PRUNIN, HOEIN N CUTTIN GRAPES
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2024
7PM at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater
by Nissy Aya (Nissy; she/ze/we)
directed by Dominique Rider
Sound Designer: Bailey Trierweiler (he/him)
Stage Manager: Rachel Denise April (they/them)
Stage Directions Reader: Ren King (they/he)
featuring Aja Lynn Downing (she/her), fatima jamal, Javon Q. Minter (they/she), Jennifer Nikki Kidwell (she/they), Mariyea (she/her), Starr Kirkland (she/they), & Temidayo Amay (them)
In the highly regimented ▇▇▇▇, we witness the lives and lessons of a community of femmes assigned to teach the tools of sexual pleasure to others. Led by Alpha and her right-hand, her beta, Bilinda, this proud community of hoes carries on just them and their chil'ren. But with the pressures of a Choosing looming, the community deals with an unexpected and daunting assignment.
Nissy Aya (Nissy; she/ze/we)
Playwright
Nissy Aya (Nissy; she/ze/we) is Black and from the Bronx. She and all her younger selves tell stories and tall tales -- while helping others to do the same. As a cultural worker and writer, we believe in the transformative nature of storytelling, and examining how we move forward/shape new worlds/end this world through healing justice, Afrofuturist frameworks, and practices of feeling good. Our creative work reflects those notions while exploring the lines between archives and memory, detailing both the absence and presence of love, and giving all the life (and then some) to Black Femmes.
Dominique Rider
Director
Dominique Rider is a Brooklyn-based director and writer whose work seeks to answer the question: “What is a world unmade by slavery?” while analyzing the layers of anti-blackness that maintain our world. Deploying theatre and performance as tools of Afropessimism, Dominique has developed and staged work with Portland Center Stage, Portland Stage, The Bushwick Starr, The New Group, The Park Avenue Armory, and more. Past fellowships/residencies include The Civilians R&D, The Atlantic, Hi-Arts, The National Black Theatre, TheaterWorks Hartford, NYSAF, BRIC Arts, Roundabout, and NAMT. Dominique is a Vision Resident at Ars Nova, a producer with CLASSIX, and an artist in residence at Duke University.
Bailey Trierweiler (he/him)
Sound Designer
Bailey Trierweiler (he/him) is a New York based sound designer, editor, engineer and mixer for live theater performance, installation, dance and audio drama. Select design credits include Blood of the Lamb (59E59); Riverside (Indy Shakes); Dangerous Days (Miami New Drama); The Slow Dance (59E59); Fires in the Mirror (Baltimore Center Stage/Long Wharf Theatre); already there (The REACH at the Kennedy Center), among others. Select associate sound designer for The Blood Quilt (Lincoln Center Theatre); Valour: A Drag Spectacular (La Jolla Playhouse); The Welkin (Atlantic Theater Co); KATE (Connelly Theater); The Comeuppance (Signature Theatre Company); Becky Nurse of Salem (Lincoln Center Theatre); King John (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Peerless (59E59) among others. M.F.A - Yale School of Drama.
Rachel Denise April (they/them)
Stage Manager
Rachel Denise April (they/them) is a Guyanese-American Stage Manager, who has studied Theatrical Design and Stage Management at the City College of New York. Select Credits include: Jordans (The Public Theater), The Mood Room (Big Dance Theater) Bernarda’s Daughters (The New Group), soft (MCC) Chicken and Biscuits (Queens Theatre), The Baby Monitor (Different Translation), The Big Green Theater Festival (SuperHero Playhouse) The Hole (Zhailon Levingston), Neptune (Timothy DuWhite), , Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell (MTWorks), and The Fire This Time Festival 2015 (The Kraine Theater). They have worked on projects throughout the United States and internationally.
Ren King (they/he)
Stage Directions Reader
Ren King (they/he) is an theatre & television actor, singer, dancer, and director hailing from Lilburn, GA. Upon obtaining two Bachelor’s of Arts in Theatre and Advertising from the University of Georgia (‘19), Ren joined the North American Tour of PAW Patrol Live! The Great Pirate Adventure as Mayor Goodway, relocating to NYC in 2020, working mostly in play development. Past credits include: OFF BROADWAY: House of Telescopes (Waffles/Ens) with Pipeline Theatre Company; The Importance of Being Earnest (Miss Prism) with Gatehouse Entertainment & Write Act Rep. REGIONAL: Twelfth Night (Sebastian) and Romeo + Juliet Reading (Capulet) with Match:Lit Theatre Co.; fire work with National New Play Network and Queens Theatre. TV: BMF (Henri/Henrietta Andreas) on STARZ; And Just Like That - S2 (HBO) DIRECTORIAL: FADE with Exit Left Theatre Company in Holland, Michigan. Ren King is currently represented by the Alexander White Agency and managed by 5x Media. AEA.
