I collaborate with cities, organizations, artists and businesses to infuse performance, story, and intimacy into unexpected places.
- I broker community partnerships and use story/art/performance to deepen the impact of art in a community or with specific audiences.
- I instigate micro-intimacies and story sharing.
- I create interactive events that can live inside performance or as a stand-alone encounters.
- I create story-generating experiences that can inform larger art-making projects, community development efforts, or campaign efforts.
PROUD SERIES
Grand Park, Los Angeles, LA
August 2015 - February 2016
I am developing and facilitating interactive storytelling and engagement activities with Grand Park for its PROUD SERIES, Event dates are: August 22, October 3, and February 13. We are exploring where love exists in people, places, and the past in Los Angeles. For the LA Proud Picnic in August 2015, I trained young people to interview and invite strangers into conversations about love. THE PROUD PICNIC invited LGBTQ allies, families and individuals to play, connect and celebrate with music, food trucks, and games on a beautiful summer afternoon in Grand Park. This event launches Grand Park’s PROUD SERIES, a collaboration uniting and reflecting the diverse interests and experiences of the LGBTQ Angeleno community.
MILTON
PearlDamour
2012 - present
In collaboration with PearlDamour I'm both dramaturg and engagement strategist for MILTON. Since 2013, Katie, Lisa and I have been visiting 5 towns named Milton, in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Louisiana, Oregon and Wisconsin. In each town, we meet a diverse cross-section of people, talk to them and ask them questions about their lives and the world. How did you get to Milton? If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be? In our minds, these five Miltons stretch over, up and across the United States, forming an earth-bound constellation.
My role on the project includes, producing, fundraising, non-profit capacity building and training for local partners, developing and implementing programming, and general project management. Click here to view a set of Milton Newsletters to learn more about what we've been up to and the impact it's had in communities.
Cornerstone Theater Company
CALIFORNIA: THE TEMPEST
2014 - 2015
Cornerstone Theater Company makes new plays with and about communities. I was the Community Partnerships Associate for the most ambitious project that Cornerstone has done to date. California: The Tempest was an adaptation written by Cornerstone co-founder Alison Carey. Directed by Michael John Garces, the play toured to 9 communities. The cast was a combination of professional actors from Cornerstone's ensemble, performers from the different communities where we were touring, and an additional chorus of local actors in each town. Over 220 people performed in the show throughout the 9-month tour. In addition to recruiting local participation and audience development, I fostered community partnerships, and oversaw the design and implementation of the Creative Seeds programs that accompanied the tour. I lead over 65 story circles / workshops throughout the state of California focused on identifying community treasures and learning about people's hopes for the future of their town and California.
Tour communities included: Arvin/Weedpatch/Lamont, Lost Hills, Grayson/Westley, Pacoima, East Salinas, Fowler, Eureka, San Francisco, downtown Los Angeles/the Arts District.
Artspot Productions
New Orleans, LA
2007-2013
From 2007-2013 I was a core ensemble member with Artspot Productions. During that time I was a director, producer, performer, educator, and fundraiser within the ensemble. Projects included: Kiss Kiss Julie, Flight, Go Ye Therefore, The Saint Plays, and Turning of the Bones.
Complex Movements
Detroit, MI
Project advisor in the early stages of development for Beware the Dandelions. I spent time with the ensemble focused on story development and dreaming about the design of interactive elements.