R&D Groups
Past 2015-2016
The Civilians’ R&D Group meets biweekly for nine months, during which time each artist or team of artists develops a new piece of theater through a creative investigation of a topic chosen by each artist. The creative process may include interviewing, community engagement, research, or other experimental methods of inquiry. Led by R&D Program Director Megan McClain, the group shares and discusses their methodologies and the resulting work. The process will culminate in the FINDINGS Series, when the groups present their works-in-progress to the public.
PAUL SWAN IS DEAD AND GONE
Paul Swan is Dead & Gone (with Dan Safer). Do you have to be good to be an artist? What makes "bad" art interesting? How can you make a "good" piece about a "bad" artist? My great-great-uncle Paul Swan(1883 - 1972) was many things - a dancer, an actor, a sculptor, a poet, a painter. But what he really wanted was to be famous, he wanted to be acknowledged as one of the great artists of the 20th century. In a way he got his wish - people like Duchamp and Warhol crowded his Lincoln Center studio and made films about him. Not because he was a genius though, because he was making work so outside the spectrum of what anyone considered good - it passed into the boundaries of what we call "camp."
Claire Kiechel
Claire Kiechel (Writer) Claire Kiechel's plays include: PILGRIMS (developed at the Millay Colony; Pipeline Theatre Company reading; Lark Roundtable Reading; finalist for the 2016 O'Neill Theatre Conference and the Leah Ryan Fund for Emerging Women Writers); LULU IS HUNGRY (Cincinnati Playhouse workshop; Fresh Ground Pepper workshop presentation); SOME DARK PLACES OF The EARTH (semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Award and the O'Neill Theatre Conference); PASSENGER (finalist for Heideman Award at Actors' Theatre of Louisville; Crashbox production); WOLF PLAY (winner of the 2012 Samuel French OOB Festival, published by Samuel French). She is a current member of Ensemble Studio Theatre's Obie award winning group Youngblood and The Civilians 2015-16 R&D Group. She was a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the 2015 Sewanee Writers' Conference and is a 2016 recipient of South Coast Rep's Elizabeth George Emerging Writers Commission. BA: Amherst College. MFA: New School for Drama. www.clairekiechel.com
Writer
Dan Safer
Dan Safer (Director) is Artistic Director of Witness Relocation, an NYC-based dance/theater company, with whom he has made 20+ shows, including world premieres by Chuck Mee, the english language premiere of Toshiki Okada's FIVE DAYS IN MARCH (La Mama, Summer Stage), and many original dance/theater pieces, in NYC and internationally at venues like Theatre de Chaillot, Paris, the National Theater in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and Patravadi Theater, Bangkok, amongst others. He recently choreographed and co-directed UBU SINGS UBU (Abrons, Slipper Room, upcoming at A.R.T., BB King's) with Tony Torn and Julie Atlas Muz. His work as a choreographer has been at BAM, DTW, Danspace, Ash Lawn Opera, and many other places. In 2011, he choreographed Stravinsky's RITE OF SPRING for Philadelphia Orchestra with Obie-winners Ridge Theater. He was a 2007 recipient of the Six Points Fellowship (Performance) and has won two NY Innovative Theater Awards. Artforum Magazine called him "pure expressionistic danger" and Time Out NY called him "a purveyor of lo-fi mayhem." He is Head of Movement Training at NYU/ Playwrights Horizons Theater School and a frequent teacher at The Norwegian Theater Academy. He used to be a go-go dancer and once choreographed the Queen of Thailand's Birthday Party.
Director
REB + VoDKA + ME
REB + VoDKA + ME (with Julia Meinwald and Gordon Leary). September 11, 2014 would have been Columbine High School shooter Dylan Klebold's 33rd birthday and the Tumblr community of his fans, known as Columbiners, spent the day thinking of him. The mourning was interrupted when Chardon High School shooter T.J. Lane escaped from prison that evening, throwing the true crime community into a frenzy. REB + VoDKa + ME follows a girl through the events of that day, her own eighteenth birthday, exploring the quest for community and understanding of the misunderstood.
