Head of Playwriting - Columbia Stages
Head of Playwriting - Columbia Stages
Head of Playwriting - Columbia Stages
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new Plays now<br />
2012<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> university sChool <strong>of</strong> the arts<br />
theatre arts
Allow me to introduce eleven bold, brave playwrights<br />
challenging what it is to make theatre in this new century<br />
both in terms <strong>of</strong> who and what they write about and<br />
the form they choose to write it in.<br />
Don’t look for one kind <strong>of</strong> play, but a collection <strong>of</strong> plays as<br />
diverse as New York itself. And don’t look for one kind<br />
<strong>of</strong> playwright. Think <strong>of</strong> them as an international collective<br />
that’s been meeting up at <strong>Columbia</strong> these past few<br />
years bashing out work driven by passion rather than seeking<br />
to conform to easy definition. They are as diverse as<br />
this list <strong>of</strong> their mentors, chosen by this year’s playwrights<br />
individually, including: David Auburn, Leslie Ayvazian,<br />
Lee Breuer, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, David Grimm, Tina Howe,<br />
Lisa Kron, David Lindsay-Abaire, and Craig Lucas.<br />
We hope you’ll see the work <strong>of</strong> these artists premiering<br />
this spring at the Annex at New York Theatre Workshop<br />
(East 4th Street Theatre).<br />
Chuck Mee, <strong>Head</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Playwriting</strong><br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> University School <strong>of</strong> the Arts<br />
ii
CONTENTS<br />
2 simone marie martelle, Damaged (april 4–7)<br />
3 Kyoung h. Park, Tala (april 8–10)<br />
4 marine sialelli, Looking for Beethoven (april 11–15)<br />
5 tatiana rivera, Finding Damascus (april 12–15)<br />
6 Danny mitarotondo, Orchestra (april 13–17)<br />
7 David rosar stearns, Conversations in the Mermaid Café (april 18–22)<br />
8 Julia may Jonas, Lake Coordination (april 19–22)<br />
9 samantha Chanse, Marian Jean (april 20–24)<br />
10 Caroline Prugh, Betwixt Them Made (april 25–28)<br />
11 lila feinberg, Vertebrae (april 26–28)<br />
12 naïma Kristel Phillips, Birthday Triage (march 7–10)<br />
13 festival Calendar<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> University School <strong>of</strong> the Arts presents an<br />
annual festival <strong>of</strong> new plays by emerging artists from<br />
the MFA Theatre Arts Program. Taught by a faculty<br />
<strong>of</strong> internationally renowned creators, practitioners,<br />
producers, and scholars, the program provides students<br />
with the foundation for a career in pr<strong>of</strong>essional<br />
theatre, with programs in acting, directing, playwriting,<br />
dramaturgy, stage management, and theatre manage-<br />
ment and producing. Presented annually, these<br />
productions are a laboratory for students’ dramatic<br />
experimentation and a glimpse—for theatre-goers—<br />
<strong>of</strong> what’s next.<br />
New Plays Now is made possible with the generous<br />
donations <strong>of</strong>:<br />
The Howard Stein New Play Fund<br />
The Edward John Noble Foundation<br />
The Katherine and Gilbert Miller Fund<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> <strong>Stages</strong> is the producing arm <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> University School <strong>of</strong> the Arts.<br />
Unless otherwise noted, performances are held at<br />
4th Street Theatre<br />
83 East 4th Street<br />
New York, NY 10003<br />
All performances are free and open to the public.<br />
You may make reservations for all events at<br />
www.columbiastages.org.<br />
All photos by Jörg Meyer<br />
