ARTISTS
Tierra Allen
Tierra Aubrianna Allen contributes to movements for collective liberation as a theater maker, teaching artist, activist, cultural producer, and more. she’s co-created spaces braiding performance, activism, healing, and critical consciousness-raising at community-based organizations, theaters, schools, and public parks, behind prison walls and in the streets. they recently wrote, directed, and performed in the speculative abolitionist short film THE REMEMBERING TIME, commissioned for Shotgun Players’ 30/30 Vision Project.
OreOluwa Badaki
OreOluwa Badaki is a Ph.D candidate in the Literacy, Culture, and International Education Division at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. She began her career in education organizing community engagement projects with middle school students in Khayelitsha, South Africa. OreOluwa then became a middle school Language Arts teacher in Navajo, New Mexico. There, she designed a cross-cultural community engagement program for her students in Navajo and students she taught over the summers in Kumasi, Ghana. Similar to her students in South Africa, students in this program designed projects that used the arts, literacy skills, and research skills to confront issues of community health and environmental justice.
April (Axé) Charmaine
April (Axé) Charmaine, she & they, an award-winning artist, has taught, performed, and trained in the United States, Ghana, Brasil, Guatemala, Colombia, France, and Spain. With a background in dances of the African Diaspora (Hip Hop, West African, Symbology of the Orixas), they have trained in: Modern (Horton/Dunham/Limon), SomaSource, 5 Rhythms, Ecstatic Dance, Laban, Ballet, Jazz, Musical Theatre, Guerilla Theatre, Performance Art, Yoga, Meditation, Improv and Creative Movement. Axé has fused many of these modalities to create SOL VIDA movement methodology, their personal style that fuses the form and freedom of cross-cultural, contemporary, and conscious styles of dance and expression.
ïe chié
ïe chié means path to the moon in Muysccubun. Everything I create is to honor my ancestors and to revitalize Muisca culture. My purpose as an artist is to educate others on my peoples and our magic. Despite colonizers trying to eradicate our existence, I still live on and my creations will never die. I am here to take up space that was taken from me. My art is me yelling “ I AM MYSCA I AM HERE I AM QUEER” in the hopes of someone seeing my work and saying those exact words back to me.
Tiff Lin
Tiff Lin is a queer creative living in unceded Ohlone territory (Oakland, CA).They are a community organizer, facilitator of healing, and proud Taiwanese American committed to promoting cross-cultural understanding through immersive storytelling. Their own healing centers around cultural identity and decolonizing the body and the mind. As an emerging artist, they hope to amplify marginalized voices and share stories of struggle while fostering community resilience and belonging within the Asian diaspora. Currently, their work is being produced by the Forum Collective.
Lama El Homaïssi
Lama El Homaïssi is an NYC-based writer, performer and arts educator from Beirut, Lebanon, and a graduate of the MFA Musical Theater program at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She has performed in notable venues such as Joe’s Pub, Club OBERON, Lincoln Center, and Berklee Performance Center as a singer and storyteller.Outside of performing, Lama is passionate about community organizing and bringing new works to life. She served as a research and translation assistant on We Live in Cairo, a new musical about the 2021 Egyptian uprising that premiered at American Repertory Theater in 2019. She later went on to work as a Dramaturgy and Publications Assistant for A.R.T.’s 2019-2020 season. Visit lamaelhomaissi.com to stay tuned with Lama's latest project
Susanne McDonald
Susanne McDonald is a film actor, devising theatre artist, and arts advocate based in New York City. In May of 2020, she graduated from the Boston Conservatory with a major in Contemporary Theatre where she focused on devising theatre. Susanne was thrilled to be an intern with foolsFURY in 2020 where she assisted with the first BUILD online convening. Susanne could not be more excited to be working with foolsFURY and BUILD again, except this time as an Art Share devising theatre artist. Although she is incredibly passionate about devising and ensemble theatre, she also has a love for film and television. Devising credits include: Displaced: A Response to Qurban, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Bald Soprano. Film credits include: The House Guest and The Bathroom. www.susannemcdonald.com
Anna Muselmann
Anna Muselmann is a queer interdisciplinary artist, performance maker, and community organizer from Tulsa, OK. Her work investigates body language and personal daily gestures as means of communicating our identities, relationships, and histories. Muselmann received her B.A. in Visual Arts and Modern Culture + Media from Brown University; and has performed and shown work at SFMOMA, Joe Goode Annex, Southern Exposure, BAMPFA, NOHSpace, Pro Arts Gallery, Intersection for the Arts, and La MaMa ETC (NYC), among other indoor and outdoor venues. Muselmann is an organizer and co-curator for Clouds Gathering, a performance residency-retreat for multidisciplinary artists in New Lebanon, NY.