Benjamin Kamine
Benjamin Kamine (Director) is a Manhattan-based stage director. Recent credits include the world premiere of CARLYLE by Thomas Bradshaw (Goodman Theatre); New York premiere of WASHER/DRYER by Nandita Shenoy (Ma-Yi Theater Company); Thomas Bradshaw's JOB and Christopher Oscar Peña's A CAUTIONARY TAIL (The Flea Theater); PIED! by Julia Meinwald and Gordon Leary (Polyphone Festival, University of the Arts); and SAMSARA by Lauren Yee (Chance Theater). Mr. Kamine is an associate artist at The Flea Theater and a resident director at the Jewish Plays Project. He was also a member of the 2014/2015 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and a 2014/2015 LABA Fellow.
Director
Gordon Leary
Gordon Leary (Writer) is a Brooklyn-based bookwriter and lyricist. With Julia Meinwald, musicals include PREGNANCY PACT (2012 Weston Playhouse, 2011 NAMT, 2011 YIMT), I LOVE YOU, ANITA BRYANT (2015 UArts Polyphone Festival, 2014 Ars Nova OutLoud), and DISAPPEARED (2009 LCT Directors Lab.) Other musicals include CHEER WARS (2009 Richard Rodgers Award, 2015 York Theatre Co.) and ACROSS THE RIVER (2013 Seoul Musical Festival, 2009 Daegu International Musical Festival.) Gordon was a member of Ars Nova's Uncharted and the Dramatists Guild Fellows program. Vassar College/NYU GMTWP. OMFGORDON.COM
Writer
Julia Meinwald
Julia Meinwald (Composer) writes music for musicals, film, and the occasional computer game. Julia's musicals with Gordon Leary include PREGNANCY PACT (2012 premiere production at the Weston Playhouse, 2011 NAMT conference and Yale Institute for Musical Theatre selection), I LOVE YOU, ANITA BRYANT (2015 workshop production at Philadelphia's UARTS, 2014 OutLoud reading with Ars Nova), GALAXY COMICS (2014 United Airlines in-flight programming), and DISAPPEARED (2009 Lincoln Center Directors Lab). Julia was a participant in the New Dramatists Composer Librettist Development Program, a Dramatists Guild fellow, a resident artist with American Lyric Theatre, and an Uncharted writer at Ars Nova. She holds a BA in Music from Yale and an MFA from NYU's GMTWP.WWW.JULIAMEINWALD.COM
Composer
what are you now
what you are now (with Sam Chanse). A woman navigates her family's history, and how the past is relentlessly, ruthlessly engaged in the present.
Colette Robert
Colette Robert (Director) is a Los Angeles native currently living and working in New York. She likes new plays, old plays, and diversity on stage. Recent credits include SOMETHING LIKE LONELINESS (EST), WHEN LAST WE FLEW(Diversionary Theatre and FringeNYC, GLAAD Media Award), and STOCKTON (EST). Colette is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, New Georges Jam, and Lincoln Center Director's Lab. She is a 2015-2016 Audrey Resident at New Georges, a 2016 Mabou Mines Resident Artist, and was the Public Theater's 2009 Van Lier Directing Fellow. She has developed new work with Atlantic Theatre Company, The Old Vic, Ma-Yi, Naked Angels, Vineyard Arts Project, and the Sundance Theatre Lab. Upcoming: THE MOUNTAINTOP (Chester Theatre Company). WWW.COLETTEROBERT.COM
Director
Sam Chanse
Sam Chanse (Writer) is based in New York. work includes FRUITING BODIES, GILGAMESH & THE MOSQUITO, THE OTHER INSTINCT, ASIAN AMERICAN JESUS, and LYDIA'S FUNERAL VIDEO. She is a Sundance/Ucross Playwright Fellow, MacDowell Fellow, and Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, and a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, Ars Nova's Play Group, the Lark's Playground, and the Civilians R&D group. She has been awarded residencies at Ucross, MacDowell, the Lark, Tofte Lake Center, and Djerassi; commissions include Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan, Ma-Yi/the Flea, Second Generation, Leviathan Lab, and the SF Arts Commission. She received her MFA in playwriting from Columbia University, and in musical theater writing from NYU. WWW.SAMCHANSE.COM
Writer
Gold Person
Gold Person (with Suzanne Agins). Bobby used to be the biggest star on the biggest competitive reality show on television. Now he's doing Valtrex commercials and fighting not to be forgotten. What happens when everyone stops watching? What do you do...after reality? A play about the American Nightmare.
