R&D Groups
Past 2016-2017
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.
American Cryptids Ep. 1 New York
American Cryptids is a live episodic documentary about people who have encountered cryptozoological creatures and the cryptozoological creatures they have encountered. Creators Andrew Farmer and Andrew R. Butler travel the country interviewing individuals who have seen such elusive American fauna as the legendary Bigfoot, the debunked Montauk Monster and the downright weird Carnivorous Pink Cloud, to create a show that explores loneliness, conviction, American Regionalism, and how it feels when no one believes in you.
In Ep. 1 Andrew and Andrew search their community in NYC for friends and colleagues with untold stories of cryptid encounters. The Moth Man, the Jersey Devil and Big Foot all make appearances as the Andrews try to map a course between epistemological quandaries and scary monster stories.
Andrew R. Butler
Andrew R. Butler is a writer, performer and composer. With Andrew Farmer he has written Finn the Fearless (Theatre Aspen, Polyphone Festival), Blessing (Playwrights Downtown commission), The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (TheatreWorksUSA commission), and American Cryptids (Civilians R&D); With Anna Kerrigan: The Dixon Family Album (Williamstown Theater Festival). Also, (Parkland/Weathers) (FGP). Founding member of experimental theater company harunalee; Alumnus of Ars Nova's Uncharted Group, FGP's PlayGround PlayGroup, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Yale Institute for Music Theater and NYU's Experimental Theatre Wing. www.andrewrbutler.com
Co-writer/Composer
Andrew Farmer
Andrew Farmer is a writer, performer and storyteller. With Andrew R. Butler he has written Finn the Fearless (Theatre Aspen, Polyphone Festival), Blessing (Playwrights Downtown commission), The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (TheatreWorksUSA commission), and American Cryptids (Civilians R&D); Other recent writing credits include The Gray Man (Pipeline Theatre Company), I Heard Sex Noises with Claire Rothrock, Ryann Weir and Annie Tippe (Ars Nova) and Boats And with music by Nate Weida (Ars Nova). Alumnus of Ars Nova's Uncharted Group and Project Residency, FGP's PlayGround PlayGroup, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Yale Institute for Music Theater and NYU's Playwrights Dowtown. Andrewduncanfarmer.com
Co-writer
Portia Krieger
Portia mostly directs new plays and musicals. Recent productions include Olivia Dufault’s The Tomb of King Tot (Clubbed Thumb), Sofia Alvarez’s Friend Art (2ST Uptown), Sarah Einspanier's The Convent of Pleasure (Cherry Lane Mentor Project) and Caroline V. McGraw's The Bachelors (Lesser America). She is an O’Neill/NNPN National Director's Fellow, an alumna of the Drama League Directors Project and the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, a former Ars Nova Director-in-Residence, a Clubbed Thumb Affiliated Artist, and a co-founder of the New Georges Jam. Associate Director of Fun Home. Education: BA in Theater, Smith College.
Director
The Oskaloosan or, I Woke to a Stranger in My Room
On the morning of April 26th 1949 an 8 year old boy living in a small town in the mid-west of the United States wakes up to discover a stranger standing at the foot of his bed. The stranger is holding a clipboard and a pencil.
On the morning of December 1st 2016 a person living in New York City makes a journey to a small town in the mid-west of the United States in order to speak to an elderly man who, 68 years earlier, was the subject of a remarkable social experiment.
What follows is an attempt to accurately reflect the truth. It has been compiled from a series of interviews and correspondences. The interviews and correspondences were entered into willingly. At least the majority of them were. The names of the respondents have been withheld. Except where they haven’t been. Additional scenes have been re-created based on the factual descriptions contained in the interviews or correspondences. Except when there is cause to doubt the facts as described in the interviewees and correspondences. Then, the additional scenes are more along the lines of sketches or elaborations or, really, works of fiction. But based on the truth. Hopefully. More or less.