Aja Lynn Downing (she/her)
BILINDA
Aja Downing (The Stranger) is super excited to be a part of this project. Aja graduated from The American Musical Arts Academy in 2016. Some of Aja's previous roles were Annette in TJ LOVES SALLY 4 EVA, Lorrell in DREAMGIRLS, Jojo in CHERCHEZ LA FEMME, Cassandra in ALEX AND EUGENE, Christine Daè in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, Aida in AIDA, and Ella Baker in BAYARD: A NEW MUSICAL. Aja would like to thank her family for all their support and love! And also, thanks to the incredible cast and crew of this project! Aja is forever grateful to be expanding as a person and artist and is excited to see where this journey takes her next!
fatima jamal
ALPHA
fatima jamal is black trans* study enfleshed finding breath where there is asphyxiation and dooming forces polluting the air. what she does with words and images is prayer and hope towards freedom, on the shores of nonhumanness and fugitivity, from this dying world. she/spirit is writing to die and live (again). she is also the WRITER/DIRECTOR of the forthcoming film No Fats, No Femmes.
Javon Q. Minter (they/she)
ENSEMBLE
Javon Q. Minter (they/she) is a theatre artist and educator, born & raised in pre-gentrified Bed-Stuy. As a director, they’ve devised works for MCC’s youth company, New York Theatre Workshop’s Youth Artistic Instigators & NYU Grad Acting, developed a new musical with the 5th Avenue Theater and served as SDCF Directing Observer to director Trip Cullman for Classic Stage Company’s I Can Get It For You Wholesale. As an educator, Javon has taught theatre to all ages, across New York State and regionally. She is a member of the National Alliance of Acting Teachers and teaching artist with New York Theatre Workshop. Select acting credits: What to Send Up When it Goes Down (BAM & Playwrights Horizons), Two Gentlemen of Verona (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), boys don’t look at boys (New York Stage & Film), and what will happen to all that beauty (Playwrights Realm).
Jennifer Nikki Kidwell (she/they)
78/VOICE
Jenn Kidwell is a performing artist. Most recently seen in: The Welkin (Atlantic Theater Company); soon seen doing: we come to collect: a flirtation, with capitalism (UTR at The Flea Theater). Original projects include: Underground Railroad Game & Those With 2 Clocks; past productions include: Geoff Sobelle’s Home, Adrienne Truscott’s Still Asking for It: A Rape About Comedy (Joe’s Pub). Grateful to/for: 2013 TCG/Fox Resident Actor Fellowship, 2015 Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant, 2016 Pew Fellowship, 2017 Independence Fellowship, 2020 Ruthie Award & Hodder Fund Grant, 2023 FCA grantee.
Mariyea (she/her)
ENSEMBLE
Mariyea, is a Brooklyn based actress, performer, teacher and award-winning nightlife entertainer. Her previous credits include Vile Isle, at the Tank, Fabulation, at The Billie Holiday Theatre and On Sugarland, at New York Theatre Workshop. Along with works presented at Soho Rep, The Shed, Park Avenue Armory, NYSAF and Joe's Pub among others. Soon she can be seen in a feature film soonMar to be announced on Paramount +. Mariyea is also the current reigning Breakthrough Artist of the Year through the NYC Nightlife Glam Awards. In addition to her performance work, Mariyea has taught as an adjunct professor at The City College of New York and classes at NYU Tisch. Follow Mariyea on Instagram: @mariyeaaaa for further updates.
Starr Kirkland (she/they)
ENSEMBLE
Starr Kirkland credits include The Cotillion (New Georges/The Movement Theatre Company), Crying on Television (Everyman Theatre), Ink’dWell (NLTP/59E59), Black Feminist Video Game (59E59/CTG/OSF), Zoetrope (Exquisite Corpse Co), TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever (JACK), Tight Five ((New Ambassadors Theatre/Cherry Lane), of the woman… (Normal Ave), HOTTENTOTTED (The Tank), Hephaestus (Theatre in Asylum) and an extensive play development and performance history you can read more about at www.starrkirkland.com
Temidayo Amay (them)
DEZ
Temidayo Amay (them) is a Black Trans Non-Binary writer, actor, singer, and queer activist. OFF-BROADWAY: Classic Stage Company; MCC Theater; Classical Theatre of Harlem; The Public Theatre; Ars Nova; Clubbed Thumb; Target Margin. REGIONAL: Round House Theatre: School Girls: or, the African Mean Girls Play (Helen Hayes Award: winner); Signature Theatre: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Arena Stage; The Kennedy Center; Shakespeare Theatre Company; Longacre Lea: The Interstellar Ghost Hour (Helen Hayes Award: nominated). Temidayo is currently writing Bell’e: The Musical; Pool, Part One: An American Fantasia. AFFILIATES: BTB New Works Playwright, MAESTRA Mentee, TPOC Fellow, MTF Musicals Fellow. temidayoamay.com
2024 FESTIVAL STAFF
Co-Sound Designer: Bailey Trierweiler (he/him)
Literary Manager: Bryar Barborka (they/them)
Casting Director: Charlie Hano, CSA (he/him)
Co-Sound Designer: Christopher Darbassie
Associate Producer: Esmé Maria Ng (they/she/he)
Assistant Producer: Flower Estefana Rios
Founding Artistic Director: George Strus (they/them)
Graphic Designer: Marc Ella Roy (they/them)