1
Fine wine, finger foods, and silly<br />
affairs: this is what occupies the lives<br />
<strong>of</strong> Richard and Kathy as they entertain<br />
friends for their own self-interests.<br />
Meanwhile upstairs, a secret will<br />
fester and grow, threatening to leave<br />
nothing left but stale appetizers.<br />
Wednesday, April 4 at 2:30pm<br />
Thursday, April 5 at 7:30pm<br />
Saturday, April 7 at 7:30pm<br />
2<br />
Damaged<br />
New Plays Now<br />
SimONE mariE marTEllE<br />
Simone loves animals, reading about international<br />
affairs, learning to cook and daydreaming about<br />
traveling. She loves to write plays, movies, books and<br />
articles about the world. As a challenge, she tries<br />
to find a way to incorporate animals, food and her<br />
hometowns in every play she writes.<br />
by simone marie martelle — mentored by DaviD linDsay-abaire<br />
Writer, director, and journalist, Simone Marie Martelle<br />
grew up in Toulouse, France, received her BSc. in<br />
International Relations from the London School <strong>of</strong><br />
Economics. Other work: The Three Bears (SF Fringe<br />
Fest; Kitchen Dog Finalist; Manhattan Rep),<br />
Pro Patria Mori (Manhattan Rep), Adieu My Sunshine<br />
(Outstanding Play Award - Curan Rep; Hovey<br />
Players Summer Shorts), Runs in the Family (Finalist-<br />
Minnesota Short Play Fest 2010), Fugue for the<br />
Condemned (<strong>Columbia</strong> Schapiro), Kill (Kennedy<br />
Center Nominee 2009), Not Figs (13th Street Rep),<br />
The Big Carrot, Café Americain and Leaving Wadena.<br />
Memberships: Dramatist Guild (Student), The<br />
Playwright Center & TCG (Individual Member).<br />
Simone has interned at The New Group, TCG, WOR<br />
710 NewsTalk Radio, Condé Nast Traveler magazine<br />
and Bon Appétit. She currently works as a Staff Writer<br />
& Theatre Columnist at Inside New York and writes<br />
the blog, The Outside Observer (www.the-outsideobserver.com).<br />
After finishing her MFA at <strong>Columbia</strong>,<br />
Simone will spend the upcoming year getting her<br />
second masters in Journalism. For more info about her,<br />
visit www.simonemartelle.com.
KyOuNg H. ParK<br />
Kyoung was born and raised in Santiago, Chile and<br />
moved to New York in 2000. The War on Terror and<br />
9/11 led him to write political plays; he is currently<br />
expanding his artistic discipline to include writing<br />
multi-cultural dialogue and directing interdisciplinary<br />
collaborations for the theatre.<br />
Tala<br />
Written and Directed by Kyoung h. ParK — mentored by lee breuer<br />
Rafael, Natalia, and Daniel are three<br />
actors rehearsing Tala, a play about<br />
Kyoung, a playwright struggling<br />
to direct his play about Pepe and Lupe,<br />
two Chilean lovers who are out on a<br />
date, in the middle <strong>of</strong> a desert in<br />
the island <strong>of</strong> Chiloé. Tala is an absurd<br />
tragicomedy—a surreal collage<br />
<strong>of</strong> satirical sketches based on Samuel<br />
Beckett’s works and letters; poems<br />
written by Chilean poets Pablo Neruda<br />
and Gabriela Mistral; and autobiographical<br />
monologues.<br />
Sunday, April 8 at 7:30 pm<br />
Monday, April 9 at 2:30 pm<br />
Tuesday, April 10 at 7:30 pm<br />
The Mabou Mines Studio at PS 122<br />
150 First Avenue at East 9th Street<br />
Reservations: amanda@pacificbeatcollective.org<br />
Kyoung H. Park is author <strong>of</strong> Sex and Hunger (Access<br />
Theater), disOriented (Theatre C, Princess Grace<br />
Special Projects Grant), Walkabout Yeolha (<strong>Columbia</strong><br />
<strong>Stages</strong>), Heartbreak/India (Soho Theatre attachment),<br />
The Diamond Trade (La MaMa Moves!), and many<br />
short plays including Mina (upcoming publication<br />
