WINTERWORKS 2021: NEW BEGINNINGS

We’ve spent the last four months in conversation with these eight directors, discussing craft, process and our industry (among other things). We are thrilled to now introduce you to their work, as they present short performances, each taking different shapes and experienced on different platforms, but working from the same set of prompts.

Some projects will be open to all, and some will be experienced by very few audience members – and everything is free to attend. We hope you’ll be intrigued to join us for one or many. We’ll roll out updates regularly – so stay tuned!

Rachel Gita Karp makes rigorously-researched performances about politics and public policy. Her current research focuses on reproductive health and rights, gender representation in politics, and voting. Rachel has developed and directed new performances about these topics and more through The Drama League, the Center for Artistic Activism, Irondale, Mabou Mines, Ars Nova, Actors Theatre of Louisville, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, The Wild Project, The Brick, The Flea, IRT, Dixon Place, Incubator Arts Project, Women Center Stage, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Orchard Project, and Barn Arts. Rachel is the 2020 Beatrice Terry Resident Director at The Drama League and is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and an affiliated artist with New Georges. BA, Columbia; MFA, Carnegie Mellon. At Carnegie Mellon Rachel was a John Wells Directing Fellow, which supported her academics, and a Milton and Cynthia Friedman Fellow, which supported her work in women’s policy research in Washington, D.C. www.rachelgitakarp.com

Temporary Occupant
In Person, Space Extremely Limited

directed by Rachel Gita Karp
produced by Djuna Knight
created with Frank Oliva (set designer), Mextly Couzin (lighting designer), Ethan Dubin (contributor), Kate Eberstadt (composer), Isaiah Howell (sound designer), and Jacob Russell (stage manager)

A personal inauguration
following the presidential one

January 21 – January 23, 2021
This show has now closed

TEMPORARY OCCUPANT took place at the Connelly Theater in the East Village for one audience member at a time.

Leonie Bell is a German-American theater-maker based in New York. She creates fake family parties, mass lullabies, pseudo-historical excursions, and other theatrical maps that endow the audience with more creative powers and foster a momentary feeling of belonging amongst strangers. Leonie’s artistic practice involves an irreverent reverence for the irrational and a relentless desire for community. Her pieces are bilingual, highly-physical, interdisciplinary care-taking rituals intended to cause a ruckus (where snacks are always served). In NYC, she has presented work at Target Margin Theater, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Performance Space NY, The Brick, Center for Performance Research, and other venues. She is a recent participant of the Mabou Mines RAP 2019 & BAX Upstart 2018-2019. Leonie also facilitates the theater project LOCAL GRANDMA and designs sound. (BA from Bard College; MFA in Theatre from Sarah Lawrence College.) www.leoniebell.org

Honey, I’m Home! Or Dinner Theater for the Amorous & Wretched
Live streamed, Ticketed

prepared and served by Leonie Bell
with Maria Camia, Rawya El Chab, Sarah Finn, & Mariel Sanchez

Dinner
was never so
Fraught (!)
Guts
spilled over into the
red (wine or
perhaps it was
love)
One might even call it
Drama
Yes
A Revival of
Dinner
P.S. Martinis & spite welcome

February 4 – February 6, 2021

Missed the show? You can watch a recording of the Friday, February 5 performance here, and don’t forget to check out the digital program too!

HONEY, I’M HOME! OR DINNER THEATER FOR THE AMOROUS & WRETCHED is performed twice within an hour. Each iteration runs fifteen to twenty minutes, followed by a short break. Just enough time to refill your beverage, call your sister Dolores for a quick gab, or frequent the fire escape for a breath of fresh air.

Keenan Tyler Oliphant is a Theatre-maker and Director from Cape Town, South Africa. Keenan’s work is in the lineage of the South African communal theatre-making and storytelling rituals and traditions. It is deeply interested in the merging of disciplines, art mediums and forms in an attempt to expand the global understanding of theatre and to dismantle and destabilize western forms that seem to hold ideological hostage of the medium. Keenan is a founding member of Mixing Bowl Productions, an underground music theatre company which focuses on the promotion of alternate and contemporary music theatre works. Keenan is a MFA in Directing for Theatre candidate at Columbia University and has directed collaborative pieces at festivals around New York including Dixon Place’s Hot Fest, Samuel French Off- Off Broadway Festival and The International Human Rights Arts Festival. He has served as second assistant director to Rachel Chavkin and Raja Feather Kelly.

