ABOUT PETRA Armory Artist-in-Residence Tina Satter and her company Half Straddle present a work-inprogress showing of PETRA, an adaptation from The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The play follows a fashion designer living in self-imposed isolation whose world unravels when she falls obsessively in love with a beautiful young model. Set entirely in Petra’s apartment—immersively staged within the Board of Officers Room—the intimate and intense theatrical adaptation offers a surprisingly contemporary exploration of ambition, desire, motherhood, and the complexities of family.
COMPANY Lucy Taylor Petra Gus Birney Karin Elizabeth DeMent Marlene Jennifer Ikeda Sidonie Emma Haeri Gabriele Anna Katarina Valerie
PRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Dans Maree Sheehan, Lauren Eisinger Producers, Parrot Ox Erica Schnitzer Stage Manager Becky Hermenze Stage Manager Enver Chakartash Creative Consultant Greg Hermann Photography Nick Zeig-Owens Videography Geraldine Baron, Salome Oggenfuss Casting, Casting Double
UNDER CONSTRUCTION SERIES TINA SATTER | HALF STRADDLE
PETRA
January 8 – 12, 2026 Board of Officers Room Tina Satter Direction Parker Lutz Scenic Design Thomas Dunn Lighting Design Mitchell Polonsky Sound Design Emily Allan, E.J. O’Hara Composition Presented in partnership with the Under the Radar Festival® SEASON SPONSOR
PUBLIC SUPPORT
Bloomberg Philanthropies is Park Avenue Armory’s 2026 Season Sponsor. Leadership support for the Armory’s artistic programming has been generously provided by the Anita K. Hersh Philanthropic Fund, Charina Endowment Fund, Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, Pinkerton Foundation, the Starr Foundation, the Thompson Family Foundation, and Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels. Major support was also provided by the the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, the Emily Davie and Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Shubert Foundation, the SHS Foundation, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, and Wescustogo Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Armory’s Artistic Council. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature as well as the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams. Cover image: Greg Hermann
DIRECTORS NOTE In The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Rainer Werner Fassbinder places six intergenerational women inside a single room and lets the temperature rise. What we found there felt startlingly contemporary: a raw examination of ambition, desire, power, and motherhood. The play’s compressed setting, dark humor, and tightly wound melodrama create a pressure cooker—a perfect playground for performers unafraid of intensity, precision, and emotional risk. PETRA’s actors bring a combination of technical control and emotional volatility that allows the language to crackle, rupture, and occasionally combust. What excites us most is the collision of restraint and excess—how carefully calibrated performances can still feel dangerous, alive, and unpredictable. Half Straddle is currently seeking commissioning partners for the premiere of PETRA in the second half of 2026. Supporting this work offers early access to a premiere-ready production from one of New York’s most distinctive and internationally recognized theater companies. PETRA is designed as a bold centerpiece—muscular, provocative, and thrilling—that invites both devoted Half Straddle audiences and adventurous newcomers into the room, then refuses to let them look away.
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Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street
ABOUT THE TEAM TINA SATTER DIRECTION Tina Satter is a writer and director for theater and film. Her debut feature film REALITY was adapted from her play Is This A Room, which opened at The Kitchen in 2019 and premiered on Broadway in fall 2021 after an Obie-winning Off-Broadway run at the Vineyard Theatre. With her theater company Half Straddle, Satter has written and directed 10 plays, including House of Dance, Ghost Rings, and SEAGULL (Thinking of you), as well as a number of shorter performances and video works. She has been a guest director at The Schaubühne and is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Doris Duke Artist Award, among other honors.
HALF STRADDLE Half Straddle is a critically acclaimed New York City-based ensemble of performers and designers led by Artistic Director Tina Satter that make plays, performances, videos, and music. The company began in 2008. Focused on distinct formal frames and feminist interpretations of classic and original work, Half Straddle has premiered 10 full-length shows, and several shorter works and videos at festivals and theaters throughout the US, Europe, Australia, and Asia. In 2021, Satter’s play Is This A Room, starring company member Emily Davis, was Half Straddle’s Broadway debut. The show was originally commissioned by The Kitchen in 2019. In addition to Broadway, the company’s work has been presented at the Walker Art Center, Philly Live Arts, Stanford Live Arts, The Kitchen, The Vineyard Theatre, New York Live Arts, New Museum, Danspace, Performance Space New York (formerly PS122), American Realness, COIL Festival, and others across the United States. Internationally, the work has been programmed at theaters and festivals including Vienna Festival, Schaubühne’s FIND Festival, Theaterformen, Mladi Levi Festival, Perth Festival, Culturgest, and Kyoto Experiment, among many others. Half Straddle’s show House of Dance was nominated for a 2014 ZKB Patronage Prize at Zürcher Theater Spektakel.