in Seven Contemporary Korean Plays from the Korean<br />
Diaspora in the Americas, Duke Univ. Press). His plays<br />
have been presented Off/Off-Broadway by EST, Vital<br />
Theatre, Ma-Yi Theatre, Diverse City, 2G, and the<br />
Royal Court Theatre in London. A UNESCO-Aschberg<br />
Laureate, Kyoung has received the Edward Albee,<br />
Global Arts Village, and Theater <strong>of</strong> the Oppressed<br />
fellowships as well as grants from the Arvon, GK foundation,<br />
and Vermont Studio Center, and he is currently<br />
a Dean’s Fellow at <strong>Columbia</strong> University School <strong>of</strong><br />
the Arts. He is a member <strong>of</strong> the Ma-Yi Writer’s Lab,<br />
EST’s Youngblood, and Soho Theater’s Hub, and<br />
he holds a BFA in dramatic writing from NYU and an<br />
MA in peace and global governance from Kyung Hee<br />
University in Korea. Visit www.kyounghpark.com for<br />
more information.<br />
www.columbiastages.org 3
Hi there. People, I presume?<br />
You’re people, right? Hi.<br />
So. What’s going on in this play?<br />
Excellent question.<br />
This is the center <strong>of</strong> the labyrinth.<br />
Ergo, the center <strong>of</strong> all things.<br />
You know, where God is supposed<br />
to be. But, unfortunately for us,<br />
God’s not here. So we’re going after<br />
the next best thing.<br />
Wednesday April 11 at 2:30pm<br />
Thursday April 12 at 7:30pm<br />
Sunday April 15 at 7:30pm<br />
4<br />
looking for Beethoven<br />
New Plays Now<br />
mariNE SialElli<br />
Size shoe is 8.5. Hates cheese. Recently discovered<br />
the work <strong>of</strong> Haruki Murakami and wonders<br />
how she could ever live without it. Thinks Jiri Kylian<br />
is a genius. Thinks Black Swan is abominable.<br />
Misses the creativity <strong>of</strong> the Ballet Russes very, very<br />
much. Really is the worst person to talk about herself.<br />
by marine sialelli — mentored by leslie ayvazian<br />
Coming from one <strong>of</strong> those small French villages nobody<br />
has ever heard <strong>of</strong>, Marine Sialelli is a playwright, dancer<br />
and choreographer who cannot seem to be able to do<br />
just one thing at a time. Recent credits include Ease on<br />
Down with Hinton Battle at Manhattan Movement &<br />
Arts Center in New York City, and Night Robbery with<br />
RebelYard Theatre Collective in Philadelphia.
TaTiaNa rivEra<br />
If I’m not lost in my art, then I’ll never find my way.<br />
An attempt to figure out when the<br />
hell I broke up with Jesus and<br />
whether or not that decision was<br />
for the best.<br />
The single greatest cause <strong>of</strong> atheism<br />
in the world today is Christians,<br />
who acknowledge Jesus with their lips,<br />
then walk out the door, and deny<br />
Him by their lifestyle. That is what an<br />
unbelieving world simply finds<br />
unbelievable.<br />
—Brennan Manning<br />
Thursday, April 12 at 2:30pm<br />
Saturday, April 14 at 7:30pm<br />
Sunday, April 15 at 2:30pm<br />
Finding Damascus<br />
by tatiana rivera — mentored by Craig luCas<br />
Tatiana Rivera is a sculptor, painter, singer, crafter,<br />
actor, and playwright. Plays include: Both. Sides. Now, or<br />
buttermilk pancakes (Schapiro Studio 2010); But What<br />
Are You Really Saying?, or The Boob Play (13th Street<br />
Rep); Mother Nature (Schapiro Studio); Current Events<br />
B*tch: The Musical! (Schapiro Theater) with David<br />
Rosar Stearns; and The Brain Plays: a series <strong>of</strong> five highly<br />
important topics. Acting credits include: Cabaret, Once<br />
Upon a Mattress; Urinetown; Underground Broadway;<br />
Soldado Razo; Plaza Suite. Artist credits include: puppet<br />
construction for Eleven (Schapiro Theater); and paper<br />
and mosaic work for Birthday Triage (Horace Mann<br />
