19 Theatremakers from U.S., Middle East & North Africa Assemble for Customized Support & Development
Lab Théâtre du Sundance Institute / Annonce des Boursiers 2018
المختبر المسرحي في معهد ساندانس يسمي الحاصلين على الزمالة لعام
NEW YORK, NY — Sundance Institute announces the slate of theatremakers from the U.S. and Middle East / North Africa who
will convene at the Theatre Program’s second annual Theatre Lab in Morocco next month. The Lab, which will take place
from May 6 – 27 at the Fellah Hotel outside Marrakech, comprises three uninterrupted weeks of consultation, mentorship
and workshop performance of new work for the stage. The Theatre Lab alternates locations each season, moving between the
Sundance Resort in Utah, and a venue in the Middle East/North African region, as part of a multi-year commitment to international
work and a means of facilitating cultural exchange between artists. Led by Sundance Institute Theatre Program Director
Philip Himberg and Producing Director
Christopher Hibma, teams of creative advisors, actors and dramaturgs will collaborate with writers and directors,
independent from commercial or public pressures, as they develop their projects.
“At our Labs, we’ve seen the power of cooperative practice across cultures and borders, time and again,”
said
Himberg. “Creating a focused and well-resourced environment that nurtures talent and relationships as new
work evolves is especially key in the current global climate: meaningful engagement between artist communities strengthens
all participants, as well as their respective cultures of origin.”
The Theatre Program’s international activity supports mentorship and cross-cultural exchange, focused on artists working
primarily in all dialects of Arabic, in tandem with new work from the U.S. The Program develops artists through a series
of peer-to-peer exposure and exchange activities within Arabic-speaking countries, among MENA artistic diaspora in Europe,
and in the larger context of U.S.-focused Labs. The Institute hosts Labs around the world each year for independent artists
in theatre, film, new media and episodic content.
The 2018 Theatre Lab Fellows and their projects are:
C.A. Johnson (playwright) and
Kate Whoriskey (director),
All the Natalie Portmans;
Stacey Rose (playwright) and
Logan Vaughn (director),
America v. 2.1: The Sad Demise & Eventual Extinction of the American Negro;
A. Rey Pamatmat (playwright) and
Lisa Peterson (director),
Blood in Your Blood;
Kamal Khalladi (playwright) and
Latefa Ahrrare (director)
, Casablanca;
Intissar Chaabani (playwright/performer) and
Racha Baroud (director),
Diary of a Chimera;
Ali Chahrour (conciever and choreographer),
Night (working title);
Hani Sami (playwright/director) and
Sherif Samy (art director),
The Rabbits;
Martyna Majok (playwright) and director TBA,
Sanctuary City; and
Narcissister (playwright) and
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (co-playwright),
Untitled Narcissister Project. Artists-in-residence at the Lab will be
Asiimwe Deborah Kawe (playwright/producer) and
Bashar Markus (playwright/director). More information about the Fellows and their projects appears below.
This news release is also available in French (click here) and Arabic (click here).
All the Natalie Portmans
by C.A. Johnson
directed by Kate Whoriskey
Keyonna and her older brother Samuel are much more than siblings; they’re best friends. So when they suddenly find
themselves on the brink of eviction, this brother/sister pair harness everything, from their fleeting trust in an alcoholic
mother to an imagined friendship with a certain Hollywood starlet, in their endless pursuit of happiness at the poverty
line.
C.A. Johnson’s plays include
Thirst, The Climb, An American Feast, All the Natalie Portmans, Mother Tongue and
Elroy Learn His Name. Her work has been developed with The Lark, SPACE on Ryder Farm, the Playwrights Center, the
Dramatists Guild and The Civilians. She is the 2018 P73 Playwriting Fellow.
Kate Whoriskey directed
Sweat and
Ruined, two Pulitzer Prize winning plays written by Lynn Nottage. Her work has been seen at Broadway’s Circle
in the Square, The Public, Playwrights Horizons, MTC, The Vineyard, Theatre for a New Audience among others. Internationally,
her work has been seen in Paris, São Paulo and Sydney.
America v. 2.1: The Sad Demise & Eventual Extinction of the American Negro
by Stacey Rose
directed by Logan Vaughn
America v. 2.1: The Sad Demise & Eventual Extinction of the American Negro is a day in the life of a troupe of
historical re-enactors charged with telling the tragic story of what was once the American Negro, a woeful race once featured
prominently in the American landscape, but whose time has been extinguished at his own foolish hand. The troupe find themselves
at odds with the state of their own existences while being painfully oblivious to the parallels and intersections their
lives draw to that of the very Negroes whose story they are bound to tell. As this oblivion fades and they are faced with
their stark reality, this day in the life of actors, becomes a day of reckoning.
