FUTURENOW DIRECTING FELLOWS

2022 HANGAR FUTURENOW

DIRECTING FELLOWS

Every summer, the Hangar Theatre and the Drama League team up to give future artistic leaders the extraordinary experience of leading the Hangar’s Lab Company, producing the Wedge Series, and directing KIDDSTUFF productions. Applicants for the Hangar FutureNow Directing Fellowship participate in a rigorous selection process that includes submitting portfolios, crafting vision statements, and interviewing with notable theatre practitioners. Once selected, the Hangar FutureNow Directing Fellows join an incredibly prestigious group of alumni, including Sam Gold (whose Broadway credits include The Glass Menagerie with Sally Fields and the award winning Fun Home), Rachel Chavkin (director of award winning musicals Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 and Hadestown), Chadwick Boseman (star of stage and screen, may his memory be a blessing) and Hangar’s previous Artistic Director Michael Barakiva. This season, the Hangar Theatre and the Drama League are pleased to introduce Ithaca audiences to these inspiring directors.

ANDREW COOPMAN (they/he) is a genderqueer, multicultural, feminist Director-Choreographer, Devising Artist, Playwright & Interdisciplinary Storyteller. Their work has been featured on stages in Chicago, Milwaukee, New York City, Dallas, & Seattle. Andrew graduated from University of Washington School of Drama with a Masters of Fine Arts in Directing. A proud member of SDC & AGMA, Andrew's regional and national credits as a directorchoreographer include: Head Over Heels (Lakewood Playhouse), Mary Zimmerman’s The Odyssey (Studio East), Bryony Lavery’s Frozen: A Play (UW Cabaret Theater, Seattle), I & You (Burien Actor’s Theater), Love & Information (Online, Self-Produced), and Wilde Tales (Seattle Opera). Andrew’s mission as an artist is simple: To explore humanity’s individuality and intersectionality as a tool for connection, inspiration, & building new community. AndrewCoopman.com EMILY HARTFORD (she/her) is a New York City-based director, creator, artistic leader, performer, puppet designer; and proud Creative Partner of Flux Theatre Ensemble. Directing credits include: Our Options Have Changed, Operating Systems, Rizing, #SpeakUp: The Street Harassment Plays, Breathe Free (Flux), The Battles, a New Musical (The Battles LLC/Gym at Judson), and Implied Consent (Badass Lady Productions/Access). Emily is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. She is a generator of devised/ collaboratively-created theatre, including Metra: A Climate Revolution Play with Songs (with Ned Hartford), and will direct Metra’s world premiere in fall 2022, with Flux. Her first short film, Type A, premiered at the Woods Hole Film Festival in 2021 and has appeared in festivals across the country. EmilyHartford.com

LOGAN GABRIELLE SCHULMAN

[they/them] is a proud Jewish, genderqueer, multidisciplinary artist, director, playwright, designer, and educator. They’ve developed projects with the Chautauqua Institution (NY), the Annenberg Center at University of Pennsylvania (PA), Sarasota Art Museum (FL), Urbanite Theatre (FL), Walnut Street Theatre (PA), Asolo Repertory Theatre (FL), and Bread and Puppet Theatre (VT), among others + numerous site-specific projects. Their play Make Thee an Ark (co-written with Raychel Ceciro) was featured on the 2020 Kilroys List, and their dramatic works are held in the permanent collections of the Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin and the Library Special Collections of Ringling College of Art. Their work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Director’s Lab, and the Florida Humanities Council.

Any time we see anything in the round we're seeing other people watching the experience. It's less formal, and therefore not as precious. You come as you are, you do your thing and you enjoy the show. It feels like no one is trying to put on any sort of airs.

Are there particular themes you think audiences will appreciate?

Sometimes we can think about theatre in a couple of ways, contextually and representationally. We’re putting on School Girls during a period which is heated, difficult, contentious and very much intertwined with the political imagination of Black Lives Matter dealing with all that this country has been for centuries, really, if you want to go that far back. And a lot has transpired in just the last three years. School Girls is a romp and a lot of fun but I don’t think it’s less important than that context because we are talking about how we value ourselves. Is my value of myself based on something that society has set? Do I buy into that? And if I don’t buy into that…? We all know this. We can think about the change in how we talk about identity, in all of the ways we talk about identity. There’s this huge surge today that is so beautiful to be able to claim what we value for ourselves in ourselves. And yet, somehow, this thing still persists where we have to find ourselves competing, in some cases selling our souls, in order to be able to accomplish livelihood and future opportunities. That hasn’t changed. Not yet, but hopefully. ▲

continued p. 28 Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812

Fatima: I’ve learned much in the presence of Red and Shirley’s leadership, skill, artistry and humanity. They inspire me to bring a fuller expression of myself to our work this go-around. We are still in pre-production, but I think it says a lot about this particular partnership that I feel calm about us staging a fully actor-musician production of an already 2 1/2-hour epic immersive electropop opera, based on a tome of a book… outside. There’s something reassuring about knowing that we did something together and it worked. And not only did it work, but it was enjoyable enough to want to try to make something work with one another again! That reassurance is invaluable to my capacity for creative risk-taking! Shirley: I’m honored to work with these two artists again. I can say, we all approach the work from a dramaturgical perspective (what’s in the text? what was the context of that text?) and I think that really helps align us as artists. Fatima and I both call ourselves dramaturgs, Red very organically combines a dramaturgical sensibility with clues we can pull from the music. There’s also generosity, compassion, and joy present when working with these two individuals; it makes me look forward to spending time in the room with them.

Natasha & Pierre is based on War & Peace, written by Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. In light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, some have questioned the ethics of producing a Russian writer at this time. Do you have thoughts you'd like to share about that?

Fatima: While I don’t have anything I’d like to include, I did come across this quote I thought could be of use: “In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.”

- Leo Tolstoy Red: With respect to opinions different from my own, that notion is difficult for me to take seriously; it strikes me as censorship based on nationalism. I have known many Russian people in varying circumstances. I will never judge them based on the regime that runs their homeland (just as I hope they won't judge me for mine). The show takes place in the lives of people who are a great distance from an important war. Stories like these are permanently relevant and need to be told to us. Shirley: Of course, when we programmed this show, that region of the world–though certainly vulnerable–was not in its current state of crisis. But when I look at the season now, I think there’s a valuable, more complex story to take in. We will visit pre-WWII Germany in Cabaret right before this production. In recent decades, Germany has proven to be a significant ally in upholding democracy and stability in Europe, and the world, really. 75 years ago we could not have imagined this to be possible. Recognizing the cycles of history, and the potential for national perspectives to change and evolve is essential, and really, the only thing giving me hope right now. Red: I’m curious Fatima, our work will intersect frequently throughout the show. How do you approach movement with musical instruments involved? Are