Theater). She holds a BA in theatre from the University<br />
<strong>of</strong> California, San Diego.<br />
www.columbiastages.org 5
Orchestra is the story <strong>of</strong> the birth,<br />
death, and afterbirth <strong>of</strong> an orchestra <strong>of</strong><br />
musicians and their conductor. Part<br />
Two, performed this April, is the play’s<br />
haunting conclusion: the final live<br />
interview with the broken-down conductor<br />
at the end <strong>of</strong> life, reconstructing<br />
hope. The entirety <strong>of</strong> Orchestra will<br />
be performed this June.<br />
Friday, April 13 at 7:30pm<br />
Saturday, April 14 at 2:30pm<br />
Tuesday April 17 at 2:30pm<br />
6<br />
Orchestra<br />
New Plays Now<br />
DaNNy miTarOTONDO<br />
Danny was born in a crummy New Jersey town.<br />
As a kid, the American Dream was a real thing, not a<br />
concept. He wanted to be like Teddy Roosevelt.<br />
As soon as he could, he ran to New York to manifest<br />
destiny - like Teddy.<br />
Nine years strong, Danny is a New Yorker. He still<br />
believes in the American Dream. It’s just becoming a<br />
different America with a different dream. He hopes.<br />
by Danny mitarotonDo — mentored by DaviD Wiener<br />
Danny Mitarotondo is the founder and former artistic<br />
director <strong>of</strong> The Common Tongue, Inc. (TCT). Together<br />
with Edward Albee he produced and directed a re-<br />
analysis <strong>of</strong> Albee’s All Over at the Linda Gross Theater<br />
starring Marian Seldes and Kathleen Butler. Danny has<br />
also produced world-premiere plays by Lucy Thurber<br />
and Wendy Macleod at the Ars Nova Building, a<br />
play by award-winning writer Tom Cudworth at the<br />
Elephant in Los Angeles, as well as his own play What<br />
The Sparrow Said (dir. Jenna Worsham) in the New York<br />
International Fringe Festival. The original one-act <strong>of</strong><br />
Sparrow was produced in Hanoi last summer and will<br />
be produced again in Romania this spring (dir. Shannon<br />
Fillion). Danny’s plays have been produced and developed<br />
at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Ars<br />
Nova Building, Theater for the New City, and Teatro<br />
Circulo. Danny is an Associate Teacher <strong>of</strong> Fitzmaurice<br />
Voicework®, an Edward F. Albee Writing Fellow, a<br />
Byrdcliffe artist in residence, and a graduate <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Atlantic Acting School and New York University. He is<br />
grateful to everyone who has believed in, supported,<br />
and collaborated with him—especially, mom.
DaviD rOSar STEarNS<br />
I am inspired by music, finding the stories inside the<br />
lyrics. I love all forms <strong>of</strong> theatre, but don’t always<br />
attend; I believe you have to be truly self oriented to be<br />
a writer. In my life I have had to write to survive and I<br />
survived because I write.<br />
Conversations in the mermaid Café<br />
by DaviD rosar stearns — mentored by DaviD grimm<br />
Ben returns to his late mother’s café<br />
to settle her modest estate, but things<br />
aren’t as simple as he thought they’d<br />
be. He comes to learn that the past<br />
is not always what we saw it as and<br />
the future path we think is the right<br />
one is not always the best for us.<br />
Wednesday, April 18 at 2:30pm<br />
Thursday, April 19 at 7:30pm<br />
Sunday April 22 at 7:30pm<br />
David Rosar Stearns, originally from Buffalo, received<br />
his Bachelors in theatre from the University <strong>of</strong> Buffalo<br />
after which he moved to New York City. He worked for<br />
several years in all forms <strong>of</strong> theatre from directing<br />
to acting. Some <strong>of</strong> the companies he had the privilege<br />
