WP Theater Presents

Weightless

Lisa McNulty, Producing Artistic Director
Michael Sag, Managing Director

Written by The Kilbanes
Directed by Tamilla Woodard
Choreographed by nicHi douglas

Featuring
Lila Blue, Kofy Brown, Dan Harris, Kate Kilbane, Dan Moses, Josh Pollock

Scenic Design: Peiyi Wong
Costume Design: Dina El-Aziz
Lighting Design: Stacey Derosier
Sound Design: Joanna Lynne Staub
Projection Design: Johnny Moreno
Production Management: Gary Levinson
Production Stage Manager: Sara Barnes
Press Representative: Vivacity Media Group, Leslie Papa, Whitney Holden Gore

Weightless is produced by special arrangement with piece by piece Productions

The world premiere of Weightless was developed and produced by Z Space (Lisa Steindler, Executive Artistic Director) and piece by piece productions in March 2018 at Z Space in San Francisco. In 2019, it played at A.C.T. in San Francisco, BRIC House in Brooklyn as part of the Public Theater’s Under the Radar festival, and TheaterSquared as part of the Arkansas New Play Festival.

Cast and Creatives

Performers (in alphabetical order)

WEIGHTLESS is approximately 75 minutes with no intermission

KATE KILBANE (Author/Procne/Bass, she/her) & DAN MOSES (Author/Keyboard/Vocals, he/him). The Kilbanes are a theatrical rock band led by married songwriting duo Kate and Dan. Their works for theater include Weightless (WP Theater, ACT, Public Theater’s Under the Radar, Z Space SF), The Code (American Conservatory Theater), As You Like It (San Francisco Shakespeare Festival), and Eddie the Marvelous Who Will Save the World (O’Neill National Music Theater Conference, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor). They recently received the Next Generation Commission from Theater Latte Da in Minneapolis to create a new musical with Jessie Austrian and Noah Brody of Fiasco Theater. They have performed their work in theaters and music venues throughout the United States and have been finalists for the Glickman Award and the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards.

TAMILLA WOODARD (Director, she/her) Recently named one of 50 Women to Watch on Broadway, Tamilla Woodard is Chair of the Acting Program at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University; the co-founder of the site specific international partnership, PopUP Theatrics; the former BOLD Associate Artistic Director at WP Theater and co-Artistic Director of  the Working Theatre in New York. Tamilla also served as the associate director of the Tony Award-winning Hadestown on Broadway in its premier season. Tamilla has directed at theaters nationally and internationally, including at WP Theater, Alliance Theatre, Guthrie, Baltimore Center Stage, American Conservatory Theater, Classical Theater of Harlem, The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts with TheaterWorksUSA, and The Cleveland Public Theatre, among others. Recent highlights include Gab Reisman’s Spindle Shuttle Needle for Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks and Lynn Nottage’s Sweat at the Guthrie.  Currently, Tamilla is represented online by the concert film Weightless by The Kilbanes (WP Theater); Where We Stand (Steppenwolf NOW); Theater for One’s Here We Are series by Nikkole Salter and Delanna Studi; The Parsnip Ship and MCC’s audio sci-fi This is Where We Go; and the audio drama The House of the Negro Insane by Terence Anthony, produced by the Contemporary American Theater Festival. Next up, Christina Anderson’s Ripple, the wave that carried me home at Yale Rep. Tamilla is a proud board member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and is a recipient of the Josephine Abady Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women.

nicHi douglas (Choreographer, she/he/they/we). nicHi douglas is a Brooklyn-based performer, choreographer, director, playwright, educator and ART-IVIST who spells her name with a capital H. She is the Head of Movement in the NYU/Tisch Playwrights Horizons Theater School studio. She has developed original theater work at Denver Center, Berkeley Rep, and The Public Theater, among others. She recently developed an interactive dance exhibit for the National Museum of African-American Music, and Co-Directed an evening-length event for the Women’s Summit at this year’s all-virtual Sundance Film Festival (2021). Her sacred offering for Black womxn, (pray), co-composed by Starr Busby & JJJJJerome Ellis, has been commissioned by Ars Nova. nicHi’s reparations-based mutual aid fund, nicHi’s SuSu, launched in October 2020. nicHi is currently a Resident Artist in Ars Nova’s Vision Residency 20-21 and New Victory Theater’s LabWorks Residency 20-21. Recent stage credits: A Time Like This: Music for Change (Carnegie Hall, Stage Director), Girl From the North Country (Public Theater, Associate Choreographer), where love lies fallow (Open Call/The Shed, The Public Theater, Playwright/Choreographer/Director), SKiNFoLK: An American Show (NYT Critic’s Pick//The Bushwick Starr/National Black Theater, Choreographer). Upcoming: The Harriet Holland Social Club Presents the 84th Annual Star-Burst Cotillion in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel (The Movement Theatre Company/New Georges, Movement Director)BFA, Tisch/NYU; MFA, The New School www.mynameisnichi.com | @mynameisnichi

