Ars Nova Announces New Vision Residency Programming
Ars Nova's Spring line up highlights its resident artists with eight nights of programming curated by the current Vision Residency class.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Apr. 05, 2022
Ars Nova has announced additional programming running between April 27 - June 24, 2022. All events will take place in-person at Ars Nova (511 West 54th Street, Manhattan) for $15 and online via Ars Nova Supra for $10. Tickets are now on sale at arsnovanyc.com.
Ars Nova's Spring line up highlights its resident artists with eight nights of programming curated by the current Vision Residency class: River L. Ramirez; LEGACY: a Black Queer Production Collective; and Machel Ross. Designed to foreground Ars Nova's values through the creation of more equitable and power-sharing curatorial practices, the Vision Residency was launched in 2020 with the goal of expanding Ars Nova's artistic vision by inviting artist-curators to program our stages and digital platform with their own work as well as work by artists they champion and admire. Each Resident is given broad support from Ars Nova's full staff in their curation, which will result in events and performances in-person at Ars Nova and online on Ars Nova Supra. You can learn more about the Vision Residency program and the artists involved by visiting arsnovanyc.com/vision-residency.
Starting this April, River L. Ramirez showcases their heightened, experimental comedic style in a trilogy of performances curated and hosted by the artist. Gathering highbrow and lowbrow authorities alike, from musicians to characters, comedians to writers, this three-night series promises to be an unhinged meeting of minds for the ages. The performances, River L. Ramirez's Theories of God & Love, Death & the Afterlife, and Perversion & Depravity, take place on April 28, May 2 and May 10 respectively.
LEGACY: a Black Queer Production Collective adds three more nights of events to the lineup. On April 30, they present BBL: Black Beginning Live, a multidisciplinary variety cocktail sure to heighten your senses, raise your vibrations and leave you anew. On June 23 and 24, they present WOMB! There it is, which combines video, movement, poetry, and an original score to tell a multifaceted story of Black queer existence from womb to tomb and beyond.
Machel Ross brings experimental cabaret to the Vision Residency lineup on May 13 with Sitting in Bullshit written and performed by Hannah Kallenbach & Alexander Paris.
In addition to the programming curated by Ars Nova's Vision Residency class, Makers Lab resident artist Jillian Walker presents Surrender, is the night, an evening of songs and orations on April 27. The event furthers the multi-faceted artist's exploration of interdisciplinary forms of performance.
Please visit arsnovanyc.com/about-us/ for more information.
Details on Additional Ars Nova Programming
Wednesday, April 27 at 7pm
Surrender, is the night
An Evening of Songs & Orations with Jillian Walker
Jillian Walker is a multi-faceted artist and thinker who is shaping culture through interdisciplinary forms of performance. Her genre-pushing work SKiNFoLK: An American Show has appeared in the Starr Reading Series, ANT Fest at Ars Nova and the inaugural SPARK Festival for new small musicals at Pittsburgh CLO. Her play Sarah's Salt. has received developmental support from Roundabout Theater Company and MCC Theater, and was chosen as an Honorable Mention for the 2017 Relentless Award (American Playwriting Foundation). With dramaturgy as the core of her artistic practice, Jillian is a theatermaker as an archaeologist. She investigates the processes and workings of time, ritual, identity and structure to unearth the ways theatrical forms can impact the larger cultural landscape. Through her residency at University Musical Society (University of Michigan), she researched her new play, Tignon, and a lecture/performance work, Songs of Speculation, which premiered at JACK in November 2018. Jillian was recently commissioned to create brand-new work for the critically-acclaimed Soho Rep. and holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University.
Jillian Walker is a Makers Lab Resident Artist at Ars Nova.
Thursday, April 28 at 7pm
River L. Ramirez's Theories of God & Love
Monday, May 2nd at 7pm
River L. Ramirez's Theories of Death & the Afterlife
Tuesday, May 10 at 7pm
River L. Ramirez's Theories of Perversion & Depravity
Curated & Hosted by River L. Ramirez
God, Love, Death, Afterlife, Perversion and Depravity; philosophical subjects that even after 300,000 years of human existence still remain theoretical and controversial- and none better to unpack them then River L. Ramirez through their heightened, experimental comedic style that their mother often calls "disturbing and not for me." Gathering highbrow and lowbrow authorities alike, from musicians to characters, comedians to writers, this series promises to be an unhinged meeting of minds for the ages. Ramirez is a 2022 Vision Resident Artist at Ars Nova.
River L. Ramirez (they/them) is a Brooklyn-based artist, comedian and writer who wrote, produced and directed the comedy special program "Pervert Everything" for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Ramirez has appeared on the HBO comedy series 'Random Acts of Flyness' and in the final season of Comedy Central's 'Broad City'. Most recently they have had a residency at Barishnykov Arts Center where they premiered their latest musical piece "GHOSTFOLK."
Ramirez has written for High Maintenance, The National Lampoon Radio Hour. Ramirez can be seen in a recurring role in the HBO comedy series Los Espookys opposite Fred Armisen and, opposite Glenn Close, in John Cameron Mitchell's musical anthology podcast Anthem and featured as Charly in BIRDGIRL. Named one of Comedy Central's Up Next Comedians for 2018, Ramirez was featured in the San Francisco Cluster Fest comedy festival, and performed at The Public Theater in New York as part of the January, 2019, Under the Radar Festival.