<strong>of</strong> working with include Theater Breaking through<br />
Barriers, The Living Theater, The Bull, New Georges and<br />
the 13th Street Repertory Company. After graduation<br />
his plans include starting a nonpr<strong>of</strong>it theatre company<br />
for physically and financially challenged children.<br />
www.columbiastages.org 7
When Linda <strong>of</strong>fers shelter to homeless,<br />
hideous Annabelle, she fails to realize<br />
how the act will disrupt her retirement,<br />
her family, and her conceptions<br />
<strong>of</strong> herself as a kind, giving person. A<br />
play about the effects <strong>of</strong> the economy,<br />
the search for authenticity, strip clubs,<br />
book clubs, push-ups, and burqas,<br />
Lake Coordination examines the limits<br />
<strong>of</strong> compassion and asks, what is it<br />
we need from those whom we help?<br />
Thursday, April 19 at 2:30pm<br />
Saturday, April 21 at 7:30pm<br />
Sunday, April 22 at 2:30pm<br />
8<br />
lake Coordination<br />
New Plays Now<br />
Julia may JONaS<br />
I am interested in creating a unique idiom <strong>of</strong> theatre<br />
that is insightful and enthralling.<br />
I am interested in how one comes to impose order<br />
on her personal universe now that faith is not a<br />
mandate, but a choice.<br />
I try to make the work I want to see.<br />
by Julia may Jonas — mentored by tina hoWe<br />
Julia May Jonas has shown plays at venues throughout<br />
New York including the Ontological-Hysteric Incubator,<br />
PS 122, La MaMa, HERE Arts Center, Galapagos,<br />
BRIC, The Bushwick Starr, and University Settlement.<br />
Her solo show, Take Heart, the tragic tale <strong>of</strong> a child liar<br />
and her downfall, premiered at PS 122 in 2008. Her play<br />
For Artists Only premiered at the Ontological Hysteric<br />
Theater in 2009; it was called “Highbrow/Brilliant”<br />
by New York magazine and was a Backstage “Critics<br />
Pick.” Other full-length plays include No One is Excused<br />
from the Trouble <strong>of</strong> Living, The Penitent Hours, and<br />
Ugly Thing. Her short play Empire Today was published<br />
in The Brooklyn Review in 2009, and The Hanoi<br />
International Theater Society in Vietnam recently<br />
performed her one-act Somewhere in the Middle with<br />
Reciprocal Interest. Her 2007 play, School Days, was a<br />
semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Award and she was<br />
recently named a finalist for the 2011-12 Clubbed Thumb<br />
Biennial Commission. She is the artistic director <strong>of</strong> the<br />
company Nellie Tinder, which she founded<br />
in 2005 (www.nellietinder.org). With Nellie Tinder,<br />
her deconstructed musical, Evelyn, premiered at the<br />
Bushwick Starr in February <strong>of</strong> 2012. At <strong>Columbia</strong>,<br />
she is a recipient <strong>of</strong> the Liberace Scholarship and the<br />
Theatre Arts Fellowship.
SamaNTHa CHaNSE<br />
I’m drawn to the gray areas, contradictions, and<br />
under-esteemed spaces and people. I make theatre<br />
to explore, question, and connect with these underrepresented<br />
worlds.<br />
marian Jean<br />
by samantha Chanse — mentored by lisa Kron<br />
Benji Zhang is seeking refuge from<br />
her pr<strong>of</strong>essional and personal failures<br />
on the green pastures <strong>of</strong> her grandmother’s<br />
retired dairy farm. But can<br />
she find any peace when mysterious<br />
events arrive around the anniversary<br />
<strong>of</strong> a childhood friend’s suicide?<br />
And why does it seem like the cows<br />
keep staring at her? Marian Jean is<br />
a play that questions what we believe,<br />
and how or why we continue.<br />
Friday, April 20 at 7:30pm<br />
Saturday, April 21 at 2:30pm<br />
Tuesday, April 24 at 2:30pm<br />
