| “THEATRE FOR ONE” ANNOUNCES FIRST VIRTUAL RESIDENCY FEATURING EIGHT WORLD PREMIERE MIC ROPLAYS WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY BIPOC WOMEN | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 10:40 am EDT 08/10/20 | |
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| THE ONE-ON-ONE THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE THAT HAS CAPTURED THE WORLD'S IMAGINATION GOES VIRTUAL WITH "THEATRE FOR ONE: HERE WE ARE" FEATURING EIGHT WORLD PREMIERE MICROPLAYS WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY BLACK, INDIGINEOUS, AND WOMEN OF COLOR IN OBSERVANCE OF THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF PASSAGE OF THE 19TH AMENDMENT PLAYWRIGHTS TO INCLUDE JACLYN BACKAUS LYDIA R. DIAMOND LYNN NOTTAGE STACEY ROSE NIKKOLE SALTER DELANNA STUDI REGINA TAYLOR CARMELITA TROPICANA PERFORMANCES BEGINS THURSDAY, AUGUST 20 AT 6 PM ET FOR SIX WEEKS ONLY TICKET REGISTRATION WILL BE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC STARTING MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2020 AT 10 AM ET New York, NY (August 10, 2020) - Christine Jones (Creator and Artistic Director) and Mara Isaacs (Producer) announced today that Theatre for One, the intimate theatrical experience that brings together one actor and one audience member, will launch its first ever virtual experience this month with Theatre for One: Here We Are, a commission by Arts Brookfield with additional support from Thomas M. Neff. Performances will begin on Thursday, August 20 from 6 - 7:30 PM ET through Brookfield Place's #BFPLatHome initiative and will be held each subsequent Thursday through September 24. Registration will be free and open to the public starting Monday, August 17 at 10 AM ET. For more information and to sign up for updates, please visit: www.bfplny.com/theatre. Theatre for One has answered the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic with a new performance venue in which the computer is the proscenium and the screen is the fourth wall artists and audiences are reaching through. Theatre for One: Here We Are is rooted in the belief that intimacy and human connection is possible at any moment, at any time, and with any person. A laugh shared with a stranger, a world created by imagination, a soul nourished through storytelling: these are things only theater can accomplish. In eight world-premiere microplays, Theatre for One: Here We Are virtually brings together one actor and one audience member for a shared experience that connects us, anchors us, and boldly proclaims, "Here we are." Theatre for One: Here We Are will feature microplays all written and directed by black, indigenous, and women of color in observance of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment which granted the right to vote primarily to middle and upper-class White women, while still leaving overwhelming numbers of Black, Brown, and Indigenous women disenfranchised. The eight writers who are contributing new works to Here We Are include Horton Foote Prize winner Jaclyn Backhaus, Lorraine Hansberry Award winner Lydia R. Diamond; two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage; Stacey Rose, who had two plays included in the prestigious 2019 Kilroy List; Obie Award winner Nikkole Salter; American Indian Movie Award winner DeLanna Studi; Golden Globe Award winner Regina Taylor; and Obie Award winner Carmelita Tropicana. The directors for Theatre for One: Here We Are include two-time Drama League finalist Tiffany Nichole Greene; Lilly Award winner Candis C. Jones; Lilla Jewel Award winner Rebecca Martinez; Taylor Reynolds an artistic leader of the 2019 Obie Award-winning The Movement Theatre Company; and recently namedCo-Artistic Director of the Working Theater Tamilla Woodard. Christine Jones and Jenny Koons, the Co-Artistic Directors of Theatre for One: Here We Are, said, "American theater is facing both a historic crisis and a historic opportunity: the COVID-19 crisis and the opportunity to fundamentally address white supremacy in our culture. A spectrum of responses is essential to create lasting change in the fight against systemic racism. The Black Lives Matter and We See You WAT movements, and all of the theater artists fighting racism in our community, inspire us. Here We Are is our vision of American theater: one where a vibrant chorus of the most innovative and eloquent artists are centered to share their voices. Theatre for One is made by many. We are committed to creating intimate exchanges in equitable digital and physical spaces." "We couldn't be happier to be collaborating with Theatre for One once again," said Elysa Marden, Vice President, Arts Brookfield for Brookfield Properties. "Arts Brookfield is committed to providing the public with the very best in free arts programming, and Here We Are highlights how theater can adapt through a pandemic to continue to connect with its audience in an