LILA BLUE (Philomela, they/she) Off-Broadway credits include Anya in Cherry Orchard (Lake Lucille Chekhov Project), Philomela in Weightless (Z Space), and Lila in Live From the Basement (New Conservatory Theatre Center). Television and film credits include her original music in the film Story of A Girl (Lifetime), as well as original music in the documentary Each and Every Day (MTV). She is currently pursuing a B.A. at Sarah Lawrence.

KOFY BROWN (Iris/Percussion/Bass, she/her) An Oakland, Calif. musician, singer and songwriter, Kofy is a pioneering force in the Bay Area’s hip-hop soul/rock music scene. She’s played the prestigious North Sea Jazz Festival, toured with Iggy Pop, and performed with Bootsy Collins, Maceo Parker, Macy Gray and others as well as placing music on MTV, OWN and other independent films. While on tour the KBB (Kofy Brown Band), have spread the gospel of Brown’s unique style of soul, rock, funk and more all-over North America, Canada and Europe. She is also the drummer/singer for Skip The Needle and bassist/singer for Sistas in the Pit. Her music is released on her indie label Simba Music and is available on all electronic formats.   www.kofybrown.com

DAN HARRIS (Percussion, he/him) has been the drummer with the Kilbanes for over 10 years. He also plays with San Francisco rock band Society of Rockets. In the early and mid-2000s he produced hip hop with various rappers in St. Louis, and played drums with the St. Louis hip hop band Sac Lunch. When not drumming, he develops cutting-edge digital audio technologies for consumer electronics and professional audio companies. He received his Master of Science degree in Music Engineering Technology from the University of Miami Frost School of Music.

JOSH POLLOCK (Tereus/Guitar, he/him) is an actor, composer, and musician who’s performed throughout the world in about 4,000 bands and in collaborations with the likes of John Cale, Flea, Acid Mothers Temple, and Van Dyke Parks, amongst others.  He was last seen on stage playing drums and all the old white dudes in The Shotgun Players’ My H8 Letter To The Gr8 American Theater, on television as Wolverine #2 in the series “Trauma” (NBC), and on film as Coughing Man in Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion.  He can also be heard narrating the audiobook of I’m Your Man: The Life Of Leonard Cohen, by Sylvie Simmons.   JoshPollockInc.com

PEIYI WONG (Scenic Design) is a scenographer and interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY.  She designs sets, installations, and costumes for live performance and film.  Select off-Broadway and downtown credits include set+costume design: The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Transport Group), A Hunger Artist (Sinking Ship|The Tank), MukhAgni (The Public UTR), The Seventh Voyage and All the Different Ways…(Theater in Quarantine); set design:  The Vicksburg Project (Mabou Mines), Songs About Trains (Radical Evolution|Working Theater),  Look Out Sh!^head (Object Collection|La Mama), Memoirs of a…Unicorn (NYLA, 2018 Bessie Award Outstanding Design), Charleses (The Tank, Hewes nomination); costume design for Namour (ARRAY feature film, on Netflix).  Upcoming: SPEECH (Lightning Rod Special).  Faculty at Playwrights Horizons Theater School, NYU Tisch.  MFA, CalArts.  www.peiyiameliawong.com

DINA EL-AZIZ (Costume Design, she/her/hers) Regional Theater: Selling Kabul (Seattle Rep); Unseen (OSF); When Monica Met Hillary, (Miami New Drama); This is Who I Am (OSF/Woolly Mammoth/The Guthrie/ART/PlayCo); 9 Parts of Desire (Portland Center Stage); King Lear (Northern Stage); Noura (The Guthrie); Noura (The Old Globe); Selling Kabul (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Off-Broadway: The Vagrant Trilogy (The Public Theater); Spindle Shuttle Needle (Clubbed Thumb); Heartland (Geva Theater/59E59); First Down (Noor Theater/59E59); Hindsight (Fault Line Theater); Eh Dah? Questions for My Father (Hypokrit Theatre); The Russian and The Jew (Anna and Kitty Inc/The Tank); Dead Are My People (Noor Theater). Other Theater: One Night, P*ssyC*ck Know Nothing, Marjana and the Forty Thieves Pay No Attention To The Girl, (Target Margin Theater); Design for Stage and Film M.F.A. – NYU Tisch School of the Arts. www.dinae.me

