON JOHN: an american ghost story (with composer/collaborator Jacinth Greywoode) has been produced and/or developed at NYU Tisch, Theatreworks Silicon Valley, the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, Temple University, the Manhattan School of Music and the 2019 National Alliance for Musical Theatre Festival. In 2020, she was one of three librettists commissioned by the Kennedy Center's American Opera Initiative. She writes a weekly substack called From The Chrysalis. She is thrilled to be in residency at The Cell working on her first solo show (How To Read Tarot Cards) in many years. www.rebeccahart.net, Tarot readings at www.cleartarotnyc.com

Chloe Treat

is a New York-based director and choreographer. Born and raised in the great, if not wildly problematic state of Texas, she directs and choreographs big-ass-musicals. Chloe began her life in the arts as a dancer and has since worked as a director and choreographer of musicals, operas, and highly theatrical plays. Her training and work in various mediums influenced her direction in theater to rely heavily on movement, music, and design as storytelling tools. Chloe is the director and choreographer of a number of new musicals and operas, most recently: Taking up Serpents and Holy Ground (The Glimmerglass Festival), Dave Malloy's Don't Stop Me(Manhattan School of Music and The Polyphone Festival), and Iron John (Irish Arts Center (upcoming)). Chloe is an associate artist for Heartbeat Opera where she choreographed Carmen, Lucia di Lammermoor, Daphnis and Chloe and Don Giovanni as well as co-directed a New York Times Critics' Pick production of Der Freischütz. Chloe choreographed (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at Santa Fe Opera, The Good Swimmer, Thomas Paine in Violence, and Words on the Street at HERE arts as well as the American premiere of the Philip Glass opera, The Perfect American. Chloe has worked as an associate on a number of large commercial productions including Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway and the American Repertory Theater), Amelie (Berkeley Rep), and Heisenberg(Broadway). She has also directed and choreographed large musical productions at many educational institutions including Pace (Amelie), Manhattan School of Music (Spring Awakening, Iron John, Wild Party), The New School (Street Scene) and Wagner (Evita). Chloe has her BFA in Drama from Tisch School Of The Arts. She's an SDC Member and a Drama League Directing Fellow. Chloe was listed as one of the Broadway Women's Fund "Women to Watch" in 2020 and received a grant from Opera America for Women Stage Directors and Conductors in 2022. Chloe is the mother of two-year-old, Cora, and has presented her writing about the intersection of motherhood and directing in industry publications like the SDC journal. Her ultimate goal as a director is to create spaces that value equally both artistic excellence and treating people well.

Stephen Kaplan

is an award-winning playwright with productions off-broadway and in regional theaters nationally. His upcoming productions include the world premieres of Tracy Jones at Williamston Theatre, Michigan and CenterStage, Rochester, and the world premiere of Branwell (and other Brontës): An Autobiography Edited by Charlotte Brontë at Loft Ensemble, Los Angeles. Tracy Jones is currently a finalist for B Street Theater (Sacramento, CA)'s New Comedies Festival, and was a finalist for the ScreenCraft Stage Play Contest and the Trustus Playwrights Festival. It was one of two chosen for a developmental reading at Chameleon Theatre, Minnesota. Branwell was a semi-finalist for the O'Neill. His other productions include A Real Boy, which premiered in New York at 59E59, and And Jack Came Tumbling After, which premiered at The Old Globe Theatre. He is a 2021 Individual Artist Fellowship winner in playwriting from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and his plays have also been finalists and semi-finalists for such institutions as Seven Devils, Woodward/Newman Award, PlayPenn, and FutureFest, and been published by Dramatists Play Service. He earned his BFA from NYU - Playwrights Horizons Theatre School and his MFA from Point Park University. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and serves as Northeastern Regional Representative on the DG National Council. For more information visit www.bystephenkaplan.com

Ragin Smith

is a dance artist originally from Maryland, now based in Brooklyn. She works to develop deconstructed narratives by stringing together contexts of movement, poetry, visual art, and music. She has presented work at The Tank, Fabled Narcissism, ESTIA Day Fest, and as an artist in residence at the Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation. Ragin has performed works by Brendan Fernandes, Evan Ray Suzuki, Andrea Miller, Valeria Gonzalez, MORGAN BOBROW-WILLIAMS, Ryan Bailey, Troy Ogilvie, La Intrusa Company, and more!​​ She received a BFA in Dance and a Minor in Business Management from Marymount Manhattan College. Aside from her freelance projects, Ragin is a member of the Wet Hairy Women Collective, Hivewild, MORISATO, and Alison Chase Performance Group. She works closely with Haley Morgan Miller to direct and produce the Fabled Narcissism arts events.