Samantha Chanse’s plays and performances have been<br />
presented with Ars Nova’s ANT Fest, Ma-Yi Theatre<br />
Company, Second Generation, FringeNYC, The Marsh,<br />
PlayGround in Residence at Berkeley Repertory<br />
Theater, Bowery Poetry Club, Kearny Street Workshop,<br />
Bindlestiff Studio, and other nonpr<strong>of</strong>it art spaces &<br />
dimly-lit bars. A member playwright <strong>of</strong> the Ma-Yi<br />
Writers Lab, she is the recipient <strong>of</strong> an Individual Artist<br />
Commission from the San Francisco Arts Commission,<br />
an Artist In Motion residency from Footloose/Shotwell<br />
Studio, and an Emerging Artists Residency from<br />
T<strong>of</strong>te Lake Center. She wrote and performed in two<br />
short films, Terra Cotta and Asian American Jesus, which<br />
have screened at film festivals nationally and internationally.<br />
Sam also teaches undergraduate writing at<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> University, co-runs a bicoastal multidisciplinary<br />
artist salon called Laundry Party, and hosts an<br />
irregular podcast on WHFR.org. She served for a number<br />
<strong>of</strong> years as the artistic director <strong>of</strong> San Franciscobased<br />
arts nonpr<strong>of</strong>it Kearny Street Workshop, and as<br />
co-director <strong>of</strong> Locus Arts. Her first solo play, Lydia’s<br />
Funeral Video, is forthcoming from Kaya Press. For more<br />
information, please visit www.samanthachanse.com.<br />
www.columbiastages.org 9
Summer 2011. Harrison Towers,<br />
Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.<br />
Two couples; one straight, one lesbian;<br />
early-mid thirties, no kids…yet. Driven<br />
by the desire to cook the perfect<br />
dinner and figure out life’s next chapter,<br />
Betwixt Them Made is a play<br />
about marriage and the boundaries <strong>of</strong><br />
friendships, both new and old.<br />
Wednesday, April 25 at 2:30pm<br />
Thursday, April 26 at 7:30pm<br />
Saturday, April 28 at 7:30pm<br />
10<br />
Betwixt Them made<br />
New Plays Now<br />
CarOliNE PrugH<br />
Caroline’s tastes are eclectic, from Broadway to BAM.<br />
To her a successful collaboration is one where<br />
everyone (including the playwright) strives to keep the<br />
interests <strong>of</strong> the play above all else. And remembers<br />
the audience.<br />
by Caroline Prugh — mentored by DaviD auburn<br />
Caroline Prugh is a playwright and songwriter. Plays<br />
include The Story About Penelope and Steven that<br />
Veronica Told, estate, At Daybreak, Highway Blue, Clear<br />
Cold Place, Night at the Big Chief Motel as well as<br />
the one acts Go Back, Terminal, Wonder Full, Motel<br />
Blue and Western Blue; and the dance/theatre pieces<br />
FAuLT LiNES and Evyproo’s Barbie-Q. Her short play<br />
Good Christian Wife was adapted for film by director<br />
Min Ding (<strong>Columbia</strong> University). Her work has been<br />
produced and/or developed in New York by Rattlestick<br />
Playwrights Theater, Royal Family Productions,<br />
Babel Theater Company, La MaMa Etc., Vital Theater,<br />
Captiva Arts, Random Access Theater, and Manhattan<br />
Shakespeare Project; regionally by Theater Offensive<br />
(Boston); and internationally by Nous Theater<br />
Productions (The Netherlands). Highway Blue was<br />
commissioned by Manhattan Shakespeare Project<br />
after a one-act version won their 2010 Emerging<br />
Female Playwrights Festival. Her play Night at the Big<br />
Chief Motel was a semi-finalist for both the 2010<br />
O’Neill Theater Conference and the Lark Playwrights’<br />
Week. A graduate <strong>of</strong> Amherst College, before<br />
attending <strong>Columbia</strong>, she worked eleven years at Stuart<br />
Thompson Productions.