STACEY DEROSIER (Lighting Design, she/her) Credits: Fat Ham (Public Theater), sandblasted (Vineyard Theatre and WP Theater, Lortel nomination), This Beautiful Future (TheaterLab), The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (The Shed), The Last of the Love Letters (Atlantic Theater Company), Stew (Page 73), for all the women who thought they were mad (Soho Rep), White Noise conceived by Daniel Fish (NYU Skirball), Playing Hot! (Pipeline Theater Company), Lewiston/Clarkston (Rattlestick Playwright’s Theater). 2018 Recipient of The Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award.

JOANNA LYNNE STAUB (Sound Design, she/her) returns to WP Theater, having previously designed Hatef**k and the 2018 Pipeline Festival. She is a NYC-based Sound Designer and Audio Engineer with over 30 years of experience in Live Entertainment. Her Off-Broadway and Regional designs include work at Alliance Theatre, Asolo Rep, 5th Avenue Theatre Seattle, Goodman Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Public Theater, and Seattle REP. She has extensive credits associate designing and engineering Broadway Shows and National Touring Companies. TV credits include audio engineering the NBC-Live! Productions of The Sound of Music, Peter Pan, and The Wiz. Her work as a recording engineer was honored with a 2022 GRAMMY Nomination for Best Musical Theatre Album for Snapshots. She has lectured at Ithaca College, Princeton University, and University of Cincinnati. She holds degrees in music and audio engineering from Ithaca College and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jlssound.com

JOHNNY MORENO (Projection / Video Design) is a production designer, film & video maker and educator working in Live Music, Theater, Film & Video. For over a decade he has toured internationally as a video director & designer with multi-Grammy Award winning singer Lila Downs. As a film / video maker & cinematographer, he directs and creates visual material across a variety of mediums. Projects include work for composer Hans Zimmer, Production Design on José Rivera’s short film The Fall of a Sparrow, Executive Producer on award winning short film Early Light. He provided camera work for designer Peter Nigrini on Broadway’s MJ the Musical, Dear Evan Hansen and MCC’s Space Dogs of the Cosmodrome. Theater Design: Fandango for Butterflies and Coyotes (La Jolla Playhouse), For All the Women Who Thought They Were Mad; (Soho Rep), Addressless; (Rattlestick Theater), A Grave is Given Supper; (New Ohio Theater / Teatro Dallas), Definition; (Bushwick Starr) Art / Public Installations include: Sweet Crude Video Sculpture (Anna Kustera Gallery), As Above So Below (Dumbo Arts Festival) Upcoming: Public Obscenities; (Soho Rep).  johnnymoreno.com IG/Twitter: @johnnymoreno

E. SARA BARNES (Production Stage Manager, she/her) NYC: Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (WP Theater), Broadway Bounty Hunter (Greenwich House Theater), Jersey Boys (New World Stages), Pacific Overtures (Classic Stage); Oh, Hello (Cherry Lane); Straight (Theatre Row); By the Water (Manhattan Theatre Club); Pageant (Davenport Theater); Bloodsong of Love (Ars Nova); The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise (Play Company); Three Men on a Horse, Bedroom Farce (The Actors Company Theatre); Twelfth Night  (Sonnet Repertory Theatre). REGIONAL: May We All (TPAC), Other World (DTC), Broadway Bounty Hunter (Barrington Stage Company), Gypsy! (starring Karen Ziemba, Sharon Playhouse), I Promised Myself to Live Faster, Twelfth Night, Zero Cost House (Pig Iron Theatre Co.); Guys and Dolls, Saving Aimee, Memphis! Hello, Dolly! (5th Avenue Theatre).

ALEXIS NALBANDIAN (Assistant Stage Manager, she/her) Broadway: MJ (PA), Ain’t Too Proud (PA), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (PA), The Cher Show (PA). Off Broadway: Encores: Into the Woods (PA), Coal Country (PA/SM). Regional: Ain’t Misbehavin’ (ASM). She is thankful to be a part of this production of Weightless. Proud graduate of Columbia University’s MFA Stage Management Program, Class of 2019. Thank you to my friends and family for all the love and support.