Anthony Weigh
Anthony’s plays and adaptations include: 2,000 FEET AWAY (Belvoir Theatre, Sydney, Bush Theatre, London, Steep Theatre, Chicago), LIKE A FISHBONE, (Griffin Theatre, Sydney, Sydney Theatre Company, Bush Theatre, London, Various other productions internationally), THE FLOODED GRAVE (Bush Theatre, London, Latitude Festival, UK), THE MIDDLE MAN (Bush Theatre, London as part of the 66 Books Project which brought together 66 leading playwrights and poets to celebrate the 300th Anniversary of the King James Bible), YERMA after Lorca, (Gate Theatre, London), THE SILENCE OF THE SEA and WELCOME HOME, CAPTAIN FOX! (both for Donmar Warehouse, London), EDWARD II (Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne). He has been; Playwright-in-Residence at the National Theatre in London, Associate Playwright at The Bush Theatre, and Associate Artist at Donmar Warehouse. He is a fellow of both Yaddo and MacDowell Artist Colonies. He is published by Faber and Faber.
Playwright
Benjamin Kamine
Benjamin Kamine is a Manhattan-based stage director focused on new work. Recent credits include world premieres of Carlyle by Thomas Bradshaw (Goodman Theatre) and Nibbler by Ken Urban (The Amoralists at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); New York premiere of Washer/Dryer by Nandita Shenoy (Ma-Yi Theatre Company). Associate Artist at The Flea Theater; Resident Director at the Jewish Plays Project. Academic directing includes Brooklyn College, University of the Arts, and NYU Tisch, where he is an adjunct professor. He has been a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, the Civilians R&D Group, and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Member: SDC.
Director
elroy learn his name
elroy learn his name is the story of Maggie Burrows, the son she lost to gun violence, and the journalist who shared her story with the world. Two parts play, one part news feature, elroy ponders the weight of motherhood and the burden of a good story in the age of podcasts and #BlackLivesMatter. Who was elroy? And who gets to own his narrative once he's gone?
C. A. Johnson
C. A. Johnson (Writer) is a Louisiana native based in Queens, New York. Her plays include GOSSAMER (2012 Floyd Gaffney Playwriting Award), BY AND BY (2016 Goldberg Play Prize Finalist), THE CLIMB (2016 First Round Fellowship at Open Bar Theatricals), and THIRST (currently being developed by the Dennis & Victoria Ross Foundation). C.A. is The Lark's 2016 Van Lier Playwriting Fellow, a member of 2016-2017 R & D Group at The Civilians, and a 2016-2017 Dramatists Guild Fellow. Her work has received readings at NYU, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, The Lark, Open Bar Theatricals, and UC San Diego. BA: Smith College MFA: NYU
Writer
flesh failure
flesh failure is the second in a suite of contemporary performance works exploring that which is lost, torqued, and (perhaps) gained when bohemian ideals find themselves at the heart of commercial theater properties. Investigating (among other things) the 1960s sexual revolution, downtown New York countercultures, and Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, flesh failure asks: what might happen when we take sex less seriously (again)?
Chris Tyler
Chris Tyler (Writer) is a performing artist examining the intersections of popular culture, collective action and digital identity. Recent work includes POWER GAY (Ars Nova), R*NT (University Settlement), TOTAL REJECTS LIVE!!! (Public Theater/Under the Radar Festival) and #HASHTAG (PRELUDE). His performance style has been called “equal parts hilarious and chilling” (Fusion), “precise-yet-butchered” (Out Magazine) and “so cute” (Taylor Swift). AB: Brown University. Follow him @NOTCHRISTYLER.
Writer
The Gun Show
The Gun Show is a musical exploring the narrative of the gun in America. Imagine a world in which a gun is given to every citizen at the age of 13 and then imagine an alternate time in which all guns have been eliminated. These two narratives of extreme possibility collide in "The Gun Show" to ultimately investigate the narratives of living in fear and living in love.
David Dabbon
David Dabbon (Composer) is a Composer, Arranger, Conductor and Teacher. On Broadway David has worked on DISASTER! as Dance Arranger, SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM at Studio 54 providing Additional Orchestrations. Other New York projects: LOVE AND INFORMATION (New York Theatre Workshop, Music Director), THE EVENTS (New York Theatre Workshop, Music Supervisor), THE CHRISTIANS (Playwrights Horizons, Music Supervisor), STAGE KISS (Playwrights Horizons, Arranger), COULD NINE (Atlantic Theater Company, Music Director), “the public domain” (Lincoln Center, Red Team Conductor), THE MYSTERIES (The Flea, Composer/Music Director), AMY FREED'S RESTORATION COMEDY (The Flea, Composer/Music Director) Regionally: THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (Shakespeare Theatre Company DC Music Supervisor/Arranger). A SIGN OF THE TIMES (Goodspeed's Norma Terris, Dance Arranger), THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN (DCPA, Conductor/Additional Dance Arrangements), THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (TPAC, Dance Arranger). Commissioned by Dallas Black Dance Theater to write a ballet titled SURFACE for the Dallas Luna Festival. He was arranger on the “Send in the Clowns” segment for HBO'S documentary SIX BY SONDHEIM. He composed the score for the cult thriller ALL GOD'S CREATURES. Education: B.M. from The Hartt School of Music and M.M. from Carnegie Mellon University studying under Dr. Robert Page. www.daviddabbon.com.
