Soho Rep. Announces 2021-22 Season

Soho Rep. today announced a robust 2021-22 season with which it will reopen its home at 46 Walker Street.

The company welcomes full-capacity in-person audiences back for the first time since late 2019 with the presentation of works-in-progress from the Writer/Director Lab, a signature program of the theater for over two decades. Currently co-chaired by playwrights William Burke and Jackie Sibblies Drury, the Lab has instigated new works by some of the American theater's most original voices, including Drury, David Adjmi, Annie Baker, Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Will Davis, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Raja Feather Kelly, Anne Washburn, among others. The Lab culminating this fall (2019-21) consists of four pairs of generative artists: Keenan Hurley & Kedian Keohan, Nia Farrell & Talia Paulette Oliveras (aka Ta-Nia), Kate Moore Heaney & Divya Mangwani, and Jeesun Choi & Bryn Herdrich. From September 24 to October 17, each in a weekend of showings, they will share work-in-progress presentations of the innovative theater pieces they have developed in the Lab.

Soho Rep.'s first production this season is the world premiere of a work originally developed in the 2017-19 Writer/Director Lab, while you were partying, a bombastic comedy devised by theatre-makers Peter Mills Weiss and Julia Mounsey ([50/50] Old School Animation) with comedian/actor Brian Fiddyment. Performances take place November 3-28, having been postponed, due to COVID-19, from Summer 2020.

The season continues with the New York premiere of Wolf Play (February 2 - March 6, 2022), written by Hansol Jung (Wild Goose Dreams), directed by Dustin Wills (Frontières Sans Frontières), and presented in association with Ma-Yi Theater Company. Jung's highly inventive play, which was to begin previews on March 17, 2020, tells a riveting story of alienation, belonging, and the meaning of family through the lens of queer parenting and adoption.

Concluding Soho Rep.'s three-show season is the world premiere of Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members (May 17 - June 19, 2022), the first major New York production for Omar Vélez Meléndez, produced in partnership with The Sol Project. The show is staged by David Mendizábal, a director and designer who also serves as a Producing Artistic Leader of the Obie Award-winning The Movement Theatre Company and the Associate Artistic Director of The Sol Project.

Mendizábal was one of the eight artists-along with Becca Blackwell, Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Stacey Derosier, Ife Olujobi, David Ryan Smith, Carmelita Tropicana, and Jillian Walker-included in the inaugural cohort (2020-21) of Soho Rep.'s Project Number One. Through the program, created to address a pivotal moment for the American theater during closures due to COVID-19 and record unemployment for the field, the organization gave these theatre-makers staff positions, with full salary of $1,250 per week (on par with its administrative staffers) and benefits, to experiment and collaborate on new work, and to join Soho Rep. in imagining a more sustainable, ethically-sound, equitable theater.

Soho Rep. and NAATCO have awarded another 2021-22 Project Number One artist, Shayok Misha Chowdhury, a co-commission to finish his Public Obscenities-a bilingual play in Bengali and English.

Soho Rep. will sustain Project Number One into the future. It has begun the program's next phase by engaging two new artists as staff members for the 2021-22 season: theater-maker, director, and writer Abigail Jean-Baptiste and scenic designer Kimie Nishikawa. The organization will reveal more about the evolution of Project Number One and its impact on its production fees and salaries soon.

The Directors of Soho Rep. say, "We are beyond excited to welcome artists and audiences back to Soho Rep. this fall! We are heartened to be taking forward the transformative experience of Project Number One into our future work by continuing to include artists on salary and benefits this season. The program has been a beacon for us all and the source of so much institutional change, so we are very excited that the thinking and practices generated during the shutdown in Project Number One will infuse how we function during this time of cultural and civic recovery."

The Directors continued, "We are delighted to be kicking off our public programming with the Writer/Director Lab-recognizing that the strength of all of our work in the theater comes out of ongoing collaborations as a community. It is especially thrilling to be following our Lab presentations with the Lab-generated project while you were partying and Peter Mills Weiss and Julia Mounsey."

