HUNDRED DAYS, Rachel Chavkin-Helmed 'BUCKINGHAMSHIRE' and More Slated for 2017-18 at NYTW

By: BWW News Desk May. 02, 2017

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) has announced five productions as part of its complete 2017/18 Season.

The season will kick-off in Fall 2017 with the New York premiere of Mary Jane by NYTW Usual Suspect and Pulitzer Prize Finalist Amy Herzog(4000 Miles, Belleville), directed by NYTW Usual Suspect and two-time Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman (Sundown, Yellow Moon; A Life); followed by HUNDRED DAYS, with a book by The Bengsons (Iphigenia in Aulis) and Sarah Gancher (The Place We Built). HUNDRED DAYS features music and lyrics by The Bengsons, direction by Anne Kauffman, and movement direction by Obie Award winner Sonya Tayeh (you'll still call me by name).

2018 will bring the World Premiere of AN ORDINARY MUSLIM, by NYTW Usual Suspect Hammaad Chaudry (Salaam, Mr. Bush), directed by NYTW Usual Suspect and Obie Award winner Jo Bonney (The Body of An American); a new production directed by NYTW Usual Suspect, Tony Award nominee, and three-time Obie Award winner Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812) of LIGHT SHINING IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, by NYTW Usual Suspect and five-time Obie Award winner Caryl Churchill (Love and Information; A Number); and the New York Premiere of THE HOUSE THAT WILL NOT STAND by Marcus Gardley (X: Or, Betty Shabazz v. The Nation),directed by NYTW Usual Suspect and former 2050 Fellow Lileana Blain-Cruz (Red Speedo; The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World).

Performance schedules, casting and full creative teams will be announced at a later date.

A variety of 2017/18 Season membership packages are now on sale at www.nytw.org or by calling 212-460-5475 (Monday noon-6pm; Tuesday-Sundaynoon-curtain time).

As part of an ongoing effort to expand its support for artists at every stage of their career and provide a platform for a wide variety of voices, NYTW will be launching NEXT DOOR AT NYTW in Fall 2017. NEXT DOOR will provide opportunities and play host for affiliated companies and members of NYTW's artistic community in the 4th Street Theatre, NYTW's newly renovated 65-seat black box space.

NYTW will also welcome six new artistic fellows into their artist community as part of the 2050 Artistic Fellowship Program. The 2017/18 Artistic Fellows are Eleanor Burgess, Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Tatiana Pandiani, Whitney White, and Nia Ostrow Witherspoon. Full information about the fellowship program is available at nytw.org.

The 2050 Fellowship is named in celebration of the U.S. Census Bureau's projection that by the year 2050, there will be no single racial or ethnic majority in the United States. This projection provokes thoughts at NYTW about the transformations that will take place in the American landscape - technologically, environmentally, demographically and artistically. They are a catalyst for broader questions about our moral and artistic future. How do we define diversity? Whose stories aren't being told? What lies ahead for our world? In response to these questions, NYTW's longstanding Fellowship program has continually evolved to support the diversity of voices and aesthetics that will make up this new minority majority. A new sister program, the 2050 Administrative Fellowship, will serve as a unique training ground for early career arts administrators and will launch in July.

Following 2013's Belleville, named one of the best plays of the year by the New York Times, Pulitzer Prize finalist Amy Herzog and director Anne Kauffman return to New York Theatre Workshop with Mary Jane. During a rain-drenched summer in New York City, an indefatigable single mother navigates the mundane, shattering and sublime aspects of caring for a chronically sick child.

NYTW brings you a folk-punk dream like you've never experienced before. Shaun and Abigail Bengson's HUNDRED DAYS unleashes an exhilarating and raw story about embracing uncertainty, taking a leap, and loving as if you only had a hundred days to live. Written by The Bengsons & Sarah Gancher, HUNDRED DAYS is directed by Anne Kauffman with movement direction by Sonya Tayeh. HUNDRED DAYS was originally commissioned, developed and produced by Z Space and piece by piece productions.

Balancing the high expectations of their parents, the doctrines of their Muslim community, and the demands of secular Western culture, Azeem and Saima struggle to straddle the gap between their Pakistani heritage and their British upbringing. Making his professional debut, playwright Hammaad Chaudry explores the life of AN ORDINARY MUSLIM, directed by Obie winner Jo Bonney.

