CHICAGO: The MacArthur Foundation has announced its 2024 class of MacArthur Fellows, honoring the creativity and originality of 22 individuals across disciplines. Known colloquially as the “genius grant,” the fellowship gives $800,000 over five years for professional pursuits to each fellow. Among the recipients were two theatre artists: artist/performer Justin Vivian Bond and dancer/choreographer Shamel Pitts.
Justin Vivian Bond (Viv) is an artist and performer working in the cabaret tradition weaving history, cultural critique, and an ethic of care into performances and artworks animated by wit, whimsy, and calls to action. Bond uses cabaret to explore the political and cultural ethos of the moment and tie it back to history to address contemporary challenges, in particular those facing queer communities. Recent productions have considered the history of protest and political action (Jasmine and Cigarettes: Songs from the Hippy Counterculture, 2024) and celebrated LGBTQ+ Pride Month and the summer solstice (Night Shade, 2024). Bond has inspired a younger generation of transgender artists and performers and has generously used their platform to uplift future voices. A pioneer of queer performance and a dearly beloved LGBTQ+ elder, Bond explores embodied existence in a unique artistic practice that centers queer joy and community.
Shamel Pitts is a choreographer and dancer developing multidisciplinary performance-based works centered on collaboration and imagining new ways of being in the world. Pitts is the founder and artistic director of TRIBE, a group of artists working in a wide range of media, including lighting design, video-mapping projection technologies, electronic music composition, cinematography, and video art. TRIBE’s works emerge from the collective artistic vision of its members. Pitts brings his unique choreographic style to bear on the group’s commitment to envisioning a future free from the constraints of historical oppression, particularly for the African diaspora. In Touch of RED (2022), a duet for two male dancers, Pitts explores how men relate to each other and to the world. For this work, the artists of TRIBE and their collaborators ingeniously transform the theatre into a boxing ring and then into a dance club. Through his vision of cooperative creation, Pitts is creating new models for promoting self-discovery and freedom through art.
Fellows are selected on the basis of three criteria: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishments, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work. The fellows are chosen by an anonymous group of nominators from around the country; they cannot be self-nominated.
NEW YORK CITY: Black Theatre Coalition (BTC) announced that Jasmine A. Mitchell is the recipient of this year’s Artistic Directing Fellowship program at New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW), sponsored by American Express.
This BTC Artistic Directing Fellowship provides an annual salary and the opportunity to participate in the efforts of mounting a Broadway production. Each fellow in the cohort will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in their area of the industry, working alongside current industry leaders at the highest levels and learning the process of theatremaking from executive, creative, and administrative areas. The fellowship also provides mentorship and guidance from diverse professionals currently working in the industry.
“New York Theatre Workshop is thrilled to welcome Jasmine A. Mitchell as our inaugural BTC Artistic Directing Fellow,” said NYTW artistic director Patricia McGregor in a statement. “Joining us from our esteemed colleges at Woolly Mammoth in D.C., Jasmine is a natural leader and community builder who merges a dynamic artistic practice with a dedication to education to engagement. Jasmine’s vision, integrity, and experience as both an artist and an administrator will surely serve her well in this position and in the future.”
Mitchell is a distinguished director, writer, producer, and arts administrator dedicated to social change. As an antiracist theatre practitioner, she is committed to creating work that fosters healing for women and other marginalized groups. Raised in the D.C. metropolitan area and identifying as a Dominican American, Mitchell brings a wealth of experience from her work with theatres such as Woolly Mammoth, Mosaic, Rorschach, Young Playwrights Theatre, and the University of Maryland. She is also recognized for her achievements in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and as a Kennedy Center Kenan Fellow at the Hangar Theatre in New York.
Founded in 2019, Black Theatre Coalition’s mission is to remove the “illusion of inclusion” in the American theatre by building a sustainable ethical roadmap that will increase employment opportunities for Black theatre professionals.
NEW YORK CITY: The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) announced the cohort for their performing artist residency program. Among the five artists selected are theatre composer/writer Tidtaya Sinutoke and theatre director Yibin Wang. The residency program starts in October and runs through February 2025.
Each artist has been awarded a $3,000 grant, along with additional support, including funding for their presentations, access to rehearsal space, and full use of MOCA’s collections and archives, as well as consultations with MOCA staff. This year’s theme, Heteroglossia, invites the artists to explore and reflect on their personal identities in the context of today’s digital and increasingly tribalized society.
“By creating a space to share collective memories, we can deepen our understanding of who we are, allowing the narratives of our communities to continue evolving,” said Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li, director of performance, storytelling, and community at MOCA, in a statement. “Asian American identity is a broad and complex term. I’m excited that our resident performing artists will have the opportunity to engage with archival materials, gaining a deeper understanding of its construction and nuances.”
