Thank you to Orlando-based Boots on the Ground Theater, who reached out a couple weeks ago and asked me to put a short visual response together as an artist feature contributing to their "Why Art?" campaign. Please follow Boots on the Ground Theater, and check in with their storytelling prompts and constant community engagement initiatives.
Q Fest @ Adventure Theatre MTC & 4615 Theatre Company
Co-produced by Adventure Theatre MTC and 4615 Theatre Company, Q Fest — an all-day marathon of live readings of flash-created 10-minute plays — livestreams Sunday, April 19, 2020, and will feature over 50 new plays. I will be joining the cast of DC-based professional actors performing these works, reading in the 4pm to 7pm window. Click here for a complete schedule. The event will be livestreamed from both companies’ Facebook pages. Tune in to the 4pm to 7pm window here.
4pm Block
Alexandra, Play by Nicholas Michael Bashour (Aya)
The Birthday Boy by Ricky Drummond (Nathan)
Post-Pandemic Party by Rahima Rice (Marcel)
The Enemy by Jonathon Benjamin (Dr. Fox)
5pm Block
Lest Ye Be Judged by Craig Houk (BREAK)
Bio-logical Clock by Isabel Brodsky (The Clock)
Waiting for God by Noa Gelb (Dove)
A Furloughed Engagement by Colton Needles (Alex)
Together A Part by Andrew Scott Zimmer (Vanessa)
6pm Block
Breezy by Michael Crowley (Parent 1)
She Climbed Everest by Daniel Prillaman (Freddo)
Peeing the Bed by Morgan Smalley (BREAK)
A Good Old-Fashioned Gay Home-Birth by John-Nicholas Walsh (Edgar)
Lab A @ Performance Interface Lab
I have launched a new projected called the Performance Interface Lab, founded in late March 2020 in response to the closure of traditional theatrical venues from the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing social distancing measures. The goal of the Performance Interface Lab (PIL) is to reckon with the spatial, social, and creative limits being placed upon us right now and to recontextualize them as opportunities to adapt and renew the platform of theatre. This is a laboratory intended to explore that. The lab has produced a separate series of live, interactive, at-home, theatre-for-one pieces to be performed in 30 minutes or less for each added month of stay-at-home orders.
Lab A features 3 new works: woolgatherings, Couples Therapy, and OUT OF TIME. As artistic director, I have served as producer, creative consultant, box office manager, and stage manager for each of these pieces.
Crafted by Pete Danelski & Jordan Clark Halsey, woolgatherings is an instruction-based piece investigating ritualized space, the nature of making connections, and the power of naming your “ghosts.” Read Patrick McLean’s review on No Proscenium here.
Couples Therapy, by Lily Kerrigan & Matthew Marcus, crafts an improvisation-based, problem-solving experience for the interactive theatergoer eager to dive headfirst into a session. Tune in below for an interview with the team on NY theatre critic Asya Gorovits’ vlog.
Joan Cummins & Susan Stroupe’s piece OUT OF TIME is a guided exploration of navigation and how we conceive of time.
Lab A runs April 10 through 26, Thursday through Sunday evenings, and Saturday/Sunday afternoons, in half-hour time slots. All pieces are to be experienced from within your home, and thus require a basic technical interface and WiFi through which to communicate. The interfaces (phone, Zoom, video game, etc.) being used by each piece are specified on the website. Please visit the company website here to purchase Pay-What-You-Will tickets and learn more, and follow us on Facebook to stay updated on future lab cycles or to submit a proposal.
UPDATE: After selling out our initially scheduled run, OUT OF TIME has extended through May 3, due to popular demand. Reserve tickets here.
Quarantine Movement Chain Letters
In mid-March with the start of the DMV’s stay-at-home orders, I began crafting the Quarantine Movement Chain Letters, a series of exquisite corpse-style, compilation dance films featuring over 60 artists throughout the DC arts community, designed to unite and encourage folks to find joy in their bodies amidst adversity.
Please feel free to check out DC Theatre Scene’s feature on the project here. Then continue scrolling down to see each piece so far.
