The Shed

Meet dancer and choreographer Katherine Paola De La Cruz, developing her performance “Dirty Laundry” at The Shed as part of “Open Call: Stages.” The inspiration for “Dirty Laundry” came in a work-stress dream. Running desperately on a treadmill to nowhere, she could only speak out in office jargon. In “Dirty Laundry,” a stationary bike serves as a symbol of hustle culture, a fatiguing ride that offers no progress forward no matter how hard one pedals. De La Cruz investigates labor in the context of immigrant experiences, drawing parallels between her work history and that of her parents. The work reflects on the seemingly inescapable effects of burn out across class, immigrant identities, and age groups. Through interviews, sound scores, and dance theater, she uncovers humor in the chaos while exposing the ridiculous, violent natures of capitalism and American work culture. De La Cruz tackles current labor conversations and invites all of us to imagine different systems that place value on humans before profit. As part of Open Call’s inaugural development track, centered on providing an incubation for creative thought and process, “Dirty Laundry” will be presented to an invitation-only audience in the fall of 2026. Launched as part of The Shed’s inaugural-year program, Open Call is a large-scale commissioning program for early-career, NYC-based artists. Representing disciplines from music performance, poetry, and puppetry to painting, sculpture, and video, Open Call exemplifies what The Shed does best in championing dynamic, innovative art of all kinds. Open Call artists receive a commissioning fee of up to $15,000 depending on the scope of their projects, robust production support, and resources to further nurture their practices and expand their audiences. Admission is free to all Open Call events. _______________ Subscribe for our latest videos: http://bit.ly/2Q2FYF7 Support the creation of new art at The Shed by becoming a member today: http://theshed.org/support _______________ ABOUT THE SHED The Shed is a cultural institution of and for the 21st century. We produce and welcome innovative art and ideas, across all forms of creativity, to build a shared understanding of our rapidly changing world and a more equitable society. GET TICKETS: http://theshed.org _______________ FOLLOW Facebook: https://facebook.com/theshedny Instagram: https://instagram.com/theshedny Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheShedNY #OpenCall #KatherinePaoloDeLaCruz #Dance #Theater #WorkCulture #PerformanceArt #TheShed

Meet playwright, educator, and performer Rudi Goblen, presenting his interactive concert-play “FITO” this summer at The Shed as part of “Open Call: Stages.” On the day of his naturalization ceremony, Fito goes on a journey through musical snapshots of his life—moments filled with longing, resilience, and joy that reflect the complexities of identity shaped by migration. “FITO” combines live music, storytelling, dance, and spoken word to explore the immigrant experience of a Nicaraguan man living in the United States. Inviting audiences into a communal experience to foster connection and empathy, this production asks what it means to become an American while holding onto one’s roots. At its heart, “FITO” is a love letter to immigrants who dream relentlessly despite the obstacles they face, as well as a call to recognize theater as a space for everyone. Launched as part of The Shed’s inaugural-year program, Open Call is a large-scale commissioning program for early-career, NYC-based artists. Representing disciplines from music performance, poetry, and puppetry to painting, sculpture, and video, Open Call exemplifies what The Shed does best in championing dynamic, innovative art of all kinds. Open Call artists receive a commissioning fee of up to $15,000 depending on the scope of their projects, robust production support, and resources to further nurture their practices and expand their audiences. Admission is free to all Open Call events. _______________ Subscribe for our latest videos: http://bit.ly/2Q2FYF7 Support the creation of new art at The Shed by becoming a member today: http://theshed.org/support _______________ ABOUT THE SHED The Shed is a cultural institution of and for the 21st century. We produce and welcome innovative art and ideas, across all forms of creativity, to build a shared understanding of our rapidly changing world and a more equitable society. GET TICKETS: http://theshed.org _______________ FOLLOW Facebook: https://facebook.com/theshedny Instagram: https://instagram.com/theshedny Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheShedNY #OpenCall #RudiGoblen #Theater #Music #Immigration #TheShed

