ART Institute Alumni Association Names 2016 Lab Grant Honorees

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the ART Institute Alumni Association and the Lab Grant Selection Committee, we are excited to announce the winners of the 2016 Lab Grant Awards.

Since 2007 the association has given close to ten thousand dollars to help alumni self-produce and develop their own work. The 2016 recipients will each be awarded $500 grants to help with the development of their projects, which will have a public performance of some sort within the course of the year.

The 2016 grant winners are Miriam Weisfeld ('07) - "Immortals"; Matthew Christian ('12) - "Two Guys"; Cameron Oro ('10) - "Untitled Fear Project" and Signe Harriday ('05) - "3 Sisters, 1 House"

Because of the quality of all the applications this year, the Lab Grant committee decided to award an extra $250 Honorable Mention award to Gin Hammond ('98) for Voice Workshop fees.

Immortals - Two hundred years ago this summer, Mary Shelley wrote the first draft of Frankenstein-in a single stormy night, during a drunken party at Lord Byron's home in exile. This true story inspired Immortals, a new play by Miriam Weisfeld (Dramaturgy '07) about young artists beginning to question what they've been taught about science, gender, sex, and death. The A.R.T. Association Lab Grant will support additional development on the play by a team that includes Merritt Janson (Acting '07), Henry David Clarke (Acting '07), and two Russian-born artists who are company members of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: director Yury Urnov and set designer Misha Kachman.

Untitled Fear Project - A.R.T. alumni Cameron J. Oro, Rebecca Whitehurst and Jason Beaubien are producing, writing and starring in a horror short film. Set and shot in a Texas farmhouse, the film takes a deep look into the human experience of fear as it relates to isolationism, loss, global depravity and physical/mental incapacitation. Also featuring fellow alums Laura Parker, Heather Gordon and Therese Plaehn, the film digs through the overpowering and often inexplicable experience of fear: how it moves us to action, how it paralyzes us, how it transforms us, and how it lurks within each of us.

Two Guys: The Web Series tells the story of two frustrated writers, Todd and Clayton, who embark on an ill-advised mission to "make the worst decision of their lives" in order to find creative inspiration. Things predictably begin to go terribly, terribly wrong. Their friendship is put to the test as their circumstances become increasingly dire. We're about to start making the final episode of the season! Also featuring alumni Matthew Lieff Christian '12, Michael Kane '12 and Alison Gregory '12 Check it out on YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCAmR5S5UNtLIa8yA2rZuufA.

3 Sisters; 1 House, former Jerome Foundation grant recipient, is a play written by Signe V. Harriday that explores the intimate bonds and deep disconnects between three adult sisters wrestling with living under their childhood roof after a storm of life events cast them back home. Set in Los Angeles, the play weaves memory, music, and storytelling.

This project is an opportunity for Signe to further develop the play and the characters through a series of small workshops which will culminate in a public reading in New York City. Previously the play had a workshop with Pillsbury House Theatre. www.signeharriday.com

Gin Hammond will be traveling to Dublin for a Knight-Thompson "Experiencing Speech" 6-day intensive. She will subsequently host a workshop sharing techniques from the workshop after returning to Seattle, and will apply techniques learned to "The Westerbork Serenade," a show she will direct for Seattle Immersive Theater, and the many shows she will be dialect coaching in the future. For more, visit www.ginhammond.com.

The A.R.T. Alumni Association exists to advocate for the benefit of graduates of the Institute and current Institute students. We provide resources and funding to alumni and their collaborators to foster the creation, development, and presentation of theatrical readings, workshops, and productions for the general public, and to organize public forums on professional and artistic issues of concern to both A.R.T. Alumni and members of the greater dramatic arts community.