Hook & Eye Theater Presents World Premiere Of SHE-SHE-SHE

Hook & Eye Theater is proud to present the world premiere of She-She-She, a vibrant new devised play with writing by Cynthia Babak that centers on six women whose lives intertwine across generations against the backdrop of one great mountain. Directed by Chad Lindsey, She-She-She is inspired by the real-life friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt and leading black activist Pauli Murray. Set in and around a New Deal-era woman's work camp on New York's Bear Mountain, this collaborative theater piece weaves stories from an idealistic bygone era with the narratives of three modern-day women still in search of agency, healing, and a little wanderlust.

In the 1930s, Roosevelt championed the "She She She" camps as a New Deal program tailored for women, housed in America's National Parks. Unemployed women from across the country, including Murray, moved away from their homes to gain hospitality and forestry training at the camps. It was a chance encounter at Hudson Valley's Camp Tera that sparked Murray and Roosevelt's life-long friendship. In total, 90 residential camps benefitted 8,500 women across the U.S. from 1933 to 1937.

She-She-She marks Hook & Eye Theater's fourth devised work. Founded in 2010 by co-artistic directors Carrie Heitman and Chad Lindsey, the Brooklyn-based ensemble has steadily built a reputation for crafting inquisitive theatrical works filled with history, myth, and science. Their extended creative process often begins with one large idea or fact that is playfully and painstakingly unraveled. Through improvisation, discussion, and research, the layers are woven together collectively by an ensemble of actors. For She-She-She, the company of performers includes Cynthia Babak*, Carrie Heitman*, Emily Kunkel*, Chad Lindsey*, Elizabeth London*, Asia Mark, Nylda Ria Mark*, Javan Nelson, and Jeremy Rafal.

The creative team forShe-She-She includes Krista Intranuovo (costume design), Pornchanok Kanchanabanka (sound design), Alejandro Fajardo (lighting design), Patrick J. Burlingham (scenic design), Leah McVeigh (production manager), Katie Sammons (production stage manager), Abigail Howard (assistant stage manager), Kyle Beckley (artistic associate), and Morgan Lindsey Tachco (creative producer).

Performances of She-She-She will take place May 19-June 2 at The Mark O'Donnell Theater at The Actors Fund Arts Center, 160 Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn. Tickets, priced at $25 ($15 students and seniors) can be purchased by visiting hookandeyetheater.com. Please call (347) 927-6475 for more information. Nearest subways include A, C, or G trains to Hoyt-Schermerhorn; 2, 3 to Hoyt Street; F, R to Jay St./Metrotech; or 4, 5 to Borough Hall.

*Denotes member of Actors' Equity Association

About the Artists

Cynthia Babak (Writer, Ensemble, Ani) is a multi-disciplinary theater artist and 2015 recipient of the Tanne Foundation Award. Her play, Life&Death&In-Between, will be featured at Hudson Theater Works' PlayWorks series this spring; Where I Dwell, was showcased at Florida Rep Theatre's PlayLabs, and workshopped at Lanyard Theatre in Bath, Maine; Too Much Candy, was produced by Brave New World Rep in collaboration with Company XIV; In the Skin was a semi-finalist at the O'Neill NPC. On stage, she most recently performed in Hook & Eye's God is a Verb and Loading Dock Theatre's The Twelfth Labor. Her two-woman comedy show with Michael Huston, Babes in the Woods, continues to amuse in venues throughout NYC, including the monthly variety show, The Mosquito, at Dixon Place. She has directed several shows at Brave New World Rep, of which she is a founding member, most notably, Arthur Miller's The American Clock.

Carrie Heitman (Ensemble, Rivka) is co-artistic director of Hook & Eye Theater. She has appeared Off-Broadway, regionally, and traveled extensively performing in the UK, Poland, Russia, and Malaysia. Some NYC favorites include The Cherry Lane, The Pearl, The Women's Project, DTW, The New Ohio, The Abingdon, Mark Morris Dance Center, and others. TV/Film: Lipstick Jungle, A Piece of Cake, The Patriot, Everything's Gonna Be Pink (Roni Ezra, Oscar Nom), What About Us? (w/Jasmine Guy). MFA: UNC Chapel Hill; AEA; Master teaching artist for the Roundabout Theatre Company.

Emily Kunkel (Ensemble, Jolene) is a New York-based actress. She has performed regionally at St Louis Rep, The Cape Playhouse, Geva Theatre, Barrington Stage, Shakespeare Theater of NJ, and Actors Theater of Louisville. New York credits include Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Ontological-Hysteric and The Upright Citizens Brigade. TV credits include HBO's Nurse Jackie. She is a graduate of Fordham University at Lincoln Center as well as the Actors Theater of Louisville apprentice program. She is a core member of Hook and Eye Theater.