Meet director, playwright, and puppeteer Nehprii Amenii, presenting her play “HUMAN” this summer at The Shed as part of “Open Call: Stages.” Nehprii Amenii’s “HUMAN” is a mythic theatrical experience that blends puppetry, music, and movement to explore what it truly means to be human. Rooted in African diasporic storytelling traditions and the musical lineages of blues, jazz, and soul, “HUMAN” explores themes of connection, human rights, ancestral memory, climate, and collective responsibility and asks audiences to question what it really means to be human in a time of deep ethical fracture. Each performance is preceded by a free puppet-making workshop using upcycled materials, culminating in a short, audience-led procession into the theater, where these creations become part of the performance experience. Launched as part of The Shed’s inaugural-year program, Open Call is a large-scale commissioning program for early-career, NYC-based artists. Representing disciplines from music performance, poetry, and puppetry to painting, sculpture, and video, Open Call exemplifies what The Shed does best in championing dynamic, innovative art of all kinds. Open Call artists receive a commissioning fee of up to $15,000 depending on the scope of their projects, robust production support, and resources to further nurture their practices and expand their audiences. Admission is free to all Open Call events. _______________ Subscribe for our latest videos: http://bit.ly/2Q2FYF7 Support the creation of new art at The Shed by becoming a member today: http://theshed.org/support _______________ ABOUT THE SHED The Shed is a cultural institution of and for the 21st century. We produce and welcome innovative art and ideas, across all forms of creativity, to build a shared understanding of our rapidly changing world and a more equitable society. GET TICKETS: http://theshed.org _______________ FOLLOW Facebook: https://facebook.com/theshedny Instagram: https://instagram.com/theshedny Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheShedNY #OpenCall #NehpriiAmenii #Theater #Puppetry #Puppets #ClimateChange #TheShed

Meet writer and directors James Caverly and Andrew Morrill, presenting their play “Thank You Ryan for a Clean Microwave” this summer at The Shed as part of “Open Call: Stages.” Caverly and Morrill’s sharp, funny, and fiercely humane chamber play flips between a Deaf-run coffee shop and a writer’s imagination as two internal narrators battle to shape a story about love, trauma, and who gets to tell whose truth. “Thank You Ryan for a Clean Microwave” embraces a bold, new medium of storytelling, centering Deaf identity and infused with absurd realism. The production delves into the intricate dynamics of identity and communication within the Deaf community and includes signed and spoken languages with projected captions along with microwave choreography. With explosive comic set pieces, raw emotional reckonings, and a simmering scandal around a celebrity Deaf actor, it’s theatrical, urgent, and impossible to stop talking about. Launched as part of The Shed’s inaugural-year program, Open Call is a large-scale commissioning program for early-career, NYC-based artists. Representing disciplines from music performance, poetry, and puppetry to painting, sculpture, and video, Open Call exemplifies what The Shed does best in championing dynamic, innovative art of all kinds. Open Call artists receive a commissioning fee of up to $15,000 depending on the scope of their projects, robust production support, and resources to further nurture their practices and expand their audiences. Admission is free to all Open Call events. _______________ Subscribe for our latest videos: http://bit.ly/2Q2FYF7 Support the creation of new art at The Shed by becoming a member today: http://theshed.org/support _______________ ABOUT THE SHED The Shed is a cultural institution of and for the 21st century. We produce and welcome innovative art and ideas, across all forms of creativity, to build a shared understanding of our rapidly changing world and a more equitable society. GET TICKETS: http://theshed.org _______________ FOLLOW Facebook: https://facebook.com/theshedny Instagram: https://instagram.com/theshedny Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheShedNY #OpenCall #JamesCaverly #AndrewMorrill #Theater #DeafArtists #TheShed