Yvonne Montoya
Yvonne Montoya is a mother, dancemaker, bi-national artist, thought leader, writer, speaker, and the founding director of Safos Dance Theatre. Based in Tucson, A.Z. and originally from Albuquerque, N.M., her work is grounded in and inspired by the landscapes, languages, cultures, and aesthetics of the U.S. Southwest. Montoya is a process-based dancemaker who creates low-tech, site-specific and site-adaptive pieces for nontraditional dance spaces. In addition to being the founding director, Montoya is the lead choreographer for Safos Dance Theatre; under her direction, the company won the Tucson Pima Arts Council’s Lumie Award for Emerging Organization (2015).
Montoya is a 2019-2020 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow, a member of the 2019-2020 Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists pilot program, and a recipient of the 2019 National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) POD grant. From 2017-2018 Montoya was a Post-Graduate Fellow in Dance at Arizona State University, where she founded and organized the inaugural Dance in the Desert: A Gathering of Latinx Dancemakers.
Caress Russell
Caress Russell: With a Master of Fine Arts in Performance from Arizona State University, Lady Caress has designed and executed public speaking and performance workshops across the country. Featured on PBS and NPR, Lady Caress crafts her message of empowerment, social justice and cultural awareness through compelling live performance, beatbox and film.
Pepe Santamaria
Pepe is a genderfluid, queer xicanx creating art and poetry to uplift underserved communities. They are dedicated to helping others heal through building creative practices that engage their hearts. Together, we can liberate ourselves by unlocking the powers in dreaming beyond limitations and acting accordingly. Every poem, performance, and workshop is designed to engage audiences in this process of dreaming and liberation.
Aaliyah Simms
Aaliyah Simms is a creative being from Suffolk, Virginia. She is a 2020 graduate of Spelman College, a 2019-2020 Fellow of SoulCenter, and a 2020-2021 Acting Apprentice of Actors Theatre of Louisville. Her artistry can be seen both behind and in front of the scenes. Some of her work behind the scenes includes: community engagement, marketing, and film/theatre writing. She works in front of the scenes as an actress. Aaliyah always looks forward to connecting and collaborating with creatives that devise work essential to the hearts, minds, and souls of the people.
Chris Steele
Chris Steele (they/them) is a queer trans nonbinary performance artist, writer, and activist. Their work centers on highlighting queer narratives throughout history and combating bigotry and white supremacy. As an actor, they have performed with companies across the Bay including We Players, NCTC, Cutting Ball, SF Shakespeare Festival, and SF Playwrights Festival. As a writer they premiered adaptations of Miss Julie, Troilus and Cressida, and Dracula with queer collective Poltergeist Theatre Project; had short plays produced by The Pear, PlayGround, and Cutting Ball; debuted their solo drag show The Bride with PlayGround Solofest; and were commissioned by Custom Made to adapt The Tempest. Their award-winning drag personas Polly Amber Ross and Peter Pansexual can be found on instagram @pollyandpeter, where they’ve been creating politically subversive video performance art throughout the Covid pandemic.