Tickets for the Writer/Director Lab presentations are FREE and are available now at sohorep.org and 646-586-8982. Tickets for the 2021-22 productions-while you were partying; Wolf Play; and Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members-will go on sale on September 22.

2019-21 WRITER/DIRECTOR LAB PRESENTATIONS

Keenan Hurley & Kedian Keohan

Blush

September 24 at 7:30pm; September 25 at 3pm and 7:30pm; September 26 at 7:30pm

FREE

At the center of the Black Hole is the Event Horizon. Crawl inside and save me a dance. Internal transformations become external. Let's reckon with one another or become unrecognizable. It's ok if you're a little smelly.

Blush features Kaaron Briscoe (she/her) as Fishbowl Astronaut, Sagan Chen (they/them) as Black Hole, Futaba Shioda (he/him) as NoFi, David Skeist (he/him) as Can Can, and Danny Wolohan (he/him) as Cactus Jack. The creative team includes creator/sound Designer Keenan Hurley (he/him), creator/director Kedian Keohan (they/them), scenic designer Masha Tsimring (she/her), lighting designer Christina Tang (she/her), costume designer Hahnji Jang (they/them), and consultant Barbara Samuels (she/her). Camille Pileggi (they/them) is Stage Manager, and Makenna Remenaric (she/her) is Assistant Stage Manager.

Keenan Hurley is a bisexual from Texas who writes and makes sound for theater. His original work has been shown at the Edinburgh Fringe and Judson Church. He has sound-designed for artists including Sibyl Kempson, Erin Markey, Dawn Akemi Saito, and Caborca, in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to The Kitchen and The Bushwick Starr, as well as in Cuba.

Kedian Keohan is a trans director, creator, and plaything of live performance. They have collaborated with artists Jordan Fein, Erin Markey, Ann Marie Dorr & Paul Ketchum, minor theater, Geoff Sobelle, ayo ohs, Andrew Schneider, Dance Heginbotham, and Alice Gosti. Their new work Panic Encyclopedia, developed in residency at JACK, will premiere at Exponential Festival in 2022. Keohan performs the role of the Drum Major in minor theater's Marie It's Time (HERE Arts Center). As part of the New Georges Jam, Keohan is in collaboration on new works with artists Deepali Gupta and Cristina Angeles. Recent directing work includes A Bone to Pick (Brunch Theatre), Venus in Gemini (Exponential Festival), *Chefs Kiss* (FEAST/Your Uncle Richard), and Fantasy (No Theme Festival). Recent assisting work includes minor theater's Pathetic (Abrons Art Center) and Andrew Butler's Rags Parkland Sings Songs of the Future (Ars Nova). Their dearly departed theater company Church of the Millennials presented work at Ars Nova Makers Lab, BAX Upstart Festival, and IRT. Keohan is a proud alumnus of Dan Fishback's NEEDING IT class at BAX, and is a New Georges affiliated artist.

Ta-Nia (Talia Paulette Oliveras & Nia Farrell)

A Map to Nowhere (things are)

October 1 at 7:30pm; October 2 at 3pm and 7:30pm; October 3 at 7:30pm

FREE

A Map to Nowhere (things are) is a reminder that this is Real Life-and that means there is real hope for tomorrow. It is a chakra-based ritual and abolitionist practice in closing the gap between dreams and reality.

Oliveras and Farrell say of the work, "Coming out of the last year and a half (yikes), reimagining new modes of existence and community relationship to the Earth, though not new, has become urgent. A Map to Nowhere (things are) is all about exercising those reimagination muscles in order to close the gap between dreams and reality."

The cast of Map to Nowhere (things are) includes Gabby Beans (she/her), Mariyea (any and all), Ashton Muniz (they/them/he/him), Cherene Snow (she/her), Sierra D. Everett (she/her) and Princess Sasha Victome (she/her) as The Hive; Basit Shittu (they/them) as Mzzz Erykah; Marquise Vilson (he/him) as Astronomer; and more. The creative team includes writers Talia Paulette Oliveras (she/her) and Nia Farrell (she/her), composer Nazareth Hassan (he/they), choreographer nicHi douglas (she/he/they/we), lighting designer Tuçe Yasak (she/her), and more. Eliza Anastasio (she/her) is Stage Manager.