Saturday, April 30 at 7pm
Curated & created by LEGACY: a Black Queer Production Collective (Garrett Allen, Kyle Carrero Lopez, Ashton Muñiz, Basit Shittu)
A multidisciplinary variety cocktail sure to heighten your senses, raise your vibrations and leave you anew. Legacy: a Black Queer Production Collective is a 2022 Vision Resident Artist at Ars Nova.
Thursday, June 23 at 7pm
Friday, June 24 at 7pm
Curated & created by LEGACY, a Black Queer Production Collective (Garrett Allen, Kyle Carrero Lopez, Ashton Muñiz, Basit Shittu)
WOMB! There it is combines video, movement, poetry, and an original score to tell a multifaceted story of Black queer existence from womb to tomb and beyond. Legacy: a Black Queer Production Collective is a 2022 Vision Resident Artist at Ars Nova.
Garrett Allen (they/them) is a Black, queer interdisciplinary artist and director working primarily in performance, video, and installation. Their recent projects include directing Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Yale College), creating body100 with collaborator Nazareth Hassan (Prelude Festival), co-creating BLK MLK (blackmilk) with poet Kyle Carrero Lopez (Spectrum NYC), directing ...When The World Is No Longer: by Dante Green (Ars Nova ANTFEST, Polyphone Festival), and devising/creating We Were All Rooting For You (Flamboyan). Their video and performance art works have been exhibited at The Invisible Dog, School of Visual Arts NYC, Harvard, Knockdown Center, Signal Gallery, The Deep End, and You Are Here. They are currently pursuing their MFA in Directing at Yale School of Drama. Garrett-allen.com
Kyle Carrero Lopez was born to Cuban parents in northern New Jersey. A writer, interdisciplinary artist, and producer, he is the author of MUSCLE MEMORY, the winning chapbook of the 2020 [PANK] Books contest. His work is published and highlighted in The Nation, The Atlantic, Best New Poets 2021, W Magazine, office, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA in Poetry from NYU, where he was a Goldwater Fellow. He is a 2022 Tin House Scholar and is represented by (but not related to) Ashley Lopez of Waxman Literary. Find him at kylecarrerolopez.com.
Ashton Muñiz (They/He) is an actor, performance artist, activist and emerging producer based in New York. Ashton's artistic goal is to instill joy into the world by embracing the realities of the present. Acting credits include The Inheritance on Broadway ('21 Tony Award winner), Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music (Edward Kennedy Prize for Drama), and has been seen Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theatre, St. Anne's Warehouse, and more. Recently, Ashton has collaborated with various artists and been featured in select works at The Guggenheim , Art Institute Chicago, Swiss Institute, New Museum, Lehmann Maupin & Pace Gallery. Additionally, Ashton has danced for Marc Jacobs FW 2020, A$AP Rocky, & Rihanna. Training: Ithaca College, Moscow Arts Theatre School, Shakespeare & Co, Hillman Grad Mentee '21.
Basit Shittu is a non-binary Black Nigerian Brooklyn based Performance Artist, singer/songwriter, musician, and multimedia producer. Basit made their television debut in MTV's first queer dating show Are You The One. Basit earned their BFA in Musical Theater from the University of Oklahoma, and some of their professional theatrical credits include, Sam in PILLOWTALK Off-Broadway, and Tribe in the European Tour of Hair! The Musical. Basit made their television debut in MTV's first queer dating show Are You The One. In the fall of 2020, Basit released their debut single Fluid, a personal ode, love letter, and celebration of the fluidity in gender and sexuality.
Friday, May 13 at 7pm
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Curated by Machel Ross
Written & Performed by Hannah Kallenbach & Alexander Paris
Sitting in the Bullshit is an experimental cabaret. Talking shit with performative self care routines. Self soothing with video games and robo-dogs. Aerobics with a restorative Oprah led meditation. All in an active attempt to navigate us out of this endless loop of discomfort we've found ourselves in. Ross is a 2022 Vision Resident Artist at Ars Nova.
Machel Ross is a Dominican American director and creative collaborator based in NYC, who specializes in the development of new work and aesthetic world building. Regardless of medium, she's invested in generating rigorous images, in support of framing stories to their fullest potential. She's developed work with Aziza Barnes (NANA), Daniella De Jesús (Mambo Sauce), PigPen Theatre Company (Phantom Folktales), Ellen Winter (This House Is your Home), and directed the world premiere of Jeremy O. Harris' Black Exhibition at The Bushwick Starr. She's worked as an associate for Lileana Blain Cruz (Marys Seacole, The House that Will not Stand), Drew McOnie (King Kong), Lila Neugebauer (Mrs. Murray's Menagerie, The Antipodes, The Wolves) and Annie Baker. Machel is a 2020-2022 WP Directing Fellow, a 2020 Sundance Theater Lab fellow, and a 2019 grant recipient of the Women's Fund for Film, TV and Theatre for her short film Signs He Made at Home. BFA-NYU Playwrights Horizons Theater School.
About Ars Nova
Ars Nova exists to discover, develop, and launch singular theater, music and comedy artists in the early stages of their professional careers. Our dynamic slate of programs supports outside-the-box thinking and encourages innovative, genre-bending new work. Dubbed by The New York Times as a "fertile incubator of offbeat theater," Ars Nova blurs genres and subverts the status quo. With our feverish bounty of programming, we are the stomping ground and launching pad for visionary, adventurous artists of all stripes. By providing a protective environment where risk-taking and collaboration are paramount, Ars Nova gives voice to a new generation of diverse artists and audiences, pushing the boundaries of live entertainment by nurturing creative ideas into smart, surprising new work.
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