Symposium: Sound & Color—The Future of Race in Design

FROM THE CURATORIAL TEAM

Designers believe in our senses. We believe that what we see and hear in space, light, shadow, sound, and clothing profoundly impacts emotion, relationship and meaning. We are also aware that design is culturally specific. Designers conjure worlds that contain symbols and signals from the families and cultures that we grew up in, the ways we were educated, the cultures and art that we have studied. Although we work collaboratively, we each draw on our own imaginations, which are colonized by the rituals, stories, and myths of our own particular lives.

We are excited that American stage design seems to be in a golden age, driven by innovative designers of color, queer, and female designers; shaped by profound technological changes; and enhanced by a generational shift in how people consider design. We come together to ask how thinking more deeply about race might affect vocabularies of design and shape live performance into the future. The particular topics chosen have their roots in many conversations in theaters, in classrooms, over meals and behind the tech table—conversations that include many more people than you will hear from this weekend.

As hosts of this convening, we are grateful for this opportunity to gather at this critical moment. Our goal for this time together is to expand our conversations and frame new questions, so we humbly invite your active participation in formal and informal conversations.

We are grateful for thinkers, dreamers, and activists in the arts and beyond for leading us towards some of the particular questions of the weekend. We are grateful to Park Avenue Armory for bringing together this extraordinary group of artists, scholars and students in one place. To our many speakers, emerging designers and partners—and especially to everyone who chose to attend this weekend—thank you for agreeing that this is a conversation worth having.

Jane Cox, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Mimi Lien, and Mikaal Sulaiman

How does race matter in design? As sound designer Twi McCallum put it in a 2020 open letter to her community, it matters to designers who are Black, Indigenous and people of color who all too often face “‘inclusion’ being exclusive to the actors, writers, producers, musicians, and dancers.” Although designers “may be faceless to our audiences,” McCallum continues, “we exist, we are qualified, but we also need safe spaces.” Sound & Color: The Future of Race in Design aims to answer McCallum’s call, a historic gathering that is perhaps the first of its kind to build on the dedicated organizing, outreach, and imagination of so many who have worked tirelessly to expand the possibilities of American theater and performance.

Making Space at the Park Avenue Armory launched in 2022 with a mandate to bring intention, inclusion, and imagination to the return to live arts after the devastating first year of the pandemic. When Jane Cox and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins came to me with the seed of this idea—first planted when they co-taught a seminar on this topic—I immediately saw the opportunity to host a state-ofthe-art conversation that would spotlight the voices and visions of an intergenerational group of designers. Joining forces with sound designer Mikaal Sulaiman and set designer Mimi Lien, Sound & Color has taken shape as a full and rich weekend.

We knew from the start that this event would have to show and tell the story of how design is changing. In partnership with Design Action, a collective of BIPOC and white designers advocating for a radical shift in theater design, eight artists and their collaborators have been commissioned to create six design events in the Armory historic rooms. And thanks to the visionary leadership of Artistic Director Nataki Garrett, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival will present a Quills Fest VR World Pop Up in which symposium attendees can enter virtual reality experiences on site My gratitude to OSF Associate Artistic Director Scarlett Kim for curating this peek into a future that is already here, and for helping to ensure that designers of color are helping to shape it.

On the Alabama Shakes’ song “Future People”—off their album Sound & Color—lead singer Brittany Howard sings “some things could be seen from above, thread of design don’t trip me up.” Design can trip us up, Howard seems to warn us, when we treat it like work that has been cut for us, and act like we were meant to obediently follow a master plan from above. In contrast, she urges future people to “listen loud”—to dream big—and “reach that top” of their own invention. While Sound & Color: The Future of Race in Design may be the first such gathering of its kind, we hope it won’t be the last. Inspired by the Alabama Shakes, we hope this event will encourage the “future people” of design to listen loud to their dreams and rebuild better stages, ones with room for us all.

Tavia Nyong’o, Curator of Public Programming at Park Avenue Armory

Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street

CONVERSATION SERIES: MAKING SPACE AT THE ARMORY SYMPOSIUM: SOUND & COLOR –THE FUTURE OF RACE IN DESIGN

saturday, january 14 & sunday, january 15, 2023

Hosted by lighting designer Jane Cox, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, set designer Mimi Lien, and sound designer and composer Mikaal Sulaiman

Bloomberg Philanthropies is the Armory’s 2023 Season Sponsor. Support for Park Avenue Armory’s artistic season has been generously provided by the Charina Endowment Fund, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Richenthal Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Armory’s Artistic Council.

Cover image: Book of Light by Keith + Mendi Obadike. Photo by Sean Carroll.

Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street

SCHEDULE

SATURDAY, JANUARY 14

1:00PM – 2:00PM

Opening Conversation

Veterans Room

Lighting designer Jane Cox, set designer Mimi Lien, and sound designer and composer Mikaal Sulaiman in conversation, moderated by playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Opened with a welcome by Park Avenue Armory Curator of Public Programming Tavia Nyong’o and beatbox performance by Chesney Snow

2:00PM – 3:00PM

Creating a Collaborative Aesthetic Over Time

Veterans Room

Long-term collaborators costume designer Montana Blanco, set designer Adam Rigg, sound designer Palmer Hefferan, and puppet designer and fabricator James Ortiz discuss their collaborative history and work on The Skin of Our Teeth, moderated by director Lileana Blain-Cruz.

3:00PM – 4:00PM

Presentation of Micro-Commissions

Presented in collaboration with Design Action

Second Floor Historic Company Rooms

Park Avenue Armory and Design Action have chosen eight artists and their collaborators to create six design events or interventions in 48 hours responding to the prompt "Take Space: Disrupting With Love.” These eight designers were chosen from a thrilling pool of emerging designers of color who applied to participate in this four-day process (two days of creation and two days of showing). Please find descriptions of their works on pages 7 and 8.

Space for Informal Conversations

Second Floor Hallway

4:00PM – 5:00PM

Conversations Between Generations

Veterans Room

Actor, playwright, and director Ruben Santiago-Hudson in conversation with lighting designer and educator Victor En Yu Tan sharing the experiences of working in culturally specific theaters with younger artists. Moderated by Puerto Rican scenic designer and Head of Scenic Design at DePaul University Regina García

Teaching Design and Production through an Anti-Racist Lens Board of Officers Room

Costume designer and Princeton faculty member Sarita Fellows and Head of Undergraduate Lighting Design Training at NYU Tisch Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew in conversation with University of Rhode Island Professor Christine Mok.

Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street

SUNDAY, JANUARY 15

1:00PM – 2:00PM

Black Sound Artists Round Table

Veterans Room

Sound designer and composer Mikaal Sulaiman in conversation with composer, sound design artist, and musician Justin Ellington; Ghanaian interdisciplinary artist JOJO ABOT; vocalist, composer, and performance artist Holland Andrews; and duo Mendi + Keith Obadike

Radical Realities: Infinite Possibilities at the Intersection of Theater and XR

Presented in collaboration with Oregon Shakespeare Festival Board of Officers Room

Facilitated by Scarlett Kim and Mei Ann Teo, who lead Innovation, Strategy, and New Work at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, this panel features multi-hyphenate theater artists Raja Feather Kelly, Ty Defoe, LaJuné McMillian, and Dede Ayite sharing their journeys into Extended Reality. Trailblazers in envisioning the future of live performance, these artists offer provocations for the intersection of theater and XR.