VIVACITY MEDIA GROUP (Press Representative) is honored to have worked with WP for eight incredible seasons! Select Broadway credits include: POTUS; Jagged Little Pill; On Your Feet!; Rock of Ages; Romeo & Juliet (w/ Orlando Bloom); Slava’s SnowShow and the upcoming Once Upon A One More Time. Off-Broadway: Little Shop of Horrors; Titanique; Melissa Etheridge – My Window; In & Of Itself; Accidentally Brave; A Clockwork Orange; Cruel Intentions; White Rabbit Red Rabbit; Heathers; The Other Josh Cohen; and more.

LISA McNULTY (Producing Artistic Director, she/her/hers) is an award-winning Broadway, off-Broadway and regional theater producer in her eighth season as the Producing Artistic Director of WP Theater. Lisa comes to WP from Manhattan Theatre Club, where she served as Artistic Line Producer for eight seasons, working on more than 30 productions both on and off Broadway, including plays by Lynn Nottage, Sarah Treem, Harvey Fierstein, and Tarell Alvin McCraney, among many, many others. Lisa has a long history with WP Theater. She was originally hired by the company’s founder, Julia Miles, as the Literary Manager from 1997-2000, where she dramaturged work by María Irene Fornés, Julie Hébert, and Karen Hartman, among others, and in 2004, she returned to WP as its Associate Artistic Director, working on projects with artists including Diane Paulus and Dierdre Murray, Rinne Groff, and Lisa D’Amour. From 2000-2004 she was McCarter Theater’s Producing Associate, and her independent producing career includes projects with Sarah Ruhl, Todd Almond, Lucy Thurber and Lear Debessonet. Lisa’s leadership is underwritten by the BOLD Theater Women’s Leadership Circle, an initiative to support and promote women’s theater leadership funded by The Pussycat Foundation.

MICHAEL SAG (Managing Director, he/him/his), in his sixth season at WP, was most recently the general manager for Williamstown Theatre Festival’s 62nd season (2016) which included four world premieres (one of which, Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living, won the Pulitzer prize for Drama), one American premiere and two revivals.  Prior to that, Michael worked in commercial general management on and off Broadway since 2001 including production of: Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, All The Way, Bullets Over Broadway, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Driving Miss Daisy, August: Osage County, The Producers, Hairspray, Little Shop of Horrors, Sweeney Todd, and Stomp.  In addition, from 2006 to 2009, Michael headed a representative office in Shanghai out of which several Asian touring projects were launched.  Michael is currently an adjunct professor at Montclair State University and serves as both the President of the Association for Non-Profit Theater Companies and of Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Montclair, NJ.

PIECE BY PIECE PRODUCTIONS – Is a not for profit organization that was started in 1999 by Wendy vanden Heuvel. Its mission is to produce film and theater that is socially, politically, and spiritually relevant to our times. piece by piece productions is very interested in supporting the development of theatre artists and their original work through workshops, readings, and the productions of new plays. Productions have included: Medea directed by Deborah Warner with Fiona Shaw on Broadway (associate producer), The Tricky Part by Martin Moran, Ode to the Man Who Kneels by Richard Maxwell, in association with the NY City Players, and The Walworth Farce by Enda Walsh, Mabou Mines DollHouse, and Emma Rice’s Brief Encounter, all in association with St Ann’s Warehouse, My Name is Rachel Corrie with The Royal Court Theatre, Too Much Memory in association with Rising Phoenix Repertory, Slipping in association with Rising Phoenix Repertory and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Elective Affinities by David Adjmi in association with Rising Phoenix Repertory and Soho Rep, 3C also by David Adjmi in association with Rising Phoenix Repertory and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, undermybed by Florencia Lozano, and Yosemite by Daniel Talbott in association with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and Brian Mertes and Melissa Kievman’s Lake Lucille Chekhov Project (Ivanov 2010, Seagull 2011).