Stacey Rose hails from Elizabeth, NJ and Charlotte, NC respectively. She holds an M.F.A in Dramatic Writing from
NYU. Her work has been presented at The Fire This Time, The Bushwick Starr and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. She was
a 2015-16 Dramatists Guild Fellow and is a 2017-18 Playwrights’ Center Many Voices Fellow.
Logan Vaughn is a New York based artist and director. In 2008, Logan was awarded the Goodman Theatre’s prestigious
Joyce Arts Fellowship in casting and subsequently worked as an Associate in the casting department for five seasons. Logan
was Playwrights Horizons’ Director in Residence 2012-2013. In 2012, Logan was also named a Member of the Directors
Lab, Lincoln Center. As a Director, she has worked with Geva Theatre, Playwrights Realm, Baltimore Center Stage, Mosaic
Theatre, 59E59, National Black Theatre and NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Logan most recently directed the World Premiere
of Mat Smart’s
The Agitators at Geva Theatre.
Blood in Your Blood
by A. Rey Pamatmat
directed by Lisa Peterson
Star-crossed lovers, fractured time, and a lusty troll are all connected to the violent, buried history of Cora’s family.
In her quest to find out how, Cora discovers an enchanted tree that might have the answers tangled up in its roots. But
once she digs up the past, what will she do with it?
A. Rey Pamatmat’s plays include
Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (Actors Theatre of Louisville),
after all the terrible things I do (Milwaukee Rep),
House Rules (Ma-Yi) and
Thunder Above, Deeps Below (Second Generation). He co-directs the Ma-Yi Writers Lab and was a PoNY, Hodder and Princess
Grace Fellow.
Lisa Peterson has directed world premieres by Donald Margulies, Tony Kushner, Beth Henley, Jose Rivera, Naomi
Wallace, Chay Yew, Jane Anderson, Luis Alfaro, and many others at theaters including NYTW, The Public, The Vineyard, Taper,
Guthrie, ATL, La Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage, Seattle Rep, McCarter, and more. She is currently Associate Director at
Berkeley Rep.
Casablanca
by Kamal Khalladi
directed by Latefa Ahrrare
Angels don’t fly over Casablanca anymore. Casablanca is not a city of love anymore. It offers its inhabitants only
frustration and despair. This play mixes humor and tragedy to tell the story of defeated, broken, and fragile characters,
hysterically rushing toward their own ends.
Casablanca is a story of sex, money and power, the trinity that destroys people and makes them destroy each other.
Kamal Khalladi is a Moroccan Award-winner playwright. He’s an alumni of PEN World Voices, as well as of
the The Royal Court Theatre’s international program. His play
Damage was presented in London, Beirut, NYC and Morocco; and his solo pieces,
Visa and
Salmon Meal, were published in Arabic and English. In 2017, Kamal was a Fellow at the Sundance Institute Playwrights
& Composers Retreat at Ucross Foundation.
Latefa Ahrrare is a Moroccan actress and theatre director. She is also the director of Cont’N’Art,
a multidisciplinary performance venue. Letfa has received many awards in local and in international festivals for her outstanding
career in theatre, TV, and cinema. She is also a cultural activist and a founding member of many NGOs, working on promoting
the culture of human rights and freedom in Morocco.
Diary of a Chimera
Written & Performed by Intissar Chaabani
Directed by Racha Baroud
Diary of a Chimera is the story of the impossible mourning of a woman who discovers a family secret forcing her to
revisit her life and the shadows in her relationship to the father, men, her own body, and to life. This journey leads
to the abolishment of any rational notion of space and time.
Intissar Chaabani taught Arabic and French in Tunisia before moving to Paris, where she studied philosophy and
psychology, and worked in socio-professional integration. Since 2008, she’s been working as a real estate agent.
Intissar writes lyrics and poems, and has been doing theater since 1979.
Racha Baroud is a Lebanese director, actor, and performer. After her M.A. in Theatre Studies, she directed her
first in-site performance
Today was my birthday (A Musical Tribute to Tadeusz Kantor); she also performed in several plays and short films,
in addition to regular training in voice and body performance with world artists. Her personal work is mainly focuses on
memory, sacred, death and sound.
Night
(working title)
Conceived & choreographed by Ali Chahrour
Night tackles the poetry, aesthetics, and violence of Love as a concept, and the transformation of its expression
from the pre-Islamic age of Jahiliyyah through Islam up through our contemporary societies.
Night focuses on stories of transgression of the borders of religion, race, and gender; and it seeks to question the
intimacy of this feeling within the context of hatred. In this performance, bodies strive to create new beginnings, only
to find themselves unable to reach peaceful endings.
Influenced by contemporary European dance techniques,
Ali Chahrour studies the movement in its relation to societies’ memory and local contexts and identities.
