Sunday Salon: Literature—Margins, Centers, Realisms, Interiors

CONVERSATION SERIES: INTERROGATIONS OF FORM SUNDAY SALON: LITERATURE MARGINS, CENTERS, REALISMS, INTERIORS Sunday, September 23, 2018 at 3:00pm and 5:00pm Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory

Armory Artist-in-Residence and playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins hosts fellow playwrights and collaborators in an intimate afternoon of conversation, readings, and performances featuring both rising talents and luminaries, all of whom are actively exploring and testing the boundaries of the literary art form.

SEASON SPONSORS

PRODUCTION SPONSOR

The Artist-in-Residence Program is made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Support for Park Avenue Armory’s artistic season has been generously provided by the Charina Endowment Fund, the Altman Foundation, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, The Kaplen Brothers Fund, the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, the Richenthal Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation.

Cover image: James Ewing

SCHEDULE SESSION ONE

3:00-3:45pm: Veterans Room

Jocelyn Bioh, Aleshea Harris, and Antoinette Nwandu have all produced new works to critical acclaim this past season. Their plays reveal a rich exploration of themes, including beauty, female adolescence, responses to racialized violence, and dreams of a better existence. Gathered together for the first time, these three award-winning playwrights reflect on the inspirations that drive their writing process, as well as the joys and challenges surrounding their New York premieres. Introduction by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

4:00-4:50pm: Board of Officers Room

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins hosts a session introducing the boundary-bending work of some of the finest emerging playwrights. Michael R. Jackson will share a sample of his work with a set of songs, featuring special guest vocalist L. Morgan Lee. Following the performance, three playwrights will read from their latest works-in-progress: Geraldine Inoa, Jeremy O. Harris, and playwright Jonathan Payne.

4:00-4:50pm: Parlor Room

Films by Narcissister shown throughout the session: Forever Young, 2016, 5 minutes and 36 seconds Marilyn, 2016, 4 minutes and 19 seconds Basket, 2012, 5 minutes and 22 seconds Everywoman, 2009, 4 minutes and 28 seconds

SESSION TWO

5:00-5:50pm: Board of Officers Room

Jocelyn Bioh opens Session Two with an introduction to choreographer Raja Feather Kelly, who presents a special site-specific installation showcasing his signature dance style, insatiable imagination, fascinations with pop culture, performance history, and Andy Warhol. Performance artist Narcissister, who works at the intersection of dance, art, activism, and a range of media, previews the selection of her films (on view in the Parlor Room), as well as her current theatrical collaboration with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Finally, Loy A. Webb and Patricia Ione Lloyd discuss developing their work across the nation and internationally.

5:00-5:50pm: Parlor Room

Films by Narcissister shown throughout the session: Forever Young, 2016, 5 minutes and 36 seconds Marilyn, 2016, 4 minutes and 19 seconds Basket, 2012, 5 minutes and 22 seconds Everywoman, 2009, 4 minutes and 28 seconds

6:00-6:45pm: Veterans Room

To end the evening session, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins hosts a conversation about the state of American theater with multiPulitzer Prize winning playwrights Lynn Nottage and SuzanLori Parks.

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MEET THE PARTICIPANTS JOCELYN BIOH GERALDINE INOA Jocelyn Bioh is a Ghanaian-American writer and performer from Geraldine Inoa is a writer for theater and television. She New York City. Her NYC acting credits include: In The Blood, Everybody (Signature, Lortel Nomination); The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (TONY Award for Best Play in 2015); Men on Boats (Playwrights Horizons), An Octoroon (Soho Rep); SEED (Classical Theatre of Harlem); and NEIGHBORS (The Public Theater). Her plays include: Nollywood Dreams (Cherry Lane Mentor Project 2017); the award-winning School Girls (MCC 2017); and the libretto for The Ladykiller’s Love Story, with music and lyrics by Cee Lo Green. Bioh received her BA in English and Theatre from The Ohio State University and her MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University.

currently writes for AMC’s The Walking Dead. Her play Scraps will have its world premiere at The Flea Theater during the 2018/19 season, marking her New York debut. She is the inaugural recipient of The Shonda Rhimes Unsung Voices Playwriting Commission, an alumnus of The Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group, an L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award finalist, a P73 Playwriting Fellowship finalist, and an O’Neill National Playwrights Conference semifinalist. Her work has been developed at the Atlantic Theater Company and the LAByrinth Theater Company. She resides in Los Angeles.

