Village Theatre Announces Inaugural Resident Creators For New BIPOC Residency Program

Village Theatre announces its full cohort of creators for its new Northwest Creator Residency program, supporting Seattle-area Black, Indigenous, and POC artistic creators to begin work on any element of a new musical in digital residence between February-July 2021.

Initially, five residencies were available through open submission. Due to the overwhelming amount of submissions, Village has secured additional funding and will now support eight residencies through the open submission process. They include theatre artist Nicholas Japaul Bernard, evolving artist/activist Aaron M. Davis-Norman, musician/performer/collaborator/writer/creator Kevin A. Haylock, dance artist Lisa Kwak, dance artist/creative professional David Rue, writer/performer Be Russell, artist seranine, and evolving artist Porscha Shaw. They join the three previously announced invited residents actor-writer-filmmaker Lauren Du Pree, multimedia journalist and dance artist Imana Gunawan, and designer Lex Marcos.

Each creator will receive a $1,000 residency to begin work on any new element of musical theatre to be developed in digital residence during the 2020-2021 season plus additional support as needed to continue development.

The new program is designed to foster artists' humanity rather than focusing on one particular project. Creators were chosen based on their artistic vision, residency goals, and work samples. Artists were encouraged to bring their unique voice and point of view to their project and to create what is most present in their artistic spirit at this moment.

"It's so important to have a residency like this to give a platform to BIPOC people who may have felt overlooked and may not have known that a program like this was possible for them," says residency co-producer Alex Crozier. "My hope is that there are more programs like this one in the future not just at Village but all throughout Washington so that fresh artistic talent is fostered and in doing so I think we will have a healthy and flourishing arts community in the PNW."

The Northwest Creator Residency program is produced by co-producer Alex Crozier and Village Associate Artistic Director Brandon Ivie. Submissions were reviewed by Village Artistic Director Jerry Dixon, and a paid evaluation panel made up of Randy Ford (Creator|Advocate), Kathy Hsieh (Theatre Artist & Activist), Nikki Long (dancer/choreographer), and Sara Porkalob (storyteller activist).

More information can be found at https://villagetheatre.org/new-works/northwest-creator-residency-program/.