ELIZABETH LONDON (Ensemble, Maureen) With Hook & Eye (Core Member): She-She-She 2016, God is a Verb, The Summoners. Theatre includes: Off-Broadway, North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, Vermont Stage, Burning Coal (Raleigh). Directing includes: Simon Stephens' Sea Wall (Burning Coal; Critics' Pick), Romeo and Juliet, Pinnochio. Audio recordings include The Merchant of Venice (Portia), Lisa Kron's 2.5 Minute Ride (both for JBI; also directing), audiobooks, anime. Education: NYU, SITI, BADA. Master Shakespeare Teaching Artist: Theatre for a New Audience, Metropolitan Opera.

NYLDA RIA MARK (Ensemble, Tria) has been a part of various Off-Off-Broadway productions over the past couple years. She is happy to get to join Hook & Eye Theatre for this iteration of She, She, She. You can find her on the web via web series pilot We Be Nurses, and an independent feature entitled Vitelli's. You can also see her guest star in the second season web series of So Soha, on YouTube, which is recently an official selection, nominated for best ensemble cast by LA-WebFest 2018. She will also appear this year in a web commercial for Blue Man Group at some point this year. She has her B.A. from Western Michigan University and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. She would like to thank her friends and colleagues at Hook & Eye, along with her friends and family for their continuing love and support.

Asia Mark (Ensemble, Cornelia) is an actress, vocalist, teaching artist, photographer from Detroit, MI. Mark pursued her love for acting at Western Michigan University obtaining a B.F.A in Theatre Performance. Mark has been a company member of Universes for 3 years. Since 2015, Mark has performed and toured with Universes and was a part of the cast of Universes's most recent musical, UniSon which premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Company. At OSF, Mark was also a part of the US premiere cast of Shakespeare in Love. Mark has been blessed to continue to use her craft to tell many stories and more importantly, create social change through theatre and music.

Javan Nelson (Ensemble) is a writer/performer based in Brooklyn. He has most recently worked with Art House Productions (Grace, or the Art of Climbing), Theater Row (The Altruists), En Garde Arts (BOSSS 2.0), Target Margin Theatre (The Great God Brown), The Bushwick Starr (White Wines), EST (Youngblood's Love Motel), and the Araca Project (The White Dress), among others. In addition to acting, he is an alumnus of The Tank's 2016/17 TV Writing Program and Siti Company's Summer Conservatory. He received his BFA at the Univ. of Arizona. He would like to give massive thanks to his H&E collaborators for this incredible journey. Enjoy!

Chad Lindsey (Ensemble, Director) is the co-artistic director of Hook & Eye Theater. On his way to becoming a theater artist, he danced with modern dance companies, apprenticed with a furniture designer for six years, won a snow sculpting contest, choreographed a ballet or two, was in a boy band, mowed lawns, and spent a decade facing himself on the packaging of hair-spiking gel. Thankfully most of it happened before the internet.

JEREMY RAFAL (Ensemble) Born in the Philippines, raised in Hawaii, and lived in the midwest for a very long time, Jeremy is now finally a New York-based actor. Recent theater appearances include his own solo show The Boy from Bantay (FringeNYC), I'll Never Love Again (Bushwick Starr), and #serials@theflea (The Flea Theater). Besides being an actor, Jeremy is also a professional musician trained as a concert pianist. He is also into linguistics and likes to do Crossfit and competitive jump roping.

About the Creative Team

KRISTA INTRANUOVO (Costume Design) Recent freelance costume design credits include Machinal at Adelphi University and God is a Verb with Hook and Eye Theater. Costume Design Assistant: Figaro 90210 at the Duke Theater. Costume Stitcher credits include the Santa Fe Opera '16 and '17 seasons. In addition to her work as a designer, Krista is currently a Costume Shopper and Costume Maker at the Metropolitan Opera and a proud member of IATSE Local 764.

PORNCHANOK KANCHANABANCA (Sound Design) is a Thai artist and sound designer composer, based in New York and Chicago. She graduated from Sound Design program at Yale School of Drama. Recent productions include Cymbeline (Original music, Yale Rep), Be Here Now (Original music, Cincinnati Play House) Frontières sans Frontières (The Bushwick Starr), The Humans (Theatresquared), Alligator (New Georges & The Sol Project), Eurydice (original music, UCONN), and Father Comes Home From The Wars (Juilliard).

ALEJANDRO FAJARDO (Lighting Design) is a Colombian lighting designer and photographer based in New York City. Recent credits include Levity (Warren Miller Performing Arts Center), we and fôr (Michiyaya Dance), Me Hago Falta (Suku Dance Lab), The Itch (Throes Theater Company), Hamlet (Bonneville Theatre Company), The Healing (Theatre Breaking Through Barriers), Not about Nightingales (The New School- Eugene Lang at La MaMa), The Bacchae (Faux Real Theatre Company at La MaMa), Agamemnon (Eclipses Group Theatre at La MaMa), The Pool Skimmer (Clubbed Thumb/Playwright Horizons Directing Fellowship), what's this called, this spirit (Ars Nova and Dixon Place), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot ( The Actor's Studio), The Rake's Progress (Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia), Bareknuckle (Gleason's Boxing Gym for Vertigo Theatre Company), Once on This Island (Pace University). Alejandro is also one of the Site Lighting Designers for various music festivals including Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival, Electric Forest, and Lost Lake Music Festival.