immersive and meaningful way safely." The creative team for the production includes:Christine Jones (creator and artistic director), Jenny Koons (co-artistic director for Here We Are), OpenEndedGroup's Marc Downie and Paul Kaiser (platform programing and design), Hahnji Jang (costume design), Stacey Derosier (lighting design), Bryan Hunt (production supervision), and Cherie B. Tay (stage management). Theatre for One is produced by Octopus Theatricals (Mara Isaacs, Executive/Creative Producer). Casting for Theater For One: Here We Are will be announced shortly. BIOGRAPHIES Jaclyn Backhaus (Playwright) is a playwright, educator, arts facilitator, and mother. She is one of five Creative Directors of the process-based arts facilitation group Fresh Ground Pepper, and she is one of the 14 members of the current cohort of The Kilroys, a bicoastal collective that celebrates women, trans, and nonbinary presence in the American theater landscape. She is a Lincoln Center Playwright-in-Residence, and she was once a 2016 Tow Playwright Resident with Clubbed Thumb. She got a BFA from NYU, where she now teaches some skillsets of playwriting to brilliant students. She resides in Ridgewood, Queens, with her husband Andrew J. Scoville, a theater director, and their son Ernie. www.jaclynbackhaus.com Lydia R. Diamond's(Playwright) plays include Toni Stone (Audelco Award nomination for Best Play), Smart People, Stick Fly (Broadway), Voyeurs de Venus (Joseph Jeff Award), The Bluest Eye, The Gift Horse, Harriet Jacobs, The Inside, and Stage Black. Theatres include: American Conservatory Theatre, Arena Stage, Arden Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, Company One, Congo Square, Denver Center, the Goodman, the Guthrie Theatre, Hartford Stage, three productions at Huntington Theatre Company, Jubilee Theatre, Kansas City Rep, Long Wharf, the McCarter, MPAACT, New Vic (New York), Playmakers Rep, Roundabout, Second Stage, Steppenwolf, TrueColors, two productions at Writer's Theatre Co, and ACT. Commissions include: Arena Stage, Second Stage, four commissions for Steppenwolf, McCarter, Huntington, Victory Gardens, Writer's Theatre, True Colors, and Roundabout. Diamond was a 2005-2006 W.E.B. Du Boise Institute at Harvard non-resident Fellow, a 2007 TCG/NEA Playwright in Residence at Steppenwolf, an 2006-2007 Huntington Playwright Fellow, a 2012 Sundance Institute Playwright Lab Creative Advisor, a 2012-2013 Radcliffe Institute Fellow, 2013-2014 Playwright in Residence at Arena Stage, has been a five-time Sally B. Goodman McCarter Theatre Artist in Residence, and is the 2020 recipient of the Horton Foote Playwriting Award. Diamond is a 1991 Northwestern graduate, and has an Honorary Doctorate from Pine Manor College. Diamond was a Consulting Producer for Showtime's 4th season of "The Affair," co-writing episodes 406 and 407 and was nominated for a Writer's Guild Award for Best Drama Episode. Diamond was on faculty at Boston University for nine years and is currently on faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Tiffany Nichole Greene (Director)is originally from Houston, Texas. She is both a freelance director and resident director for Hamilton: an American Musical. Her most recent work includes The Wolves (Xavier University), Boudica (Guthrie Theater), A Christmas Carol (Dallas Theater Center), The Danger: A Homage to Strange Fruit (The Jack - Brooklyn), Between Riverside and Crazy (SpeakEasy Stage), Well-Intentioned White People (Barrington Stage), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Theatre Three), A Raisin in the Sun (Triad Stage), and Skeleton Crew (Trinity Rep). Next, she will directAngels in America at Pittsburgh Playhouse. MFA: Brown/Trinity. Soho Rep Directors Lab Alum and Lincoln Center Directors Lab Alum. Candis C. Jones (Director). Selected directing credits: Cullud Wattah (The Public Theater), 53% OF (The Alliance Theater), Trapt (Joe's Pub), House of the Negro Insane (Bay Area Playwrights Festival), Pipeline (Detroit Public Theater), shadow/land (Faultline Theater, New Group Virtual Fest), Nike (A.C.T. New Strands Festival), Gloria (American Academy), The Wolves (American Academy), Brother Rabbit (New Black Fest), Name Calling (Kennedy Center), New Shoes (The Drama League), Morning in America (Primary Stages), and TEMBO! (Zanzibar International Film Fest). Upcoming: School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Cincinnati Playhouse). Awards and fellowships: Lilly Award, WP Theater's 2018-2020 Lab, and Drama League Alumni. www.candiscjones.com Rebecca Martinez (Director) is the BOLD Associate Artistic Director at WP Theater, an NYC-based director and ensemble member of Sojourn Theatre. Recent projects: I Am My Own Wife (Long Wharf Theatre), Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), Miss You Like Hell (Baltimore Center Stage), Wolf at the Door (Milagro Theatre, NNPN rolling world premiere), Anna in the Tropics (Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Henry Award for Outstanding Direction). Martinez has worked with INTAR, Working Theater, Signature Theatre, the Lark, The Playwrights Realm, New Dramatists, the 52nd Street Project, Radical Evolution among others. Member of: Sol Project Collective, INTAR's Unit52, SDCF Observer, Latinx Theatre Commons Advisory Committee, 2019 Audrey Resident, New Georges Affiliated Artist, 2018-2020 WP Lab, 2017 Drama League Directing Fellow, Member of SDC. www.rebeccamartinez.org Lynn Nottage (Playwright) is a playwright and a screenwriter, and the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world. Her include Floyd's; Sweat; Mlima's Tale; By the Way; Meet Vera Stark; Ruined; Intimate Apparel; Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine; Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Las Meninas; Mud, River, Stone; Por'knockers; and POOF!. Musical librettos include The Secret Life of Bees and MJ (upcoming). She has also developed This is Reading, a performance installation in Reading, Pennsylvania. Nottage is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship, among other awards, and is an Associate Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts. Taylor Reynolds (Director) is a New York-based director from Chicago and one of the Producing Artistic Leaders of Obie Award-winning The Movement Theatre Company. She has worked as a director, assistant, and collaborator with companies including Clubbed Thumb, Page 73, Baltimore Center Stage, Signature Theatre Company, Ars Nova, MCC, and The 24-Hour Plays. Selected directing credits: Richard & Jane & Dick & Sally (Baltimore Center Stage/Playwrights Realm), Tough (AADA), Plano (Clubbed Thumb, Drama Desk nomination for Best Director), Songs About Trains (Radical Evolution), ALLOND(R)A (New Georges Audrey Residency), and Think Before You Holla (creator/deviser). She is a New Georges Affiliated Artist, 2017-2018 Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab alum, and member of SDC. www.iamtaylorreynolds.com Stacey Rose (Playwright) hails from Elizabeth, N.J. and Charlotte, N.C. respectively. Her work has been presented at: The Fire This Time Festival, The Lark, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, National Black Theatre, Pillsbury House Theater, Barrington Stage Company, and Kansas City Rep. Rose has held fellowships/residencies with The Dramatists Guild, The Playwrights' Center, Sundance Theatre Lab, The Goodman Theatre, The Civilians, and Tofte Lake Center. She had two plays featured on the 2019 Kilroys list, with a third listed as an honorable mention. Her play Legacy Land was on the 2020 Kilroys list. She is a recipient of a 2019 Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Women's Commissioning Grant in partnership with Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre. She is currently a staff writer for "9-1-1" on Fox. Rose's work celebrates and explores Blackness, Black identity, Black history, body politics, and the dilemma of life as the "other." Nikkole Salter (Playwright) is an award-winning actress, playwright, educator, and arts advocate. For her work she has received the Obie, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Global Tolerance Award from the Friends of the United Nations, a Selfdes-Kanin fellowship from the Theatre Hall of Fame, and most recently a Lily Award for her contributions to the betterment of the theater field. Her writing has been produced on three continents in five countries, and been published in 12 international publications and has been featured on the WNET program "Theatre Close-Up." She is a graduate of Howard University and NYU. www.nikkolesalter.com DeLanna Studi (Playwright) is a proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She is an actor/playwright whose television credits include "Dreamkeeper," "Edge of America," "Shameless," "General Hospital," "Z Nation," and the recent season of "Goliath." Her theater credits include the First National Broadway Tour of August: Osage County, Off-Broadway's Informed Consent, and Gloria: A Life. She retraced her family's footsteps along the Trail of Tears with her father and created her play And So We Walked which has been touring for the last two years. And So We Walked was the first American play selected to perform at the Journées Théâtrales de Carthage in North Africa. DeLanna is the Chair of SAG-AFTRA's National Native Americans Committee and the Artistic Director of Native Voices at the Autry, the only Native American Equity theater in the country devoted to developing and producing new work by Indigenous playwrights. Regina Taylor (Playwright)is an actress, director, playwright, educator, and activist. She is the Andrew Mellon grant playwright in residence for Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Taylor's Oo-Bla-Dee is being presented for Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Theatre