Rae Binstock

grew up in Cambridge, MA. She earned her B.A. from Columbia University, where she was mentored by David Henry Hwang and Ellen McLaughlin. Her plays include That Heaven's Vault Should Crack (The New Group, Lark Development Center, T. Schreiber's Studios), land of no mercy (Landing Theatre Company, Salt Lake Acting Company, Princess Grace finalist), Consequences (Stella Adler's Playwrights Division, Jane Chambers Award finalist), and WALKERS (The Shelter, O'Neill Conference semifinalist, Jerome Fellowship finalist) and her work has been produced and developed as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival, Jewish Plays Project, and the Fresh Fruit Festival, among others. Rae's pilot Homecoming was selected for the 2020 WriteHer List and was a semifinalist for the ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship; she is a two-time semifinalist for the Sundance Episodic Lab. Rae served as the Writers' Assistant on both FX Networks' FOSSE/VERDON and Apple+'s shows Schmigadoon and IF/THEN. She is also one of the two authors of the Climate Storytelling Playbook, a writing guide for climate change stories published by Good Energy. Rae is a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a Rita Goldberg Playwrights Workshop Fellow at the Lark, and a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow. She has attended numerous residencies, including the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, PLAYA Summer Lake, and the Ragdale Foundation. She lives in Los Angeles with her cat, Black Cat.

June Carryl

Carryl's plays include GIRL BLUE (Center Theatre Group's L.A. Writers Workshop), FLORENCE & NORMANDIE (Golden Tongues - Diversifying the Classics Initiative - UCLA and Playwrights Arena); PROUD BOY (developed at Echo Theater Lab and Rogue Machine Theatre); N *GGA B*TCH (Boston Court Theater's 17th Annual New Plays, originally developed at Vagrancy Theater's Blossoming Project); THE GOOD MINISTER HARARE (Playwrights Arena Summer Series, ADAA Saroyan/Paul Award) CONSORTIUM (Lower Depths Theatre Ensemble BIPOC Vote Plays), TOW (Coeurage Theatre's NOMAD PROJECT), THE LIFE AND DEATH OF (Vagrancy Theatre), COLOSSUS (Semi-Finalist, O'Neill National Playwrights Conference), and STONE ANGELS (Finalist, the Killroys). Part One of her collaboration with composer Jason Barabba about Aunt Jemima premiered as part of Overtone Industries inaugural ORIGINAL VISION Opera Development Series. June is the 2022 recipient of IAMA's Shonda Rhimes Unsung Voices Playwriting Commission. Favorite acting roles include Fraulein Schneider in Celebration Theatre's CABARET, and Gerty Fail in Coeurage Theatre's FAILURE: A LOVE STORY.

Julia Proctor

is a performer, teacher, and community builder. In 2014 she founded Clown Gym, which over the years has grown into New York City's home for clown and physical comedy. Clown Gym's mission is to build community, spread joy, and support artists as they embrace their humor, beauty, frailty, skill, intelligence, passion, and dreams through affordable high-quality training, teacher mentorship programming, new work development, shows, and community events. Julia completed an MFA from Shakespeare Theatre Company's Academy for Classical Acting, and has studied with some of the most prestigious clown teachers in the world including Philippe Gaulier and Chris Bayes, with whom she completed a pedagogical apprenticeship. She was a founding member of the Funny School of Good Acting's Commedia Company, and is a proud member of Actor's Equity. Her original work has been produced by the People's Improv Theatre, Project Y, and Dutch Kills Theatre Company. She currently teaches Games and Clown into Shakespeare at the New Studio on Broadway at NYU Tisch, and has been on faculty at Pace University, Middlebury College, and the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Julia was Beanie Feldstein's personal Clown Coach for Funny Girl on Broadway.