2:00PM – 3:00PM

Culturally Specific Design

Veterans Room

New York City Center Encores! Producing Creative Director Clint Ramos in conversation with theatrical lighting, projection, and puppetry designer Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew. Moderated by Diep Tran, Editor-in-Chief of Playbill.

Afrofuturism in Conversation with Design for Live Performance Board of Officers Room

Park Avenue Armory Curator of Public Programming Tavia Nyong’o in conversation with director Shariffa Ali and Taiwanese scenic designer You-Shin Chen

3:00PM – 4:00PM

Presentation of Micro-Commissions

Presented in collaboration with Design Action

Second Floor Historic Company Rooms

Please find descriptions of their works on pages 7 and 8.

Space for Informal Conversations

Second Floor Hallway

4:00PM – 5:00PM

Costume Design Conversation

Veterans Room

Hosted by costume designer and founder of Black Trans Liberation Qween Jean with costume designers Dominique Fawn Hill and Devario D. Simmons.

Darkness and Light: Lighting Design Onstage

Presented in collaboration with Princeton University’s CreativeX Board of Officers Room

Lighting designers Itohan Edoloyi, Stacey Derosier, Alejandro Fajardo, and Alan C. Edwards in conversation, moderated by symposium host, Director of the Princeton University Theater program, and lighting designer Jane Cox

armoryonpark.org | @ParkAveArmory

ONGOING PRESENTATIONS

Movement Portraits

19K

The Black Movement Library’s Movement Portraits VR experience by LaJuné McMillian is an abstract documentary, diving into the movement histories and stories of five Black performance artists living and working in New York City.

Documentation of the performance work rasgos asiáticos Field and Staff Room rasgos asiáticos (documented here) is an on-going project by Virgina Grise, created in collaboration with designer Tanya Orellana, that traces the diasporic journeys and hidden histories of Chinese communities in Mexico and along the US-MX border through a hybrid, convivial approach to storytelling that includes site-responsive installations, communal dinners, and community workshops. Sound design by Daniel Gower.

Quills Fest VR World Pop Up

Presented by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Colonels Room

Quills Fest is Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s annual festival where immersive technology and live performance come out to play. Each year, OSF commissions projects by seminal theater artists and creative technologists from around the world that boldly imagine the future of theatrical storytelling. Quills Fest projects explore an expansive spectrum of Extended Reality (XR) forms, ranging from 360 video to interactive VR narratives to AR games. Quills Fest VR World, a surreal and playful take on OSF’s iconic Elizabethan theatre in Virtual Reality, serves as an ever-evolving artistic home for Quills projects. Conceived by OSF Artistic Director Nataki Garrett, Quills Fest is a transmedia playground that radically expands access to the transformational power of storytelling. Featured projects include: Anakwad with Ty Defoe; BLOOM by Nao Bustamante; Diagnosia and Loom by Mengtai Zhang and Lemon Guo; Ordinary Gesture by Raja Feather Kelly; Haboob: The Sublime Nature of Sudanese Sandstorms by Nehal El-Hadi and Ayodamola Tanimowo Okunseinde; and Queerskins: Ark by Illya Szilak and Cyril Tsiboulski.

PRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Jane Cox, Conference Co-Organizer

Kelly Hayes, Jonah Bobilin, Design Action

Scarlett Kim, Mei-Ann Teo, victor cervantes jr., Josh Horvath, Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Rodrigo Hernandez Martinez, Wingspace Theatrical Design

Mark DeChiazza, CreativeX at Princeton University

Habib Apo-oyin, Marketing Intern

Lucille Vasquez, Public Programming Intern

Danny Gomez, Silas Rodriguez, Youth Corps PAs

Liz Bickley Studios

Kirrin Tubo, Shana Ferguson, Jahdiel Rodriguez, Stage Managers

Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street

FIRST FLOOR

Lexington Avenue

Field and Sta Room

Coat Check 19K

Colonels Room

Board of O cers Room Veterans Room

Entrance

Park Avenue

armoryonpark.org | @ParkAveArmory

MICRO-COMMISSIONS

Christina Tang and Alex Vásquez Dheming / [working] Company C

As lighting designers by trade, we act as guides to what an audience sees and how they see it. We reveal, and obscure, by designing complicated systems that are in turn concealed in pursuit of an elegant final product. We are responding to the prompt “Take Space: Disrupting with Love” by examining the relationships between design, systems, audiences/participants/users, and control versus influence. We are interested in activating Company C by dramatizing the design process and delivery, rather than the product: creating cotemporal, cospatial experiences that center light, distortion, and competing attentional demands.

Rodrigo Hernandez Martinez / Something borrowed, something green Company D

My initial response to the prompt was to explore two essential concepts that led me to being able to “take space”: self-love and community-support. I decided to investigate these two concepts through the lens of immigration between Mexico and the USA post lockdown in 2020.

There is a current immigration phenomenon happening between Mexico-USA where middle-to-upper class US citizens are moving to Mexico while keeping their high-paying US jobs through remote work. Their economic influx is dramatically changing neighborhoods by raising the cost of living, thus displacing the locals and other businesses that don’t match the demands of their new tenants.

On the other side, during the 2020 lockdown, many immigrants at the end of their work visas or OPTs struggled to find ways to stay in the US during the pandemic due to the lack of jobs and shutdown of many industries, making us leave or pivot to finding other ways to stay. Many by enrolling as students, some by applying to other types of visas, and others by getting married.

Based on this disparity, I decided to explore a tradition in many Latin American countries where the guests at a wedding, during the couple’s first waltz, will pin bills to their wedding attire. This is said to symbolize prosperity in their marriage and abundance in their future. Using this tradition, I’m hoping to create a costume piece that will transform throughout the length of the events at the Armory into a symbol in collaboration with the visitors who experience the piece.

Elliot Yokum / Evil Eye Company E

The nazar, or achqi ulunk, is a charm found across West Asia meant to protect from the evil eye – a malevolent gaze that curses the unaware with misfortune. In thinking about the prompt and about the concept of taking space, I continually return to the concept of the safe space, of a space created with intentional radical acceptance in order to protect the marginalized from that which marginalizes. Though the concept of the safe space is often a flawed one, I see the tradition of the nazar and the evil eye as a parallel attempt to provide that same sense of protection. This raises the question: how do I reconcile the conflict between the protection the nazar represents, and the fact that it hangs in the homes and cars of my family, a family which refuses to accept my queerness? The nazar may protect me from misfortune, but it does not protect me from the continued transphobia that I face from my family and their community. Instead of a charm of protection, the nazar is to me a representation of the ways in which I, and so many children of immigrants, struggle with the intersection between my queerness and my heritage. This project is an attempt at reconciling that conflict and at disrupting the forces that have torn me apart my whole life. In reclaiming the achqi ulunk, I am building a space that is safe for both of my identities, protecting myself from misfortune and embracing the person I am wholly, rather than in parts.