On the heels of her acclaimed production of Hadestown on our stage and her Broadway debut with Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, Tony nominee and three-time Obie Award winner Rachel Chavkin returns to New York Theatre Workshop with Caryl Churchill's incisive drama LIGHT SHINING IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. In 1647 England, power is shifting and, amid the chaos and confusion, revolutionaries across the country are dreaming of a new future.

In the heat of summer in 1813, Louisiana passed from France to the United States. On the eve of the transfer, in a house in mourning, freedom hangs in the balance for a steely widow and her three eligible daughters, all free women of color. Inspired by Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, Marcus Gardley's lyrical, nuanced play, THE HOUSE THAT WILL NOT STAND, is directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz.

This spring, in a two-part theatrical event, NYTW Usual Suspect Ed Sylvanus Iskandar brings to life the singularly poetic world of playwright and NYTW Usual Suspect Mfoniso Udofia's SOJOURNERS and HER PORTMANTEAU. Performed in repertory, these two chapters of Udofia's sweeping, nine-part saga, The Ufot Cycle, chronicle the triumphs and losses of the tenacious matriarch of a Nigerian family. Previews began Saturday, April 22, 2017, with an opening night set for Tuesday, May 16, 2017.

New York Theatre Workshop, now in its fourth decade of incubating important new works of theatre, continues to honor its mission to explore perspectives on our collective history and respond to the events and institutions that shape all our lives. Each season, from its home in New York's East Village, NYTW presents four new productions, over 80 readings and numerous workshop productions for over 45,000 audience members. NYTW supports artists in all stages of their careers by maintaining a series of workshop programs, including work-in-progress readings, summer residencies and artist fellowships. Since its founding, NYTW has produced over 100 new, fully staged works, including Jonathan Larson's Rent; Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul; Doug Wright's Quills; Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde; Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla; Martha Clarke's Vienna: Lusthaus; Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, A Number and Love and Information; Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's Aftermath; Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová and Enda Walsh's Once; Rick Elice's Peter and the Starcatcher; David Bowie and Enda Walsh's Lazarus; Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown; and eight acclaimed productions directed by Ivo Van Hove. NYTW's productions have received a Pulitzer Prize, seventeen Tony Awards and assorted Obie, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Amy Herzog's (Playwright) plays include After the Revolution (Williamstown Theater Festival; Playwrights Horizons; Lilly Award), 4000 Miles(Lincoln Center; Obie Award for the Best New American Play, Pulitzer Prize Finalist), The Great God Pan (Playwrights Horizons), and Belleville (Yale Rep; New York Theatre Workshop; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist; Drama Desk Nomination). Amy is a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, the Joan and Joseph Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity, and the New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award. She is a Usual Suspect at NYTW and an alumna of Youngblood, Play Group at Ars Nova, and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. She has taught playwriting at Bryn Mawr and Yale. MFA, Yale School of Drama.

Anne Kauffman (Director). Recent credits include: A Life (Lortel, Drama League and Drama Desk nominations), Marjorie Prime (Lortel and Drama League nominations), Detroit, Your Mother's Copy of the Kama Sutra and Maple and Vine at Playwrights Horizons; The Nether at MCC; Smokefall at MCC, The Goodman Theater and South Coast Rep; Buzzer at The Public Theater; You Got Older (Drama Desk nomination) with P73 Productions; Belleville at Yale Rep, NYTW and Steppenwolf; Hundred Days at Under the Radar, Z Space and The Know Theater; The Muscles in our Toes at LAByrinth Theater Company; Somewhere Fun and God's Ear (also with New Georges) at the Vineyard Theater; Stunning and Slowgirl at LCT3; You Better Sit Down: Tales from My Parents' Divorce with The Civilians at Williamstown, ArtsEmerson and The Flea. Anne is a founding member of The Civilians, a Clubbed Thumb Associate Artist, where she helped create the CT Directing Fellowship, a New Georges Associate Artist, a Sundance Program Associate, member of the Artistic Council of Soho Rep, and an Executive Board Member of the SDC. Awards include OBIES for Directing and for Sustained Excellence, the Joan and Joseph Cullman Award for Exceptional Creativity from Lincoln Center, the Alan Schneider Director Award, and two Barrymore Awards.