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WP Theater

WP THEATER now in its 45th Season, is the nation’s oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of Women+ at every stage in their careers. For over four decades we have served as leaders at the forefront of a global movement towards gender parity, and the example we set and the artists we have fostered have grown into a robust and thriving community of artists in theater and beyond. WP Theater received a 2018 Lucille Lortel Award,  a 2019 Obie Award, and a 2020 Drama Desk Award,  all for Outstanding Body of Work, recognizing WP’s unique place and vital work in the theatrical landscape. WP empowers Women+ of all kinds to reach their full potential and, in doing so, challenges preconceptions about the kinds of plays women write and the stories they tell. As the premiere launching pad for some of the most influential Women+ theater artists today, our work has had a significant impact on the field at large. Nearly every prolific female theater artist has been through our doors, including 2019 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Musical, Rachel Chavkin, 2018 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Play, Rebecca Taichman, 2013 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Play, Pam MacKinnon, 2013 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Musical, Diane Paulus, 2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner Martyna Majok, and two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner Lynn Nottage. These powerful women found an artistic home at WP and are a testament to our role as a driving cultural force.

When we say Women+ we mean: cis women, trans, non-binary, or gender-nonconforming people and all gender identities which have been systematically oppressed throughout history in the theater and beyond.

CREATIVE TEAM

Author: The Kilbanes
Director: Tamilla Woodard
Choreographer: nicHi douglas
Scenic Design: Peiyi Wong
Costume Design: Dina El-Aziz
Lighting Design: Stacey Derosier
Sound Design: Joanna Lynne Staub
Projection Design: Johnny Moreno
Music Director: Dan Moses
Properties Rhys: Roffey

STAFF FOR WEIGHTLESS

Production Stage Manager: E. Sara Barnes
Assistant Stage Manager: Alexis Nalbandian
Vocal Coach: Vicki Shaghoian
Production Manager: Gary Levinson
Technical Supervisor: Teddy Mueller
Assistant Director: Kayla Amani
Associate Scenic Designer: Anthony Freitas
Associate Costume Designer: Hannah Mattingly
Assistant Projections Designer: Ammy Roth
Associate Sound Designer: Alex Brock
Light Board Programmer: Kenneth Elliot
Covid Safety Manager: Petricia Hall
House Manager: Oladoyin Ogunsola
Front of House Staff: Ashline Arnaud, Quincy Confoy, Paige Esterly, Ndaya Hoskins, Felicia Josey, Jackie Leon, Safwa Ozair, Michael Vallardes
Production Photography: Joan Marcus
Production Electrician: Tom Dyer
Production Audio: Colten Longfitt
A1: Nora Simonson
A2: Alexis Attalla
Wardrobe Supervisor: Paul Orama
Additional Wardrobe: Piper Ferguson
Light/Projections Board Operator: TK
Scenery: by Object Fabrication
Lighting Equipment: Hayden Production Services
Audio and Projection Equipment: PRG

The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are members of ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States

The Director and Choreographer are members of the STAGE DIRECTORS AND CHOREOGRAPHERS SOCIETY, a national theatrical labor union

UNITED SCENIC ARTISTS, Local USA 829, is a labor union and professional association of Designers, Artists and Craftspeople

SPECIAL THANKS

Pam MacKinnon, Eric Brizee and the team at American Conservatory Theater, Natalie Elder and the team at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Eric Ting and the team at CalShakes, Lisa Steindler and the team at Z Space, Becca Wolf, Julia Brothers, Frances Wallace, Diana Helander and Austen Woods

WP Staff

WP Lab
2022-2024 Lab Members

Playwrights
Amara Janae Brady
Christin Eve Cato
Queen Esther
Amina Henry
Else Went

Directors
Jordana De La Cruz
Onyekachi Iwu
Julia Sirna-Frest
Dina Vovsi
Ran Xia

Producers
Alverneq Lindsay
Emma Orme
Sami Pyne
Barbara Samuels
Praycious Wilson-Gay

WP Board
Sandy Ashendorf, Co-Chairperson
Lisa Timmel, Co-Chairperson
David Singleton, Treasurer
Michelle S. Riley Secretary
Serra E. Eken
Donnetta Lavinia Grays
Jessica R. Jenen
Casey Kemper
Samantha Sullivan Kindler
David Manella, Esq.
Kelly Miller
Joseph P. Petito, Esq.
Stephen M. Rosenberg, Esq.
Rachel Sussman
Tamilla Woodard
Lisa McNulty
Michael Sag

Julia Miles, Founder & Artistic Director Emerita

About This Theater

WP Theater stands on Lenape Land. Before this building came into existence, this was wooded land filled with villages of families active with trading and gathering spaces. While descendants of those first families live in this area today, many Native folks were forcibly removed with the arrival of European settler colonists. It was on an empty corner lot of this land that a small church was built, then taken apart and rebuilt into this building.