Talia Paulette Oliveras and Nia Farrell are Ta-Nia, a theatre-making duo committed to challenging the limits of theatre to create unapologetically BLK spaces of liberation. Paired by the ancestors, they met through the MLK Scholars program at NYU, where they studied experimental and collaborative theatre-making in Tisch Drama. They apply their multi-hyphenate and interdisciplinary nature to the art they create. Their work has been presented through Ars Nova's ANT Fest 2019 and Theatertreffen's Stückemarkt 2020/21 (Dreams in BLK Major). As the recipients of the Stückemarkt Commission of Work, they are currently developing a new piece for Schauspiel Dortmund's 2022-23 season. For more information about Ta-Nia, please visit ta-nia.com.

Kate Moore Heaney & Divya Mangwani

Speak American

October 8 at 7:30pm; October 9 at 3pm and 7:30pm; October 10 at 7:30pm

FREE

Speak American is an insider/outsider's perspective on the disorienting construct that is the American language-hyperlinking to the future (insert emoticon here).

Heaney and Mangwani say of Speak American, "This is an especially important time to ask what it means to 'belong,' as well as what's gained and lost as our relationships to language shift. What does a common language in America look like, and what is the language of "democracy" in America? We are also exploring the dissonance of language amplified by technology and social media. How does technology affect American inclusivity?

Speak American features Hend Ayoub (she/her) as Mom, Imran Sheikh (he/him) as Brother/Adam, Aneesh Sheth (she/her) as Pat/Layla, and more. The creative team includes writer Divya Mangwani (she/her), director Kate Moore Heaney (she/her), lighting designer Steven Zhang (he/him), costume designer Karen Boyer (she/her), and sound designer Mauricio Escamilla (he/him). Camille Pileggi (they/them) is Stage Manager, and Makenna Remenaric (she/her) is Assistant Stage Manager.

Kate Moore Heaney is a theatre director, producer, and dramaturg of Lebanese and Irish descent. She is Artistic Producer of Noor Theatre, a member of the literary staff at Long Wharf Theatre, and a founding steering committee member for the Middle Eastern and North African Theater Makers Alliance (MENATMA). She has directed and/or developed new work with The Civilians' R&D Group, New York Theatre Workshop, The Amoralists, The Flea, The Shakespeare Society, The 24 Hour Plays: Nationals, and other NYC companies. She has assistant- or associate-directed with Ibex Theatricals/The New Vic, McCarter Theatre, Clubbed Thumb, Yale Institute for Music Theatre, and The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway. B.A.: Yale. katemooreheaney.com

Divya Mangwani is a writer and theatre artist from Pune, India, now based in New York. She creates work that questions our perception of the political, social, and mythical. Mangwani was the founder and Artistic Director of Moonbeam Factory Theatre in Pune, where she wrote, directed, produced, and devised plays that were staged in India, Singapore, and the UK. In New York, she has developed plays with UNICEF, Soho Rep., New York Theatre Workshop, Gingold Theatrical Group, The Flea, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Mabou Mines, Hypokrit Theatre, Project Y, Theatre East, Pipeline Theatre, Rising Sun Performance Company, and Governors Island. She was a NYTW 2050 Artistic Fellow, a Hypokrit Theatre Tamasha fellow, a Playlab fellow at Pipeline Theatre, and a Speakers Corner fellow at Gingold Theatrical Group. Before theatre, Mangwani worked as an international journalist and editor. divyamangwani.com

Jeesun Choi & Bryn Herdrich

Bust

October 15 at 7:30pm; October 16 at 3pm and 7:30pm; October 17 at 7:30pm

FREE

In Bust, Sein fights for the leadership of her Model United Nations team. An economist gives one last lecture. Fish Grandma goes to the bank. Meanwhile, the global market teeters on the brink of collapse. This new work explores the money in our wallets, the illusions it buys, and the future it promises.

