NEW YORK CITY: New York Stage and Film (NYSAF) has named Kirya Traber as the recipient of the 2020 Founders’ Award and Estefanía Fadul as the inaugural recipient of the Pfaelzer Award.
“Long-term residencies are embedded in NYSAF’s history of serving artists with flexible, responsive resources,” said artistic producer Liz Carlson in a statement. “With the expansion of the Founders’ Award and establishment of the Pfaelzer Award, visionary artists will have more agency to curate how they work.”
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Founders’ Award, NYSAF is expanding the award to provide financial and administrative support for a project for which the recipient will be the sole curatorial voice. The award also includes a summer residency with NYSAF.
As part of the residency, Traber has created and will co-facilitate with organizer and healer Adaku Utah “Chrysalis – A Black Healing Project.” The project will provide facilitated group convenings, one-on-one relationship building between theatremakers and healers, and financial support. The Chrysalis project participants will include Troy Anthony, Nissy Aya, Gethsemane Herron Coward, jeremy o’brian and Ianne Fields Stewart, and healers Donnay Edmund, Tiffany Lenoi Jones, Nico Le Blanc, Shamilia McBean and Emily Waters. The program is assisted by Tiffany N. Robinson. As part of the Founders’ Award, Traber will also work on her play Lucky through readings, dramaturgical consultation with Lisa Marie Rollins, and expanded writing time.
Traber is a nationally awarded writer, performer, and culture worker. Her plays include Lucky (in development, New York Stage and Film 2020), If This Be Sin (excerpted, Musical Theatre Factory + Joe’s Pub 2020), and Both My Grandfathers (workshop, Lincoln Center 2015). She is the recipient of a NY Emmy Nomination (First Person PBS), a Robert Redford’s Sundance Foundation Award for Activism in the Arts, an Astrea Foundation award for Poetry, and the New York Stage and Film Founders’ Award. She has been a commissioned artist of notable New York arts institutions such as the New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center Education, WNET Thirteen, the Morgan Library & Museum, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Ping Chong + Company, and others. Throughout her ambitious performance and writing career, Traber has continuously used her art for social change as a cultural organizer.
The Pfaelzer Award, created in honor of former producing director Johanna Pfaelzer, grants artistic and administrative support for projects throughout the year and culminates in a residency during NYSAF’s summer season. Fadul will work on Agent 355, with music, lyrics, and book by Preston Max Allen; book and dramaturgy by Jessica Kahkoska; and music direction by Madeline Smith. Fadul will also work on Carla’s Quince, a bilingual immersive virtual event, created collaboratively with the Voting Project Ensemble. Pfaelzer helped to select Fadul and will provide mentorship throughout the year.
Fadul is an NYC-based Colombian American stage director and producer, focusing primarily on new plays and musicals. Recent directing includes Christina Quintana’s Azul (Southern Rep) and Scissoring (INTAR), Stefan Ivanov’s The Same Day (Sfumato Theatre, Bulgaria), and James Anthony Tyler’s Pranayama (Juilliard). Fadul has developed new work at the Public Theater, Playwrights’ Realm, Long Wharf, Drama League, Repertorio Español, Artists Repertory Theatre, Milagro, and Musical Theatre Factory, among others. Alumna: O’Neill/NNPN’s National Directors Fellowship, Foeller Fellowship at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Drama League Fall Fellowship and TV Directing Fellowship, Van Lier Fellowship at Repertorio Español, and NALAC Leadership Institute. She is a co-leader of the New Georges Jam, and a member of the Latinx Theatre Commons steering committee, the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and SDC.
“Activating voices who can shift access and opportunity is one way we are dedicated to expanding the scope of possibilities at NYSAF,” said artistic director Chris Burney in a statement.
