Theatre Director, Deviser, and writer
I devise theatrical productions that meld the political, the personal, and the performative. I create communities of care through my immersive performance work by mixing ethnographic testimony with poetry, physicality, and a sense of welcome. These performances bear witness to real stories and nuanced perspectives.
Port of entry
(director, with Albany Park Theater Project and Third Rail Projects)
Port of Entry invites you to step inside the real-life stories of immigrants and refugees from all parts of the world living side by side in a single apartment building in one of the country’s most diverse immigrant communities: Chicago’s Albany Park.
Each performance of Port of Entry welcomes just 28 audience members into an iconic courtyard apartment building meticulously recreated within a 1929 warehouse. With each step through this 3-story immersive world, guests will experience the struggles, joys, and triumphs of people from around the globe forging new lives alongside one another.
Yours Truly
(director, with Albany Park Theater Project)
Yours Truly is an immersive theater experience through the mail. Audience members received 5 letters from a fictional pen pal over the course of 3 months, getting to intimately know the life of a Filipina teenager in Albany Park — and a secret she discovers.
Chicago, USA, March - June 2021
Freedom Acts
(playwright, dramaturg, with American Repertory Theater)
Proclamation is a program for high school students through the American Repertory Theater. The show tackles questions of what hypocrisies and contradictions exist in what we think of as American freedom, who has access to the American Dream, and where do we go from here. Photo by Gretjen Helene.
Cambridge, USA, November 2019
(writer, deviser, with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics)
I Pledge Allegiance: An Immigrant Anthology is a play that explores “American identity” from the perspective of immigrants. We seek to challenge notions of nationalism in the present global context and ask the question, “What does it mean to be an American?” by also attempting to break down how Americanness is constructed.
Click here for more about I Pledge Allegiance, including a video.
Homework
(playwright, director)
HOMEWORK is an immersive ethnographic performance at the Migration Museum in London, telling real and fictionalized stories of individuals who have been displaced by conflicts in Africa. This piece was commissioned by the Windle Trust.
Learn more about the process of creating Homework.
London, UK, July 2019
The Soldier’s Tale
(playwright, adaptor, director)
This new adaptation of THE SOLDIER'S TALE reimagines Stravinsky's classic score in the context of drone warfare. Through this immersive performance featuring the testimony of drone operators and strike survivors, the audience is asked to consider: is it worth it? How many soldiers are saved? How many civilians are killed?
Click here for more about The Soldier’s Tale.
London, UK, November 2018
Reach Zero
(director)
REACH ZERO, by Griffen Hoyle, is a piece of new writing that explores stories of individuals during the Hawaii false missile alert in January 2018. This current and timely piece offers us a funny, dark, and very relatable view of the end of the world.
London, UK, October 2018
ROOTS
(writer)
ROOTS, the winner of the Donn B. Murphy Playwriting Contest in spring 2017, and the play was produced at Georgetown University in the fall of 2017 as the center piece of the Donn B. Murphy One-Act Festival. It is a social satire about four women who regularly meet in a garden, envying each other and harboring secrets.
Washington, DC, USA, October 2017
GENERATION WH(Y)
(deviser, performer)
Generation (Wh)Y is an immersive theatrical experience of innovative multi-media performances. Using intimate live performances as well as web-based technology and social media platforms, this theatrical event will move through multiple spaces exploring real experiences from global voices and the poetry of everyday life.
Click here for a video of the performance.
Washington, DC, USA, April 2014
Ever After
(writer, director)
The Andover High School entry to the Triton Regional Play Festival in 2013, EVER AFTER is a fairy tale, boy-meets-girl parody. Riffing off of storied tropes, the full-length play features love and misadventure in a small American town.
Triton, USA, February 2013