Composer
Gabriel Jason Dean
Gabriel Jason Dean's (Writer) plays have been produced or developed at New York Theatre Workshop, McCarter Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Flea, Oregon Shakespeare, The Kennedy Center, American Theatre Company, PlayPenn, Interact Theatre, The VORTEX, Actor's Express, and Source Festival, among others. His play IN BLOOM received the Kennedy Center's Paula Vogel Prize, was Runner-Up for the New Dramatist's Princess Grace Award and a finalist for the Laurents/Hatcher award. His play for children, THE TRANSITION OF DOODLE PEQUEÑO received the American Alliance for Theatre & Education Distinguished Play Award, the New England Theatre Conference Aurand Harris Award and was selected for the Kennedy Center New Visions / New Voices Conference, Theatre for Young Audiences Award and was Runner-Up for the Harold & Mimi Steinberg National Playwriting Award. He is the recipient of the Essential Theatre New Play Prize and Austin's B. Iden Payne Award for "Best Original Script" and "Best Comedy" for QUALITIES OF STARLIGHT, an Austin Critic's Table Award for “Best Production” of TERMINUS and his play PIGSKIN won the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival. He has received the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, the Dramatist's Guild Fellowship and the Sallie B. Goodman / McCarter Theatre Fellowship. His scripts are published through Samuel French, Dramatic Publishing and Playscripts. Gabriel is currently an Affiliated Writer at The Playwrights' Center and a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop. MFA: UT-Austin Michener Center for Writers.
Rep: Max Grossman @ Abrams Artist Agency http://www.jazzandgrooves.com/
Writer
Jessie Dean
Jessie Dean (Writer) is a Brooklyn based writer and actor. Most recently, she has finished writing her first novel, INVENTING VIDA, which is currently undergoing edits. Recently in NYC, she appeared Off-Broadway in BUM PHILLIPS: AN ALL AMERICAN OPERA at LaMama and WELCOME TO THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA at 59E59 both produced by Monk Parrots, where she is an artistic associate. Jessie has developed plays and musicals at New York Theatre Workshop, the Lark, PlayPenn, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Kennedy Center, and the Fingerlakes Musical Theatre Festival. The last play she directed, PIGSKIN, won the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival. Prior to moving to New York, she was a founder and co-artistic director of Relativity Theatre Concern in Atlanta, Georgia. She earned her MFA at Illinois State University. www.jessicadean.net
Writer
T(estosterone)
T(estosterone) is a theater investigation into the effect of testosterone on transgender bodies. Using queerstoric research, interviews, and poetry (T)estosterone aims to disrupt a binary narrative and the "born this way" phenomenon.
