theatre artist

From ensemble to solo work, devisement to improvisation, adaptations to originals.

CHILD

In late 2019, myself and a group of 6 artists started making a new multidisciplinary, experimental performance work (tentatively titled Give It A Go) during residencies at HERE Arts and Target Margin Theater, which was cut short by the pandemic. Since then, we've expanded from 7 to 13 collaborating artists, a group we have named CHILD. In February 2022, after an intensive multi-day development period at Bard College, we presented work-in-progress showings of the piece at Life World in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Future residency time at the Mercury Store is scheduled for April 2022.

This piece is a large-scale pandemic-induced freak out lacking object permanence, barely situated in a mall jewelry store called DiFrederico's, jam-packed with security cameras, where food court purchases often vaporize before consumption and no one can figure out where the dog is (maybe vaporized). Come up to the jewelry depot, it's DiFrederico's. One eight hundred three five nine two, one one three five nine two (yeah).

Give It A Go at HERE Arts, Aug. 2019, photo by Suzi Sadler

The work of CHILD collaboratively coalesces from 13 brains in tandem: Angel Acuña dancer/performer, Catherine Brookman composer/vocalist/performer, Lena Engelstein performer/choreographic assistant, Lisa Fagan choreographer/director, Kirsten Harvey actor, Hannah Mitchell actor, Ampersand Paris dancer/performer, Nathan Repasz multi-instrumentalist/performer/music director, Eriq Robinson musician, Suzi Sadler video artist, Maya Simone dancer/performer, Maggie Toth musician, Shannon Yu dancer/performer

As a soloist, I explore the liminal zones between groove/noise, sense/nonsense, and improvisation/predetermination. As an ensemble member, I value collaboration and devised work across media.

The Bureau of Conceptual Designation

“It was probably the most original, inventive and absurd monologue I’ve ever experienced. So inventive. He delivered an immersive experience that relied on visceral understanding, not literal interpretation... I understood nothing but still comprehended his message.” - Marty Skomal, Director of Programs, Nebraska Arts Council

During the quarantine of 2020, I developed a satirical corporate powerpoint entitled The Unquestioned Interiority of Humankind from the perspective of a researcher for a fictional organization called The Bureau of Conceptual Designation, which is responsible for classifying all concepts in our universe. The piece invokes prohibitively dense and quasi-nonsensical technical jargon to highlight the ways in which technical/corporate language ultimately sanitizes and confuses “the truth”. I performed several iterations of the presentation in 2020-21 (at Do The Virtual Clown Show, Out of an Abundance of Caution, and most recently the Exponential Festival). The latter performance was featured in Elisabeth Vincentelli’s roundup of streaming theatre festivals in the New York Times

Language + Percussion Improvisations

As an improviser, I draw on presentation-style speech, gibberish that highlights rhythmic facets of language, percussion (often with found objects, especially in quarantine), referential esoterica, sung interludes, absurd/invented sounds and words, and a juxtaposition of sincere sentiment and nonsense. I’ve been fortunate to present work at Dixon Place, The Brick Theatre, The City Reliquary, Rockwood Music Hall, Hurrá in Reykjavik, Out of an Abundance of Caution, Do The Funny Show, and in the OPEN Improvisations Facebook group.

Pre-Show Presentation at CORIOLANUS: 2018 Midterm Election Extravaganza, presented by Shuga Pie Supreme at The Brick Theatre, Brooklyn

True Voyage Is Return, staged reading at the Forklift Series, Loading Dock Theatre, 10/20/19

True Voyage Is Return

This is a cross-disciplinary, improvisational, operatic adaptation of Ursula Le Guin’s 1974 science fiction novel The Dispossessed, which explores anarchism, capitalism, historical memory, state violence, and exile. It is a non-traditional musical rooted in improvisational movement, devised theatre, and the uniquely American idiom of free jazz. It’s a first-time collaboration by the Syndicate of Initiative, a non-hierarchical collective of dancers, vocalists, puppeteers, poets, musicians, actors, and theatre artists, predicated on deep collaboration across disciplines and an egalitarian development process. The musical tells the story of Shevek, a physicist who rejects isolationism on his native moon, Anarres, travels to neighboring planet Urras, attempting to reunite two ideologically divided societies. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, we had a residency at The Church at Mt. Vision and an October 2020 run at The Brick Theatre were planned, but are indefinitely postponed.

Bindlestiff Family Cirkus

I accompanied Sxip Shirey in developing and playing live musical/sonic accompaniment for Bindlestiff Family Cirkus’s summer 2019 show, Brooklyn Abridged, written/directed/designed by Tony and Emmy-winning designer David Gallo.

“The soundscape the two produce by a wild assortment of strange and wonderful gadgets invests the performance with a manic energy that is just about the best argument for live music in a circus that one would be lucky enough to come across, especially when it is created specifically for the circus.” - Spectacle Magazine, March 2020