Kyk Hoe Skyn die Son [Look at How the Sun Shines]
Live streamed, Ticketed

created by Keenan Tyler Oliphant, James Edward Becton, Erin Earle Fleming, David Glover, Nazareth Hassan, Mahayla Laurence, Dion Lamar Mills, Sami Pyne, Nia Akilah Robinson, and Vuyo Sotashe

I look in your eyes through multiple screens and the distance between us feels so vast—Do you remember me? Can I reach out to you through words on a page? Can our spirits commune as you move towards the ancestors?

I’ll sit. For 20 minutes. And write. To You. To the Spirit of You. And we will try. Try.

February 5 – February 7, 2021
This show has now closed

Michaela Escarcega is a multidisciplinary director, producer, sometimes actor that strives to create work that is decolonized, inclusive, experimental, and much much more brown. Tank Directorial credits include: Birthday in the Bronx by Paul Hufker (Tank 19/20 Season), By Jacqueline Wright (LadyFest 2018), Heredamos Nada (Darkfest 2018), Anne by Adi Eshman, and various works by Former Tank Co-Artistic Director, Rosalind Grush. Other directorial and dramaturgy credits include: When We Went Electronic (Caitlin Saylor Stephens), Chained (The Wild Project) and Angels in America, Part 1 (CSU, Northridge). Michaela was a 2018 Powerhouse resident at New York Stage and Film with The Sisyphus Project (Larry Biederman), and a member of the 2019 Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. Michaela holds a B.A. in Theater Arts with honors from CSU, Northridge. For her occasionally funny content, visit @mickadoodle on IG. For proof of serious artist work, visit michaelaescarcega.com.

Michaela & You: an indefinite draft and exquisite corpse
Online Release

director Michaela Escarcega
creative producer Sohrob Keynejad
writing associate Eliana Theologides-Rodriguez
director of photography and editing consultant Madeline Harsh
sound design Anthony Dean
artwork Reau Taylor
co-devisors Ashley J.”AJ” Mandanas, Bekah Medford, Hannah Church, Lee Osorio, and Marium Khalid

On a road trip from her California childhood home to her current New York home, Michaela encounters strangers representing the pivotal people and places that have shaped her worldview and self-view from childhood to now. A cross-country identity crisis, Michaela & You builds an exquisite corpse from the “American people” who make a portrait of Michaela, and You.

Released February 19, 2021
Keep an eye on @indefinitedraft for the final exquisite portrait

Joan Sergay is a Brooklyn-based director of new work, originally from Washington, D.C. She has worked at Playwrights Horizons, Clubbed Thumb, Vineyard Theatre, The Play Company, Primary Stages, The Flea, The Tank, Two Headed Rep, and Dixon Place. She has also worked regionally at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C, and Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Rivendell Theatre, Citadel Theatre, and Piven Theatre in Chicago. Most recently, Joan was a 2019-2020 Playwrights Horizons Directing Fellow where she assisted Danya Taymor, Les Waters, and Tyne Rafaeli. She is a former Directing Apprentice at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Directing Fellow at Manhattan Theatre Club, and Producing Fellow at Clubbed Thumb. BA: Northwestern University. www.joansergay.com

roost
Online Release

created by Max Abner, Corey Umlauf, Ashley Chang, and Joan Sergay
director Joan Sergay
writer, composer, and illustrator Max Abner
designer & cinematographer Corey Umlauf
dramaturg, producer, and website Ashley Chang
editor Alex Basco Koch
sound editor & audio mixer Brandon Hagen
post-production & color Ghost Corporeal

In roost, toy theater meets short film with an animal, an owl, and a tree hollow.

Released on February 20, 2021
Visit www.cametoroost.com

Nana Dakin is a Thai American director of new work, classics and devised performance based in New York City. Her work pursues social equity by examining the way culture is constructed and unsettling dormant biases. Recent productions: WHITE PEARL (The Royal Court Theatre), an all-female production of Shakespeare’s RICHARD III (Lenfest Center for the Arts), DAMAGE JOY (B-Floor Theatre). Assistant Director: MARY JANE (NYTW), THE BACCHAE (Getty Villa, BAM Next Wave 2018), WILD GOOSE DREAMS (The Public Theater), CAMELOT (Lincoln Center Theater). New work development includes GOLDEN SHIELD by Anchuli Felicia King, a finalist for the 2020 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and HALF THE SKY by composer Tidtaya Sinutoke and bookwriter/lyricist Isabella Dawis, recipients of the 2020 Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award. Nana was a 2050 NYTW Directing Fellow in 2018/19. MFA Theatre Directing: Columbia University. www.nanadakin.com