Three 2020-2021. Taylor is writing new plays for Audible and SMU (the black album). She recently curated and directed Love and Kindness in the Time of Quarantine (short plays by Magaly Colin-Christopher, Migdalia Cruz, Erik Ehn, Catherine Fillioux, Lyle Kessler, Yilong Liu, Eugene Lee, Rohina Malik, Chrystal Skilman, Chesney Snow, and Jose Rivera. Planet Connections Zoom Festival). In addition, her playwrighting credits include Bread (Edgerton Award. Water Tower Theater), Crowns (four Helen Hayes awards, including Best Director), Oo-Bla-Dee, (Steinberg-ATCA Award), Drowning Crow, (Broadway, MTC), The Trinity River Plays (Edgerton Foundation Award), and stop.reset (Signature Theater Residency Five). Taylor received the Denzel Washington Endowed Chair Fordham University at Lincoln Center. An Artistic Associate of Goodman Theatre, Taylor is its most produced playwright. As an actress, Taylor is featured in Netflix' All Day and A Night starring Jeffrey Wright, Ashton Saunders, and directed/written by Joe Robert Cole (writer: Black Panther). She guest stars on "Council of Dads" (NBC) and "Love Craft Country" (Jordan Peele, J.J. Abrams, Mischa Green), "Red Line" (Producer Ava DuVernay CBS), and "The Good Fight." For her television role as Lily Harper in "I'll Fly Away" she received a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress, three NAACP Image Awards, and two Emmy Award nominations. Her other television roles include "The Unit." Taylor was first African-American lead in Masterpiece Theatre's "Cora Unashamed," starred as Anita Hill in HBO''s "Strange Justice" (Gracie Award), and "A Good Day to Die" starring Sidney Poitier. She has co-starred in USA Networks' "Dig" and guest starred in "Elementary" and "The Black List." Taylor's film credits include Saturday Church, The Negotiator, Courage Under Fire, Clockers, and Lean on Me. Taylor was also the first Black woman to play Juliet in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway. Carmelita Tropicana (Playwright) has been performing in New York's downtown arts scene since the 1980s, straddling the worlds of performance art and theater with irreverent humor, subversive fantasy, and bilingual puns. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2017) for her current project Live Memoir and a Creative Capital Award (2016) for Give Me Carmelita Tropicana! a collaboration with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Recent works include sci-fi performances Schwanze-Beast (2018) and Post Plastica (2013). Her publications include Memories of the Revolution: The First Ten Years of the WOW Café Theater (2015) edited with Holly Hughes and Jill Dolan and Carmelita Tropicana: Performing Between Cultures (2000). Tamilla Woodard (Director) is the Co-Artistic Director of Working Theater, former BOLD Associate Artistic Director at WP Theater, and the co-founder of PopUP Theatrics. She also serves as the associate director of Hadestown on Broadway. This season her work includes the Lucille Lortel nominated, Where We Stand by Donnetta Lavinia Grays for WP Theater and Baltimore Center Stage, Caryl Churchill's Top Girls at American Conservatory Theater, and direction and co-conception of Warriors Don't Cry, a co-production of The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts and TheaterWorksUSA. Recently named one of 50 Women to Watch on Broadway, Woodard is a graduate of Yale School of Drama, where she currently teaches and is a recipient of the Josephine Abady Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women. Christine Jones (Creator and Artistic Director) ois a Tony and Olivier Award-winning set designer and the creator of Theatre For One along with Lot-ek Architects. When I looked at my bio to include here, I was struck by reading, "her work can currently be seen…" Right now theaters are dark, and the idea of writing a bio, seems like a thing I used to do long ago. It feels like what matters is what is happening now. In addition to making Theatre for One: Here We Are for the digital space where the lights are on, with this phenomenal group of people, I am making a Social Distance Dance Club with Steven Hoggett and David Byrne for the in-between times when we can begin to enter our performances spaces again. I am staying connected to my NYU students while I learn how to be in the world as it is, how to examine my white fragility, and participate as a teacher and a maker to build a world in which Black Lives Matter. Jenny Koons (Co-Artistic Director for Here We Are). Recent Projects: Men on Boats (Baltimore Center Stage), Speechless (New Blue Man Group North American Tour), The Tempest (Juilliard School), Between Us: The Deck of Cards (Denver Center), A Midsummer Night's Dream (The Public Theater Mobile Unit), Burn All Night (American Repertory Theatre), Gimme Shelter (Why Not Theatre, 2015 Pan Am Games commission), Theatre for One: I'm Not the Stranger You Think I Am (Arts Brookfield), A Sucker Emcee (National Black Theatre, LAByrinth Theater Company), Queen of the Night (Diamond Horseshoe), The Odyssey Project 2012 (site-specific NYC). Koons was the 2017 curator of the Encores! Off-Center Lobby Project, co-curator of the 2016 ThisGen Conference, and co-founder of Artists 4 Change NYC (National Black Theatre). She has been an artist in residence at Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and The Invisible Dog Art Center and has developed new work at Ars Nova, Steppenwolf, Roundabout, and New Black Fest, among others. She has been a guest teaching artist at Princeton, ART Institute at Harvard, and NYU Tisch and has been a facilitator and educator in creating anti-racist spaces and engaging in conversations around race and equity for over a decade, in both non-profit and artistic spheres. OpenEndedGroup (Platform Programing and Design) comprises two digital artists, Marc Downie and Paul Kaiser, whose long collaboration dates back to 2001. Their pioneering approach to digital art frequently combines two signature elements: non-photorealistic 3D rendering and the autonomy of artworks directed or assisted by artificial intelligence. Their artworks span a wide range of forms and disciplines, including dance, music, installation, 3D film, public art, text, and virtual reality. Outside collaborators have included Merce Cunningham, Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown, Ken Jacobs, Preeti Vasudevan, the Flux Quartet, Natasha Barrett, and Jaroslaw Kapuscinski. They have presented their work at MoMA, Lincoln Center, Pompidou Center, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the New York Film Festival, Barclay Center, Barbican Center, Sadler's Wells, Festival d'Automne, BAM, Hayward Gallery, ICA Boston, Sundance, Detroit Institute of Art, Rome Film Festival, EMPAC, MASS MoCA, the MIT Media Lab, Jacobs Pillow, NY Live Arts, and many other venues. Octopus Theatricals (Producer). Founded by creative producer Mara Isaacs, Octopus Theatricals collaborates with artists and organizations to foster an expansive range of compelling theatrical works for local, national and international audiences. We eschew boundaries - aesthetic, geopolitical, institutional-and thrive on a nimble and rigorous practice. Current projects: Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell (Broadway, eight Tony Awards including Best Musical; Grammy Award, Best Musical Theater Album); Iphigenia, a new opera by Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding; Dreaming Zenzile by Somi Kakoma; An Iliad by Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare (Obie Award); the Ars Nova production of Underground Railroad Game; And So We Walked by DeLanna Studi; Bill Irwin's On Beckett; Activist Songbook by Aaron Jafferis and Byron Au Yong; and Theatre for One. We are also proud to work with Fiasco Theatre, Phantom Limb Company, Ripe Time, Song of the Goat Theatre and many more. www.octopustheatricals.com ABOUT THEATRE FOR ONE Theatre for Onewas originally conceived as a mobile state-of-the-art performance space for one actor and one audience member. Conceived by Artistic Director Christine Jones and designed by LOT-EK architects, Theatre for One commissions new work created specifically for each venue's one-to-one relationship. Embracing serendipity, Theatre for One is presented in public spaces in which audience members are invited to enter into an intimate theatrical exchange in which actor and audience member encounter each other as strangers and are equally dependent on each other. Theatre for One is produced by Octopus Theatricals and was originally produced by True Love Productions. Theatre for One residencies have been seen in Times Square, Brookfield Place's Winter Garden, Zuccotti Park, Grace Plaza, Signature Theatre, Fairfield University, Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts, University of Arkansas, and the Cork Midsummer Festival. This October a residency will take place at Dublin's Abbey Theatre. Here We Are marks Theater for One's first ever virtual residency. www.theatreforone.com www.facebook.com/theatreforone www.instagram.com/theatreforone www.twitter.com/theatreforone ABOUT BROOKFIELD PLACE NEW YORK Brookfield Place, also known as BFPL, welcomes culturally curious visitors to explore what's happening now. BFPL is a destination that's a step away from the everyday and in step with the latest in global and local culture. A setting for discovery and inspiration, savoring and indulging, relaxing and socializing. A lively place that's full of light and uniquely grand, and brings a touch of calm to the hustle of the city. We curate culture and events year-round, so local residents and workers and visitors from farther away can enjoy ever-changing experiences, from art installations to live music, to dining and shopping, and more. |
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