MICHAEL R. JACKSON ALESHEA HARRIS Composer Michael R. Jackson holds a BFA and MFA in Aleshea Harris’s work as a playwright and performer has Playwriting and Musical Theatre Writing from the NYU Tisch been presented at Soho Rep, Playfest at Orlando Shakespeare Theater, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Skirball Center, and REDCAT, among others. Harris has enjoyed residencies at MacDowell Colony, Hedgebrook, Djerassi, and SPACE on Ryder Farm. Her play, Is God Is, garnered her a 2017 Obie Award for playwriting, won the 2016 Relentless Award, was a finalist for the 2017 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and made The Kilroys List of “the most recommended un- and underproduced plays by trans and female authors of color” for 2017.

School of the Arts. He wrote the book, music, and lyrics for the musicals White Girl in Danger and A Strange Loop (which will receive its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons Theater in May 2019). He has received a 2017 Jonathan Larson Grant, a 2017 Lincoln Center emerging Artist Award, a 2017 ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award, a 2016/2017 Dramatist Guild fellowship, and was the 2017 Williamstown Theatre Festival Playwright-In-Residence. He has commissions from Grove Entertainment & Barbara Whitman Productions and LCT3.

JEREMY O. HARRIS Jeremy O. Harris is an actor and playwright currently attending BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS the Yale School of Drama. His full length plays include Xander Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a Brooklyn-based playwright and Xyst, Dragon: 1, “Daddy”, WATER SPORTS; or insignificant white boys, and Slave Play. His short plays include: I TRIED TO WRITE A POEM & THIS CAME OUT, Untitled Merchant of Venice Adaptation (collaboration with conceptual artist David Birkin), N*Words In Paris, IDK (a cute race-based psychosis), and NORF. He is a 2016 MacDowell Colony Fellow, 2016 Chesley/ Bumbalo Playwriting Award Finalist, 2016 Princess Grace Award Semi-Finalist, 2017 O’Neill Playwrights Conference Finalist, and is currently under commission from Lincoln Center Theater and Playwright’s Horizons.

Park Avenue Armory Artist-in-Residence. His credits include Everybody (Signature Theatre), War (LCT3), Gloria (Vineyard Theatre), Appropriate (Signature Theatre), An Octoroon (Soho Rep), and Neighbors (The Public Theater). A MacArthur Fellow and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, he is a director of the Hunter College MFA Program in Playwriting.

RAJA FEATHER KELLY LYNN NOTTAGE Raja Feather Kelly is a choreographer for theater, dance, and Lynn Nottage is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and performance works and was the Princess Grace Award winner for 2017 and 2018. His theater credits include: Everybody (Signature Theatre); Fairview (Soho Rep); The Death Of The Last Black Man In The Whole Entire World (Signature; 2017 Lortel Award); Funnyhouse of A Negro (Signature); The House That Will Not Stand (NYTW); A Strange Loop (Playwright Horizons); and Everyday Afroplay (JACK). His dance theater credits include: Raja Feather Kelly’s UGLY (Bushwick Starr); I, I Am A Dancer (Ars Nova); Another Fucking Warhol (The Kitchen, ADF, nominated “Most Innovative Dance Performance of 2017” by Dance Magazine); Andy Warhol’s Bleu Movie (BAM, Baryshnikov Arts Center); Andy Warhol’s Tropico (Danspace); Andy Warhol’s DRELLA (I Love You Faye Driscoll) (Invisible Dog); and Andy Warhol’s 15: Color Me, Warhol (Dixon Place).

screenwriter. Her plays include: Sweat (Pulitzer Prize, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); By The Way; Meet Vera Stark; Ruined; Intimate Apparel; Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine; Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Las Meninas; Mud, River, Stone; Por’knockers; and POOF!. Nottage is the recipient of a PEN/ Laura Pels Master Dramatist Award, a Doris Duke Artist Award, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship, a Steinberg “Mimi” Distinguished Playwright Award, a Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award, the inaugural Horton Foote Prize, Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, and NY Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, among others. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild and the WGAE, and is an Armory Artist-in-Residence.