Danielle DeLaFuente and Nina Field / Crack the Foundation Company H

This design intervention explores how Park Avenue Armory’s Company H interacts with the world just outside of its windows. This investigation highlights the contrast of a modern-day New York to the history that is present through the original architecture of the room. With intricate wrought-iron grills and light fixtures, Company Room H contains the original ceiling and lockers from the National Guard’s Seventh Regiment. However, in this period room that transports you into the 19th century, you can still hear the buzz of the city streets. We have taken great inspiration from the structure, decor, and sounds of the Armory, in addition to the institution’s commitment to addressing the fault-lines in our social order through art. We hope to play with the contrast of the historical significance of the building within the world today, in reference to colonization, color, nature, and community. Through interactive sculptural and sound elements, we invite members of the symposium to take in the space around them with its given colonial history bred from war. In this space that was not created for historically excluded groups, we implore everyone, as individuals and as a community, to intervene with their stories and their passions to nourish the conversation of the symposium.

Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street

MEET THE PARTICIPANTS

JOJO ABOT

JOJO ABOT is an interdisciplinary healer and Ewe woman born in Ghana and based in LA. She explores themes of spirituality, identity, and community through music, film, fine art, fashion, photography, and other media. Her career includes interdisciplinary works in collaboration with the MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, Ghana Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Frieze X Theaster Gates X Prada, Hult Center, Armory week NYC, Perez Art Museum Miami, and others. ABOT wrote an immersive spatial opera A God of her Own Making starring Esperanza Spalding, has toured with Ms Lauryn Hill, and played stages like Afropunk, Roots Picnic, Radio City Music Hall, The Apollo Theater, The Kennedy Center, Greek Theater, and Times Square’s New Years Eve Concert. New Inc alumnae. Former National Sawdust resident artist. Curator of Power to the God Within.

SHARIFFA ALI

Shariffa Ali is a creative leader committed to working with an open-heart at the intersection of the performing arts and humanitarianism. As a theater director, Ali moves her audiences to engage with timely issues touching upon Black, Afropolitan, and African-American identities. Directing credits include Yael Farber’s Mies Julie with Classic Stage Company (Off-Broadway debut), the world premiere of Karen Zacharias’ The Copper Children at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and works at Yale, NYU, Princeton, and Brooklyn College. Assistant director credits include Rasheeda Speaking, Steve (The New Group, NY) and Motherstruck! (Culture Project, NY) with Cynthia Nixon. Member, Black History Museum. Advisory committee, Africa’sOut! BA Theater and Performance, University of Cape Town.

HOLLAND ANDREWS

Holland Andrews is a vocalist, composer, and performance artist whose work focuses on the abstraction of operatic and extended-technique voice to build soundscapes encompassing both catharsis and dissonance. Frequently highlighting themes surrounding vulnerability and healing, Andrews arranges music for voice, clarinet, and electronics. Andrews also develops and performs soundscapes for dance, theater, and film, and their work is toured internationally with artists such as Bill T. Jones, Dorothee Munyaneza, Will Rawls, and poet Demian Dinéyazhi. Notable musical collaborations include Son Lux, Christina Vantzou, William Brittelle, Methods Body, West Thordson, Peter Broderick, and Nils Frahm.

DEDE AYITE

Dede Ayite is a two-time Tony award-nominated costume designer working in theater, opera, and film. Recent Broadway: Topdog Underdog, Ohio State Murders, American Buffalo, Slave Play, A Soldier’s Play, and American Son. Select Off-Broadway: Merry Wives (Public Theater); Seven Deadly Sins (Tectonic); By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Signature); School Girls… (MCC); Bella: An American Tall Tale (Playwrights Horizons). Regionally, Ayite’s work has appeared at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf, Arena Stage, and more. She has worked in television with Netflix, Comedy Central, and FOX. Honors include TDF/Kitty Leech Young Master, Obie, Drama Desk, Henry Hewes, Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes, and Jeff awards. MFA, Yale School of Drama.

LILEANA BLAIN-CRUZ

Lileana Blain-Cruz is a director from New York City and Miami. Recent projects include: The Listeners (Opera Norway); The Skin of Our Teeth (Lincoln Center, Tony nomination); Dreaming Zenzile (New York Theatre Workshop / National Black Theatre); Marys Seacole (LCT3, Obie Award); Wayne Shorter and esperanza spalding’s …(Iphigenia) (MASS MoCA, The Kennedy Center); Hansel and Gretel (an opera film with Houston Grand Opera); Anatomy of a Suicide (Atlantic Theater Company); Fefu and Her Friends (TFANA); Girls (Yale Rep.); Faust (Opera Omaha); Thunderbodies and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. (Soho Rep.); The House That Will Not Stand and Red Speedo (NYTW); The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Signature Theatre, Obie Award). Awards: Drama League 2022 Founders Award for Excellence in Directing, 2021 Doris Duke Artist, a 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist, 2018 United States Artists Fellow. Resident director of Lincoln Center Theater. BA, Princeton and MFA, Yale School of Drama.

MONTANA LEVI BLANCO

Broadway: A Strange Loop, The Skin of Our Teeth. LCT: Pipeline; Ghost Light, War (LCT3). Off Broadway includes Ain’t No Mo’; Fairview; Is God Is; The House That Will Not Stand; Fefu and Her Friends; “Daddy”; The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World; He Brought Her Heart in a Box; Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine; In the Blood; Red Speedo; and O, Earth. Winner of w Special Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Tony, two Obies, two Henry Hewes Design awards. Education: Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, Brown University, Yale School of Drama.

Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street

GYLANNI CARRINGTON

Gylanni Carrington (they/them) is a queer non-binary artist from pre-gentrified Brooklyn. Carrington is an interdisciplinary artist with experience in various areas of theatrical design, including costume, lighting, set design, and puppetry. They love new work, and projects that are weird, experimental, and concept-heavy with challenging design elements. An authority on aesthetics, they value performance art pieces that are a feast for the eyes. Carrington believes the future of art lies in diverse storytelling and prioritizes works that are inclusive and accessible. BA Theatre/Gender, Literature, and the Arts, Hunter College.

YOU-SHIN CHEN

You-Shin Chen is a US-based Taiwanese scenic designer. As a theater collaborator, she is committed to diversity and humanity. Chen centers humans, both the characters and the viewers, and their experiences in her process of creating a three-dimensional space. Some of her favorite credits include: Red Velvet (Shakespeare Theater Company, DC); Mlima’s Tale (St. Louis Rep); UGLY, The Kill One Race, Wednesday, and Blue (the feath3r theory); Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie (ArsNova); Troy Anthony’s The Revival: It Is Our Duty (The Shed, NY); Walden (TheaterWorks Hartford); Lessons in Survival: 1971 (Vineyard Theater, NY). Assistant Professor at Muhlenberg College. Local USA829, IASTE.

JANE COX

Jane Cox is a lighting designer, and Director of the Program in Theater at Princeton University. Cox has long collaborations with many wonderful theater makers, including Ruben Santiago-Hudson, John Doyle, Elise Thoron, Shariffa Ali, Awoye Timpo, and Sam Gold, and has been a member of the Monica Bill Barnes dance company for twenty years. Cox has been nominated for Tony awards for Macbeth, Jitney, and Machinal and most recently designed at the Abbey Theater in Dublin, her hometown. Cox is currently organizing a series of events around Felon: An American Washi Tale, written by Reginald Dwayne Betts, in collaboration with an extraordinary community at Princeton University.