The “skyscraper church” that holds this theater, once the Manhattan Congregational Church, has housed many businesses and residents since its construction in 1930, including 200 WAVES during World War II. In 1969, the first-floor auditorium of the church was transformed into the Promenade Theatre, named after its inaugural production: the María Irene Fornés musical, Promenade, a show recently revived at Encores! Off-Center. Though WP’s theater sits on the third floor, we are delighted to produce work in a building with a theatrical history forged by Fornés, a woman whose leadership of the off-off-Broadway movement and longtime collaboration with WP helped secure the legacy of this institution and paved the way for future female theatremakers. In 1979, Carole Rothman and Robyn Goodman co-founded Second Stage Theatre and made this their permanent venue in 1984, dubbing the theater McGinn/Cazale after the late actors Walter McGinn and John Cazale. McGinn’s widow Robyn Goodman and Cazale’s fiancée Meryl Streep wanted to honor the actors’ passion for their craft and commitment to the New York theater community in the dedication of this theater and Second Stage’s first ever production. Second Stage partnered with WP on the shared use of the McGinn/Cazale in 2015, as WP Theater had not had a permanent home since the closing of the Julia Miles Theater, named after our founder, in 2011. To encourage this growth, Jann Leeming, Board Chair Emerita,, and Executive Director and Senior Trustee of the Royal Little Family Foundation, generously gifted WP a founding grant to support our first three years’ residence in this building.  WP Theater now celebrates 45 years years of challenging preconceptions about the kinds of stories Women+ tell and working towards gender parity in theater. Since WP Theater mounted its inaugural production in this venue, the New York premiere of Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl, we have been honored to make this storied theater a home for Women+ to reach their full potential.

APPLY for the SPACE PROGRAM!

The Space Program is a brand new initiative to offer discounted space at WP Theater’s home @ 76th and Broadway and to provide affordable producing options for our artistic community.

Who is the ideal Space Program participant?

Our goal for the Space Program is to provide subsidized space to mission-aligned individual artists and small budget not-for-profit companies who might otherwise not be able to produce because of the financial constraints of renting performance space.

The criteria below will also be a factor in participation:

• Is your production WP mission-aligned; written & directed by Women+ artists, and the rest of the team assembled with a focus on gender equity?
• Does the composition of your cast and creative team demonstrate a commitment to racial equity?
• When was your application received?  Order of receipt is not a primary factor, but decisions may be made quickly.

*When we say Women+ we mean: cis women, trans, non-binary, or gender-nonconforming people and all gender identities which have been systematically oppressed throughout history in the theater and beyond.

For more information:

Email thespaceprogram@wptheater.org for:

• Theater Specs
• In-House Lighting/Sound Package Info
• Current Covid-19 Protocols
• Additional questions/needs

To apply:

Email thespaceprogram@wptheater.org with:

• a brief description of your production
• budget and production scope
• names of the lead creative team
• availability for January 9-February 5, 2023 and May 1-June 25, 2023

MEET THE ‘22-’24 WP THEATER LAB!

“I practice what I learned in the WP Lab every single day. I would not be the artistic producer I am now without WP Theater. If the rising tide lifts all boats, the community at WP lab is the ocean I feel lucky to be a part of. Let them lead the American Theater, and see how that tide will rise!”

– Maria Manuela Goyanes, Artistic Director of Woolly Mammoth Theater Company

Playwrights
Amara Janae Brady
Christin Eve Cato
Queen Esther
Amina Henry
Else Went

Directors
Jordana De La Cruz
Onyekachi Iwu
Julia Sirna-Frest
Dina Vovsi
Ran Xia

Producers
Alverneq Lindsay
Emma Orme
Sami Pyne
Barbara Samuels
Praycious Wilson-Gay

The artistic heart of WP Theater lies in the Lab: a two-year residency for playwrights, directors and producers that has served over 350 artists since its founding as The Director’s Forum in 1983. The Lab has two main goals: to cultivate the work of Women+ artists, and to give them the tools they need to succeed in the industry. Selected through a highly competitive process, the Lab provides its members with a vital professional network, entrepreneurial and leadership training, rehearsal space, and most significantly, tangible opportunities for the development and production of bold new work for the stage. In addition to developing their own unique work, the Lab residency culminates in the biennial Pipeline Festival, a festival of five new plays written, directed and produced by the Lab.

