| WP Theater Announces Artists & Plays in 2024 Pipeline Festival | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 09:35 am EST 03/05/24 | |
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| WP THEATER PRESENTS THE FIFTH BIENNIAL PIPELINE FESTIVAL APRIL 4 – MAY 4, 2024 AT WP THEATER TICKETS ON SALE NOW AT WWW.WPTHEATER.ORG (New York, NY) WP Theater, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty and Managing Director Michael Sag, is thrilled to announce the 2024 lineup for The Pipeline Festival, the fifth biennial showcase of the artists in its celebrated WP Lab for playwrights, directors, and producers. Returning from April 4 – May 4, 2024, at WP Theater (2162 Broadway, at 76th Street), the festival is the culmination of the renowned two-year WP Lab residency, providing a unique opportunity for audiences to see five new works in various stages of development, ranging from staged readings to full-length workshop productions – presented over a span of several weeks. The Festival, true to its name, serves as a pipeline to funnel the work of talented Women+ artists to the forefront of American theater. Each play is created and produced by collaborative writer/director/producer teams from the WP Lab residency program. The 2022-2024 WP Lab artists are: PLAYWRIGHTS: Amara Janae Brady (she/they), Christin Eve Cato, Queen Esther (she/her), Amina Henry (she/her), Else Went (they/she) DIRECTORS: Jordana De La Cruz (she/they), Julia Sirna-Frest (she/her), Lorna Ventura, Dina Vovsi (she/her), Ran Xia (she/her) PRODUCERS: Alvernq Lindsay (she/her), Emma Orme (she/her), Barbara Samuels (she/her), Praycious Wilson-Gay (she/her) The WP Playwrights Lab is led by WP Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty and Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence Cori Thomas; the Directors Lab is led by Rebecca Martínez (Cohort Collaborations Director for One Nation/One Project, director of WP's Sancocho, Bite Me), and Nicole A. Watson (Artistic Director, The Playwrights Center); and the Producers Lab is led by two-time Tony Award Winning producer Sally Cade Holmes and INTAR Producing Director Nidia Medina. Previous Festival works have included Pulitzer Prize recipient Martyna Majok's queens (subsequently produced at LCT3), Sarah Burgess' Kings (produced at The Public Theater), Sylvia Khoury's Power Strip (produced at LCT3), and Jonathan Larson Grant recipients Zoe Sarnak and Emily Kaczmarek's Afloat. Tickets for The Pipeline Festival are now on sale via WPTHEATER.ORG. Festival passes for all five productions are available for $60 and individual tickets can be purchased for either $10 or $30 - choose your price. Festival Pass purchasers will receive a punch card for the duration of the festival and a special gift when they see all five shows. The performance schedule is as follows: Thursday at 7:00pm, Friday at 3:00pm & 8:00pm, and Saturday at 8:00pm. WEEK 1: APRIL 4 - 6 MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE By Amara Janae Brady Directed by Julia Sirna-Frest Produced by Praycious Wilson-Gay Mo and Yuri sit under an almost non-existent potted tree named Beckett, waiting impatiently for the next phase of their career, the next part of their journey. Delores sings a song about the blood the land craves, a callous warning that the blood is the only thing that will allow them to ascend to the glory Mo and Yuri believe is possible. Inspired by Waiting for Godot, Malicious Compliance tells the story of two artists desperately waiting for a change that may cost more than they're willing to give, or worse may never come. WEEK 2: APRIL 11-13 OK By: Christin Eve Cato Directed by: Jordana De La Cruz Produced by: Barbara Samuels It's 90 minutes until curtain for the non-union, Latine, bilingual, production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma, playing at a regional theater in Oklahoma when Melinda receives a call. The State has banned abortion and her upcoming appointment - canceled. With the performance approaching, the cast and crew band together (with some magical guidance!) to navigate a post-Roe America. Filled with tears, laughter and jokes that are just too soon, OK! uncovers revelations about the company's pasts, personal lives, and biases, and their relationship with a society desperate to discount their humanity. WEEK 3: APRIL 18-20 BLACKBIRDING By: Queen Esther Directed by: Lorna Ventura Produced by: Alverneq Lindsay Accompanied by banjoist/guitarist Ayodele Maatheru (Paradise Square, Shuffle Along, Lackawanna Blues) Blackbirding – a solo show steeped in lost history, ephemera, ghost stories and folklore, storytelling and original reclamation driven Americana – is a requiem for America's neverending Civil War and the promise of Reconstruction, tangled in a Southern Black feminist vernacular. WEEK 4: APRIL 25 – April 27 WHEN THE OTHER MARY CELESTE SANK: A STRANGE AND UMWELTIAN TALE By: Amina Henry Directed by: Ran Xia Produced by: Emma Orme WHEN THE OTHER MARY CELESTE SANK: AN UMWELTIAN TALE