The Bengsons (Book, Music & Lyrics) have appeared across the country and around the world at such venues as Joe's Pub (NYC), NYU's Skirball Center (NYC), MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA), On The Boards (Seattle), FlynnSpace (Burlington, VT), and the Market Theater (Johannesburg, South Africa). Their indie folk opera, HUNDRED DAYS (Public Theatre's UTR, Z Space, San Francisco; Know Theatre, Cincinnati) was awarded the TBA Award for Best New Musical. They have had three singles featured on national television on "So You Think You Can Dance" (FOX). Most recently their music was featured in Sundown, Yellow Moon for Ars Nova/WP, Hurricane Diane at Two River Theatre Company, Sonya Tayeh's you'll still call me by name at New York Live Arts and Anne Washburn and Rachel Chavkin's Iphigenia in Aulis at Classic Stage Company. They are founding members of the Real Make Collective with Sonya Tayeh and Jo Lampert. Abigail Nessen Bengson has toured as a member of tUnE-yArDs, including an appearance on "Late Night with J immy Fallon." Upcoming work includes The Lucky Ones at Ars Nova and a commission with Lincoln Center.

Sarah Gancher's (Book) writing has been seen on stages across the US and internationally, including London's National Theatre, Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre, Steppenwolf, The Public Theater, Seattle Rep, Hartford Stage, Ars Nova, P73, WP Theater, The Flea and NYC SummerStage. Honors include the New York Stage and Film Founder's Award, the Clifford Odets Commission, a Time Warner Fellowship at WP Theater, the AR Gurney Prize. and a Drama League Nomination for Best Production of a Musical. She is a member/alum of P73's writer's group Interstate 73, The Playwrights Realm Writing Fellows program, WP Theater's Lab and the Ars Nova Play Group. Sarah was a co-writer of The TEAM's Mission Drift (Drama League nom, Edinburgh International Festival Fringe Prize, Scotsman Fringe First, Herald Angel; London's National Theatre, int'l tour to Europe, Asia, and Australia.) Sarah frequently collaborates with devising ensembles including Telluride Theatre and Hand2Mouth (Portland, OR) and has served as the in-house writer for Blue Man Group, as well as enjoyed previous and concurrent lives as a jazz violinist and circus clown. She is currently working with The Bengsons on multiple projects including Hundred Days which premiered at Under the Radar 2017 and a project with Ars Nova. Upcoming: World premieres of I'll Get You Back Again at Round House Theater directed by Rachel Chavkin and Seder at Hartford Stage directed by Eliza Beth Williamson. She is under commission by Asolo Repertory Theater and Second City Theatricals. MFA: NYU.

Sonya Tayeh (Movement Director) has worked nationally and internationally across the worlds of dance and theater, and is also an accomplished and proud teacher. Tayeh's most recent credits include: you'll still call me by name, a dance-symphony directed, and choreographed for her commission from Bill T. Jones' institution New York Live Arts; Hurricane Diane (Two River Theatre); Hundred Days (Public Theater); The Skin of Our Teeth (Theatre For A New Audience); Andrew Lippas' The Wild Party (City Center Encores); Iphigenia in Aulis (Classic Stage Company), Kung Fu (Signature Theatre), The Last Goodbye (San Diego's Old Globe). She has gleaned accolades for her versatile work, including two Emmy nominations for Fox's So You Think You Can Dance, and the Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards for "Outstanding Choreography" for her work on David Henry Hwang's dance-play Kung Fu, for which she also received a Drama Desk nomination. Upcoming projects include: As You Like It (Public Theater's Public Works); newly commissioned pieces for the Hudson Valley Dance Festival; Cape Dance Festival; The Lucky Ones (Ars Nova); Soft Power (Ahmanson Theatre).

HAMMAAD CHAUDRY (Playwright). An Ordinary Muslim marks playwright Hammaad Chaudry's professional debut. He is currently a Van Lier Fellow at New Dramatists, a NYTW Usual Suspect, member of The Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group 2017 and recipient of the New Playwrights Award from Playwrights' Studio, Scotland. He is also a graduate of The Royal Court Theatre's Young Writers Programme in London where his work was selected for the Young Writers Festival and Unheard Voices competition. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University and hails from Edinburgh, Scotland.