Ricky Quintana
Ricky Quintana is an interdisciplinary theatremaker and currently Instructor of Theatre at Eastern New Mexico University. As a director and devisor, his original works include You're On Mute, When the Sky Fell, and Unapologetically Me! He holds his MFA from Arizona State University.
Applied Mechanics
Applied Mechanics is the vanguard of experimental performance and radical art-making practice in Philadelphia. Since 2009, they have made over a dozen original, immersive performance pieces. They are a major architect of the New Philly Aesthetic and have toured from Texas to Maine, conducted workshops at Microsoft and Turner Broadcasting, performed with Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, and been published by TCG. They have a house punk band, The Bandits, and are proud members of the Philadelphia Coalition for Affordable Communities. Applied Mechanics is Rebecca Wright, Jessica Hurley, Thomas Choinacky, Mary Tuomanen, Anita Holland, Brett Robinson and Isabella Sazak.
DRAMATURGS
While BUILD companies dreamed up their Art Shares, Microturgs (matched with the artists by LMDA), conversed with the artists and created Word Clouds in response to their work. Each Microturg is featured at the end of their company’s Art Share, with a digital BUILD Microturgy Calling Card and a showing of the Word Cloud. Be sure to tune in to all the Art Shares throughout the convening!
Ajani Brannum
AJANI BRANNUM is a movement artist currently living in Los Angeles, California. They investigate practices for moving, thinking, and being, asking how our tools for doing-self might venture beyond, between, or beneath received categories of personhood. Ajani's latest long-term endeavor is Talent Agency (@tttalent.agencyyy), which uses conversation, embodiment practices, and divination to help people reckon with the spirit of their personal and/or creative projects.
Adrian Centeno
ADRIAN CENTENO is a freelance dramaturg, theatre lecturer, and arts education programmer from Los Angeles. As a dramaturg, he’s worked with San Diego Rep, Childsplay Theatre Co., New York Stage & Film, Workshop Theatre, and Company of Angels among others. As an educator, he’s worked with UCLA, USC, UC Riverside, CSU Long Beach, and the Los Angeles Unified School District. He is a former NEA panelist and previously served as literary manager of Playwrights’ Arena.
TJ Chester
TJ CHESTER is a scholar, artist, and organizer from South Florida. Over the last 10 years, TJ has taught in Black Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and Theatre departments at the university level. As an artist, scholar, and organizer TJ centers storytelling as a way to understand difference, promote empathy, and create change. Please visit www.tabithachester.com for more information.
Emma Durbin
EMMA DURBIN (they/she) is an early-career playwright-dramaturg, currently based in Chicago. Recently, Emma served as the assistant dramaturg for an all-trans/gender non-conforming reading of The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe (Actors Theatre of Louisville), and they dramaturged a workshop of hippolytos by Lane Anthony Flores (The Story Theatre). Emma attended the New Play Dramaturgy Intensive at the Kennedy Center with Mark Bly. Playwriting BFA: The Theatre School at DePaul University (2020, Dean's Prize Recipient).
Liana Irvine
LIANA IRVINE (dramaturg, content producer, literary manager) is playful, nurturing, and faithful in emboldening the left-behind. She/they is passionate about socioeconomic justice, big-swing-aesthetics, and artists as second responders. With an intimacy-driven lens, Liana explores how dramatic ecosystems affect their theatrical worlds, and in turn, how theatre affects “real” worlds.
Jihya Kim
is a freelance dramaturg and a deviser based in L.A and Seoul. Her interest and specialty lie in new play development, ensemble-devising, site-specific immersive works and literary translation (Korean to English). Currently, she is working on Jaerin Son’s augmented reality pop-up book theater, The Waves: Blue Nights Shattering soon to be published and exhibited at KOTE gallery in Insa art district of Seoul. In addition to her dramaturgy work, she enjoys teaching devising and solo performance workshop for non-professional performers.