Kit Yan
Kit Yan (Writer) is a Brooklyn based artist, whose work includes INTERSTATE: a new musical with Melissa Li (terraNOVA Collective's Groundworks Residency at the IRT, Project Reach workshop, Dixon Place staged reading), QUEER HEARTACHE (IRT Theater, Chicago Fringe, Transgender Theater Festival at the Brick Theater, San Francisco Fringe), and AI WEI WEI: ACCORDING TO WHAT (Brooklyn Museum) Kit's poetry has been commissioned by CHANG(E) at HERE Arts, the Census Bureau, OUTmedia, and Campus Pride. Kit's publications include Flicker and Spark, Troubling the Line, Glitter and Grit, Vetch, Original Plumbing, and the Asian American Literary Review among others. Their first show and book QUEER HEARTACHE won the Spirit of Fringe, Artists' Pick, and Audience Choice Awards at the Chicago Fringe Festival and is published by TransGenre Press (2016) Kit's work has received recognition from Campus Pride, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and the OUTmusic awards. Kit holds a B.S. from Babson College and is a nationally touring artist whose poetry and performances have been reviewed by New York Magazine, Bitch, Hyphen, and Curve Magazines . Kit is currently working on a theatrical poetry investigation of the effect of testosterone on transgender bodies aiming to disrupt common transgender narratives that reinforce binary happiness and the “born into the wrong body” story. www.kityanpoet.com
Writer
Simone Wolff
Simone Wolff (Writer) is an NYC-based poet, editor, and essayist. Their poems have appeared in Bone Bouquet, Girls Get Busy, and Leste Erotic Fanzine, among other places. Their reviews, interviews, and essays can be found in Mask Magazine, Bookslut, Ladyclever, and elsewhere. Their editing credits include Diary of a K-Drama Villain by Min Kang and Queer Heartache by Kit Yan. In 2016, they assisted in the production of QUEER HEARTACHE, Kit Yan's solo slam poetry theatre show, at the Transgender Theatre Festival (The Brick), the San Francisco Fringe Festival (PianoFight Theatre), and on tour across the country. Simone has a BA in Gender Studies from Barnard College and an MFA in Poetry from Vanderbilt University. They are currently researching for and writing a manuscript about the HIV and heroin epidemics. Find their work at www.simonegretawolff.com.
Writer
Craft Beer
Craft beer: a world of experimentation, adventure, entrepreneurship, and young white men. Or is it? The field of American craft beer is seen as one dominated by men, where female brewers and non-white brewers are often seen as "black unicorns." An investigation into stories of addiction, race and gender, the small upstarts vs. the big guys, turf battles, expectations and limitations, and--most importantly!--how to make really good beer.
Lauren Yee
Lauren Yee (Writer) Lauren Yee's play KING OF THE YEES will premiere at the Goodman and Center Theatre Group in 2017. Other plays include CHING CHONG CHINAMAN (Pan Asian, Mu Performing Arts, SIS Productions, Impact Theatre), THE HATMAKER'S WIFE (Playwrights Realm, The Hub, Moxie Theatre, AlterTheater, PlayPenn), HOOKMAN (Encore Theatre, Company One), IN A WORD (SF Playhouse, Cleveland Public Theatre, Strawdog, The Hub), SAMSARA (Victory Gardens, Chance Theatre, O'Neill Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival), and THE TIGER AMONG US (MAP Fund, Mu). Her work has also been developed at Lincoln Center/LCT3, The Public Theatre, Second Stage, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Center Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Kitchen Dog, the Magic Theatre, and others. Former Dramatists Guild fellow, MacDowell Colony fellow, Public Theater Emerging Writers Group member, Women's Project Lab playwright, Second Stage Shank playwright-in-residence, Playwrights' Center Core Writer, and Playwrights Realm resident playwright. SAMSARA has been nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and L. Arnold Weissberger Award. THE HATMAKER'S WIFE was an Outer Critics Circle nominee for the John Gassner Award for best play by a new American playwright. Currently a member of the Ma-Yi Writers' Lab. Commissions: Denver Center, Lincoln Center/LCT3, Mixed Blood, Portland Center Stage, South Coast Rep, and Trinity Rep. BA: Yale. MFA: UCSD. www.laurenyee.com
Writer
Directors
Kareem Fahmy