is an anachronistic, theatrical fairy tale: after a shipwreck in 1894, five women are marooned on an island and must work together to survive in a strange, new world. As they hunt for food, battle insects and each other, and occasionally relish their unmoored reality (goodbye corsets!!!), the women also begin to develop sharper senses of self. WEEK 5: MAY 2 - 4 THE CAUSE By: Else Went Directed by: Dina Vovsi In this house of mirrors, a group of actors and a director gather at newly formed artist residency, The House Upstate, for a week-long workshop development of The Cause, a new play about a group of actors and a director who gather in a house upstate for a week to shoot The Cause, an experimental film adaptation of Othello. As daily rewrites from an absent playwright elevate coincidence to paranoia, jealousy and desire fill the rehearsal room thick as the nightly mist in this quiet, empty town. BIOGRAPHIES (by show): Malicious Compliance (April 4 - 6) Amara Janae Brady (She/They) is a generative artist & cultural dramaturg hailing from the Windy City (Chicago). Her artistic goals are to show the humanity and divinity of Black women and femmes and connect underserved communities with experiences that mirror their own. A current member of Penguin Random House's Narrator Mentorship Program (2024), WP Theater's Playwriting Lab (2022-2024), The Public Theater's Devised Working Group (2023-2024), and a MacDowell Fellowship James Baldwin Fellow 2023. Favorite credits: Manic Pixie Dream Girls Aren't Black* (Northwestern's American Musical Theater Project 2024- Writer/Composer), the beautiful things are gonna kill you (Kilroys 2023; The Bushwick Starr; The Public Theater), Bernarda's Daughters (Audible), "my dick is david duke"...or (Ars Nova's ANTFest-Actor; Creator; Producer), This is Where We Go (MCC- Actor + Writer), NYT Critic's Pick, Jillian Walker's SKiNFoLK (Bushwick Starr- Assistant Producer). YouTube series, ‘Skinny & White' Aren't Character Traits. She currently resides somewhere between Brooklyn and Chicago, where she spends her days playing Just Dance, perfecting her coq au vin recipe, and hanging out with her Grandma. All Power to all people. Ashé. Website: https://linktr.ee/ajbrady Julia Sirna-Frest (she/her) is a performer, composer, director and teaching artist. She has performed at WP Theater (!), The Kitchen, NYTW, BAC, The Incubator, Hartford Stage, Wild Project, The Brooklyn Museum, La MaMa, Abrons Art Center, The New Museum, Mass MoCA, PS 122, Joe's Pub, The Bushwick Starr and New Dramatists. Directing collaborations with playwright Zoë Geltman: Puffy Hair (The Tank), Sea Fraud (Dixon Place, The Brick), Lolly, Lolly, Lolly (Development at NACL, The Bushwick Starr and New Georges). As a founding member of the Obie winning theater company Half Straddle she has toured to France, Croatia, Portland and Philadelphia with Seagull (thinking of you), In the Pony Palace/Football and Ghost Rings. She composes music with Shane Chapman as Permanent Moves and their upcoming album Don't Forget Us: A Chekhovian Song Cycle will be released April 2024! Their work has been seen at Target Margin, Ars Nova, The Exponential Festival and The Fisher Center. Julia also co-fronts Doll Parts, a Dolly Parton Cover Band. Praycious Wilson-Gay (she/her) is an arts administrator and creative producer. She is currently the Director of the Mobile Unit at the Public Theater. Praycious works from an anti-racist and decolonized praxis in all her projects and encourages artists to do the same. She also specializes in working with communities to amplify the stories that matter to them. Most recently, she produced the Mobile Unit's Comedy of Errors and launched a Hip-Hop vs. Shakespeare course for the incarcerated community. Praycious has years of experience in community organizing, event planning, stage management, theater management and producing. She received her B.F.A in Stage Management from Syracuse University and her M.F.A in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College. She is also a Board Member of SpiritHouse South based in Durham, NC. OK (April 11-13) Christin Eve Cato (she/her) is an award-winning luminary playwright, dramaturg, poet, educator, lyricist, songwriter, and performing artist, emerging from the vibrant streets of the Bronx, bringing with her a profound artistic narrative steeped in the rich tapestry of her Puerto Rican and Jamaican roots. Armed with an MFA in Playwriting from Indiana University and a BA in Political Science and Philosophy from Fordham University, Cato's voice is often distinguished for her ability to create universal stories grounded in advocacy for human rights and social justice. Cato's artistic voice harmonizes with the rhythms of Caribbean culture and the Afro-Latinx diaspora, exploring the depths of human existence and the role of matriarchy in our societies. Her journey in song and lyric writing was ignited during her formative years at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Music and Art