WP Theater Gratefully Thanks Our Supporters

GLASS CEILING SMASHER (Contributions of $25,000 and above)

• Art Lab, LLC
• Helen Gurley Brown Foundation
• Howard Gilman Foundation Inc.
• Laurents Hatcher Foundation, Inc.
• The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation New York Theater Program
• The Andrew W. Mellon Artist Grant
• The National Endowment for the Arts
• New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA)
• NYC Department of Cultural Affairs
• Paul & Jenna Segal Family Foundation
• Shubert Foundation, Inc.
• Stavros Niarchos Foundation

REVOLUTIONARY (Contributions of $10,000 and above)

• Jennifer Chambers/The MCJ Amelior Foundation
• Distracted Globe Foundation
• The Hyde and Watson Foundation
• Horace Goldsmith Foundation
• Jana Hesser & Tim Davidson
• Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation
• Royal Little Family Foundation
• Michelle Riley & Susi Kandel
• Elaine & David Singleton
• Iris Smith
• Joseph Petito, Esq.
• Sharon Sullivan & Jeffrey Kindler
• Tiger Baron Foundation
• Lisa Timmel & David Stuart Markus

FRONT RUNNER (Contributions of $5,000 and above)

• American Tower
• Sandy & Ron Ashendorf
• George Forbes/Lucille Lortel Foundation
• Stephen Rosenberg/Inez Benjamin Foundation
• Thomas Schumacher
• V & L Marx Foundation

ACTIVIST (Contributions of $1,500 and above)

• David Manella, Esq.
• Dara & Robin Miles
• Carin & Chris Moeder
• New York Theatre Workshop
• Mickey Rolfe
• Jana Shea
• SpotCo
• Rachel Sussman
• Kathleen & Andrew Sutton

PIONEER (Contributions of $2,500 and above)

• Anonymous
• Diana DiMenna
• Serra Eken
• John Golden Fund, Inc.
• Jessica Jenen & Mark Shapiro
• Jordan Roth/Jujamcyn Theatres
• Mary & Casey Kemper
• M&T Bank
• Niclas Nagler & Alberto Alvarez
• Judy & Robert Rubin
• Ann & Richard Sarnoff
• Xin Wen
• WMK Productions Inc

CHANGE MAKER (Contributions of $1,000 and above)

• James Abbott
• Judith Barlow
• Ellen & Ray Brunsberg
• Kathleen Chalfant
• Bonnie Comley & Stewart Lane
• Lori & Edward Forstein
• Julia Miles Family
• Jane Ann Crum
• Carol Kindler
• Tom Kirdahy
• Julie Leff
• Caroline Maroney
• Ivan Oransky & Cate Vodjik
• Pfizer Inc.
• Daryl Roth
• Joann Valentino
• V. L. Williams
• Tamilla Woodard & Mike Jackson

TREND SETTER (Contributions of $500 and above)

• Ron Abel
• Leslie Baden Papa
• Elizabeth Berman
• Sallie Bingham
• Jamila Ponton Bragg
• Alexander Donnelly
• Taneisha Duggan
• Brandilyn Dumas
• Susan Engel/American Gift Fund
• Teresa Eyring
• Wendy Federman
• Michael Gerling
• Nancy Gibbs
• Marg Helgenberger
• Kendra Holloway
• Jin Hu
• Liz & Alan Jaffe
• George Jalinos
• Julie Jensen
• Lisa Kalish
• Sharon Karmazin
• Rachel Karpf
• Samantha Kindler
• Bud Kroll
• Rob Laqui
• Emily Mann
• Judith Manocherian
• Gwen Marcus & Nancy Alpert
• Elysa Marden
• Lisa Miles
• Kelly Miller
• Liz Morten
• Gayle Robinson
• Michele Rosenberg
• Arlene Rubenstein
• Linda B. Rubin
• Cari & Dan Sommer
• Barbara Stern
• Sarah Tanner
• Kara Van Norden
• Mark Villanueva

There is not enough room to list all our generous donations, but we are so grateful for all donors of any amount. Every donation is so important and helps us continue to put Women+ voices center stage! Donations are up to date through September 2, 2022. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Please contact Ria Binaoro at ria@wptheater.org with questions. Thank you!