PATRICK J. BURLINGHAM (Scenic Design) is an artist, set designer, leadership & life coach and triathlete based in New York City. He holds a BA in theatre from Kalamazoo College. Burlingham is thrilled to join Hook & Eye for this production as his return to the theatre after a decade-long hiatus. He has contributed design and production support to theaters across the country including Cherry Lane Theatre (NYC), The Vineyard (NYC), ALLIANCE THEATRE (Atlanta), Theatrical Outfit (Atlanta) & Bailiwick Rep. (Chicago).

KATIE SAMMONS (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be returning to Hook & Eye after joining them for the ICE Factory Festival at New Ohio in 2016. Recent credits include Play It By Heart & I'll Take It with Amas Musical Theatre as a part of their Lab Series, Good to Go Concert & Bridges in Concert as part Prospect Theatre Company's Ignite Series, and Midsummer Night's Dream at Baruch College. She serves as Assistant Production Manager at IMCD Lighting working on many events throughout the year, including New York Fashion Week. Sammons is an alumnus of Actors Theatre of Louisville's Professional Training Company.

LEAH MCVEIGH (Production Manager) has been working as a professional Stage Manager and Production Manager since 2004. Credits include A Raison in the Sun (Broadway), Vital Theatre Company, Virginia Opera Company, Brevard Music Center, Queens College Opera and Musical Productions, NYU Tisch Graduate Acting productions, and Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. For the last seven years, Leah has also been working as a teaching artist in public schools throughout NYC. Leah holds a BFA from the Conservatory for Entertainment Design and Technology at Purchase College, State University of New York.

Kyle Beckley (Artistic Associate) is ecstatic he finally gets to ride the bus with H&E on their creative, and relevant, adventures. Coordinating Producer of the hit web-series Submissions Only, owner of Beckley Productions, LLC and Co-Owner of Full Out Creative. Producer, videographer, US Army Vet. @fulloutcreative - Love to all the women in my life who are strong, passionate, and inspirational.

MORGAN LINDSEY TACHCO (Creative Producer) is a Brooklyn-based culture maker thrilled to be working with Hook & Eye. In nearly fifteen years of service to NYC's cultural sector, Morgan has supported the work of thousands of artists as a creative producer, festival & venue director, advocate, grantmaker, and development strategist. She oversaw the allocation over $2mil in public cultural funds in her tenure at Brooklyn Arts Council, and has helped to secure over $300k for her clients in the last year alone as a freelance creative producer and development consultant. Tachco is a Performer/Deviser and Creative Producer of Little Lord, a Brooklyn-based performance company. Little Lord is currently developing SKINNAMARINK, their 11th original work for the stage, through residencies at Target Margin Theater and The Drama League. Their most recent production NOW IS THE TIME... (Abrons Arts Center, 2016) received 3 NY Innovative Theatre Award nominations, including Outstanding Performance Art Production. Her performance work has been called, "playful, nuanced," and "pretty, although quite chubby." Morgan holds a B.A. from Goddard College in Individualized Studies with a concentration in Performance and Arts Management, and is a 2015 New York Community Trust Leadership Fellow.

About Hook & Eye Theater

Hook & Eye Theater is a Brooklyn-based ensemble of performance makers whose mission is to build inspiring and inquisitive works of theater that encourage new perspectives on our collectively-held beliefs. the company starts with a hook, a story that grabs their interest, and through an extended creative process that includes improvisation, discussion, and research, they tug at the thread until they've found a story to unravel. Ideas, themes and moments are layered and woven together as an ensemble. Theresults are stories of history, myth, and science told in an unforgettable way.

Founded in 2010 by co-artistic directors Carrie Heitman and Chad Lindsey, Hook & Eye develops original works of theater, explores new material in their tri-annual PlayLabs, and provides youth education initiatives. Their creative process is centered around material generated by an ensemble and collective of multidisciplinary artists. the company is devoted to re-centering a creative lens to empower the agency of a multitude of perspectives, and are committed to parity, gender equity, and a continuous evolution in our racial inclusivity.

Hook & Eye's original works include Fidgital Spring, a rhapsody of movement and mobile devices in homage to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (Figment Project/Governors Island; Stampede Lab/Chain in L.I.C); The Summoners, an impressionistic flip-book of what occurs when big capital meets small-town America in times of crisis (C.O.W./Lower East Side, 2014); and most recently, God is a Verb, inspired by the mind and myth of R. Buckminster Fuller (Actors Fund Art Center, 2015). Hook & Eye serves as the resident playwriting instructors at New York's Professional Performing Arts School.

Hook & Eye's work is full of joy, soul and musicality, and has been called "rich, intelligent, funny," and "a testament to the collaborative process of theatre making." Through their PlayLabs, education initiatives and full productions, Hook & Eye is a company committed to celebrating the power of creativity by collectively making stories that make the quotidian impossible to ignore.