lila FEiNBErg<br />
It is the rocky topography <strong>of</strong> human relationships that<br />
intrigues Lila Feinberg. Many <strong>of</strong> her dark comedies<br />
are inspired by her changing address: an all-girl’s dorm;<br />
the room <strong>of</strong> a deceased teen; and presently, hospital<br />
housing for surgical residents. Her plays are like maps,<br />
finding the point where love, language, and locality<br />
intersect.<br />
When a group <strong>of</strong> former medical<br />
school friends reunite during Hurricane<br />
Irene weekend, the premature death<br />
<strong>of</strong> one <strong>of</strong> their classmates is brought<br />
into question. The search for answers<br />
forces each <strong>of</strong> them to examine the<br />
choices they’ve made, in the operating<br />
room and in the bedroom. Vertebrae<br />
takes a darkly comic look at commitment—in<br />
the face <strong>of</strong> engagement<br />
rings and Rx pads—when one mistake<br />
can have catastrophic results.<br />
Thursday April 26 at 2:30pm<br />
Friday April 27 at 7:30pm<br />
Saturday, April 28 at 2:30pm<br />
vertebrae<br />
by lila feinberg — mentored by Craig luCas<br />
Lila Feinberg is a playwright, screenwriter, and actress.<br />
Last summer, her commissioned play Night Float<br />
premiered at Playwrights Horizon’s Peter J. Sharp<br />
Theater, a process that was featured in the Wall Street<br />
Journal and the documentary Medicine As a Relational<br />
Act. Recent readings include: Monkey Bowl (Manhattan<br />
Theater Club studio); Heirloom (“Audience Award”<br />
at the Emerging Female Playwrights Voices Fest); Burnt<br />
Orange (Miller Theatre); The Stone Fidelity (mentored<br />
by Joe Kraemer and Julia Jordan); and an upcoming<br />
piece in The Flea’s Serials. An excerpt from her<br />
play Perched (Cherry Lane Studio) was published in<br />
the anthology What We Brought Back. She is last year’s<br />
recipient <strong>of</strong> the Gatsby Charitable Fund Grant and<br />
the Interdisciplinary Arts Council Grant. Currently,<br />
she is developing an adaptation for a film production<br />
company in LA, and a TV pilot. As an actress, she<br />
studied with the Moscow Art Theater, and performed<br />
new work at Primary <strong>Stages</strong>, Cherry Lane, 92nd St Y,<br />
and Symphony Space. She graduated summa cum<br />
laude from Barnard College.<br />
www.columbiastages.org 11
Presented in March as part <strong>of</strong> this<br />
year’s festival <strong>of</strong> directing theses,<br />
Birthday Triage is an interactive, multimedia<br />
performance in which the<br />
audience accompanies four characters<br />
on their personal journeys as their<br />
birthday worlds collapse and unveil<br />
their mythological dna. Four plays<br />
weave in and out <strong>of</strong> each other like dna<br />
strands as audience members<br />
glimpse into the shattered pieces <strong>of</strong><br />
the characters’ lives.<br />
March 7–10, 2012<br />
Horace Mann Theatre<br />
Broadway between 120th and 121st streets<br />
12<br />
Birthday Triage<br />
New Plays Now<br />
Naïma KriSTEl PHilliPS<br />
To Naïma, theatre is about shaking the ground, making<br />
vibrations and being awed. It’s about portraying human<br />
existence, with equality among cultures, ethnicities<br />
and faiths. It’s about our sufferings and rejoicings,<br />
fantasies and fears. It’s about our need to be together…<br />
brief moments that last forever.<br />
by naïma Kristel PhilliPs — Directed by simón aDinia hanuKai<br />
Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Naïma Kristel<br />
Phillips studied classical ballet before training as a<br />
performance artist at the Centre International des Arts<br />
de la Scène. She then moved to Paris for two years<br />
to practice voice performance and choreographic<br />
theatre with Enrique Pardo, Linda Wise, and the late<br />
Elizabeth Mayer at Pantheatre ACTS and the Roy Hart<br />
International Centre (Cévennes, France). Her playwriting<br />
credits include a main-stage production <strong>of</strong> her<br />
full-length Night Spell (Nextfest, Edmonton, Alberta)<br />
and My Artichoke Heart, a devised play (Dream Up<br />
Festival, Theater for the New City). Projects at<br />
<strong>Columbia</strong> include an anti-reading, installation <strong>of</strong> Time<br />
Suites: Camille and Rodin, and workshop presentations<br />
<strong>of</strong> 6 Variations in a Single Flutter, Murder <strong>of</strong> the Oak/<br />
Reed and a reading <strong>of</strong> There Hangs the Knife. Naïma is<br />
currently writing a play for young audiences commissioned<br />
by the Black Theatre Workshop (Montreal,<br />
Quebec). She is a recipient <strong>of</strong> the 2010 Gloria Mitchell-<br />
Aleong Award and the Shubert Presidential Fellowship.<br />
Naïma is grateful to all those who made it possible for<br />
her to be here and feels honored to have been<br />
surrounded by such a thriving community <strong>of</strong> artists.