Choi says of Bust, "In the last year, our lives have been a series of crises -and in those moments, it's sometimes been hard to see straight. I think moments of failure, moments of crises, uprisings, and societal undertow reveal sides of us that we don't usually see. Bust brings up a crisis that happened more than a decade ago, something that we have started to forget, and uses it as an opportunity to reflect where we are now, in a way that is full of life, follies, and care."

Bust features Mia Katigbak (she/her) as Economist/Fish Grandma, Anna Mikami (she/her) as Sein, and more. The creative team includes writer Jeesun Choi (she/her), director Bryn Herdrich (she/her), lighting designer Abby Hoke-Brady (she/her), costume designer Dan Wang (he/him, and composer Catherine Brookman (she/her). Eliza Anastasio (she/her) is Stage Manager.

Jeesun Choi is a transnational Korean playwright and physical theatre artist. Her plays move through diaspora, (im)migration, and transnationalism to reveal the joy and agony of the human condition. Choi's plays include Lost Coast (2021 Nashville Rep's Ingram New Works Festival, reading at New York Theatre Workshop); Manuka (Upcoming: EST Youngblood Monday Lunch); The Seekers (2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival Winner, 2019 O'Neill NPC Semifinalist, 2018-19 Bushwick Starr Reading Series, Fresh Ground Pepper Artist Retreat); Dahlia (Dell'Arte International); and Cecilies (Red Eye Theater, Minnesota Fringe Festival). Choi has been named an Artist of Exceptional Merit by Asian American Arts Alliance, and is currently the Ingram Lab Playwright at Nashville Rep, a member of EST/Youngblood, and a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop. She was a fellow at National Institute for Directing & Ensemble Creation at Pangea World Theater and a Works-in-Progress Artist at Red Eye Theater. MFA Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre, Dell'Arte International. jeesunchoi.com

Bryn Herdrich creates storytelling events and directs new theatrical work. Her recent credits include Is It Supposed to Last (PlayCo), Penny Thoughts (Prelude Festival), My Life Has Been Extraordinary (Joe's Pub), and Variations on the Main (JACK). She has been the Associate Director of The Sound Inside, by Adam Rapp, at Studio 54. In addition to being a member of Soho Rep.'s Writer/Director Lab, Herdrich has been a MTC Directing Fellow 2018-2020, a member of the WTF Directors Corps, and part of the SDC Observership Class of 2018-2019. She serves on the Artistic Advisory Council of JETco. Film: Leg Room

Soho Rep. 2021-22 PRODUCTIONS

Soho Rep. Presents

while you were partying

World Premiere

By Peter Mills Weiss and Julia Mounsey with Brian Fiddyment

November 3-28

Tickets: $35 general admission tickets; $65 premium tickets

99-Cent Sundays: November 14 and 21

Live at 46 Walker Street and streaming on Twitch @lesslesslessless

When you were partying I studied The Blade

When you were having premarital sex

I mastered THE BLOCKCHAIN

While you wasted your days at the gym in pursuit of vanity

I cultivated Inner Strength

And now that the world is on fire and the barbarians are at the gate you have the audacity to come to me for help?

This is a comedy show.

Mounsey and Weiss create work with their collaborators, who are asked to play versions of themselves that blur the themes of the piece with their own personal stories. They begin with improvisation, write in rehearsals, and work closely with designers across the entirety of their process. Mounsey and Weiss devised while you were partying in Soho Rep.'s 2017-2019 Writer/Director Lab with Brian Fiddyment, a comedian whose work, they explain, "touches on toxic masculinity, suburban despair, and the disorienting world of new media."