TY DEFOE

Ty Defoe (Giizhig, he/we), citizen of the Oneida/Ojibwe Nations. A writer, interdisciplinary story artist, and world builder. Defoe aspires to an interweaving and glitterizing approach to artistic projects with climate awareness and Indigenous liberation. Works created and authored: River of Stone, Red Pine, The Way They Lived, Ajijaak on Turtle Island, and currently working on VR/XR piece, ANAKWAD (w/ Dov Heichemer and _alpha). Defoe is a Grammy Award winner, OSF artistic honoree, MacDowell and Sundance Fellow, and Kennedy Center Next 50! Degrees from CalArts, Goddard College, and NYU Tisch. Lives in NYC.

DANIELLE DELAFUENTE

Danielle DeLaFuente is a Chinese and Latina designer and artisan working in New York and Boston. Primarily focused in scene design, DeLaFuente also tells stories through exhibitions, installations, painting, and shadow-puppetry. She has recently worked at The Lyric Stage of Boston, Maine State Music Theatre, and Bay Street Theater. DeLaFuente is currently working as a scenic designer, design assistant, and scenic artist and is the 2022-2023 Scene Design Mentee at Wingspace. DeLaFuente is interested in exploring theatrical storytelling through a more immersive and public lens. For her, creating and experiencing art is a way to reckon with aspects of her own identity. Through accessibility, education, and engagement, she hopes to use creative storytelling as a tool to create this experience for others. BFA in Scene Design, minors in Psychology and Arts Leadership; Boston University.

STACEY DEROSIER

Stacey Derosier is a New York-based lighting designer and has just received her MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her recent lighting work includes Don Juan Comes Back from the War (Columbia Stages), An American Daughter (NYU), A Daughter & Some Sons (NYU), and Thyestes (NYU). She has also worked as a production designer on the short film Will You Be My Twin?

DESIGN ACTION

Design Action is an intergenerational coalition of BIPOC and white designers working to end racial inequities in the north American theater by confronting racism in our workplace and forging new pathways into the industry for rising designers of color. Started in August 2020, Design Action continues to meet regularly, offering professional and social opportunities for emerging designers of color, and partnering with other organizations to further its goals. This growing collective committed to radically shifting the landscape of American theater design currently includes 245 members across the country, from designers working on and off Broadway, to regional theaters, storefront and community theaters, in Universities, and other non-traditionally Western forms of performance.

armoryonpark.org | @ParkAveArmory

ITOHAN EDOLOYI

Itohan Edoloyi is a Brooklyn-born lighting designer whose work is deeply rooted in community and culture. Her work aims to continue storytelling in non-traditional ways, crafting meaningful experiences through the lens of light and immersion. She has worked as a lighting designer and associate designer on shows in Europe and North America, from experimental theater to tours, Off-Broadway, and Broadway shows. Edoloyi works as lead curator for InLight Collective, resident lighting designer for Kyle Marshall Choreography company, and resident light design coordinator for The Shed’s Open Call Series. Her work as a curator and light artist has been seen in Rosco Spectrum, JACK Arts, and LaMaMa Galleria. Awards: 2021 Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, 2018 Gilbert V. Hemsley Lighting Internship. MFA, Brooklyn College.

ALAN EDWARDS

Alan C. Edwards is a lighting designer for live entertainment. His work Off-Broadway includes the world premieres of Harry Clarke (The Vineyard), Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theatre), Bluebird Memories featuring rap-artist Common (Audible Theatre), and new productions of Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 at the Signature Theatre. His regional work includes the world premiere of Sally & Tom (The Guthrie) and Lights Out: Nat King Cole (Geffen Playhouse). He is a graduate of Yale School of Drama, where he now serves as an Assistant Professor of Lighting.

JUSTIN ELLINGTON

Composer/Sound Designer (he/him/his). Broadway credits include Ohio State Murders, Top Dog/Under Dog, For Colored

Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow in Enuf (Tony Nomination), Pass Over, Clyde’s, and Other Desert Cities Off-Broadway theaters include New York Theater Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Lincoln Center, ArsNova, Theater For A New Audience. Additional theaters include: Steppenwolf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, The Alliance Theatre, and Center Theater Group, The Royal Shakespeare Company (UK), The Old Vic (UK), National Theatre of London (UK), and Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Canada). Lecturer, David Geffen School of Design at Yale University. Music Engineering and Technology, Hampton University.

VICTOR EN YU TAN

Victor En Yu Tan recently designed Gong Lum Legacy, New Federal; Memorial, Pan Asian Rep; Freedom Rider, co-pro Alabama Shakespeare & Crossroads; and Toni Stone, Unicorn Theatre. He designed over 40 for Pan Asian including Brothers Paranormal, A Dream of Red Pavilion, Shogun Macbeth, and Joy Luck Club, and over 30 for Crossroads including Emergency! and Single Black Female. Regionally, he designed Satchel Paige and the KC Swing!, co-pro Cincinnati Playhouse & St Louis Rep; Whipping Man, Broke-ology, and over 20 others, KC Rep; The Ballad of Emmett Till, Goodman; and Stickfly, McCarter. He designed over 25 for the Public Theatre including the world premieres of For Colored Girls, Dance and the Railroad, and The Colored Museum. He teaches lighting at the University of Missouri – Kansas City.

ALEJANDRO FAJARDO

Alejandro Fajardo is a Colombian lighting designer based in Lenapehoking/Brooklyn. Fajardo believes that art, creativity, and imagination help guide communities through crises and build a new future that centers community care and growth. His work can be seen in a variety of industries including regional theater (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Two River Theatre Co, Trinity Rep, St. Ann’s Warehouse), opera (OMAR at Spoleto Festival, Bard Music Festival, The New School, Curtis Institute of Music), dance performances (Michiyaya Dance, Danspace Projects, Kafka Collective), performance festivals (NYC Free at Little Island, Fall for Dance at NY City Center). Fajardo also designs escape rooms, theatrical immersive events, and site lighting for music, fashion shows, and other commercial events.

SARITA FELLOWS

Costume designer Sarita Fellows was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Recent works include: Death of a Salesman, Broadway; Theater of the Mind, Denver Center of Performing Arts; Blues for An Alabama Sky and Sweat, Guthrie Theater; Seize The King, Alliance Theater; A Bright Room Called Day, Public Theater; and Fefu and Her Friends, American Conservatory Theater. In the dance world, Fellows has worked with choreographers such as Liz Lerman and Edisa Weeks. MFA Design, Tisch School of Design. She recently was awarded Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design (The National Black Theater Festival 2022). Lily Award (2020).

Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street

NINA FIELD

Nina Field is a queer Nuyorican sound designer based in New York. She works on straight plays, experimental work, and movement pieces, utilizing synthesizers, soundscapes, drones, and ambiences in her design practice. Selected Works: New York: The Gospel Women (National Black Theatre); The Road Back (Chrysalis Theatre Company); Motel Andromeda (Waterwell); House of American Activities (The After-Image); The View (Columbia U. School of the Arts); Regional: Our Town (Baltimore Center Stage, Dallas Theater Center); Urinetown, The Musical (Northern Stage; White River Junction, VT); Beyond the Fourth Wall (WMPAC; Big Sky, MT); Ms. Bennet, Christmas at Pemberley (Playhouse On Park; West Hartford, CT); Fringe: The Ecstasy of Victoria Woodhull (Owl & Pussycat Theatre Company; shown at Hollywood Fringe, 59E59, Edinburgh Fringe). Virtual: Murder, We Spoke (Tantrum East). Associate Design: Twelfth Night (Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Designer: Lindsay Jones), Hamlet on the Radio (The Old Globe, Designer: Lindsay Jones). BFA Theatrical Design/Technology, SUNY Purchase; BA History, Bryn Mawr College. Member, TSDCA and USA 829.