Dominic Finocchiaro
Dominic Finocchiaro (Writer) is a Brooklyn-based playwright, performer, and freelance dramaturg. His writing has been produced and developed around the country, including with Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Civilians, the Lark Play Development Center, the National New Play Network, PlayPenn, Portland Center Stage, the Flea Theater, the Kennedy Center, the UCross Foundation, the Amoralists, and at the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival. Dominic is a native of San Francisco, a graduate of Reed College, and is in the process of completing the MFA Playwriting program at Columbia University.
Writer
Suzanne Agins
Suzanne Agins (Director) is a freelance director who specializes in new work. Off Broadway: world premieres of Radiance by Cusi Cram (Labyrinth Theater Company) and Jailbait by Deirdre O'Connor (Cherry Lane). She has developed and directed work by Hilary Bettis, Gordon Cox, Matt Hoverman, Ken Weitzman, Lucy Thurber, Sheila Callaghan and others at theaters such as Williamstown, The O'Neill, The Lark, Dorset, Naked Angels, Primary Stages, Rattlestick and more. Ms. Agins served as Artistic Associate for New Plays at Williamstown from 2005-2007. She holds an MFA in Directing from UC San Diego, is the recipient of a Princess Grace Fellowship, and is a faculty member at Princeton University (her alma mater). WWW.SUZANNEAGINS.COM
Director
Power State
Power State (with Jay Stull and Jordan Mahome). What does it mean to live without a state? From interviews with people across the country involved in grass-roots protest movements, we present an interrogation of the modern, militarized nation state, flush with resources and weapons but drunk with power. Is it possible to imagine a world that sidesteps the monopoly of the state? Or is such an act of imagination just another kind of privilege?
EllaRose Chary
EllaRose Chary (Writer) is an award-winning New York based writer. She is currently working on COTTON CANDY AND COCAINE (Ars Nova Uncharted) and PATRIETTES (The Tank's TV Writing Program). Her other projects include the Malaysian musical MARRYING ME (BOH Cameronian Arts Award Winner), SIDNEY D. CROSIER: AN UNFINISHED PORTRAIT (Hayswood Theater), THE DAGUERREOTYPE (Prospect Theater), LEFT TO OUR OWN DEVICES (Ronald M. Ruble New Play Finalist), ENDLESS SUMMER (NYFA Estuary), and a commission about Indiana's Bicentennial. She has contributed material to a variety of feminist and politically engaged projects, including BE THE DEATH OF ME and OCCUPY YOUR MIND (The Civilians), WE ARE THEATRE! (Cherry Lane Theatre), BY THE NUMBERS (Prospect Theater) and THE BIRDS AND THE BEES: UNABRIDGED (Honest Accomplice Theater). She is a founding member of Bastard Playground, in residence at the Drama League. Additionally, EllaRose is a 2015-16 Dramatists Guild Fellow, NYFA Fellowship Playwriting/Screenwriting Finalist, a winner of the Weston Award for musical theater, and a proud member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild. BA: Brown University; MFA: NYU Tisch. WWW.ELLAROSECHARY.COM
Writer
Jay Stull
Jay Stull (Writer/Director) is a director and writer of theater. Recent New York directing credits include AS FAR AS THE DAY GOES by Jenny Schwartz (Clubbed Thumb, Workshop Production), OMEGA KIDS by Noah Mease (Dixon Place), UTILITY and TAKE ME BACK by Emily Schwend (Walkerspace), LEAVE ME GREEN by Lisi DeHaas (Gym at Judson), and ENTER AT FORES TLAWN and RANTOUL AND DIE by Mark Roberts (The Amoralists). His written and directing work has been seen at or developed by LAByrinth, Ars Nova, the Bloomington Playwrights Project, The Flea, Dixon Place, Fresh Ground Pepper, the Lark Play Development Center, Ugly Rhino, The Culture Project, and The Civilians. He is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab and is an alumnus of the Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellowship, Fresh Ground Pepper's Playground Play Group, Pataphysics at The Flea, and Bowdoin College. He is currently writing STREEPSHOW! - an episodic play with music about nine Meryl Streep characters living together in a reality TV house, directed by Andrew Neisler.
Writer/Director
Jordan Mahome
Jordan Mahome (Actor/Interviewer) Jordan is an actor, director and educator residing in Brooklyn. As an actor, he originated the role of Dr. Martin Luther King in Katori Hall's MOUNTAINTOP and recently wrapped HBO's Crime with John Turturro and re-occurs on the upcoming Netflix show, The Get Down. The last show he directed, HOOPS, won Best Play in 2014's Downtown Urban Theatre Festival in Manhattan. Jordan is dedicated to working with teens and is honored to be a longtime volunteer at The 52nd Street Project in Hell's Kitchen, mentoring new playwrights and actors. As an educator, he teaches English Lit and Theatre and Communications (currently at Hunter College High School). MFA, Yale School of Drama.