Peter Mills Weiss (he/him) and Julia Mounsey (she/her) collaborate on works for the stage. Their work has been presented at Under the Radar at The Public Theater, La MaMa, JACK, Ant Fest at Ars Nova, CATCH Performance Series, and Little Theater at Dixon Place. Peter has performed for or collaborated with artists such as 600 Highwaymen, The Wooster Group, Richard Foreman, and the Wallace Shawn-André Gregory Project. Julia has worked with New York City Players, Soho Rep., The National Theater of Hungary, and was an Assistant Director on Young Jean Lee's Straight White Men. They are both members of the 2017-2018 Devised Theater Working Group at The Public Theater. Of their recent work [50/50] Old School Animation, The New Yorker wrote, "If it's invigoration you crave, if you want your distracted mind to snap to attention, if you want to freak out a little, keep your eyes peeled for a remount of [50/50] Old School Animation."

Brian Fiddyment (he/him) is a comedian, actor, and writer from Virginia. He performs comedy regularly around New York City and is also known for his short experimental videos. His work can be found at brianfiddyment.biz

Soho Rep. Presents

Wolf Play

New York Premiere

By Hansol Jung

Directed by Dustin Wills

in association with Ma-Yi Theater Company

February 2 - March 6, 2022

Tickets: $35 general admission tickets; $65 premium tickets

99-Cent Sundays: February 20, 27, and March 6

"What if I said I am not what you think you see."

"The gray wolf is a social animal, travelling in nuclear families consisting of a mated pair, accompanied by offspring. Wolf packs rarely adopt other wolves into their fold, and typically kill them. In the rare cases where wolves are adopted, the adoptee is invariably an immature animal unlikely to compete for breeding rights with the mated pair."-Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (2019). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf

Wolf Play is a mischievous and affecting new play about the families we choose and unchoose. It was inspired by a series of articles Jung read in Reuters in 2013 and 2014 about Americans using "Yahoo message boards, Facebook groups and other online sites to 're-home' unwanted children"-most commonly international adoptees. This was also a time when the effort to legalize same-sex marriage in the U.S. was at a peak. Jung has said, "I've always been interested in stories of departure and landing and the liminal spaces in between and was considering what roots a person to a place. And how do people make family when the idea of it is no longer bound by a traditional sense of biological family? In the queer community, people talk a lot about 'chosen family'-in terms of how you create your own community and who you decide your family is. I was trying to answer those questions for myself through those characters, and in using the different framework of the wolf and the puppet, I could make something more kaleidoscopic out of the actual issue."

The resulting work, Wolf Play, considers questions about what family truly means-how to attain it, and who is allowed to have it.

Hansol Jung (she/her) is a playwright from South Korea. Productions of her work include Wild Goose Dreams (The Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse), Cardboard Piano (Humana Festival at ATL), Among the Dead (Ma-Yi Theatre), and No More Sad Things (Sideshow, Boise Contemporary). Commissions from The Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Seattle Repertory Theatre, National Theatre in UK, Playwrights Horizons, Artists Repertory Theatre, Ma-Yi Theatre and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Her work has been developed at Royal Court, New York Theatre Workshop, Hedgebrook, Berkeley Repertory, Sundance Theatre Lab, O'Neill Theater Center, and the Lark. Hansol is the recipient of the Hodder Fellowship, Whiting Award, Helen Merrill Award, Page 73 Fellowship, Lark's Rita Goldberg Fellowship, NYTW's 2050 Fellowship, MacDowell Artist Residency, and International Playwrights Residency at Royal Court. She is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, NYTW's Usual Suspects, and The New Class of Kilroys. MFA: Yale.

Dustin Wills (he/him) is a New York-based theatre and opera director. Recent theatre credits include Mikhail Bulgakov's Black Snow (Juilliard), Phillip Howze's Frontières Sans Frontières (Bushwick Starr-Top Ten Theatrical Productions of 2017 by New York Magazine), Will Arbery's Evanston Salt Costs Climbing (New Neighborhood), Basil Kreimendahl's Orange Julius (Rattlestick and Page 73), Casey Llewellyn's O, Earth (Foundry Theatre), and a Baryshnikov Arts Center Residency for AWFUL EVENT!, a new musical with Kate Tarker and Dan Schlosberg. Recent opera: Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and Stravinsky's Le Rossignol (Yale Opera), Francesco Cavalli's L'Egisto and Xerse (Yale Baroque Opera), and ongoing work on an operatic adaptation of Federico García Lorca's surrealist play Once Five Years Pass (Williamstown Theatre Festival). He has devised new work with Teatro L'Arciliuto in Rome, Italy; created large-scale community puppetry pageants with Creative Action; is a two-time Princess Grace Award recipient and a Drama League and Boris Sagal directing fellow; and for a couple of years gave rogue tours of the Vatican. MFA: Yale School of Drama.