REGINA GARCÍA

Regina García is a Chicago-based scenic designer from Puerto Rico. She has long standing relationships with the St. Louis Black Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Repertorio Español, The Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, Teatro Vista, INTAR, and Pregones Theater. García is a Fellow of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers and the Princess Grace Awards; a Regional Associate member of the League of Professional Theatre Women; and company member with both Rivendell Theatre Ensemble and Boundless Theatre Company. She is the Head of the Scenic Design Program, DePaul University. Recent: Indiana Rep, American Players Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Guthrie Theater. Upcoming: Children’s Theatre of Minneapolis, First Stage, McCarter, Steppenwolf. Founding organizational member, La Gente: The Latinx Theatre Design Network. Active member, No More 10 Out of 12s Working Group. Committee member, Michael Merritt Endowment Fund. Advisory board, Latinx Theatre Commons.

VIRGINIA GRISE

Virginia Grise is a recipient of the Herb Alpert Award, Whiting Award, Yale Drama Award, and Princess Grace Award. Her published work includes Your Healing is Killing Me, blu, and The Panza Monologues. In addition to plays, she has created an interdisciplinary body of work in multimedia performance, dance theater, performance installations, guerilla theater, site specific interventions, and community gatherings. She holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and is a founding member of a todo dar productions, the Mellon Playwright in Residence at Cara Mia Theatre, Matykev Research Fellow at Arizona State University, and Hodder Fellow at Princeton University.

PALMER HEFFERAN

Palmer Hefferan is a Tony Award-nominated sound designer and composer for theater, audio dramas, and podcasts. She has designed over 75 productions on stages in New York and across the country. In 2022, she was an honorary chair of the American Theatre Wing Gala, which celebrated women theater practitioners. She received a 2019 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Sound Design from the American Theatre Wing. Highlights from the last decade include seven collaborations with director Lileana Blain-Cruz (Select productions: The Skin of Our Teeth, Tony nomination; Fefu and Her Friends, Drama Desk nomination; Marys Seacole, Obie Award; Death of the Last Black Man In The Whole Entire World).

RODRIGO HERNANDEZ MARTINEZ

Rodrigo Hernandez Martinez (they/he) is a scenic and costume designer and visual artist from Mexico currently based in NYC. Upcoming projects include: In The Heights at Fine Arts Center, CO; I’m Gonna Mary You Tobey Maguire at Nancy Manocheria’s The Cell, New York; Geraldine Realigned Dirves From Gay Place To Gay Place And You’re In The Car Too at The Brick, New York; The Day You Begin at Bay Area’s Children’s Theatre, CA. Hernandez Martinez is a proud member of Wingspace Theatrical Design, La Gente: The Latinx Theatre Design Network, and Colegio Mexicano de Diseño Escénico. BFA Theatrical Production Arts-Design Concentration, Ithaca College.

JUSTIN HICKS

Justin Hicks is a Drama Desk-nominated composer, vocalist, and sound artist who has collaborated with various artists including Abigail DeVille, Kaneza Schaal, Chris Myers, Meshell Ndegeocello, Hilton Als, Charlotte Brathwaite, Darius Jones, Steffani, and Toshi Reagon. His work has been presented by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Public, Baryshnikov Art Center, Festival steirischer herbst (Graz, AT), Symphony Space, Jack, and The Bushwick Starr. Hicks recently presented his song cycle Outside as part of The Shed’s Open Call series and composed music for Clyde’s by Lynn Nottage. Hicks was a member of Kara Walker’s 6-8 Months Space and holds a culinary diploma from ICE in New York City.

armoryonpark.org | @ParkAveArmory

DOMINIQUE FAWN HILL

Dominique Fawn Hill (she/her) is a costume designer. Design credits include An Untitled New Play by Justin Timberlake, One Night in Miami…, Pipeline (City Theatre Company); Journeys to Justice (Portland Opera); Mlima’s Tale (Profile Theatre); STEW (Soho Rep); Hedwig and The Angry Inch, Rent (Portland Center Stage); Dark Girl Chronicles: CHRONICLE X (The Shed); 125th & FREEdom (National Black Theatre); Grace (Ford’s Theatre); Tambo & Bones (Playwrights Horizons/CTG); Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (MTC); and Fat Ham (The Public Theater/Broadway).

BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS

Creator, showrunner, writer, and executive producer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins debuts as TV creator of FX’s Kindred, a thrilling adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s seminal 1979 sci-fi novel. Previous TV roles include consulting producer on HBO’s Watchmen and Prime Video’s Outer Range. Considered one of the most important American playwrights working today, Jacobs-Jenkins’ works include An Octoroon, Girls, Gloria, Appropriate, and Everybody. Residency Five playwright at the Signature Theatre, with new world premiere scheduled for spring 2023. Awards: Obie, Charles Wintour, and Tennessee Williams awards; a MacArthur “Genius” Grant; 2020 Guggenheim and 2020 USA Artists fellowships; and the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama. Two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama. VP and Board Member, Dramatists Guild Council; Board Member, Soho Rep, Park Avenue Armory, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize; Professor of Practice, Yale University. Graduate, Princeton, NYU, Juilliard.

QWEEN JEAN

Qween Jean is a New York-based stage and film costume designer. She is founder of Black Trans Liberation, an organization providing access and employment resources for the TGNC community. Qween has committed her voice to advocating for marginalized communities, specifically Black trans people. Her passion is creating access for unsung heroes and people who are often overlooked. She feels their stories are valuable and deserve recognition. Qween is thrilled to be part of Black No More! The New Group: The Fever, I Need Space, Waiting For Godot, and One In Two. Credits include: Macbeth in Stride, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, Siblings Play, Amen Corner, Rags Parkland, Good Grief, Othello, Wig Out! Mary Antoinette, Little Shop of Horrors, and the highly acclaimed What to Send Up, When It Goes Down by Aleshea Harris. MFA Design, NYU Tisch.

RAJA FEATHER KELLY

Raja Feather Kelly is a choreographer and director, and the Artistic Director of the dance-theater-media company the feath3r theory–for which Kelly has created 16 premieres, most recently UGLY Part 3: at the Chelsea Factory. Raja Feather Kelly choreographed the Tony-Award winning Broadway musical A Strange Loop. He is a frequent Off-Broadway choreographer whose collaborators include Lileana BlainCruz, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Sarah Benson, Rachel Chavkin, and Michael R. Jackson. Recent works include Bunny, Bunny (Poticker Theatre), Lempicka (La Jolla Playhouse), We're Gonna Die (2st), and the Pulitzer Prize-winning productions Fairview and A Strange Loop. Current projects include Lempicka, White Girl in Danger, and The Listeners. His accolades include three Princess Grace Awards, an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle honor, a Creative Capital award, among others.