Suzanna Karpinski

is a multidisciplinary artist specializing in immersive production, direction, and narrative design. She is also an aerialist, musician and performer. This makes me very well rounded and able to bring many different perspectives and types of experiences to bear on any project or problem that needs solving. I love bringing people together to tell stories and create unique experiences. She is the founder and artistic director of Theatre Uzume, a project based company that fosters the development of hybrid theatre. She served as co-artistic director for Sacred Fools Theatre Company in Los Angeles where she received the Critics Circle Polly Warfield Award. She received her MFA in Directing from The New School for Drama where she wrote and developed her original adaptation In the Hand of Dreams, based on Japanese folk tales. Her work has been presented at HERE Arts, Dixon Place, The Flea, Fringe NYC, The Tank, The Muse Brooklyn, The Davenport, Access Theater, and The Living Theatre. In addition, she has trained and assistant directed regionally at HERE Arts, La Mama, Pasadena Playhouse, The Old Globe, and South Coast Repertory and recently completed her training as an aerialist at Circus Warehouse in NYC.

Michael Dellaira

born in Schenectady, New York, Dellaira has degrees in philosophy and music from Georgetown (B.A.), The George Washington (M.Mus) and Princeton Universities (M.F.A., Ph.D). He also attended the Universität zu Köln in Germany and, in Italy, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia and the Accademia Chigiana. His primary teachers were Milton Babbitt, Paul Lansky, Goffredo Petrassi and Franco Donatoni. He had two residencies at The Composers Conference, where he studied with Roger Sessions and Mario Davidovsky. His awards include First Prize for his monodrama Maud from the Society of Composers, an ASCAP Morton Gould Award, a Fulbright Fellowship, grants from the Ford and Mellon Foundations, the New Jersey Arts Council, Cary Trust, the American Music Center, and a Jerome Commission from the American Composers Forum. His Chéri was a finalist for the American Academy of Arts and Letters Richard Rodgers Award in Musical Theater. The Secret Agentwas named the Armel International Opera Festival's "Laureat", and his one-act opera The Death of Webern was named one of the "5 Best New Works" of 2016 by Opera News. The Leopard, his third and last collaboration with librettist J. D. McClatchy before McClatchy's death in 2018, premiered on March 5, 2022 at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, in a production by the Frost School of Music, conducted by Gerard Schwarz and directed by Jeffrey Buchman, with music direction by Alan Johnson, and featuring Kim Josephson, Frank Ragsdale, Robynne Redmon, and Kevin Short. Dellaira has taught music at The George Washington University, Princeton University, and Union College.

Calvin Hitchcockis

a composer, performer, and music director based in Jersey City, NJ. Described as "impressive," and having "a fine ear for sonority" (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review), his work explores musical memory, themes of religious control, subversion and faith, and experiments with narrative form and interdisciplinary integration. His opera "819: based on the Stanford Prison Experiment" placed second in the 2019-20 American Prize, and he has received honors from the Kennedy Center for his incidental music. In addition to working as a music director, pianist and entertainer, Calvin is a Teaching Artist for TADA! Youth Theater. He holds a BM in Composition from Cedarville University, a Southern Baptist university in Ohio, and is currently pursuing an MM at The New School, studying with David T. Little. www.calvinhitchcock.com

Persephone & the Phoenix

is a wildfire of creative plenty. Through their playful curiosity, the NYC-based duo taps into the synergy between composition, curation, and technology by expanding the boundaries of genre, stage, and storytelling. Nicole Brancato, keys, and Teagan Faran, strings, invite the world to join in on their collaborative energy exchanges. Formed on the tropical island of Manhattan, P&tP create to connect our larger social consciousness with the realities of our modern human experience. Together, Nicole and Teagan's extensive credits include the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Lincoln Center (NYC); Bellas Artes Centro Cultural (Mexico); Gesellschaftshaus Magdeburg (Germany); the Fulbright Program (Argentina), and the Kennedy Center (Washington D.C).

The duo is dedicated to cross-disciplinary conversation. In July 2022, they premiered their latest multimedia concert Fire in which we Burn in Canada's Banff Centre of the Arts, featuring live adaptive visuals and fixed media. With the life cycle of fire as its narrative, the piece wonders at the state of the world, from climate change to the sociopolitical environment. In the coming '22/'23 season, they will premiere a new work called 9 Ways to Destroy a Violin while in residence at Nancy Manocherian's the cell theatre (NYC).