1 Sunday<br />
3 Tuesday<br />
WEEK 1 WEEK 2<br />
2 Monday<br />
Kick-Off Celebration<br />
Information at<br />
arts.columbia.edu/theatre<br />
4 Wednesday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Damaged, Martelle, p.2<br />
5 Thursday<br />
7:30pm<br />
Damaged, Martelle, p.2<br />
6 Friday<br />
7 Saturday<br />
7:30pm<br />
Damaged, Martelle, p.2<br />
8 Sunday<br />
7:30pm<br />
Tala*, Park, p.3<br />
9 Monday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Tala*, Park, p.3<br />
10 Tuesday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Tala*, Park, p.3<br />
11 Wednesday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Looking for Beethoven,<br />
Sialelli, p.4<br />
Unless otherwise noted, performances are held at 4th Street<br />
Theatre, 83 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003.<br />
*Please note that performances <strong>of</strong> Tala are held at<br />
PS 122; see page 3 for details.<br />
Festival Calendar<br />
12 Thursday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Finding Damascus, Rivera, p.5<br />
7:30pm<br />
Looking for Beethoven,<br />
Sialelli, p.4<br />
13 Friday<br />
7:30pm<br />
Orchestra, Mitarotondo, p.6<br />
14 Saturday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Orchestra, Mitarotondo p.6<br />
7:30pm<br />
Finding Damascus, Rivera p.5<br />
WEEK 3 WEEK 4<br />
15 Sunday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Finding Damascus, Rivera, p.5<br />
7:30pm<br />
Looking for Beethoven,<br />
Sialelli, p.4<br />
16 Monday<br />
17 Tuesday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Orchestra, Mitarotondo, p.6<br />
18 Wednesday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Conversations in the Mermaid<br />
Café, Stearns, p.7<br />
19 Thursday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Lake Coordination, Jonas, p.8<br />
7:30pm<br />
Conversations in the Mermaid<br />
Café, Stearns, p.7<br />
20 Friday<br />
7:30pm<br />
Marian Jean, Chanse, p.9<br />
21 Saturday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Marian Jean, Chanse, p.9<br />
7:30pm<br />
Lake Coordination, Jonas, p.8<br />
23 Monday<br />
25 Wednesday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Betwixt Them Made,<br />
Prugh, p.10<br />
All performances are free and open to the public.<br />
You may make reservations for all events at<br />
www.columbiastages.org.<br />
22 Sunday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Lake Coordination, Jonas, p.8<br />
7:30pm<br />
Conversations in the Mermaid<br />
Café, Stearns, p.7<br />
24 Tuesday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Marian Jean, Chanse, p.9<br />
26 Thursday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Vertebrae, Feinberg, p.11<br />
7:30pm<br />
Betwixt Them Made,<br />
Prugh, p.10<br />
27 Friday<br />
7:30pm<br />
Vertebrae, Feinberg, p.11<br />
28 Saturday<br />
2:30pm<br />
Vertebrae, Feinberg, p.11<br />
7:30pm<br />
Betwixt Them Made,<br />
Prugh, p.10<br />
13
<strong>Columbia</strong> University<br />
School <strong>of</strong> the Arts Theatre Arts Program<br />
2960 Broadway, MC 1807<br />
New York, New York 10027<br />
14<br />
theatre@columbia.edu<br />
arts.columbia.edu/theatre<br />
columbiastages.org<br />
Return Service Requested<br />
NON-PROFIT ORG.<br />
U.S. POSTAGE<br />
PAID<br />
NEW YORK, NY<br />
PERMIT NO. 3593<br />
for tiCKets anD information, Please visit <strong>Columbia</strong>stages.org<br />
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