Love Letter To A Seed
Online Release and 100 Mailed Letters

directed by Nana Dakin
creative producers Lanxing Fu and Jeremy Pickard of Superhero Clubhouse
music and additional words Nehemiah Luckett
words and additional music Orion S. Johnstone
visual designer Lexy Ho-Tai
audio mixing and master engineer Mauricio Escamilla
guest voice performer vickie washington
guest cello performer Marika Hughes

An illustrated letter, invitation, and audio experience
for climate activists, artists and concerned beings
who are weary
and sometimes hang their heads in despair
and nevertheless
keep on tending
together

Available online until March 31, 2021
Visit superheroclubhouse.org/seed/

Estefanía Fadul is a NYC-based Colombian-American director and producer of new work. Recent work includes Carla’s Quince created with The Voting Project, Zoom Intervention by Noelle Viñas (Weston Playhouse, NYTimes Critics’ Pick), Christina Quintana’s Azul (Southern Rep) and Scissoring (INTAR), Stefan Ivanov’s The Same Day (Sfumato Theatre, Bulgaria), Preston Max Allen and Jessica Kahkoska’s Agent 355 (Chautauqua), and James Anthony Tyler’s Pranayama (Juilliard). Estefanía has developed new work at the Public Theater, Playwrights’ Realm, Long Wharf, Artists Rep, and MTF, among others. She is the inaugural recipient of New York Stage and Film’s Pfaelzer Award, and an alumna of the O’Neill/NNPN’s National Directors Fellowship, Foeller Fellowship at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Drama League Fall Fellowship and TV Directing Fellowship, Van Lier Fellowship at Repertorio Español, and NALAC Leadership Institute. She is a co-leader of the New Georges Jam, and a member of the Latinx Theatre Commons steering committee, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and SDC. B.A. Vassar College. www.estefaniafadul.com

Passage Thru
In person, Space Extremely Limited, Ticketed

directed by Estefanía Fadul
created in collaboration with Laura Galindo, Teri Madonna, and Cristina Pitter
produced by Joanna Pisano
composed by Teri Madonna
production design by Shelly Rodriguez
costume design by Sarah Thea Craig

Be transported into a mythical ritual of renewal after a year of loss, isolation, and change. Join your neighbors in a secret outdoor location in Williamsburg as we ask ourselves: how do we harness our individual transformations into a new sense of collective care?

March 1, March 6, March 7, 20201
This show has now closed

Arpita Mukherjee (she/her/hers) is the Artistic Director and co-founder of Hypokrit Theatre Company. Upcoming: American Hunger by Nikhil Mahapatra (Dramatists Guild Foundation), Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea by Julia Izumi (Iowa State University). Her recent directing credits include Jump by Charly Evon Simpson (APAC), House of Joy by Madhuri Shekar (San Diego Rep), Quik Mart by Charles Gershman (The New Group – reading), One Way by Ben Bonnema and Christopher Staskel (NAMT), Citizen Scientist by CQ (Barrington Stage Company Playworks Weekend), Eh Dah? Questions For My Father by Aya Aziz (Next Door @NYTW), and Elements of Change by Divya Mangwani (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, UNICEF)..She is a 2019 SDC Denham Fellow, a 2018 – 2020 Womens Project Lab Member and a 2018 Eugene O’ Neill National Directing Fellow. Arpita is currently the book writer for Monsoon Wedding musical and is developing several film and TV projects in India and USA.

A Portal
Audio, Online Release

created by Arpita Mukherjee and Aya Aziz
with Ana Banks, Louis Capici, Ariel Estrada, Shannon Grant, Sydni Lapsley, Futaba Shioda, Christina “CQ” Quintana
music by Aya Aziz
sound editing by Sam Zucker
produced by Chelsea Fryer

Inspired by the dreams for a city re-making itself, A Portal features original music by Aya Aziz and interviews with real people – frontline workers, artists, students. It is an aural gateway between loss and learning, rupture and healing, and the past and the future.

Episodes released on March 26, 2021
Visit https://aportalaudio.squarespace.com/