PARKER LUTZ SCENIC DESIGN Parker Lutz is a scenic designer whose work spans Broadway and Off-Broadway, including the acclaimed production Is This A Room. They are a two-time Bessie Award recipient, honored with awards for Outstanding Achievement in Dance and Visual Design.
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THOMAS DUNN LIGHTING DESIGN Thomas Dunn designs lighting throughout the US and abroad. Dunn’s approach to lighting stems from years of investigative work with light, treating it as both a sculptural medium and a facet of stage design. This production is Dunn’s third collaboration with Tina Satter. Other selected design credits include works with: JoAnne Akalaitis, Jonathan Bepler, Wally Cardona, Steve Cosson, Annie Dorsen, DD Dorvillier, Daniel Fish, Beth Gill, Trajal Harrell, Ted Hearne, Jennifer Lacey, Noémie Lafrance, David Levine, Molly Lieber, Ong Keng Sen, Zeena Parkins, Jay Scheib, Eleanor Smith, and Muna Tseng. Dunn is the recipient of a Kevin Kline Award for Outstanding Lighting Design, for The Little Dog Laughed at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, as well as a Bessie Design Award for Nottthing Is Importanttt with DD Dorvillier/human future dance corps.
MITCHELL POLONSKY SOUND DESIGN Mitchell Polonsky is a theater maker and sound designer from Ohio and Co-Artistic Director of the experimental theater ensemble THE GOAT EXCHANGE, with whom he has developed more than 20 new works. Recent projects include Deadclass, Ohio, Not, Not, Not, Not, Not Enough Oxygen, and Sweet Bird. Upcoming: TIME PASSES (for Ellen Brody), a new work devised from Virginia Woolf ’s To the Lighthouse and the movie Jaws, at Target Margin as part of Exponential Festival, January 23 to 31, 2026.
EMILY ALLAN COMPOSITION Emily Allan is a writer and performer. Her two-woman show Slash, written and performed with Leah Hennessey, ran at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Allan’s work with Hennessey includes Star Odyssey, a commissioned play for Moma PS1, and the short film Byron and Shelley: Illuminati Detectives, which premiered at the 2021 Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement in Geneva. Allen is Co-Creator of the web series Zhe Zhe. She co-directed the HBO comedy special John Early: Now More Than Ever. Allen’s debut album Clanging was produced by E.J. O’Hara and released in June 2025.
E.J. O’HARA COMPOSITION E.J. O’Hara is a visual artist, music producer, and composer based in New York City. He frequently collaborates with Emily Allan and produced Allan’s album Clanging. Allan and O’Hara are both co-creators of the cult web series Zhe Zhe; O’Hara directed the series and produced original music for every episode. PETRA is his first music for a theatrical production.
LUCY TAYLOR PETRA Theater credits include: Punch MTC, Marys Seacole (LCT3); Dance Nation (Playwrights Horizons; Drama Desk Award); The Town Hall Affair (The Wooster Group); Ancient Lives (Half Straddle); Gatz, The Sound and the Fury, The Select: The Sun Also Rises and Fondly Collette Richland (Elevator Repair Service). TV/film: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Leverage: Redemption (Amazon Prime Video); Horace and Pete (Pig Newton); New Amsterdam, Law & Order: SVU (NBC); Limitless, Bull, Madam Secretary (CBS); Senior Year (Paramount).
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Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street
GUS BIRNEY KARIN Gus Birney can currently be seen on Netflix’s Black Rabbit opposite Jude Law and Jason Bateman and on Apple TV’s The Last Frontier. She just wrapped a starring role on the upcoming Netflix series SOMETHING VERY BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN. On stage, she made her Broadway debut in The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window and won a Lucille Lortel and received an Outer Critics Circle nomination for her performance in Our Class at BAM. She is thrilled to be a part of PETRA.