In addition to their expansive performance projects, Teagan and Nicole are avid educators and curators. Teagan is on faculty at DePauw University in Indiana as Assistant Professor of Violin where she also runs the Electronic Experimentation Lab, and Nicole is Director of the Seven Hills Chamber Music Festival in Virginia and curator of the acclaimed NYC installation .soundfullness. Frequent guest presenters of workshops, masterclasses, lectures, and residencies, Nicole and Teagan have delivered sessions for the Gesellschaftshaus Magdeburg (Germany), the University of North Carolina Greensboro, the University of Southern Mississippi, and the Sphinx Organization.

Kamari Carter

is a producer, performer, sound designer, and installation artist primarily working with sound and found objects. Carter's practice circumvents materiality and familiarity through a variety of recording and amplification techniques to investigate notions such as space, systems of identity, oppression, control, and surveillance. Driven by the probative nature of perception and the concept of conversation and social science, he seeks to expand narrative structures through sonic stillness. Carter's work has been exhibited at such venues as Automata Arts, MoMA, Mana Contemporary, RISD Museum, Flux Factory, Lenfest Center for the Arts, WaveHill and has been featured in a range of major publications including ArtNet, Precog Magazine, LevelGround and WhiteWall. Carter holds a BFA in Music Technology from California Institute of the Arts and an MFA in Sound Art from Columbia University.

Ololade Adeniyi

(b.1995) is a Nigerian-Australian new media artist. She holds a B.Arch (Honors) and a B.A in Illustration and Digital Media and works through an interdisciplinary practice of video, sound and installation. At its core, her work investigates urban social commentary and the direct relationship it has in developing cultural identity. Adeniyi also explores how minority groups use technology to recreate utopian desires, reclaim space, or redefine ownership.

Evan Silver

(aka Tiresias) is a hybrid writer, director, composer, and performer staging encounters across theatre, music, video, and the literary arts. Raised in the vibrant city of Chicago by a banjo-playing printmaker and an architect, Evan developed a passion for multimedia storytelling from an early age. Evan gravitates toward stories of journey and transformation, drawing on ancient and contemporary myths, tales, tropes and archetypes to fabulate new ways of being and becoming in the world. Evan is fascinated by birds, gods, strangers, and the living universe, and has written and directed fifteen original theatre productions on three continents. Evan has essays published in Eclectica, Epiphany, The Mays, Audrey Niffenegger's Artists Book House, and Roxane Gay's The Audacity. Evan graduated from Brown University with a bachelor's in Literary Arts and a focus in Writing for Performance, and holds master's degrees in devised theatre practice and classical reception from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and King's College, Cambridge. Evan has also trained at Drama Centre London, the Yale School of Drama, the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and with master topeng and wayang kulit artists in Bali. Evan is a Luce, Marshall, and Fulbright Scholar. Evan is currently developing a triptych of new music theatre works as Tiresias, queer oracle of the Underworld. Follow the journey on Instagram @whoistiresias. Please don't hesitate to reach out to evan@evansilver.net with enquiries related to work, collaboration, curiosity, and creative exchange.

David Finnigan

David produces performances and writing that explores concepts from Game Theory, Complex Systems science, Network Theory and Resilience. He works regularly across the UK, Australia and the Philippines. David has worked with climate and Earth System scientists from institutions including University College London, the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the Australian Academy of Science, the Wellcome Trust and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. David is a member of Australian science-theatre ensemble Boho and an associate of Coney (UK). David is a Churchill Fellow (2012), an Australia Council Early Career Fellow (2014-16)and an Asialink Fellow (2015). He has been a resident artist for the Battersea Arts Centre in London, Tanghalang Pilipino in Manila and Campos de Gutierrez in Medellin, Colombia.His work has been performed at the Sydney Opera House, the London Science Museum, ArtScience Singapore, Melbourne's AsiaTOPA Festival, the World Bank Understanding Risk Forum, FutureFest London, the Griffin Theatre in Sydney and the Cultural Center of the Philippines. David was awarded the Green Room Award for Best Writing for Are You Ready To Take The Law Into Your Own Hands in 2021. His playscript Kill Climate Deniers was awarded the 2017 Griffin Award. His play 44 Sex Acts In One Week has been nominated for the Soho Theatre's Verity Bargate Award, the Patrick White Award and the Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award. He has been nominated for the Queensland Premiers Literary Award (Vampire Play, 2004) and the Max Afford Playwrights Award (Oceans All Boiled Into Sky, 2006), and Kill Climate Deniers, 2014). David founded and co-directed two ongoing arts festivals: the Crack Theatre Festival in Newcastle (2009-10), and the You Are Here festival in Canberra (2011-13). He writes and presents original scripts, performances, interactive games and workshops for festivals, conferences and businesses.