Clare McCrory
CLARE McCRORY is a recent graduate of Queen’s University Belfast, studying Drama and English. She was an active member of student theatre, primarily musical theatre, and gained experience in numerous areas including performance, direction, production and tech crew. Clare is a fiddle tutor for Andersonstown School of Music, and is currently studying for a postgraduate certificate in education, specialising in English.
Brenda Muñoz
BRENDA MUÑOZ is a bilingual dramaturg and an indie screenwriter with a B.A. in Communication from Universidad de las Americas, a Diploma in Writing for Film and TV from Vancouver Film School, and an Interdisciplinary Diploma in Artistic Research, Experimentation and Production from Centro Nacional de las Artes. She is the current Vice President of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas in México.
Al Parker
AL PARKER (they/she) is an NYC-based creative producer, dramaturg, and stage manager drawn to stories of human complexity, healing and hope. They are the Artistic Associate of The Parsnip Ship and a member of National Queer Theater’s Artistic Collective. Recently, they have worked with Playwrights Horizons, MCC, Signature Theatre Company, Colt Coeur, the Civilians, ArKtype Productions, and Theater in Asylum. Originally from South Dakota, Al completed their studies in Dramatic Literature and Creative Writing at New York University.
Dr. Sarah Sigal
Originally from Chicago and based in London, SARAH SIGAL is a freelance writer, dramaturg, director and researcher working across new writing, devising, site-specific theatre, interactive performance, cabaret, opera and fiction. She has taught at a number of British universities and adapted the monograph Writing in Collaborative Theatre-Making (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) from her doctoral thesis. She has recently finished her first novel Agent of Influence and is an Advisory Board Member of the Dramaturgs’ Network (UK).
Dr. Vidhu Singh
Vidhu’s international perspective on theater and her advocacy for South Asian theater have made her contribution to the American theater truly unique. Cal Shakes recognized this uniqueness by honoring Vidhu with the 2020 Luminary Award in dramaturgy. Recent dramaturgy highlights include Burning Wild with Berkeley Rep’s 2021 Ground Floor Summer Residency Lab, Third Eye Moonwalk by Jon Bernson with Playwrights Foundation in 2021 and House of Joy by Madhuri Shekar with Cal Shakes in 2019 and Bay Area Playwrights Festival in 2018.
https://www.vidhusinghtheater.com/
Jill Summerville
JILL SUMMERVILLE works as a freelance theatre maker, writer, and scholar. She earned her PhD in Theatre History, Dramatic Literature, and Theatre Criticism in 2014, which means she spoils parties by talking obsessively about fictional characters. As a dramaturg, she has collaborated with Antioch College, The University of Houston, The Ohio State University, Solstice Theatre Company, Evolution Theatre Company, and Theatre Off-Kilter. Share your thoughts and dreams with her at jillellensummerville.com.
Gavin Witt
GAVIN WITT spent 17 seasons as Director of Dramaturgy and Associate Artistic Director at Baltimore Center Stage—having previously served in similar positions in Chicago at Court and Northlight Theatres. As well as the production and developmental dramaturgy, creative producing, and strategic planning entailed in these positions, he’s also directed readings, workshops, and mainstage productions in Baltimore and around the country. Other work includes serving as faculty at University of Chicago, DePaul, Johns Hopkins, and now Towson University; Ambassador-at-Large for NNPN; and on the LMDA Board of Directors.
Sarah Johnson
SARAH JOHNSON, Assistant Professor of Dramaturgy and Head of Playwriting at Texas Tech University, holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from CU Boulder and an MFA in Dramaturgy from The University of Iowa. She has provided dramaturgical support for Broadway's Allegiance, productions with Outpost Repertory Theatre, Portland Stage, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Athena Project, Flying Solo Presents!, and several playwriting clients. She serves as the Executive Director and Resident Dramaturg for WildWind Performance Lab.