and the Performing Arts, where she was classically trained in vocal music. Immersed in the pulsating heart of New York City's theatrical landscape, Cato has become an indispensable thread in the cultural fabric. She holds esteemed positions such as ensemble member and former Resident Dramaturg at Pregones/PRTT, a founding UNIT 52 ensemble member at INTAR Theatre, and a playwright in the WP Theater 2022-2024 Pipeline Lab. Additionally, she is a former Core Apprentice and current educator at the Playwrights Center, a member and affiliated playwright of The Latinx Playwrights Circle, an associated artist with The Sol Project, and a seasonal roundtable dramaturg at the Musical Theatre Factory. Recent productions include her 2024 Obie Award-Winning play Sancocho (Off-Broadway debut @ the WP Theater); The Diamond (The People's Theatre Project @ Pregones Theatre); American Made (Samuel French OOB Festival @ Playwrights Horizons); and an audio play journey, The Mayor of Hell's Kitchen Presents: A Time Traveling Journey Through NYC's Wild West (The Parsnip Ship & Playwrights Horizons). Some of her other recognitions include the 2020 Greater Good Commission recipient for Afro-Latinx writers; the 2021 ReImagine New Plays in TYA grant; second place prize winner in the 2023 Miranda Family Voces Latinx Competition; the 2023 HOLA award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting; and an awardee of the 2023 Negocios Now: 40 Under 40 celebrating Latinx excellence in New York City. She is represented by WME Agency and 3 Arts Entertainment and is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild and Actors Equity Association. Jordana De La Cruz (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based stage director, curator, creative producer, and co-conspirator in the movement to spread Black & Brown joy. She concentrates on new work that questions what it means to be free and, more urgently, how we are helping each other achieve this freedom. Their practice aims to expand the concept of community and serve as inspiration for action, whether it be protest, rest as resistance, or artistic creation. Jordana was most recently the Co-Director of JACK, an award winning Brooklyn performance meets civic space, whose mission is to fuel experiments in arts and activism collaborating with adventurous artists and neighbors. During her time at JACK she spearheaded mutual aid initiatives in response to the pandemic, artist residency programs, new play development workshops, and artist-led, community-based partnerships that responded to issues that impacted the local community. Jordana is a visiting faculty member at Fordham University and has held producing, curating, and directing positions at Park Avenue Armory, INTAR Theatre, 52nd Street Project, Story Pirates, Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, Lark Play Development Center, Japan Society, Iati Theater, La Mama Experimental Group, and The New School. She is a TCG Rising Leaders of Color alumna and a proud director in the WP Theater 2022-2024 Pipeline Lab. Barbara Samuels (she/her) is a queer producer, organizer and award winning lighting designer. Barbara uses a diversity of approaches to create design-forward live events – aiming to unearth the human condition while destabilizing harmful power structures in and out of the theater. Barbara recently produced Snatch Adams and Tainty McCracken Present It's That Time of the Month at Soho Rep, and she currently runs the Wingspace Mentorship Program. Barbara served as the General Manager of OBIE Award-winning 13P from 2008-2012, and as Producing Director of Morgan Gould and Friends from 2014-2018. Barbara holds a B.A. from Fordham University and an M.F.A in Lighting Design from NYU. Proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829. 2016 Target Margin Institute Fellow. New Georges Affiliated Artist. www.barbarasamuels.com. Blackbirding (April 18 - 20) Queen Esther (she/her) Raised in Atlanta GA and embedded in Charleston SC's Lowcountry, Queen Esther uses her Southern roots as a touchstone to explore cultural mores in America. A graduate of The New School, she developed solo performance with PS 122, Dixon Place, Samuel Beckett Theater, The Royal Theater Company and the Public Theater, and held performance residences with George St. Theater, PS NBC at HERE and The Apollo Theater as well as an artist residency at Gettysburg National Military Park. Playlabs include Liberation Theater Company, Classical Theater of Harlem, New Perspectives Theater Company and American Theater Group. A 2018 TED Resident with a TED Talk about the roots of country and bluegrass, a 2022 Artist Fellow with the National Arts Club and a recipient of the 2022 NYC Women's Fund for Media, Music and Theater, she is a proud member of The Recording Academy, Actor's Equity, SAG/AFTRA and the Dramatists Guild. Lorna Ventura is a Director/Choreographer with a long list of credits from Broadway to film and television. Original Broadway productions include: Wicked, Grease, All Shook Up, Harlem Song, Nice Work If You Can Get It, and The Life, as an Original Cast Member or Associate Choreographer —In addition, her collaborations and relationships with elite directors such as George C. Wolfe, Joe Mantello, Kathleen Marshall, Charles Randolph Wright, Ruben Santiago Hudson and Billy Porter have allowed her to hone her craft and transition with grace into the Director/Choreographer's seat. Recent projects include: Destiny of Desire(Choreographer) Old Globe, American Prophet (Choreographer) Arena Stage, Christmas in Hell (Director/Choreographer), Reinkus Heinz Theater, Las Vegas premiere, Fiddler on the Roof- (Choreographer,) Olney Theater, Women on Fire, (Director/Choreographer), Royal Family. Last season Lorna's choreography was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for American Prophet at Arena Stage. She is very excited about the continued development of Blackbirding with Queen Esther at WP. Alverneq Lindsay (she/her) is a creative producer and performer from Brooklyn, NY, currently a producing fellow in WP Theater's 2022-2024 Lab. Her past experiences include providing developmental support for artists across various disciplines through her work as a Line Producer at The Public Theater (Richard III, A Raisin in the Sun, Dark Disabled Stories, Hamlet) as well as her artistic curation at Little Island and the New Victory Theater. As an independent producer, she curates spaces that build community through shared experiences by encouraging emotional vulnerability. Alverneq believes the arts have the ability to generate empathy and action, and she strives to enhance arts access through her work as a producer, performer, and arts advocate. When The Other Mary Celeste Sank: A Strange and Umweltian Tale (April 25 – April 27) Amina Henry (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based playwright. Productions include: The Animals, Ducklings, Hunter John and Jane and The Johnsons (JACK), P.S. (Ars Nova), Little Rapes (The New Group/Long Island University), Troy (HERO Theatre), The Great Novel (New Light Theater), and Bully produced by Interrobang Theater, Clubbed Thumbs 2019 Winterworks, and SUNY Purchase, among other venues. Her work has been produced by/ developed by/presented at: The New Group, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, The Flea, Page 73, Project Y Theatre, National Black Theater, Little Theater at Dixon Place, The Brooklyn Generator, The Brick, Oregon Shakespeare Festival in the 2013 Black Swan Lab Series, Kitchen Dog Theater, The Brick, Brooklyn Public Library, the cell, and HERO Theatre. She has been a member of Clubbed Thumb's Early Career Writers Group, Page73's writers group, and the 2017-2018 Ars Nova writers group. She was a 2017-2018 recipient of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Space Residency and is a 2018 recipient of a space residency at Dixon Place. She is a 2020 recipient of the Sarah Verdone Writing Award. She is an affiliate artist of New Georges. Ran Xia (she/her) is an undisciplined dramatist originally from Shanghai. Member of Soho Rep's Writer/Director lab 2022-2023. Beatrice Terry Resident at the Drama League (2021/22); Resident Director at the Tank where she directed and composed for the film adaptation of Prometheus Bound (inaugural Artist of the Year 2019, In Blue, Tallest Man in the World, etc.); Guest director ar Barnard (Orlando, fall 2021), Montclair State (Randi & Roxanne), and Stella Adler (You for Me for You), Commissioned playwright at Vanderbilt University (To Stab a Butterfly Through the Heart); Usual suspect at Exquisite Corpse Co (Sound Design for the NYT critics' pick Zoetrope, audio installation for Memory House, and many more). Playwright/Director for the theatrical portion of Risa Puno's The Privilege of Escape with Creative Time. Chava the Giant and the Oldest Bird at Rattlestick Global Form Festival. Assisting credits inculde: Grey House on Broadway, Laurence Fishburne's Like They Do in the Movies at PAC, and more. ranxia.info | thearcticgroup.org/echo Emma Orme (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based producer (and occasional performer) with a commitment to irreverent, experimental, collectivist theater and a deep belief in small organizations and artist-led processes. She is the Producing Director of The TEAM, where she collaborates with brilliant Associate Producer Sabine Decatur and Founding Artistic Director Rachel Chavkin. She is also the producer for experimental company CHILD, a Fellow of WP Theater's 2022-24 Lab, and producer of the Obie award-winning, Off-Broadway premiere of CIRCLE JERK (Fake Friends). She has produced, performed in, and developed work at NYTW, The Public, Williamstown, LaMama, The Flea, Atlantic Theater, EST, Drama League, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Carolina Performing Arts, Invisible Dog, Colt Coeur, WP Theater, Mitu580, Mercury Store, and more, in closer partnership artists like Miranda Gohh, Lisa Fagan, Tara Elliott, Starr