Quarantine Movement Chain Letter #1 - i’m fine
Movers: Kelly King, Jared H. Graham, Maria Simpkins, Joshua Cole Lucas, Acacia Danielson, Kathleen Akerley, Irene Hamilton, Jon Jon Johnson, Ezra Tozian, Amy King, Morgan Flanagan, Paige Washington
Quarantine Movement Chain Letter #2 - wriggle
Movers: Julia Klavans, Jordan Clark Halsey, Shubhangi Kuchibhotla, Ashton Muñiz, Francesca Chilcote, Colin Connor, Paige Arredondo, Linda Bard, Lee Liebeskind, Julia Ruth Holland, Thomas Beheler, Molly Cohen, Katie DuBois Maguire, Annalisa Dias, Emily Brown, Maryam Najafzada
Quarantine Movement Chain Letter #3 - watch me dance
Movers: Mary May, Paola Vanessa Losada, Rachel Hynes, Scott Ward Abernethy, Rachael Montgomery, Mikayla Goetz, Nutsa Tediashvili, Darius Johnson, Jennifer Knight, Alex Mills, Rachel Small, Noa Gelb, Malena Pennycook, Janine Baumgardner, Ryan Sellers, Kathryn Elizabeth Kelly, Courtney McGowan
Quarantine Movement Chain Letter #4 - the bedroom bop
Movers: Joshua Cole Lucas, Paola Vanessa Losada, Malena Pennycook, Jonathan Del Palmer, Suzy Alden, Thomas Beheler, Mikayla Goetz, Erin Denman, Julia Ruth Holland, Emily Whitworth, Annalisa Dias, Kathleen Akerley, Paige Washington, Shubhangi Kuchibhotla
"The Bedroom Bop" is a track from "NAVID-19" a 19 song, 19 minute coronavirus mood ring by Navi. It's available as a Pay If You Want download here.
Private Lessons & Master Classes w/ The Actors' Center
Just because you are homeschooling, that does not mean that the role of the arts in your curriculum is any less important! NYU & RADA (London) graduate offering private & group lessons remotely via Zoom for Voice for Actors, Laban Movement Analysis, College Audition Monologue Selection & Prep, Shakespeare Verse & Text Study, & Kamishibai Japanese Theatre. Or from a museum educator background (with experience at the Kreeger and the Hirshhorn Museums), if interested in a guest lecturer for your homeschooling plans, I can give "virtual museum" tours of various art historical movements. I also teach Intro to Architecture, Design, & Urban Planning at the National Building Museum, and would be happy to share that lesson with your students. Lessons available for grades 3-12. Please check out the new Classes website tab.
Additionally, I have begun teaching weekly voice master classes and more casual voice “workouts” with DC’s The Actors’ Center. Learn more about those classes and browse the itinerary here. Learn more about The Actors’ Center here.
Find out more about my teaching style in an interview featured in artist Anna Lynch’s weekly newsletter by clicking on the image below.
COVID-19 Update
I just wanted to provide an update on scheduled spring projects due to the COVID-19 health crisis.
4615 Theatre Company’s production of Museum 2040 will close two weeks early, on March 15.
Through the amazing efforts of the McKinley Elementary School administration and in under 24 hours of preparation, we were able to record a no-audience run of their spring production of Momotaro, directed by me through Educational Theatre Company, in order to circulate amongst the families of the 50-student company. This occurred after Arlington County Public Schools closed our production on March 12, the day it was scheduled to open, and announced that all schools would close for distance learning beginning the following Monday, March 16.
Arts on the Horizon’s spring production of By the Seashore is postponed indefinitely, as well as its scheduled subsequent remount at the Kennedy Center, for the National TYA Conference in May.
Baltimore Center Stage’s Young Playwrights Festival 2020 event celebrating this year’s winners and producing their plays, is postponed indefinitely.
Goethe-Institut’s commission of Schubertiade, reassembling the team from Spooky Action’s The Lady from the Village of Falling Flowers, is postponed indefinitely.
We Happy Few’s spring production of Cyrano de Bergerac at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop is postponed indefinitely.