Kareem Fahmy (Director) is a Canadian-born director of Egyptian descent. He recently co-developed and directed the world premieres of Sevan K. Greene's THIS TIME (Sheen Center) – a New York Times Critic's Pick – and Victor Lesniewski's COURIERS AND CONTRABANDS (TBG Theatre). Upcoming: the NAMT workshop of the new musical WE LIVE IN CAIRO (New World Stages, October 2016) and the world premiere of Obie Award-winner Nikkole Salter's INDIAN HEAD (Luna Stage, February 2017). He is currently a Resident Director at The Flea, a member of Fresh Ground Pepper's PlayGroup, and was a 2015 Director-in-Residence at The New Museum. He's worked extensively in new play development with organizations including New York Theatre Workshop, MCC, Second Stage, Soho Rep, New Dramatists, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Sundance Institute Theatre, Partial Comfort Productions, Noor Theatre, Ma-Yi, and Berkeley Rep. He is an alumnus of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, the Van Lier Directing Fellowship, and NTYW's Emerging Artist Fellowship. Kareem is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect and holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia University. www.KareemFahmy.com
Director
Sarah Hughes
Sarah Hughes (Director) is a director and producer. Recent directing: AFTERWARD (Signature Theater / Columbia University, Prelude); SPECIAL CHEESE (Columbia University, CATCH), both by McFeely Sam Goodman; A STAR HAS BURNT MY EYE by Howard Fishman (The Brick); +51 AVIACON, SAN BORJA by Yudai Kamisato and L'ORIGINE DEL MONDO by Lucia Calamaro (The Martin E. Segal Theater Center). Recent assisting: THE PARABLE CONFERENCE (BAM Next Wave) and ON THE FUTURE OF ART (Guggenheim Museum), both by Pabo Helguera. She worked with Elevator Repair Service from 2007-14, assistant directing and stage managing GATZ, THE SOUND AND THE FURY, THE SELECT, ARGUENDO, SHUFFLE, and FONDLY, COLLETTE RICHLAND at home and abroad. Sarah is a core member of Superhero Clubhouse, with whom she directed SATURN (The Tank, The Wild Project) and NEPTUNE (Flux Factory), and has also worked with Half Straddle, the Office for Creative Research, The Bushwick Starr, the Classical Theatre of Harlem, and Vox Theater. She is Co-Artistic Producer of Target Margin Theater and is currently co-teaching a class on Contemporary Theater at Dartmouth College.
Director
Benjamin Viertel
Benjamin Viertel (Director) is a director based in New York City, born in France and raised in South Florida by German and Italian parents. His upcoming work include new plays by Bill C. Davis, Sam French, and the Italian tour of GRINDR THE MUSICAL. He directed the American premiere of Marius von Mayenburg's FIREFACE (The Brick), Sam van Wetter's CLIPPED (Atlantic Stage II), AVENUE Q (Bristol Valley Theater), and the award-winning webseries [BLANK] MY LIFE. Recent associate/assistant directing for Moisés Kaufman, Billy Porter, Loretta Grecco, Peter Kleinert, and Steve Cosson and has worked with BAM, Roundabout Theater Company, Huntington Theater Company, The New Group, and The Civilians. Benjamin is a member of the Kennedy Center Director's Lab, a Manhattan Theater Club's Directing Fellow, and a Resident Artist at The Brick and Abrons Arts Center. He is the former Artistic Manager at The National Theatre for Student Artists and the co-founder and current Artistic Director of Third Space, a political theater collective, for which he is developing a new adaptation of THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT, examining male gaze and the collective fascination towards hysterical women, with the support of the Abrons Arts Center. Education: Carnegie Mellon University. https://www.benjaminviertel.com/
Director
Suzanne Agins
Suzanne Agins (Director) is a freelance director who specializes in new work. Recent: In the Heights (Hangar Theater- Regional Premiere), The Club by Amy Fox (Rough Cut production at Ensemble Studio Theatre). Off Broadway: world premiere of Radiance by Cusi Cram (Labyrinth Theater Company, developed in Rising Phoenix's Cino Nights series); world premiere of Jailbait by Deirdre O'Connor (Cherry Lane). Other projects include: Alligator by Hilary Bettis and The Burden Of Not Having A Tail by Carrie Barrett (Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference); Fuente Ovejuna: A Disloyal Adaptation by Cusi Cram, inspired by Lope de Vega's play (Princeton University, developed with Labyrinth Theater Company); Noel Coward's Fallen Angels (Dorset Theater Festival); Lucy And The Conquest by Cusi Cram (World Premiere, Williamstown Theater Festival); Wing It, a new musical inspired by Aristophanes' The Birds, by Gordon Cox and Kris Kukul (World Premiere, Williamstown); three Maddy Mann stage shows created with Ryan Migge (Ars Nova, soloNOVA festival at the DR2, Dixon Place); Maddy Mann's webseries QUADS!; The Secret Narrative Of The Phone Book by Gordon Cox (World Premiere, Kraine Theater). Ms. Agins served as Artistic Associate for New Plays at Williamstown Theatre Festival from 2005-2007. She holds an MFA in Directing from UC San Diego, is the recipient of a Princess Grace Fellowship, an adjunct faculty member at Princeton University (her alma mater), and a member of SDC. www.suzanneagins.com
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