Busby, Jerry Lieblich, Arpita Mukherjee, Danny Pudi, Agnes Borinsky, Gus Heagerty, Mykel Nairne, Ruby Rae Spiegel, Aya Aziz, Justine Gelfman, Xandra Nur Clark, and so many more. Before she started with The TEAM, she worked as Producing Director at Hypokrit Productions, BOLD Associate Producer at Northern Stage, Grants Manager at Williamstown Theatre Festival, a video producer for The New York Times, and an associate producer on the documentary The Kleptocrats. BA: Dartmouth College. The Cause (May 2-4) Else Went (they/she) is a Brooklyn based playwright and sound designer whose work often deals with the formation and continuance of outsider communities. Their work has been incubated in groups at The Public Theatre (EWG), Ars Nova (Play Group), WP (Trans Lab), Playwrights Realm (Fellow), and Bechdel Group (Resident Artist). Fellow at MacDowell, Stillwright, and Barn Arts. Commissions include the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation with MTC (An Oxford Man), Weston Playhouse (Mirror Game; short), and Parity Productions (Boxcar). Else's plays have been finalists and semifinalists for the O'Neill, Princess Grace, ASC's Shakespeare's New Contemporaries, and the Carlo Annoni Prize, among others. Her work has been previously developed with The Tank, International Shakespeare Center, Florida Studio Theatre, and The Brick. Else is the co-founder and playwright of The Renovationists, an artistic collective dedicated to queering traditional modes of theatre. Dina Vovsi (she/her) is a New York-based director and theatermaker. She is a member of the 2022-2024 WP Theater Directors' Lab and The New Georges Jam, and is a 2023 Brooklyn Arts Council Grantee and Puffin Foundation Grantee for River Watchers, a site-specific, journey-based play on a 14-seat Langley canoe in Newtown Creek which sold out its October 2023 run and was produced in association with The Motor Company and the North Brooklyn Community Boathouse. Dina has directed and developed new work with The Civilians, New Georges, Working Theater, Cape Cod Theatre Project, The Orchard Project, The Bushwick Starr, and more. Dina is a New Georges Affiliated Artist and a Working Theater 5 Boroughs 1 City Initiative commission recipient, and was a member of the 2022-2023 Roundabout Directors Group, a 2022 & 2023 Brooklyn Arts Council SU-CASA Grantee, a 2021 Brooklyn Arts Council Grantee for the collaborative soundwalk EXITS, a Robert Moss Directing Fellow at Playwrights Horizons, a member of The Civilians' R&D Group, the recipient of an SDC Foundation Observership, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors' Lab, an O'Neill National Directors Fellowship finalist, and a Mass MoCA Assets for Artists Grantee. As an associate/assistant director, Dina has worked on Broadway, off-Broadway, and regionally with Roundabout, Playwrights Horizons, Spoleto Festival USA, WP Theater, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Ma-Yi, and more. She is on the directing faculty at Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and is a frequent guest director at universities (upcoming - The Wolves at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts). www.dinavovsi.com WP THEATER ( Lisa McNulty, Producing Artistic Director; Michael Sag, Managing Director) now in its 46th Season, is the nation's oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of Women+ at every stage in their careers. For over four decades, we have served as leaders at the forefront of a global movement toward gender parity, and the example we set and the artists we have fostered have grown into a robust and thriving community of artists in theater and beyond. WP Theater received a 2018 Lucille Lortel Award, a 2019 Obie Award, and a 2020 Drama Desk Award, all for Outstanding Body of Work, recognizing WP's unique place and vital work in the theatrical landscape. WP empowers Women+ of all kinds to reach their full potential and, in doing so, challenges preconceptions about the kinds of plays women write and the stories they tell. As the premiere launching pad for some of the most influential Women+ theater artists today, our work has had a significant impact on the field at large. Nearly every prolific female theater artist has been through our doors, including 2021 Pulitzer Prize Winner Katori Hall, 2019 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Musical, Rachel Chavkin, 2018 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Play, Rebecca Taichman, 2013 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Play, Pam MacKinnon, 2013 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Musical, Diane Paulus, 2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner Martyna Majok, and two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner Lynn Nottage. These powerful women found an artistic home at WP and are a testament to our role as a driving cultural force. To learn more, visit, wptheater.org and @WPtheater on social media. |
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