Adventure Theatre MTC’s summer production of Madagascar is postponed indefinitely.
All scheduled spring and spring break classes with Educational Theatre Company, Baltimore Center Stage, and Imagination Stage have been canceled.
All scheduled tours with the Kreeger Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, and the National Building Museum have been canceled.
This will be a tough time for freelance artists. Please consider donating to theatreWashington’s Taking Care COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund here. Personal donations will be accepted on Venmo @dmarredondo.
Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200 @ Baltimore Center Stage
Congratulations Deep Creek Middle School! I am thrilled to announce that Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200, the play written by the Deep Creek Middle School Drama Club under my mentorship during my residency with them through Baltimore Center Stage in fall 2019, has been selected as one of the winners of this year’s Young Playwrights Festival. The play is one of six winning plays selected from a pool of over 180 applicants. Each winning play will receive a fully-realized, fully-designed production in the Pearlstone Theater at Baltimore Center Stage, performed by professional actors, on Friday, March 27, 2020, at 6pm. Please reserve your free ticket here. You can read their play by clicking on the image below.
In the nine, in-school sessions of the YPF Residency Program, Baltimore Center Stage’s professional teaching artists will lead 2nd-12th grade classes of up to 25 students through the playwriting process; producing short plays that can be submitted to the annual Young Playwrights Festival competition. Learn more about residencies and the Young Playwrights Festival here.
By the Seashore @ Arts on the Horizon
I will be making my Arts on the Horizon debut with By the Seashore, directed by Kate Debelack. Using an imaginative mix of puppetry, movement, and sound, Arts on the Horizon crafts sensory-filled productions specifically for babies and young toddlers. This production will perform March 20 through April 4, at 10:30am Wednesdays through Fridays, and at 10am and 11:30am on Saturdays. Performances held at the Convergence Main Building in Alexandria, VA. Reserve tickets here. Learn more about Arts on the Horizon here.
By the Seashore takes us on a magical journey to a place children love to visit — the beach! Young audience members are invited to explore all the amazing things we find on the shore, in the ocean, and in the sky; from birds and fish, to sand and water, and everything in between!
Additionally, By the Seashore has been asked to perform at the National TYA Festival held at the Kennedy Center in their new REACH Building, from May 14 to 17. Performances will take place on May 15. Learn more about TYA/USA here.
Momotaro w/ Educational Theatre Company
I am overjoyed to be collaborating with McKinley Elementary School, as an ambassador of Educational Theatre Company, on Momotaro, a devised musical based on the popular Japanese folktale. I will serve as playwriting facilitator and director, working with a phenomenal team of fellow DC actors: Zoe Walpole production managing, Alani Kravitz music directing, Nigel Rowe composing, and Rachael Montgomery choreographing. The piece, comprised of a company of 40 talented McKinley students, performs March 12 & 13. Follow the school website for more show updates. Learn more about ETC here.
In ancient Japan, a woman longs for a child of her own. Her wish is granted when a huge peach floats down the river and breaks open to reveal a baby boy, who she names Momotaro — “peach boy.” Years later, when a terrible curse is put on his village, Momo is forced to take a stand against the demons terrorizing his home. With the help of some animal friends he meets along the way, the spirits of his ancestors, and an ancient family recipe, they journey to the fabled Oni Island to confront the demons face-to-face.
Museum 2040 w/ 4615
I will be joining the cast of Museum 2040, a world premiere experience written by Renee Calarco and directed by Jordan Friend, as Senator Ryan Hirota. This immersive theatrical event, produced by 4615 Theatre Company, will use the satellite venue of Dance Loft on 14th Street, for happenings from March 5 to 29. For a more detailed performance calendar and to reserve tickets, click here. Learn more about 4615 here.
It’s 2040. The United States is still recovering from a devastating yet oddly familiar event that nobody saw coming. Out of the ashes of the tragedy rises a memorial museum — The Museum of the Unforeseen — dedicated to preserving the memories of the day when everything changed. Part performance piece, part exhibit, Museum 2040 asks us to consider the politics of memory and national identity.