SCARLETT KIM

Scarlett Kim (she/her) is a diasporic Korean director, artist, and producer who creates overwhelmingly unclassifiable transmedia experiences all over the world, in contexts including and beyond theater, visual art, XR, film, and social practice, with a deep commitment to centering marginalized voices. Associate Artistic Director and Director of Innovation and Strategy, Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Recent partners: REDCAT, Wrong Biennale, Prague Quadrennial, Chilean National Council of Culture and Arts, Automata, Korea Foundation, Heidi Duckler Dance, La MaMa Umbria. Previously: Artistic Director, The Mortuary, performance laboratory hosting projects spanning Korean shaman rituals, chamber orchestras, and experimental larps. At CultureHub, Kim oversaw artistic programming of the LA studio. MFA, CalArts. BA, University of Chicago.

MARIE LASTER

Marie Laster is a Barrymore-nominated scenic designer born and raised in Philadelphia. Laster is inspired by the power of imagination and artistic expression, channeling her creative energy through the scenic design process. Scenic design credits include: Robin Hood (Pittsburgh Public Theater), The Art of Killin’ It (TheyGotTime Productions), Reverie (Azuka Theatre), Wrong River (Flint Repertory Theatre), Death of a Driver (InterAct Theatre), TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever (Theatre Horizon), Untitled (Inis Nua Theatre), A Boy and His Soul (Kitchen Theatre). BArch, Philadelphia University.

Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street

MIMI LIEN

Mimi Lien is a designer of sets/environments for theater, dance, and opera. In 2015, she was named a MacArthur Fellow, and is the first stage designer ever to achieve this distinction. Lien is a Co-Founder of JACK, a performance/art space in Brooklyn. Selected projects include: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway, Tony Award); Fairview, An Octoroon (Soho Rep.); Die Zauberflöte (Staatsoper Berlin), True West (Roundabout); The GREEN (public art installation, Lincoln Center). She is a recipient of a Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award, LA Drama Critics Circle Award, Bessie Award, and an OBIE Award for sustained excellence.

LAJUNÉ MCMILLIAN

LaJuné McMillian is a multidisciplinary artist and educator creating art that integrates performance, extended reality, and physical computing to question our current forms of communication. They are passionate about discovering, learning, manifesting, and stewarding spaces for liberated Black Realities and the Black Imagination. McMillian believes in making by diving into, navigating, critiquing, and breaking systems and technologies that uphold systemic injustices to decommodify our bodies, undo our indoctrination, and make room for different ways of being. McMillian’s work has been seen at Pioneer Works, National Sawdust, Leaders in Software and Art, Creative Tech Week, and Art & Code’s Weird Reality. Previous Director of Skating, Figure Skating in Harlem. Residencies and fellowships: Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, Eyebeam, Pioneer Works, Barbarian Group, and Barnard College.

CHRISTINE MOK

Christine Mok is a dramaturg, designer, and scholar. Her work focuses on the people, places, and performances where the limits of representation rub up against the limits of racial representation. She is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Rhode Island. She has been published in Theatre Survey, Theatre Journal, JADT, PAJ: A Performing Arts Journal, Modern Drama, and The Journal of Asian American Studies She is Co-Editor with Joshua Chambers-Letson of Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s China Trilogy: Three Parables of Global Capital (Bloomsbury, 2021). She is a member of Wingspace Theatrical Design.

TAVIA NYONG’O

Tavia Nyong’o is a scholar and curator of performance. He is the author of The Amalgamation Waltz: Race, Performance, and the Ruses of Memory (2009), which won the Erroll Hill Award for Best Book in Black Performance Studies, and AfroFabulations: The Queer Drama of Black Life (2018), which won the Barnard Hewitt Award for Best Book in Theater and Performance Studies. He writes regularly for Frieze, Artforum, The Baffler, and other venues. He is currently Chair and Wiliam Lampson Professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Yale and Curator of Public Programming at Park Avenue Armory.

KEITH + MENDI OBADIKE

Mendi + Keith Obadike are artists and composers. They have exhibited and performed at The New Museum, Whitechapel Gallery, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art. Their projects include a series of large-scale, public sound art works including Free/Phase (Chicago), Sonic Migration (Philadelphia), Blues Speaker, and Compass Song (New York). Their honors include a Rockefeller New Media Arts Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award. Mendi is an Associate Professor at Pratt Institute, and Keith is a Professor at Cornell University.

OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) expands access to the transformational power of art and artmaking. A global entity and an ever-evolving container for the future that responds to changing tides, the organization is committed to multimodal and multidisciplinary work, and to radically inclusive, accessible, and collaborative practices. On its campus in Ashland, OR, OSF presents a rotating repertory season of up to 8 plays and musicals, including classics and new work. In 2020, the organization launched O!, its new digital stage featuring trailblazing art exploring the intersection of live performance and immersive technology that can be accessed anywhere in the world.

TANYA ORELLANA

Tanya Orellana (she/her) designs performance spaces for theater, opera, and immersive experiences. Collaborations include: The Odyssey directed by Jenny Koons at The Getty Villa; Fefu and her Friends directed by Pam MacKinnon at ACT’s Strand Theatre; The Industry’s Sweet Land, an immersive opera directed by Yuval Sharon and Cannupa Hanska Luger; Voices from a Killing Jar by Kate Soper at Long Beach Opera; LEAR by Marcus Gardley directed by Eric Ting and Dawn Monique Williams; The Kind Ones directed by Lisa Peterson; and We the Peoples Before at The Kennedy Center. She is a member of Wingspace and La Gente, a graduate of CalArts, and a recipient of the Princess Grace Fabergé Award.

armoryonpark.org | @ParkAveArmory

JAMES ORTIZ

James Ortiz is a designer, deviser, and director whose recent creation of Milky White for the Broadway revival of Into the Woods as well as the Dinosaurs for Lincoln Center’s Tony nominated production of The Skin of Our Teeth have both become fan favorites. Previous credits include: Hartford Stage, The Public Theater, Carnegie Melon University, Dallas Theatre Center, Shakespeare Theatre of DC, Ars Nova, and New World Stages. 2022 Drama Desk winner for The Skin of our Teeth. 2016 Obie winner for The Woodsman American Theatre magazine’s “Six Theatre Workers you Should Know” in 2020.

CLINT RAMOS

Clint Ramos has designed over 200 productions. Recent designs for the stage include KPOP, Slave Play, The Rose Tattoo, Eclipsed, Once On This Island, Sunday in the Park with George, Torch Song, and Here Lies Love. Film credits include: Production Design for Lingua Franca; and costume design for RESPECT. Ramos is the Producing Creative Director for Encores! at New York City Center, serves on the American Theater Wing’s Advisory Committee, and is one of the founding members of Design Action. His lifelong advocacy is for an equitable landscape in theater and film for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and for the rights of immigrants.