ELIZABETH DEMENT MARLENE Elizabeth DeMent has worked with Big Dance Theater, Liz Gerring Dance Company, Stephen Petronio, Jodi Melnick, Othershore, Dance Heginbotham, Patrick Corbin, Christina Masciotti, Jess Barbagallo, Tina Satter/Half Straddle, and Theda Hammel, among others. She has worked as Associate Choreographer on American Utopia, Digital Witness, Love This Giant, Here Lies Love, LORDE Solar aPower, Rodrigo y Gabriel Mettavolution, The Hours and Antony and Cleopatra (Met Opera), St. Vincent’s All Born Screaming, Forest of Metal Objects (Met Museum), and music videos for St. Vincent and Kruanghbin. Other projects include David Lang’s Poor Hymnal and Public Domain, Suzanne Bocanegra’s Poorly watched Girls. Bessie Award winner and Juilliard alumna.
JENNIFER IKEDA SIDONIE Selected theater: Chinese Republicans (Roundabout, upcoming); The Barbarians (La Mama); Vietgone (MTC); Revolt. She. Said… (Soho Rep); Love & Information (NYTW); Titus Andronicus (The Public); Bad News (Skirball); Top Girls (Broadway); The Bacchae (Delacorte); Clubbed Thumb, Ma-Yi, NAATCO, Red Bull, TFANA, ART, ACT, Berkeley Rep, CTG, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, etc. Film/TV: Advantageous (Sundance 2015), Killing Hasselhoff, Dash and Lily, Blue Bloods, Maniac, Blindspot, Elementary, New Amsterdam, etc. Other projects include David Michalek’s “Portraits in Dramatic Time” (Lincoln Center Festival); multiple appearances on NPR’s Selected Shorts; Marvel’s Wastelanders: Wolverine podcast; and 100+ audiobooks (2x Audie Award winner). BFA, Juilliard. Proud Union member.
EMMA HAERI GABRIELE Emma Haeri is so grateful to be a part of this incredible team. She is currently a student at Laguardia High School for Drama. Huge thanks to Tina Satter and the entire PETRA team, Leslie Zaslower/Buchwald, Mom and Dad, and all her teachers and friends. Theater credits include: Grey House (Broadway), Patty in First Stranger Things Workshop with Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin. Film/TV: That Damn Michael Che, Driven.
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ANNA KATARINA VALERIE Born and raised in Switzerland, Anna has performed on European and American stages. Stage credits include: title role in Tamara (Park Avenue Armory), Strindberg’s Miss Julie, Ellen McLaughlin’s Days and Nights Within, and Romain Rolland’s The Game of Love and Death (opposite Herbert Berghof ), among others. Film credits range from David Fincher’s The Game to Batman Returns and David Peoples’ The Blood of Heroes. On television, she has appeared in Better Things, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and most notably as Madame Jeunet in Boardwalk Empire, among many others. Founder of the Cima Project, an ensemble of elder actors.
ERICA SCHNITZER STAGE MANAGER Erica Zippel Schnitzer (she/her) has collaborated with artists at Lincoln Center, The Shed, New York Theater Workshop, The Public, Under The Radar, 59E59, La MaMa, Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, BRIC Arts Media, and HERE Arts Center, among others. Recent credits: Samora Pinderhughes’ I Hope This Finds You Well (Pomegranate Arts/The Healing Project), Tim Blake Nelson’s And Then We Were No More (La MaMa), Raja Feather Kelly’s Bunny Bunny (The Feather Th3ory), Heather Christian’s TERCE (PROTOTYPE), BYC’s Port(al), and Williamstown Theatre Festival’S W71 season. Resident stage manager, Mercury Store. Upcoming: Mano a Mano by Paul Pinto and Kristin Marting (La MaMa).
BECKY HERMENZE STAGE MANAGER Becky Hermenze (she/they) has been a member of Half Straddle since 2019, when she was an intern on Is This A Room at the Vineyard Theatre. Hermenze is currently a company member with Elevator Repair Service and is on Radiohole’s Artistic Advisory Committee. She is most proud of her work on Becca Blackwell’s Snatch Adams… at Soho Rep, Radiohole’s Now Serving, and ERS’s Ulysses. Hermenze can be seen performing her own original work throughout New York City.