His work also relies on the Islamic and Shiite religious rituals and practices, especially in his recent trilogy:
Fatmeh,
Leila’s Death, and
May He Rise and Smell the Fragrance. Ali is a graduate of the Theatre Department at The Lebanese University. Ali was
a Fellow at the 2017 Sundance Institute | LUMA Foundation Theatre Directors Retreat.
The Rabbits
Written & directed by Hani Sami
Art direction by Sherif Samy
The Rabbits is a psychedelic journey through the unconscious of both Hamdy, its main character, and Cairo, its playground.
In it, Hamdy ventures into his utmost fears and faces his personal demons when he finally decides to take action in his
life and follow his desire.
Hani Sami is a film and theatre maker based in Cairo. He holds a B.A. in Theatre from the American University
in Cairo, and a M.A. in Film Directing from the University of Jean-Jaurès in Toulouse. In his work, Hani is always experimenting
with mixing different artistic media to create new hybrid forms of storytelling.
Sherif Samy is a Cairo-based visual artist and creative director. He holds a B.A. in fine arts from Helwan University
in Cairo. His works blur the boundaries between traditional painting and digital art. With his passion for storytelling,
Sherif started to introduce new flavours to his artworks using different types of visual tools.
Sanctuary City
by Martyna Majok
Director TBA
A Cubist play about love(rs) and Dreamers, set in pre-DACA America.
Martyna Majok’s plays include
queens (LCT3/Lincoln Center),
Cost of Living (Manhattan Theatre Club, Williamstown) and
Ironbound (Steppenwolf, WP/Rattlestick). Honors include The Greenfield Prize, Lanford Wilson Prize, Helen Merrill
Award, Lilly Award, Helen Hayes Award, Jean Kennedy Smith Prize, NYTW 2050 Fellowship, The Lark’s PoNY Fellowship
and The Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University.
Untitled Narcissister Project
Written by Narcissister with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Performance and visual artist Narcissister develops an evening length spectacle about families, bodies, sex, anonymity and
rupture in collaboration with playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. This project is a commission of Soho Rep.
Narcissister is a Brooklyn-based artist and performer. Masked and merkin-ed, she works at the intersection of
dance, art and activism in a range of media including film, video art and experimental music. She has presented work worldwide
at festivals, nightclubs, museums and galleries. She won “Best Use of a Sex Toy” at The Good Vibrations Erotic
Film Festival, a Bessie Award nomination for the theatrical performance of Organ Player, Creative Capital and United States
Artists Awards, and interested in troubling the popular entertainment and experimental art divide, she appeared on
America’s Got Talent. She is a 2017 Sundance Film Festival alumna.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ plays include
Everybody (Signature Theater),
Neighbors (Public Theater),
An Octoroon (Soho Rep, OBIE Award for Best New Play),
Appropriate (Signature Theater, OBIE Award for Best New Play), and
Gloria (Vineyard Theater, Pulitzer Prize finalist). He is a Residency Five playwright-in-residence at the Signature
Theatre and the recipient of a 2016 MacArthur fellowship, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama, and the inaugural Sundance
Institute Tennessee Williams Award. He is a graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at the Juilliard
School, holds an MA in Performance Studies from NYU, and is an associate director of the Playwriting MFA program of Hunter
College, City University of New York.
Artists-in-Residence
Asiimwe Deborah Kawe is an award winning playwright, producer and performer. Currently, the Kampala International
Theatre Festival Artistic Director, and Sundance Institute Theatre Program Associate, Asiimwe worked with Sundance Theatre
Program, leading the East Africa Initiative. She received a B.A. in Theatre and an M.F.A in Writing for Performance.
Bashar Murkus is a Palestinian playwright and director and founding ensemble member of the Khashabi Theatre in
Haifa. His work has been seen in Palestine, France, Belgium, Tunisia, Ireland, Swiss the US. Murkus studied theatre at
the University of Haifa, where he now teaches acting and directing.
The Sundance Institute Theatre Program is supported by an endowment from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, with generous
additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Time Warner Foundation; Perry and Martin Granoff; National Endowment
for the Arts; Wendy vanden Heuvel; John and Marcia Price Family Foundation; LUMA Foundation; The Shubert Foundation, Inc.;
The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust; Wyncote Foundation.
Sundance Institute
Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, Sundance Institute is a nonprofit organization that provides and preserves the space
for artists in film, theatre, and new media to create and thrive. The Institute’s signature Labs, granting, and mentorship
programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. The Sundance
Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences to artists in igniting new ideas, discovering original voices,
and building a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Sundance Institute has supported such projects as
Boyhood, Swiss Army Man, Manchester By the Sea, Brooklyn, Little Miss Sunshine, Life, Animated, Sonita, 20 Feet From Stardom,
Beasts of the Southern Wild
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