Ma-Yi is the acclaimed company behind Suicide Forest (w/ Bushwick Starr), Felix Starro, Among The Dead, Teenage Dick, Jason Kim and Woodshed Collective's KPOP at Ars Nova, The Chinese Lady, Sesar, Livin' La Vida Imelda, House Rules, Washer/Dryer, Peer Gynt and the Norwegian Hapa Band, Chairs and a Long Table, Soldier X, and The Wong Kids...! Through programs like the Writers Lab, Ma-Yi emboldens a new generation of Asian American artists to develop a steady stream of new work. New works developed at the Writers' Lab have gone on to successful productions around the country at Victory Gardens, Laguna Playhouse, Long Wharf Theater, Woolly Mammoth, and the Actors Theater of Louisville, to name a few. Ma-Yi was recently honored with the 2018 Ross Wetzsteon Obie Award and Ma-Yi productions have earned 10 Obie Awards, several Lucille Lortel Awards, numerous Henry Hewes Award nominations, a Drama Desk Award and nomination for Best Play and the Special Drama Desk Award for "more than two decades of excellence and for nurturing Asian American voices in stylistically varied and engaging theater." Ma-Yi is under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Ralph B. Peña. Ma-YiTheatre.org

Soho Rep. Presents

Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members

World Premiere

By Omar Vélez Meléndez

Directed by David Mendizábal

In partnership with The Sol Project

May 17 - June 19, 2022

Tickets: $35 general admission tickets; $65 premium tickets

99-Cent Sundays: May 29, June 5 and 12

We.

Did not.

Participate.

In. This. Decision.

Lolita finds herself in the Wall Street office of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board. Like a Boricua Lolita before her, she is here in the name la Revolución! She's got glamour, glitter, and a gun, but is she really ready?

Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members is a drag show about decolonizing places and people.

Omar Vélez Meléndez (they/them) is a playwright born and raised in Puerto Rico. Their playwriting debut took place at the 2016 UPR Student Theatre Festival with The Natives Fight for Their Cave: Part 2. They are a member of Ars Nova's Playgroup and have also developed work at The Lark, Teatro SEA, Pregones/PRTT, The Latinx Playwrights Circle, and Fresh Ground Pepper. Other Plays include We Built Our Homes Near Kingdoms of Animals and Magic (The Lark's Playwright's Week, 2019 Rita & Burton Goldberg Playwriting Prize) and Lajasarriba. Playwriting MFA: Hunter College.

David Mendizábal (he/him) is a director/designer whose credits include Don't Eat the Mangos (Magic Theatre/Sundance/Sol), On The Grounds of Belonging (Long Wharf), the bandaged place (NYSAF), Then They Forgot About The Rest (INTAR), The Maturation of an Inconvenient Negro (Cherry Lane Mentor Project), And She Would Stand Like This (with choreography by Kia LaBeija), Look Upon Our Lowliness and Bintou (The Movement), and Tell Hector I Miss Him (Atlantic / Drama League Nomination). He is a member of the Latinx Theatre Commons and an alumnus of The Drama League Directors Project, LAByrinth Intensive Ensemble, NALAC, artEquity, and Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Mendizábal was a participant in the TCG Leadership U: One-on-One program from 2017-18, where he was the Artistic Associate at Atlantic Theater Company. BFA: NYU/Tisch @ PHTS | davidmendizabal.com | IG: @its_daveed

