JERRON HERMAN AND MOLLY JOYCE: LEFT AND RIGHT Announced June 9 At National Sawdust

Left and Right is a collaboration among composer/performer Molly Joyce (2021 Toulmin Fellow), choreographer/dancer Jerron Herman, writer/audio describer Max Greyson, director Austin Regan, and choreographer Brandon Kazen-Maddox that examines historical myths of the traditionally cursed and dark left (sinister) side of the body and its relationship to the right-hand side, which was considered healing and beneficent.

The piece unites and confronts universal, contemporary, and personal perspectives on dualism and asymmetry through the disparate yet synergic disciplines of dance, music, and poetic audio description. Left and Right was previously presented by National Sawdust as part of the quarantine-era Digital Discovery program in collaboration with the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU with support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

Molly Joyce has been deemed one of the "most versatile, prolific and intriguing composers working under the vast new-music dome" by The Washington Post. Her work is concerned with disability as a creative source. She has an impaired left hand from a previous car accident, and strives to engage her disability on a compositional and performative level.

Jerron Herman is a disabled choreographer, dancer and writer who creates works to facilitate welcoming. Awards include Apothetae/Lark Play Development Lab Finalist, Disability Futures Fellowship by the Ford and Mellon Foundation, Grants to Artists Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship from the Jerome Foundation. His play, 3 Bodies, will be published in Theater Magazine May/June 2022.

Austin Regan is a NYC-based stage director and is thrilled to be working with National Sawdust. Recent work includes Rigoletto (Minnesota Opera), Out of a Thought (PROTOTYPE), The Trojan Women (Hangar Theatre), Discount Ghost Stories (LOCAL Theater), Mad Libs (New World Stages), and Don Giovanni (FM Opera). As an associate director Regan has worked on four Broadway musicals and the Metropolitan Opera. He is a Drama League Fellow as well as part of Lincoln Center Directors Lab.

Max Greyson is a poet, performer and theatre-maker from Antwerp. He is an artistic member of Un-Label Performing Arts Company. Since 2019 he has been appointed artistic researcher at the Royal Antwerp Conservatoire. In his research projects ArtInAD and Speaking Figures, he develops methods for the artistic integration of audio-description for the blind and visually impaired and other forms of aesthetics of access in contemporary dance and musical theatre.

Brandon Kazen-Maddox is a Grandchild of Deaf Adults (GODA) and third-generation native signer of American Sign Language (ASL). Through his multimedia ASL production company Body Language Productions, Inc., Brandon collaborates with and provides opportunities for Deaf artists who share his passion for bringing artistic works of American Sign Language Dance Theater to the stage, screen and beyond.