ANTOINETTE NWANDU PATRICIA IONE LLOYD Antoinette Nwandu is a New York-based playwright. Her works Playwright Patricia Ione Lloyd is an alumna of the 2015 include Pass Over (Steppenwolf; LCT3) and Breach: a manifesto Emerging Writers Group at The Public, a former Sundance resident playwright, and New York Theater Workshop fellow.

She was a resident playwright at the University of Mumbai, Brown University (Africana Studies Department), and the International Theatre and Literacy Project in Tanzania. Her work has been developed by The Public, The LAByrinth Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Red Bull Theater, Dixon Place, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, New York LGBTQ Center, Fire This Time Festival, and others. She has received awards including the New Professional Theatre’s Emerging Playwright Award and the DUTF Best Play Award for Train Bound for Glory.

on race in america through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate (Victory Gardens). Her honors include a 2018 Whiting Award, the 2017 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, the 2018 Samuel French Next Step Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, the Negro Ensemble Company’s Douglas Turner Ward Prize, a Literary Fellowship at the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference, and spots on the 2016 and 2017 Kilroys lists. She is a MacDowell Fellow, a Dramatists Guild Fellow, and an Ars Nova Play Group alum. Nwandu wrote for She’s Gotta Have It, Season Too! (Netflix), and is under commission from Echo Theater Company, Colt Coeur, Ars Nova, and Audible.

SUZAN-LORI PARKS NARCISSISTER Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks is the first African-American Narcissister is a Brooklyn-based artist and performer. Masked woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, which she and merkin-ed, she works at the intersection of dance, art, and activism in a range of media including film, video art, and experimental music. She has presented work worldwide at festivals, nightclubs, museums, and galleries. She won “Best Use of a Sex Toy” at The Good Vibrations Erotic Film Festival, a Bessie Award nomination for the theatrical performance of Organ Player, and Creative Capital and United States Artists Awards. Interested in troubling the popular entertainment and experimental art divide, she also appeared on America’s Got Talent. Her first feature film Narcissister Organ Player premiered at Sundance and SXSW Film Festivals 2018 and she recently completed the Sundance Theatre Lab for the creation of a new theatrical work with playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins to premiere at the Soho Rep in New York in 2019.

received for Topdog/Underdog. She is both a MacArthur “Genius Grant” and Gish Prize recipient. Parks’ Broadway credits include The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Tony Award, Best Revival of a Musical) and Topdog/Underdog (Tony Nomination). To reflect on our current presidential administration, Parks wrote 100 Plays For The First Hundred Days. Her film credits include: Girl 6 (dir: Spike Lee); Their Eyes Were Watching God (prod: Oprah Winfrey); Richard Wright’s Native Son (dir: Rashid Johnson); and The United States vs Billie Holiday (dir. Lee Daniels). This season she premieres a new play White Noise (world premiere; dir: Oskar Eustis). A former writing student of James Baldwin, Parks writes original songs and fronts her band Suzan-Lori Parks & The Band. Her novel is entitled Getting Mother’s Body (Random House).

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JONATHAN PAYNE Playwright Jonathan Payne’s work has been produced and

developed at Long Wharf Theatre, Ars Nova, Fringe Festival NYC, The Bushwick Starr, and the Fire This Time Festival. He was a fellow at New Dramatists, Playwrights Realm, and The Dramatist Guild, as well as an Ars Nova Play Group. His awards include the Princess Grace Award, Holland New Voices Award, Rosa Parks Award, and the John Cauble Short Play Award. He received a BA from the GSA Conservatoire (UK), an MFA in Playwriting from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and is an Artist Diploma Recipient in Playwriting from The Juilliard School.