The Sol Project is a national theater initiative dedicated to producing the work of Latinx playwrights in New York City and beyond. Founded by Artistic Director Jacob G. Padrón and driven by an artistic collective, The Sol Project works in partnership with leading theaters around the country to amplify Latinx voices and build artistic homes for artists of color. Through the writers we champion, The Sol Project aspires to create a bold, powerful, and kaleidoscopic body of work for the new American theater. The Sol Project launched with the world premiere of Alligator by Hilary Bettis in collaboration with New Georges, followed by the New York premieres of Seven Spots on the Sun by Martín Zimmerman (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater) and Oedipus El Rey by Luis Alfaro (The Public Theater). In the fall of 2018, The Sol Project partnered with Yale Repertory Theatre to produce the world premiere of El Huracán by Charise Castro Smith and in early 2020 partnered with Baltimore Center Stage and The Playwrights Realm to produce the world premiere of Richard & Jane & Dick & Sally by Noah Diaz. The artistic collective includes: Adriana Gaviria, Rebecca Martinez, David Mendizábal, Julian Ramirez, and Laurie Woolery. Joey Reyes is the Associate Producer. Isabel Pask is the Producing Assistant. Brian Herrera is the Resident Scholar. Stephanie Ybarra is the Resident Dramaturg. Our partners include: Soho Rep, Atlantic Theater Company, Baltimore Center Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Cara Mía Theatre Company, LAByrinth Theater Company, Magic Theatre, MCC Theater, New Georges, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Playwrights Realm, The Public Theater, WP Theater and Yale Repertory Theatre. www.solproject.org

2021-22 PROJECT NUMBER ONE ARTISTS

Abigail Jean-Baptiste (she/her/any) is a theater maker, director, and writer who grew up in New York and London and has roots in the American South and Haiti. Her work intersects with critical race theory, disrupts conditioned rules of behavior, and reimagines understandings of the past. Jean-Baptiste is particularly interested in activating the ways live performance and theater are as essential to our humanity as eating food. In 2020, Playbill named her one of the "Powerhouse Women Directors Theatre Fans and Industry Pros Alike Need to Know." Most recently, she directed The Story of a Circle, by David Ryan Smith, as part of for Soho Rep.'s Project Number One. She is currently developing projects that sift through history to unearth stories and humans who remain obscured. Jean-Baptiste is part of the Roundabout Director's Group, the Bushwick Starr Reading Series, the Classic Stage Company Associate Board, and The New Georges Jam. She is a proud Lilly Award Winner and New Georges Affiliated Artist. B.A.: Princeton University. abigailjeanbaptiste.org

Kimie Nishikawa (she/her) is a Japanese scenic designer based in NYC. Notable credits include Ain't No Mo' (The Public Theater), The Headlands (LCT3), Gnit (TFANA), Dr Ride's American Beach House (Ars Nova), and The Light (MCC). Upcoming productions she is working on in New York City include Morning Sun (Manhattan Theater Club), While You Were Partying (Soho Rep.), and Tambo and Bones (Playwrights Horizons). Along with Cha See and Rodrigo Muñoz, Kimie is one of the co-founders of See Lighting Foundation, a grassroots fundraiser committed to supporting immigrant theater artists during the global pandemic. Since October of 2020, Kimie has worked with Andrew Moerdyk and Santiago Orjuela-Laverde as a design collective called dots. They approach every project with diversity of thought and burning curiosity, and, above all, they believe in the value of the whole being greater than the sum of its individual parts. Designbydots.com

Soho Rep.'S COMMITMENT TO HEALTH AND SAFETY

In compliance with NYC guidelines, all audience members will be required to show proof of vaccination via the Excelsior Pass, the NYC Covid Safe Pass, or a copy or photo of their CDC vaccination card. Additionally, Soho Rep. will require that masks be worn by every audience member at all times while inside the theater. Masks will be available at the theater in case an audience member has forgotten theirs at home. For more information on Soho Rep's COVID-19 related healthy and safety protocols, visit sohorep.org.