Jo Bonney (Director). Premieres of plays by: Alan Ball, Eric Bogosian, Culture Clash, Eve Ensler, Jessica Goldberg, Danny Hoch, Neil LaBute, Warren Leight, Martyna Majok, Lynn Nottage, Dael Orlandersmith, Suzan-Lori Parks, Darci Picoult, John Pollono, Will Power, David Rabe, Jose Rivera, Seth Zvi Rosenfeld, Christopher Shinn, Diana Son, Universes, Naomi Wallace, Michael Weller. Productions of plays by: Caryl Churchill, Nilo Cruz, Anna Deavere Smith, Charles Fuller, Lisa Loomer, Carey Perloff, Lanford Wilson. Productions directed at: ART; PS 122; The Public Theater; NYTW; Second Stage; Goodman Theatre; La Jolla; MCC; Geffen Playhouse; WTF; McCarter Theater; Playwrights Horizons; Arena Stage; Mark Taper Forum; Signature (NY); Long Wharf; The New Group; CSC; The Royal Court & Almeida; Edinburgh Festival; The Market Theatre, Johannesburg; Cine 13, Paris. Lortel Awards for Best Musical and Best Revival; Drama Desk nominee (Direction) for By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; Audelco Award (Direction) for Father Comes Home from the Wars; Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Direction; Lilly Award. Editor of Extreme Exposure (TCG).

Caryl Churchill (Playwright). Stage plays include: Owners (Royal Court Upstairs, London); Objections to Sex and Violence (Royal Court);Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Joint Stock UK tour, Royal Court Upstairs); Vinegar Tom (Monstrous Regiment, UK tour); Traps (Royal Court Upstairs), Cloud Nine (Joint Stock UK tour, Royal Court); Three More Sleepless Nights (Soho Poly and Royal Court Upstairs); Top Girls (Royal Court); Fen (Joint Stock UK tour, Almeida Theatre); Softcops (RSC at the Pit); A Mouthful of Birds with David Lan (Joint Stock UK tour, Royal Court); Serious Money (Royal Court, Wyndham's Theatre); Icecream (Royal Court); Mad Forest (Central School of Speech and Drama, Royal Court); Lives of the Great Poisoners with Orlando Gough and Ian Spink (Second Stride UK tour, Riverside Studios, London); The Skriker (National Theatre, London); Thyestes translated from Seneca (Royal Court Upstairs); Hotel with Orlando Gough and Ian Spink (Second Stride UK tour, The Place, London); This Is A Chair (London International Festival of Theatre at the Royal Court); Blue Heart (Joint Stock UK tour, Royal Court); Far Away (Royal Court Upstairs, The Albery Theatre, London); A Number (Royal Court); a new version of Strindberg's A Dream Play (National Theatre); Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?(Royal Court); Seven Jewish Children (Royal Court); A Ring A Lamp A Thing an opera with Orlando Gough (Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House);Love and Information (Royal Court); Ding Dong the Wicked (Royal Court); Here We Go (National Theatre); and Escaped Alone (Royal Court Theatre).

Rachel Chavkin (Director) is an Obie Award-winning, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominated director, writer, dramaturg, and the Artistic Director of Brooklyn-based experimental ensemble, the TEAM (www.theteamplays.org), now in its 10th year. She recently made her Broadway debut with Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812 which stars Josh Groban and opened to rapturous reviews. The Great Comet originated Off-Broadway at Ars Nova before receiving two commercial transfers in New York and a sold-out run at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge. Other selected projects: Anaïs Mitchell's new folk-opera Hadestown (NYTW), Bess Wohl's Small Mouth Sounds (World Premiere - Ars Nova, Off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre), The Royal Family (Guthrie), Anything That Gives Off Light (a collaboration between The TEAM and the National Theatre of Scotland), Marco Ramirez's The Royale (Lincoln Center Theater, The Old Globe), Anne Washburn's new transadaptation of Euripedes' Iphigenia in Aulis (CSC), Dave Malloy's Preludes (World Premiere - LCT3), The TEAM's RoosevElvis (PS122's COIL festival, Tour to the Royal Court, Walker Art Center, A.R.T.), British artist Chris Thorpe's Confirmation (World Premiere - Warwick Arts Centre and Battersea Arts Centre, 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award, Top 10 Shows at the Edinburgh Fringe - American Theatre); Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (Northern Stage, UK national tour); Meg Miroshnik's The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls (Yale Rep); and multiple collaborations with Taylor Mac, including his extravaganza The Lily's Revenge (World Premiere (Act II) - HERE). NYTW Usual Suspect, Artistic Associate at London's Gate Theatre and Classic Stage Company, alum of Soho Rep's Writer/Director Lab, Drama League Directors Project, WP Theater Director's Lab, and New Georges Affiliate Artist. She has also taught extensively at NYU, Pace, and other colleges. BFA NYU, MFA Columbia. Current and Upcoming: Sarah Gancher's I'll Get You Back Again at Round House Theatre, Hadestown at The Citadel in Edmonton, Canada and other projects with the TEAM.