Actor/Interviewer
The Immortals
The Immortals (with Lee Sunday Evans). An African-American professor at an elite Ivy League, Alice leads a good life with her corporate lawyer husband. She spends her days fascinated by the troubling case of Henrietta Lacks. Lacks's cells were taken without her permission. Though used in profitable labs the world over, the Lacks family were never compensated. In Lacks, Alice sees her own struggles. With Alice's upcoming tenure battle looming, her department chair demands she abandon the project, while an eager transgender student teaches her how desire can cloud the quest for truth.
Ken Urban
Ken Urban (Writer) Ken Urban's plays have been produced at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 59E59 Theatres, SpeakEasy Stage Company, The Summer Play Festival at The Public, Theatre503 (London), First Floor Theatre and Studio 42. He has developed work at Playwrights Horizons, The Huntington Theater Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Donmar Warehouse (London). Awards include the Weissberger Playwriting Award, Huntington Playwriting Fellowship, Headlands Artist Residency, Dramatist Guild Fellowship, and MacDowell Colony Fellowships. He is a Core Writer at the Playwrights' Center. His plays are published by Dramatists Play Service and Methuen. His band Occurrence will release their new album The Past Will Last Forever this fall.
Writer
Lee Sunday Evans
Lee Sunday Evans (Director) is a director and choreographer. Credits include: WELLESLEY GIRL by Brendan Pelsue (Humana), D DEB DEBBIE DEBORAH by Jerry Lieblich (Clubbed Thumb), A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN NOVEMBER ON THE BANKS... by Kate Benson (OBIE Award - New Georges/Women's Project), THE PLAY ABOUT MY DAD by Boo Killebrew (59E59), GOD'S EAR by Jenny Schwartz (Juilliard), FAMILY PLAY (1979 to Present) by CollaborationTown, THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE by Bertolt Brecht with original music by Nicholas C. Williams. Her work has been presented/developed at: Baryshnikov Arts Center, Sundance Theater Lab, BAX, CATCH, LMCC, Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, Juilliard. As the resident director for CollaborationTown, Lee is currently developing a new musical as part of New Victory's LabWorks, and is under commission from LCT3. Upcoming: THE RUG DEALER by Riti Sachdeva (Women's Project), MACBETH (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival).
Director
Hart Island Requiem
Hart Island Requiem (with Ty Defoe and Tidtaya Sinutoke). Hart Island, the United States most documented potter's field; located in the Bronx, where an estimated one million people are buried, dating back to 1869 to present day. This investigative theatre piece depicts stories of dead people who gather at an abandoned theme park to remember their life and death. A series of stories were gathered, imagined, and stitched together to highlight people who are undocumented, in poverty, or lost. Hart Island Requiem asks what happens to these souls when they are unable to rest in peace in "America?"
Sanaz Ghajar
Sanaz Ghajar (Director) is a director, writer and DJ. She has developed works nationally and internationally with New York Theatre Workshop, Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons, The Civilians, The Drama League, Target Margin Theater, The New Ohio, Three Legged Dog, Prelude, Ars Nova, HERE, Dixon Place, The Red House Center for Culture and Debate, Theater for the New City, Rising Circle Theater Company, The Tank, Fresh Ground Pepper, Colorado State University, Prague Film and Theater Center, Vox Populi in Bulgaria, Ikincikat Theatre in Turkey, Goldex Poldex Gallery in Poland and UK-based company Fragility. She is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect and Drama League Director's Project Alum. She is currently assisting Rachel Chavkin on Hadestown by Anais Mitchell at NYTW.
