Theatre making was my first and strongest love
I’ve played almost every role in a theatre space - from costume designer, to stage manager, to performer, to master carpenter, to director.
The theatre was where I learned how people who speak in different disciplines can all work together to create art.
It was where I learned what it means to lead, what it means to follow, what it means to co-imagine.
It taught me that deep meaning and utter transience can be lovers.
on display
Roles: Development Director / Production Director
Partner: Arizona State University
In this play, Jack, a shut-in artist who lives in the Lower East Side, is faced with tough choices when his mother unexpectedly passes. Mary is determined to get his work into a gallery with the help of a curator, but their innocent partnership develops into a dangerous dance of exploitation. Splatter paintings are a grisly metaphor in this play about art, abuse and revealing the unseen.
(I worked in the development of this show for 16 months with the playwright, from the script being just a few random monologues, to a fully produced play. The day before opening, we sat in the back of the theatre and playfully made fun of each other’s work.)
We Own This Now
Role: Initial Production Director
Partners: Ted&Co, Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery
We Own This Now is a play by Alison Casella Brookins that looks at love of land, loss of land, and what it means to “own” something.
Chris has farmed the land his grandmother found as a home in Kansas after fleeing Russia almost 100 years ago; his daughter Riley is learning more about who was on that land before her Oma arrived, and the jarring connections she has to the fate of those people. Diving into historical documents, absurd situations, and extended metaphors, the audience discovers alongside Riley and Chris how the Doctrine of Discovery (the legal framework that justifies theft of land and oppression of Indigenous Peoples) is still being used and causing harm today.
(This show continues to tour to predominantly Mennonite churches. The question on our minds during the creation process was: what role does mourning have in activism? What is the relationship between sadness and action?)
[De/As]cending
Role: Deviser, Director
Partner: Arizona State University Art Museum
[De/As]cending was a show born from the seeds of Dante’s Inferno, spritzed with the theme of water scarcity, and encapsulated by an oppressive regime housed in a bunker. The show had three simultaneous “tracks” the audience could follow that ran three times a night, and culminated in one final scene with one actor from each track being sacrificed and turned into water.
(This show was not designed to be interactive, but it became interactive during the run. It was a scary and revealing experience. If you want to read more, check out my article in HowlRound about the experience)