Wendy Biller Theater

works include Leaves Falling on a Brooklyn Girl (Forward Theater); Fragile (Know Theatre, Binghamton, NY, Audience Award winner; also semi -finalist for Bridge Playwrights, Bechdel Test), An Intolerant Vaudeville which received an equity production at The Secret Theatre, also part of The Inkwell Play Series at KGB Literary Bar and at The Triad (Stage 72) NYC. The Refrigerator (Winner of the Andaluz jury prize, Fusion Theatre Company's The Seven, Albuquerque, New Mexico; also performed at Clark Center for the Arts, Worcester, Mass. under the direction of Raymond Munro as part of From the Hands of Strange Children. Wendy Biller comes from the world of choreography, where her collaborations include work with director Donald T. Sanders and visual artist Vanessa James (Ensemble for the Romantic Century). Her choreography for dance and theater has been staged in multiple venues in Europe and the USA, including The Public Theater, PS 1, New York Art Theatre, The Kitchen and New York/live arts/fresh tracks. Produced screenplays for film include projects for Showtime, TBS and FOX. Current theater projects in various stages of development include Annette Funicello is Dead. (Fountain theatre, end of play readings under France Luce Benson and Jordan Stovall (dramatist guild.) Other projects include The Education of Maria Fuentes, scheduled for a reading in Galway, Ireland. She was guest artist at Clark University where she taught movement and staged works including I Could See the Smallest Things by Raymond Carver, and La Ronde, by Arthur Schnitzler. Awards and honors include Writers Guild of America Award, National Endowment for the Arts Award, Emmy Nomination. Member of the Dramatists Guild and Writers Guild Of America.

Rachel Rampleman

creates bodies of work that explore subjects such as gender, artifice, and spectacle. Utilizing processes ranging from directorial to anthropological, she showcases exuberantly irrepressible personalities who revel in challenging clichés associated with masculinity and femininity. A sampling of recent subjects include Girls Girls Girls (the world's first and only all-female Mötley Crüe tribute band), Tazzie Colomb (the world's longest competing female bodybuilder), and LACTIC Incorporated (an avant-garde clothing brand that takes the detritus of corporate life and reinterprets it into one-of-a-kind structural garments that challenge the polarization of gender). With her current project "Life is Drag", she is documenting the most singular and innovative performers of the currently exploding alt-drag and neo-burlesque scenes. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, and currently living and working in New York City, she received her MFA from New York University in 2006. Since then her work has been shown internationally at the Shanghai Biennale (Brooklyn Pavilion, 2012-13) in China, the Chennai Photo Biennale (India), JAM in Bangkok, Thailand, and throughout Europe at S.M.A.K. (Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst) and Art Cinema OFFoff (Ghent, Belgium), Monte Arts Centre (Antwerp, Belgium), Terasa (Pilsen, Czech Republic), C/O Berlin, Die Fruhperle, and The Secret Cabinet (Berlin, Germany), and at VIDEONALE.16 at the Kunstmuseum Bonn. Rampleman recently had a survey exhibition on view at the Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts (Cincinnati, Ohio) as well as solo exhibitions at The Cell, VOLTA NY (New York), These Things Take Time (Ghent, Belgium), Wave Pool, Carl Solway Gallery and The Neon Heater Art Gallery (Ohio), 3S Artspace (Portsmouth, New Hampshire), Bloomfield Garden Club (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 42 Social Club (Connecticut), and an early career retrospective at The Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Art (CEPA Gallery) in Buffalo, New York. She is currently preparing for her upcoming solo exhibition at Auxiliary Projects and residency at The Cell (New York City).She has also created curatorial projects with Vanessa Albury as The Sun That Never Sets for venues such as The Frank Institute at CR10 in the Hudson Valley and SPRING/BREAK Art Show in NYC.Rachel's work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Art F City, Paper Magazine, Artnet, DRAIN, Domino, eyes toward the dove, HYPERALLERGIC, Gothamist, Berlin Art Parasites, the Fanzine, Seattle Pi, Absolute Arts, ÆQAI, and LeCool Bangkok, among others.

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