LOY A. WEBB Loy A. Webb is a Chicago-born playwright. Her debut play

The Light (The New Colony, 2017/18, Joseph Jefferson Award, Black Theater Alliance Nomination) will have its Off-Broadway premiere in January 2019 at MCC Theater. Her latest play His Shadow will have its world premiere at the 16th Street Theater in fall 2019. She is an inaugural Tutterow Fellow at Chicago Dramatists, and her one-act plays have been developed at various theaters throughout the country. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, and a J.D. from The John Marshall Law School.

ABOUT PARK AVENUE ARMORY Part American palace, part industrial shed, Park Avenue Armory is dedicated to supporting unconventional works in the visual and performing arts that need non-traditional spaces for their full realization, enabling artists to create, students to explore, and audiences to consume epic and adventurous presentations that cannot be mounted elsewhere in New York City. Since its first production in September 2007, the Armory has organized and commissioned immersive performances, installations, and cross-disciplinary collaborations by visionary artists, directors, and impresarios in its vast Wade Thompson Drill Hall that defy traditional categorization and push the boundaries of their practice. In its historic period rooms, the Armory presents small-scale performances and programs, including its acclaimed Recital Series in the intimate salon setting of the Board of Officers Room; the Artists Studio series in the newly restored Veterans Room; and Interrogations of Form, a series of conversations which featured artists, scholars, activists, and cultural trailblazers encouraging us to think beyond conventional interpretations of and perspectives on art. The Armory also offers robust arts education programs at no cost to underserved New York City public school students, engaging them with the institution’s artistic programming and the building’s history and architecture.

Built between 1877 and 1881, Park Avenue Armory has been hailed as containing “the single most important collection of nineteenth century interiors to survive intact in one building” by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall, with an 80-foot-high barrel vaulted roof, is one of the largest unobstructed spaces in New York City. The Armory’s magnificent reception rooms were designed by leaders of the American Aesthetic Movement, among them Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White, Candace Wheeler, and Herter Brothers. The building is currently undergoing a $215-million renovation designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Platt Byard Dovell White Architects as Executive Architects.

Launched in 2010, the Armory’s artist-in-residence program supports artists across genres in the creation and development of new work. Each artist sets up a studio in one of the Armory’s period rooms, providing a unique backdrop that can serve as both inspiration and as a collaborator in their project development. Residencies also include participation in the Armory’s arts education program with artists working closely with the Armory’s Youth Corps interns. This season’s artists-inresidence include playwright and screenwriter Lynn Nottage; Cuban installation and performance artist Tania Bruguera; social practice artist Theaster Gates; performance artists Malik Gaines & Alexandro Segade; set designer and director Christine Jones & choreographer Steven Hoggett; playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins & performance artist Carmelita Tropicana; and choreographer and Flexn dance pioneer Reggie “Regg Roc” Gray.

Previous Armory artists-in-residence have included inventive theater company 600 Highwaymen; theater artists Taylor Mac and Machine Dazzle; writer, director, and production designer Andrew Ondrejcak; vocalist, composer, and cultural worker Imani Uzuri; dancer and choreographer Wally Cardona; visual artist and choreographer Jason Akira Somma; soprano Lauren Flanigan; writer Sasha Frere-Jones; Trusty Sidekick Theater company; vocalist-songwriter Somi; multidisciplinary performer Okwui Okpokwasili; choreographer Faye Driscoll; artist Ralph Lemon; visual artist Alex Dolan; Musician Meredith Monk; sound artist Marina Rosenfeld; string quartet ETHEL; playwright and director Young Jean Lee; and Shen Wei Dance Arts; among others.

NEXT IN THE SERIES ARTIST TALK: THE SIX POW WOW AND BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS SYMPOSIUM Thursday, October 4 at 6:00pm Choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and conductor Amandine Beyer discuss Bach’s influence on the creation of their latest work set to his masterful score with RoseLee Goldberg, Founding Director and Chief Curator of Performa.

Sunday, November 18 from 1:00pm to 9:00pm Join us for The First United Lenape Nations Pow Wow and Standing Ground Symposium featuring native art, food, dance competitions, and special performances in addition to a symposium that explores indigenous culture with Inuit (Inuk) vocalist and artist Tanya Tagaq and fellow artists, writers, scholars, performers, and community leaders.

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