ADAM RIGG

Adam Rigg is a New York-based set and costume designer for opera, theater, and dance. Credits include: Lincoln Center, Soho Rep, The Public, Mark Taper Forum/Center Theatre Group, New York Theater Workshop, LA Opera, Theater an der Wien, Signature Theatre, The Guthrie, Seattle Rep, Teatro Municipal, Williamstown Theater Festival, Yale Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Atlantic Theater Company, Opera Philadelphia, Cincinnati Opera, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Kennedy Center, Berkeley Rep, Norwegian National Opera, TFANA. He has received Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Henry Hewes Design, and Princess Grace awards as well as a Tony nomination, among other recognition. Resident Artist with I Am A Boys Choir at The Public and Mabou Mines. BA, UCLA; MFA, Yale School of Drama.

RUBEN SANTIAGO-HUDSON

Ruben Santiago-Hudson is an actor, playwright, and director who has won national awards for his work in all three categories. He most recently directed the Broadway productions of Skeleton Crew, which received four Tony nominations including Outstanding New Play. With his autobiographical play Lackawanna Blues, he became the first person in the history of Broadway to write, direct and star in a play, for which he was awarded The Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards, as well as a Tony Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor. Santiago-Hudson received a Tony for his performance in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars. He currently stars in East New York (CBS). Film: American Gangster; Their Eyes Were Watching God; Shaft; Devil’s Advocate; Domestic Disturbance. Honorary PhD, Wayne State University and Buffalo State College. 2009 NAACP Lifetime Achievement Theatre Award.

DEVARIO D. SIMMONS

Devario D. Simmons is a costume designer. Broadway: Thoughts of a Colored Man. Off-Broadway: TUMACHO, Between the Bars, EMERGENCY!, and P.S. Additionally, Simmons has had the pleasure of being a guest artist at: the Metropolitan Opera, Lyrica Opera of Chicago, Geffen Playhouse, Clarence Brown Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Asolo Rep, The Long Wharf Theatre, Jean’s Playhouse, Syracuse Stage, and Baltimore Center Stage. Other credits include: RUSTIN (Netflix), three seasons of AMC’s television show TURN, the second National Touring production of In the Heights, and two seasons of PBS television series Mercy Street. Member of United Scenic Artists 829.

CHESNEY SNOW

Chesney Snow is a Drama Desk Award-winning, New Yorkbased theater artist, poet, songwriter, educator, and lifelong student. He is one of New York City’s premiere human beatbox/vocal percussionists and a pioneering figure in American beatbox culture.

MIKAAL SULAIMAN

Broadway: Death of a Salesman, Cost of Living, Macbeth (Tony nom.), Thoughts of a Colored Man. Off-Broadway: Des Moines (TFANA), Evanston Salt Cost Climbing (New Group), Fat Ham (NYTW), Sanctuary City (Drama Desk nom.), On Sugarland (NYTW), Fairview (Drama Desk nom.), Rags Parkland (Drama Desk, Lortel noms.), Passage (Soho Rep), Thanksgiving Play (Playwrights Horizons), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (NYTW), Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova), The Institute of Memory (EMO), Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical. Recipient: Creative Capital Award, Henry Hewes Award, and CTG Sherwood Award. Head of Sound Design MFA program at Yale University.

Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street

CHRISTINA TANG

Christina Tang is a lighting designer, production manager, and dabbler in interactive arts based in New York. She is a frequent collaborator on new works for theater and dance. Recent lighting design: bloom bloom pow (Dead Horse Productions); Hart Island (Mason Holdings); Preparedness (The Bushwick Starr); ._SUITABLE_FOR.[EXE]CUTION (Shawné Michaelain Holloway, PSNY), Madame Lynch (The Drunkard’s Wife). Her work TRAFFIC premiered in The Exponential Festival in 2021 and was described by The New York Times “like a puckish re-enactment (with a soupçon of Battleship visuals) of Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Weekend.’” 2021 recipient of Opera America’s Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize. BA, Columbia.

MEI ANN TEO

Mei Ann Teo (they/she) is a queer immigrant from Singapore making art at the intersection of artistic/civic/contemplative practice. Their critically-acclaimed work has been seen internationally at Shakespeare’s Globe, Woolly Mammoth, The Public, The Bushwick Starr, The Shed, Theaterworks Hartford, National Black Theatre, Goodman, Seattle Rep, Belgium’s Festival de Liege, Beijing International Festival, Singapore International Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, among others. Awards include LPTW Josephine Abady Award and the inaugural Lily Fan Director Lilly Award. Previously the Artistic Director at Musical Theatre Factory, they are the Associate Artistic Director and Director of New Work at Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

DIEP TRAN

Diep Tran is the Editor in Chief of Playbill. She was previously the Features Editor at Broadway.com and Senior Editor of American Theatre. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, and NBC News, among other publications.

ALEX VÁSQUEZ DHEMING

Alex Vásquez Dheming is a lighting designer and production manager from El Salvador based in New York. Collaborators include Nélida Tirado, Big Dance Theater, Miguel Gutierrez, Ariel Rivka Dance, New York Theatre Ballet, Calpulli Mexican Dance, Works & Process, and Valerie Green/ Dance Entropy, among others. Her multidisciplinary work has been seen throughout the US (Jacob’s Pillow, Lincoln Center, Guggenheim Museum, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Center for Performance Research, PSNY, the Highline, BAM, New England Conservatory of Music, Kaufman Music Center, Rattlesticks Theater, Museo del Barrio, The Tank NYC, Theatreworks, LA Public Libraries, etc.), Spain (Museo Guggenheim Bilbao), and France (Cannes Film Festival). Recipient of The Playwright Realm’s International Theatermakers Award (2021) and the WEGE Prize Circular Economy Design Competition (2015). BFA Production Design, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD); alumna, Wingspace and Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas.

JEANETTE OI-SUK YEW

Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew is an award-winning designer in lighting and projection for theater, dance, opera, musicals, music performances, installation, immersive experiences, and digital productions. Her designs have been seen across US cities and internationally. As a designer, Yew aims to create a visual environment that is organically integrated into the landscape and language of the production. The New York Times has described her designs as “clever” and “inventive.” Recent: Kimberly Akimbo (Broadway), Macbeth (Broadway; projection), Oratorio For Living Things, cullud wattah, Sweet Land (opera), Relevance (projection), Macbeth in Stride, Suicide Forest, OPN’s Myriad (concert), and A Dozen Dreams (immersive). Associate Arts Professor, NYU Tisch Drama.

ELLIOT YOKUM

Elliot Yokum (they/them) is a sound designer and composer. Theater credits include: Curious Incident (Adelphi); Dance Nation (Fordham); Marie It’s Time (HERE Arts Center); My Cousin Nelu Is Not Gay (Ars Nova); Constellations, Everybody (Brown/Trinity Rep); Rasheeda Speaking, Human Error (Stella Adler); Cries and Whispers (CalArts CNP/Korean Arts Council); Machinal, Much Ado About Nothing (CalArts); and The Mousetrap (Scotch’n’Soda Theatre). Yokum’s music has been performed and recorded by Hartford Opera Theater, Compos-It Opera Company, Oklahoma State University Symphony Orchestra, Carpe Diem String Quartet, and Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic. MFA Sound Design, CalArts School of Theater; BFA Music Composition, Carnegie Mellon under composer Nancy Galbraith.

armoryonpark.org | @ParkAveArmory

ABOUT PUBLIC PROGRAMMING AT THE ARMORY

Park Avenue Armory’s Public Programming series brings diverse artists and cultural thought-leaders together for discussion and performance around the important issues of our time viewed through an artistic lens. Launched in 2017, the series encompasses a variety of programs including large-scale community events; multi-day symposia; intimate salons featuring performances, panels, and discussions; Artist Talks in relation to the Armory’s Drill Hall programming; and other creative interventions.