Marcus Gardley (Playwright) is a screenwriter, TV writer and playwright who was the 2015 recipient of the Glickman Award for his play The House That Will Not Stand. It was commissioned and produced by Berkeley Rep, had subsequent productions at Yale Rep, Victory Gardens and the Tricycle Theater in London and was a finalist for the 2015 Kennedy Prize. His three-part epic the road weeps, the well runs dry was also a finalist for the 2014 Kennedy Prize. Gardley was the 2013 USA James Baldwin Fellow and the 2011 PEN Laura Pels award winner for Mid-Career Playwright. The New Yorker describes Gardley as "the heir to García Lorca, Pirandello and Tennessee Williams." He is an ensemble member and playwright-in-residence at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago where his plays: The Gospel of Loving Kindness, An Issue of Blood and A Wonder in My Soul have premiered and won numerous awards and critical acclaim. He holds a MFA from Yale Drama School and lives in Los Angeles, CA. Currently, he is working on a TV show for Showtime called "The Chi" and remounting and developing a new play with The Acting Company in New York.

Lileana Blain-Cruz (Director). Recent Projects: Suzan Lori-Parks' The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World at Signature Theatre; Henry IV, Part One and Much Ado About Nothing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; The Bluest Eye at The Guthrie; Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' War at LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater and Yale Repertory Theater; Alice Birch's Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again at Soho Rep; Lucas Hnath's Red Speedo at New York Theatre Workshop; SALOME at Jack; Christina Anderson's Hollow Roots at the Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theater; a new translation of The Bakkhai at the Fisher Center of Performing Arts at Bard College; and A Guide to Kinship and Maybe Magic, a collaboration with Jacobs-Jenkins and choreographer Isabel Lewis at Dance New Amsterdam. She was a 2050 Directing Fellow at NYTW, an Artistic Associate of The Exchange and The Orchard Project, a member of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab, and an Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellow at Arena Stage. She received her MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama. Upcoming projects include Dominique Morisseau's Pipeline at Lincoln Center and Anna Ziegler's Actually at the Williamstown Theater Festival.

ELEANOR BURGESS's plays include The Niceties, Chill, Start Down, and These Dying Generations. Her work has been developed or produced at Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre, ALLIANCE THEATRE, Huntington Theatre Company, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Portland Stage Company, Centenary Stage Company, the Lark Play Development Center, the Kennedy Center/NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop, Everyday Inferno, SPACE on Ryder Farm and Luna Stage. She's been the recipient of the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award, an EST/Sloan commission, a Keen Teens Commission, and the Susan Glaspell Award for Women Playwrights. She grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, studied history at Yale College, and recently completed the MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU/Tisch.

TEARRANCE ARVELLE CHISHOLM is a current member of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at Juilliard and a recent MFA Playwriting graduate from the Catholic University of America. His play Hooded: Or Being Black for Dummies received its World Premiere at Mosaic Theatre in Washington, D.C. this year and will be followed by the World Premiere of his play Br'er Cotton at Kitchen Dog Theatre in Dallas, TX. His work has been developed with the Signature Theatre, Theatre J, Theatre Alliance, The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. He was named a "Person to Watch" by American Theatre Magazine and a "Rising Star" by Variety. He was a finalist for the inaugural Relentless Award and London's 503 Theatre Award. He was named winner of both the Rosa Parks Playwriting Award and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award at KCACTF 2016.