PARROT OX Parrot Ox produces and manages theater that defies genre, tells bold stories, and steps gleefully off the beaten path. Parrot Ox exists to make the impossible happen. For over 15 years, the organization has partnered with international festivals, independent artists, and major organizations across Australia and around the world. Its work has toured to every continent except Antarctica, appearing everywhere from Sydney Opera House to La Jolla Playhouse (San Diego), Hunan Acrobatic Arts Festival (China), Luminato Festival (Toronto), St Ann’s Warehouse (New York), and Greenwich & Docklands International Festival (London). Parrot Ox has programmed and delivered pop-up festivals including The Famous Spiegeltent at Edinburgh Fringe and is known for resourcing ambitious ideas into fully realized realities. Parrot Ox represents artists at the forefront of Australian and international performance, including La Clique, Circus Oz, The Unfair Advantage, Pony Cam, Legs on the Wall, Lemony S. Puppet Theatre, and Half Straddle. In 2025 alone, its work reached more than 110,000 audience members across 26 cities in 9 countries—proof that curiosity travels well.
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Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street
ABOUT ARMORY ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE Launched in 2010, the Armory 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, and can offer public previews of works in process as part of the Under Construction Series. Current Artists-in-Residence include: flexn dance pioneer Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray and his company the D.R.E.A.M. Ring; playwright Lynn Nottage; playwright and director Tina Satter and her collective Half Straddle; composer and filmmaker Du Yun; and a shared collective of artists including choreographer Steven Hoggett, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, set designer and director Christine Jones, and performance artist Carmelita Tropicana. Previous Armory Artists-in-Residence have included: drummer, composer, and creator Guillermo E. Brown; director, choreographer, and dancer Raja Feather Kelly; set designer Mimi Lien; singer and composer Sara Serpa; installation and performance artist Tania Bruguera; social practice artist Theaster Gates; performance artists Malik Gaines and Alexandro Segade; 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.
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ABOUT PARK AVENUE ARMORY Part palace, part industrial shed, Park Avenue Armory supports unconventional works in the performing and visual arts that cannot be fully realized in a traditional proscenium theater, concert hall, or white wall gallery. With its soaring 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall—reminiscent of 19th-century European train stations—and an array of exuberant period rooms, the Armory provides a platform for artists to push the boundaries of their practice, collaborate across disciplines, and create new work in dialogue with the historic building. Across its grand and intimate spaces, the Armory enables a diverse range of artists to create, students to explore, and audiences to experience epic, adventurous, relevant work that cannot be done elsewhere in New York. The Armory both commissions and presents performances and installations in the grand Drill Hall and offers more intimate programming through its acclaimed Recital Series, which showcases musical talent from across the globe within the salon setting of the Board of Officers Room; its Artists Studio series curated by Jason Moran in the restored Veterans Room; Making Space at the Armory, a public programming series that brings together a discipline-spanning group of artists and cultural thought-leaders around the important issues of our time; and the Malkin Lecture Series that features presentations by scholars and writers on topics related to the Armory and its history. In addition, the Armory also has a year-round Artists-in-Residence program, providing space and support for artists to create new work and expand their practices. The Armory’s creativity-based arts education programs provide access to the arts to thousands of students from underserved New York City public schools, engaging them with the institution’s artistic programming and outside-the-box creative processes. Through its education initiatives, the Armory provides access to all Drill Hall performances, workshops taught by Master Teaching Artists, and in-depth residencies that support the schools’ curriculum. Youth Corps, the Armory’s year-round paid internship program, begins in high school and continues into the critical post-high school years, providing interns with mentored employment, job training, and skill development, as well as a network of peers and mentors to support their individual college and career goals. The Armory is undergoing a multi-phase renovation and restoration of its historic building led by architects Herzog & de Meuron, with Platt Byard Dovell White as Executive Architects.
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Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory | 643 Park Avenue at 67th Street
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chairman Emeritus Elihu Rose, PhD Co-Chairs Adam R. Flatto Amanda J.T. Riegel President Rebecca Robertson Vice Presidents David Fox Pablo Legorreta Emanuel Stern
Marina Abramović Abigail Baratta Joyce F. Brown Cora Cahan Hélène Comfort Paul Cronson Tina R. Davis Jessie Ding Sanford B. Ehrenkranz Roberta Garza Kim Greenberg Samhita Jayanti Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Edward G. Klein, Brigadier General NYNG (Ret.) Ralph Lemon Jason Moran Janet C. Ross Stephanie Sharp Joan Steinberg Dabie Tsai Ying Zhou
Treasurer Emanuel Stern
Avant-Garde Chair Adrienne Katz Directors Emeriti Harrison M. Bains Angela E. Thompson* Wade F.B. Thompson* Founding Chairman, 2000-2009 Pierre Audi* Anita K. Hersh Artistic Director
*In memoriam
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