Director
Tidtaya Sinutoke
Tidtaya Sinutoke (Composer) is a NYC-based composer, writer, and musician. Writing credits include: CLOUDS ARE PILLOWS FOR THE MOON (2014 Yale Institute for Music Theatre, 2015 ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, 2015 Kilroy's Honorable Mentions List, 2015 NAMT Songwriters Cabaret), TICK-TICK (Prospect Theater Company's Musical Theatre Lab), CROSSING BORDERS (2015-2016 CAP 21 Residency), and IN THE CARDS (2014 Boston-Contempo International Festival). Originally from Thailand, she has a Master in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Her music has been featured at venues such as the Signature Theatre, 54 Below, Symphony Space, Joe's Pub, Goodspeed Opera House, Songbook at Lincoln Center, and Dramatists Guild National Conference in Chicago. She also participated in the 2014 Composer-Librettists Studio at New Dramatists and the 2015 Johnny Mercer Songwriter Projects. Tidtaya is a proud member of ASCAP, and the Dramatists Guild. WWW.TIDTAYASINUTOKE.COM
Composer
Ty Defoe
Ty Defoe (Writer) of the Oneida + Ojibwe tribes received a Grammy Award for his work on COME TO ME GREAT MYSTERY. Other work includes: CLOUDS ARE PILLOWS FOR THE MOON (Yale Institute for Musical Theatre, ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, Kilroys Honorable Mentions List, and NAMT Songwriters Cabaret), TICK-TICK (Prospect Musical Theater Lab), CROSSING BORDERS (CAP21 Residency), + Johnny Mercer Songwriter Project. Recent: Heather Henson's Ibex Puppetry's CRANE: ON EARTH, IN SKY, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (artist residency), TCG Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Fellow Alum, + artEquity Facilitator. A graduate of CalArts, Goddard College, + NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at Tisch. Ty is a member of East Coast Two Spirit Society, ASCAP, + DG. Advocate for advancing Indigenous Peoples' & the earth in music, theatre, + film. Favorite color is clear. Pronouns: he/his/him. WWW.TYDEFOE.COM
Writer
We, the invisibles
we, the invisibles (with Susan Soon He Stanton). Inspired by the incident in 2011, when Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the director of the International Monetary Fund, successfully discredited a hotel maid he was accused of sexually assaulting, we, the invisibles is an investigation of a New York City luxury hotel, and the invisible relationship between bankers and the refugee women who launder their sheets.
Sash Bischoff
Sash Bischoff (Director) is a director whose credits include LONG DIVISION (Portland Center Stage), FLEE (NYSAF/Naked Angels), CANDYLAND, LIFE, and TABOO (Ars Nova), SHREK (National Tour), THE WHITE PARTY (Clubbed Thumb and National Black Theatre), BABS THE DODO, SWEPT, TALK TO ME OF LOVE, COLD, and SEVEN CATEGORIES (Williamstown), #SERIALS (The Flea), BODEGA PRICING (Pipeline), THE AGE OF MAN (NYU Grad), and MINE (Chautauqua). Upcoming: THE VISIT (Resident Director of upcoming International Tour), HOW THE MOON WOULD TALK (Keen Company), UN-UTERO (Columbia MFA), TOP GIRLS (NYU Stella Adler), FUCK MARRY KILL (Less Than Rent), BOX SHOW (Dixon Place). BA Princeton University. WWW.SASHBISCHOFF.COM
Director
Susan Soon He Stanton
Susan Soon He Stanton (Writer) is a playwright and screenwriter in New York, originally from the consonant-free town of Aiea, Hawai'i. Plays include TAKARAZUKA!!!, TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY, SEEK, The THINGS ARE AGAINST US, CYGNUS, THE UNDERNEATH, THE ART OF PRESERVATION, and more. Her plays have been produced or developed at Clubbed Thumb, East West Players, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theater Workshop, Kennedy Center, The Flea, Washington Ensemble Theater, Joe's Pub, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Women's Project, Honolulu Theater for Youth and others.
She is a two-time Sundance Institute Fellowship/Residency recipient. Writing groups and residencies include Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group, Playwrights Center Corewriter, SoHo Rep Writer-Director Lab, The Women's Project Lab, Hedgebrook, and MaYi Playwrights Lab. She was the inaugural Van Lier playwriting fellow at The Lark Play Development Center. Other awards include Southern Rep's Ruby Prize Runner-up, Susan Glaspell Prize Finalist, Kilroy's List, a Susan Smith Blackburn nomination, and a NET Partnership Grant with Satori Group. She is a writing consultant for Disney Creative Entertainment. She received a Feature Film Development Grant and Screenwriting Award from the Sloan Foundation, and a Leviathan Lab Film Production Grant. Films include Dress (winner of Hawai'i International Film Festival Audience Award), Dispatched, Good House, and Same Will. BFA: NYU Tisch, MFA: Yale School of Drama.
Writer
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