SHAYOK MISHA CHOWDHURY is a queer Bengali director and writer based in NYC. Misha is co-founder of The Lonely Painter Project, an interdisciplinary collaborative that looks to performance as the art of embodied inquiry. Favorite projects include a devised adaptation of The Last Leaf (Barn Arts Collective), Inhume: A Genesis Story (Riverside Church), and the song-cycle MAKE (Hemi Encuentro, Santiago, Chile). Recent and upcoming directing credits: Cherrie Moraga's The Mathematics of Love (Stanford TAPS); Nia Witherspoon's The Messiah Complex (DUTF); Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves ('62 Center, Williams). With composer Laura Grill, Misha has written and directed three new musicals, including The Optics of Dying Light (HERE) and Artemis in the Parking Lot (awarded Best of Fest at NYMF's 2016 Reading Series @ Playwrights Horizons). The duo's newest piece, How the White Girl Got Her Spots and Other 90s Trivia, will debut at Ars Nova's ANT Fest in June 2017. A recipient of fellowships from Fulbright, Kundiman, and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, Misha's writing has been published in The Cincinnati Review, TriQuarterly, Hayden's Ferry Review, Portland Review, Asian American Literary Review, and elsewhere. He has been a visiting artist at Stanford, Williams, Fordham, and Syracuse Stage. MFA: Columbia University.

TATIANA PANDIANI is an Argentine born, NYC based director and choreographer of new works and musicals. She is currently developing a Spanish language folkloric musical based on Ruben Darío's fiction works, El Poeta Y El Rey (The Drama League & The Habitat). Selected credits: N*** in Paris & La Lupe (Teatro SEA), 187 & These are the Stairs You Got to Watch (Atlantic Stage 2), 1989 (Connelly Theatre), The Co-operatives (NY Int'l Fringe), Assassins (Princeton Summer Theatre). Upcoming: Brandon Jacob Jenkins Appropriate (Princeton Summer Theatre), Leonardo Gonzales's NANAS (IATI/La Micro), NORA (Lanesboro Arts, MN). Tatiana has worked as an Assistant/Associate director at Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Repertorio Español and Miami New Drama and is a teaching Artist at the Atlantic Theatre Co. MFA: Columbia. For more information, please visit: www.tatianapandiani.com

Whitney White is a director and musician based in Brooklyn, New York. Her original musical Lover I'll Bring You Back to Life was part of Ars Nova's 2016 ANT Fest, and her musical adaption of Macbeth: Macbeth in Stride was work-shopped at Chautauqua (2016), Trinity Rep (2017), and Judson Memorial (2017). Her first full-length play Great Hill Mouth was part of the 2016 Drama League's rough Draft Series. Whitney is the inaugural 2017 Roundabout Directing Fellow and last winter assisted Sam Gold on Othello at New York Theatre Workshop starring Daniel Craig and David Oyelowo, and Dan Sullivan on If I Forget at Roundabout. This spring she will assist Anne Kauffman on Marvin's Room. MFA Acting: Brown University/Trinity Rep, BA Political Science and Certificate in Musical Theatre from Northwestern University. www.whitney-white.com.

NIA OSTROW WITHERSPOON (Smith BA/Stanford PhD) is a multidisciplinary artist investigating the metaphysics of black liberation, desire, and diaspora. Working primarily in the mediums of playwriting/directing, vocal and sound composition, and creative scholarship, Witherspoon's work has traveled both nationally and internationally to venues ranging from theatres and universities to activist organizations and non-profits. Described as "especially fascinating" by Backstage Magazine, Witherspoon has been the recipient of multiple awards and residencies, including: BRIC's Premiere Residency, Astraea Foundation's Lesbian Writer Award and Global Arts Fund Grant, Downtown Theatre Festival's "Audience Award," a Wurlitzer Foundation residency, Lambda Literary's Emerging Playwriting Fellowship, a CASH Grant from Theatre Bay Area, and a Mellon Dissertation Fellowship. Her staged works have been featured at BRIC, HERE, National Black Theatre, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Dixon Place, Movement Research, and the Painted Bride (Philadelphia), among various venues in the Bay Area, including Theatre Artaud, Theatre of Yugen, The Lab, The Garage, La Peña, and Eastside Arts Alliance. As a performer, Witherspoon is co-founder of ceremonial music collective SoliRose, a world-premiere cast member in Sharon Bridgforth's River See (Links Hall), and a featured vocalist in the work of Cherríe Moraga in La Semilla Caminante/The Traveling Seed (Intersection for the Arts). Witherspoon's writing is published in an array of journals and anthologies, and she is currently at work on collection of essays, tentatively titled Nation in the Dark, and a play cycle, The Dark Girl Chronicles, which explores the criminalization of black cis- and trans- women via African diaspora sacred stories.

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