Highlights from the Public Programming series include: Carrie Mae Weems’ 2017 event The Shape of Things and 2021 convening and concert series Land of Broken Dreams, whose participants included Elizabeth Alexander, Theaster Gates, Elizabeth Diller, Nona Hendryx, Somi, and Spike Lee, among others; a daylong Lenape Pow Wow and Standing Ground Symposium held in the Wade Thompson Drill Hall, the first congregation of Lenape Elders on Manhattan Island since the 1700s; “A New Vision for Justice in America” conversation series in collaboration with Common Justice, exploring new coalitions, insights, and ways of understanding question of justice and injustice in relation moderated by FLEXN Evolution creators Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray and director Peter Sellars; Culture in a Changing America Symposia exploring the role of art, creativity, and imagination in the social and political issues in American society today; the 2019 Black Artists Retreat hosted by Theaster Gates, which included public talks and performances, private sessions for the 300 attending artists, and a roller skating rink; 100 Years | 100 Women, a multiorganization commissioning project that invited 100 women artists and cultural creators to respond to women’s suffrage; a Queer Hip Hop Cypher, delving into the queer origins and aesthetics of hip hop with Astraea award-winning duo Krudxs Cubensi and author and scholar Dr. Shante Paradigm Smalls; the Archer Aymes Retrospective, exploring the legacy of emancipation through an immersive art installation curated by Carl Hancock Rux and featuring a concert performance by mezzo soprano Alicia Hall Moran and pianist Aaron Diehl, presented as one component of a three-part series commemorating Juneteenth in collaboration with Harlem Stage and Lincoln Center as part of the Festival of New York; legendary artist Nao Bustamante’s BLOOM, a cross-disciplinary investigation centered around the design of the vaginal speculum and its use in the exploitative and patriarchal history of the pelvic examination; and Art at Water’s Edge, a symposium inspired by the work of director and scholar May Joseph on artistic invention in the face of climate change, including participants such as Whitney Biennale curator Adrienne Edwards, artist Kiyan Williams, Little Island landscape architect Signe Nielsen, eco-systems artist Michael Wang, and others.

Notable Public Programming salons include: the Literature Salon hosted by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, whose participants included Lynn Nottage, Suzan Lori-Parks, and Jeremy O. Harris, a Spoken Word Salon co-hosted with the Nuyorican Poets Cafe; a Film Salon featuring the works of immersive artist and film director Lynette Wallworth; “Museum as Sanctuary” led by installation artist and Artist-in-Residence Tania Bruguera, curated by Sonia Guiñansaca and CultureStrike, and featuring undocu-artists Julio Salgado and Emulsify; a Dance Salon presented in partnership with Dance Theater of Harlem, including New York City Ballet’s Wendy Whelan and choreographer Francesca Harper, among others; and Captcha: Dancing, Data, Liberation, a salon exploring Black visual complexity and spirit, led by visionary artist Rashaad Newsome and featuring Saidiya V. Hartman, Kiyan Williams, Dazié Rustin Grego-Sykes, Ms.Boogie, Puma Camillê, and others.

Artist Talks have featured esteemed artists, scholars, and thought leaders, such as: architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron in conversation with Ai Wei Wei, moderated by Juilliard president Damian Woetzel; director Ariane Mnouchkine and Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright Tony Kushner in conversation with New Yorker editor David Remnick; director Ivo van Hove in conversation with James Nicola, Artistic Director of New York Theater Workshop; artist William Kentridge and his collaborators Philip Miller and Thuthuka Sibisi in conversation with Dr. Augustus Casely Hayford, Director of the Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art; Lehman Trilogy director Sam Mendez and adapter Ben Powers in conversation with playwright Lynn Nottage; artist and composer Heiner Goebbels in conversation with composer, vocalist, and scholar Gelsey Bell; choreographer Bill T. Jones in conversation with architect Elizabeth Diller and designer Peter Nigrini, moderated by vocalist and performance artist Helga Davis; composer, librettist, and director Michel van der Aa in conversation with conceptual and performance artist Marina Abramović; director Robert Icke in conversation with Harvard University Professor of the Classics and Comparative Literature Emily Greenwood; and composer, conductor, and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey in discussion with visual artist Julie Mehretu, flexn pioneer Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray, and baritone Davóne Tines, moderated by director Peter Sellars

Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street

NEXT IN THE SERIES

SALON: JUKE JOINT

march 31 & april 1

Poet, writer, performer, and activist Pamela Sneed leads a celebration of the role of the women and femme architects of rhythm and blues as well as rock and roll. The multifaceted artist is joined by her band for a tribute to Big Mama Thornton and other female legends on Friday evening, and then leads a salon on Saturday featuring a roundtable discussion exploring the significance and legacy of Juke Joint and how the rebel spirit of these female innovators lives on today at the intersection of political commentary, music, and cabaret culture. The day is punctuated with a performance by singer-songwriter and playwright Stew, who premieres a new cabaret piece featuring songs and texts that explore the role of an audience as a collaborator to the storyteller drawn from his experiences as a Black artist in the punk clubs of his youth, on Broadway, and now in Ivy league universities.

HAPO NA ZAMANI (BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT PAST AND PRESENT)

may 20

The Black Arts Movement was a cultural movement in the 1960s and 1970s led by Black artists, activists, and intellectuals that shaped the ideologies of Black identity, political beliefs, and African American culture. Past and present meet to reflect, examine, and point to the full cultural breadth of the Black Arts Movement in a celebratory concert hosted by Carrie Mae Weems and Carl Hancock Rux with musical direction by Vernon Reid. Co-presented with Harlem Stage as part of their Black Arts Movement: Then and Now Conference.

NEXT AT THE ARMORY

LOVE

february 25 – march 25 north american premiere LOVE makes its North American premiere and marks the New York debut of writer and director Alexander Zeldin. This powerful piece of drama, written after a years-long process of community collaboration and immersion, personal interviews, and first-hand accounts, draws attention to the cracks in the welfare system when several families are brought together in a shelter in the lead up to Christmas. The audience is invited to bear witness to some of the touching, humorous, and profoundly human instances of their combined existence. Played with the house lights up and audience members seated amongst the company, the heart-breaking production reveals the cast seeming to live rather than act. The result is a story for our times born out of the daily rituals of survival, highlighting the link between homelessness, mental health, and austerity politics, but also the yearning for, and power of, love.

THE DOCTOR

june 6 – august 19 north american premiere Visionary director and playwright Robert Icke returns with the North American premiere of this gripping moral thriller following lauded runs at London’s Almeida Theatre and West End. This scorching examination of our age, a striking reimagining of the 1912 play Professor Bernhardi by Arthur Schnitzler, utilizes the lens of medical ethics to examine urgent questions of faith, identity, race, gender, privilege, and scientific rationality. Olivier Award-winner Juliet Stevenson stars as the doctor at the center of the drama where nothing is quite what – or who – it seems. This galvanizing piece of theater serves as a stark health warning for an increasingly divided nation, where clashing views only magnify the complexities of life.