Tidtaya Sinutoke (ฑิตยา สินุธก) is a Jonathan Larson Grant, Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award, Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, McKnight Composer Residency and Fred Ebb Award-winning theatre composer and writer. Current composition and writing credits include Half the Sky (The 5th Avenue Theatre’s First Draft Commission & 20/21 Digital Season), Sunwatcher (The Civilians R&D Group); Dear Mr. C (Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative Award), The Adventures of Sky and Friends (New Victory Theater’s LabWorks); KHAM – Crossing (Dramatic Questions Theatre), and Little Dugong and Her Seagrass Song (American Opera Project). Her works have been developed and supported by the Composer-Librettists Studio at New Dramatists, Yale Institute for Music Theatre, Johnny Mercer Foundation, NYFA IAM Mentoring Program, Robert Rauschenberg Residency, Kurt Weill Foundation, Drama League, Tofte Lake Center, Loghaven Artist Residency, and Rhinebeck Writers Retreat. She holds an MFA from NYU.
Yibin Wang is a New York-based theatre and performance director hailing from Hangzhou, China. Yibin’s interdisciplinary work delves into cross-cultural experiences, new technology, and vibrant audience relationships. His recent directing/curatorial projects include A Hunger Artist (Lenfest Center for Arts), Three-Second Angels (TheaterLab), A Tree Has Not Yet Woken Up in a Dream (Beijing International Youth Theater Festival), Playdate (En Garde Arts), A Theater Letter to You (Columbia University), The Vanya Project (Columbia University), Designing Care (Hangzhou Fengshan Community). Recent assistant credits include The Following Evening (dir. 600 Highwaymen); Medee, This Body Is So Permanent (dir. Peter Sellars); Promenade (dir. Morgan Green); Mothers’ Stories (dir. CHIA). He has a BA from Bard College and an MFA in Directing from Columbia University.
The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) aims to engage audiences in an ongoing and historical dialogue, in which people of all backgrounds are able to see American history through a critical perspective, to reflect on their own experiences, and to make meaningful connections between the past and the present, the global and the local, themselves and others.
NASHVILLE: Nashville Repertory Theatre announced the four playwrights selected for the 2024-25 Ingram New Works Project: Amy Tofte, River Timms, Cameron L. Mitchell, and Sarah Michele Bailey.
Amy Tofte is a Los Angeles-based playwright and screenwriter who won a Nicholl Fellowship in screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her play Righteous Among Us (2020 Todd McNerney Award) had a staged reading at Urban Stages (Off-Broadway) in 2023. She was recently a playwright with the Evolving Playwrights Group at Circle X Theatre, where she completed a new “impossible play” about the climate crisis called Rain Dog War. She holds an MFA from CalArts.
River Timms was born in Alabama and raised in the sticks. Their plays Opus and Tall Tales were both produced with Woven Theatre, and their work has been seen all around Nashville ever since. River was part of the 2020-21 New Works 615 cohort, a local playwriting cohort under the umbrella of Nashville Rep’s Ingram New Works project, where they collaborated and wrote material for Little Hollow, TN, a multimedia theatrical adventure. River currently lives in Nashville, acting as the resident playwright and literary manager of Woven Theatre. They have a BA from Belmont University.
Cameron L. Mitchell is an internationally acclaimed playwright, actor, teaching artist, and spoken word poet. His plays include Blackbird (Middle Tennessee State University, the Kindling Arts Festival, and the Shades of Black Festival) and Love Yourz (Shades of Black Festival). An award-winning actor, Cameron is celebrated for his portrayal of Corey Maxson in Fences (Nashville Rep), which won the Best Contemporary Drama award. Other roles include Sunny and Brandon in the world premiere of Ghost (Nashville Children’s Theatre) and Subject 1 in Project Awake. As a Tennessee-based teaching artist, Cameron has collaborated with prominent organizations such as Disney, PBS, Metro Arts, Oz Arts, the National Civil Rights Museum, the Jazz Museum in Harlem, 21c Chicago, the Stax Museum, the Bobby Jones Show, Vanderbilt University, Meharry Medical College, and many more. Cameron is also the founder of Free Fyre, an arts organization committed to arts advocacy and community engagement.
Sarah Michele Bailey is a singer, composer/songwriter, actress, audio engineer, music producer, music director, and she makes a mean bicycle horn noise. Her directing credits include Waitress at Nashville Rep, Finding Nemo, and Pippin. A member of Actor’s Equity, she’s performed across the spectrum of musical theatre, from brand new musical workshops (Fairy Goddaughter, Hip Hop Cinderella, Auntie Clause) to The Little Mermaid, My Fair Lady, and The Phantom of the Opera. She has a BM from Oklahoma City University and an MFA from Middle Tennessee State University.
Since 1985, Nashville Repertory Theatre has been Nashville’s premier regional theatre, entertaining and inspiring audiences by creating exceptional theatre exploring the diversity of human experience. The Ingram New Works Project inspires exceptional new voices to write the stories they are most passionate about. Nashville Rep provides playwrights with developmental support, hospitality, networking, and audiences to allow them to focus on creating new plays.