Hear from artist Doug Aitken on the mix of film, music, and narrative that inspired the making of Lightscape, his cinematic installation on view at The Shed June 25 to September 13. Lightscape, a new film-based installation by artist Doug Aitken and produced with the LA Phil and LA Master Chorale, considers our landscape of diversity, creating a vulnerable and humanistic portrait that chronicles the search to find one’s individuality in a world of continuous transformation. In this work, Aitken creates a modern mythology propelled by music, film, and architecture. It follows multiple characters in a Robert Altman–esque structure, taking us on a journey that explores a landscape in the midst of extreme change—from the deep ecology of vast deserts and desolate mountainscapes to futuristic robotics factories and the digital realm. The diverse cast of Lightscape mirrors the landscapes its characters occupy. Natasha Lyonne is seen in a nocturnal high-rise in an existential sequence. Urban crump dancers move through automated factories, their bodies driving and twitching in response to their mechanized surroundings. A migrant worker speeds through the desert at escape velocity. We are thrust into seemingly disparate worlds, with each character on a different journey, but as the narrative progresses, the stories interconnect. Lightscape is a visual poem. Music lies at the core of the film, featuring a unique collaboration with the LA Master Chorale and the LA Phil. It includes original recordings—conducted by Gustavo Dudamel—of iconic minimalist composers and artists such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Meredith Monk and original scores by Beck & LA LOM and Doug Aitken with Grant Gershon. The visual and sonic landscapes shift gears as the characters’ narratives develop, ranging from hardcore techno to haunting compositions. At The Shed, Lightscape evolves into an immersive installation designed as a seven-screen artwork. Implementing an ever-shifting mix of sight and sound, Lightscape functions as a living project. During its run at The Shed, a series of ongoing live musical performances will activate the space, blending the Lightscape installation with live improvisations. Incorporating performance and the musical culture of New York, the artwork itself becomes a hub for collaboration, turning The Shed into a site for active artistic experimentation. Lightscape is an artwork for our times and about our times. Like a fragmented mirror, the film is immersive—we fall into it, and follow the different characters who gradually converge to create a larger worldview: one of connectivity, struggle, hope, and embracing what our new horizon may bring. _______________ Subscribe for our latest videos: http://bit.ly/2Q2FYF7 Support the creation of new art at The Shed by becoming a member today: http://theshed.org/support _______________ ABOUT THE SHED The Shed is a cultural institution of and for the 21st century. We produce and welcome innovative art and ideas, across all forms of creativity, to build a shared understanding of our rapidly changing world and a more equitable society. GET TICKETS: http://theshed.org _______________ FOLLOW Facebook: https://facebook.com/theshedny Instagram: https://instagram.com/theshedny Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheShedNY #DougAitken #Film #Music #Cinema #Art #TheShed

Meet composer and sound artist Avi Amon, presenting his performance “MOTHER/ROAD” this summer at The Shed as part of “Open Call: Stages.” Part concept album, part memoir, part immersive concert, Avi Amon’s MOTHER/ROAD invites audiences to participate in an act of emotional memory. For this production, Amon creates a musical meditation on grief, memory, and family using cassette tapes carried by his parents when they immigrated to the United States from Istanbul in 1979. The piece explores the porous nature of time, how it fades and distorts, and how—like a cassette tape—it can rewind, warp, and overwrite itself. Out of the stuff of memory, music and sound compose new worlds at once fragile and infinite for the generations to inhabit together. Launched as part of The Shed’s inaugural-year program, Open Call is a large-scale commissioning program for early-career, NYC-based artists. Representing disciplines from music performance, poetry, and puppetry to painting, sculpture, and video, Open Call exemplifies what The Shed does best in championing dynamic, innovative art of all kinds. Open Call artists receive a commissioning fee of up to $15,000 depending on the scope of their projects, robust production support, and resources to further nurture their practices and expand their audiences. Admission is free to all Open Call events. _______________ "MOTHER/ROAD" has been developed with support from The Bushwick Starr, MacDowell, Mercury Store, New Jewish Culture Fellowship, New York Theatre Workshop, REBOOT, and THE WORKSHOP. _______________ Subscribe for our latest videos: http://bit.ly/2Q2FYF7 Support the creation of new art at The Shed by becoming a member today: http://theshed.org/support _______________ ABOUT THE SHED The Shed is a cultural institution of and for the 21st century. We produce and welcome innovative art and ideas, across all forms of creativity, to build a shared understanding of our rapidly changing world and a more equitable society. GET TICKETS: http://theshed.org _______________ FOLLOW Facebook: https://facebook.com/theshedny Instagram: https://instagram.com/theshedny Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheShedNY #OpenCall #AviAmon #Theater #Music #SoundArt #Art #TheShed