BREWSTER, N.Y.: SPACE on Ryder Farm has announced the 2017 residents who will develop new work on its 221-year-old working farm this summer. This year SPACE has made all individual and small group residences free, and has granted at least 50 percent of its residencies to persons of color and underrepresented voices. The organization has also doubled the number of spaces for the Family Residency, in association with the Lilly Awards Foundation.
“I couldn’t be more excited about the residents we have joining us on the farm this season,” said executive director Emily Simoness in a statement. “In these charged times, it’s vital to offer these thought leaders and artistic luminaries the time and space to wrestle with the big ideas that shape our culture.”
SPACE’s 2017 resident playwrights group, the Working Farm, will include Kevin Armento, Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, Erin Courtney, Emily Feldman, CA Johnson, Ethan Lipton, Shaina Taub, and Andrea Thome. The 5-week writing residency will culminate in the Roving Dinner, an eight-course farm fresh meal paired with excerpts from the writers’ new plays served at Ryder Farm.
Participants for the 2017 Creative Residency program will include Saheem Ali with Michael Thurber, Brittany Allen, Eliza Bent, Sam Chanse, Shayok Misha Chowdhury with Laura Grill and Matt Minnicino, Ama Codjoe with Jeremy Michael Clark, Cusi Cram with Guy Lancaster and Daniella Topol, Mike Daisey, Corinne Donly, Alexandra Farr with Kimiko Matsuda-Lawrence, Katherine Fritz, Leslie Gauthier, Donnetta Grays, Paul Cameron Hardy, Edison Hong, Monica Hunken, Samuel D. Hunter, MJ Kaufman with Emily Bate, Kimbritive with Brittany Brathwaite and Kimberly Huggins, Abe Koogler, Amy Leon, Mike Lew, Dave Malloy, Sarah Mantell, Kelly Marshall, Martin Moran, National Black Theatre with Sade Lythcott and Jonathan McCrory, Janet Noh, Antoinette Nwandu, Isaac Oliver, Sam Pinkleton with Kris Kukul, Keith Randolph Smith, Carla Repice, Lindsay and Dan Reuter, Andrew Rosendorf, Jen Silverman with Dane Laffrey, Charly Simpson, Micah Stock and Halley Feiffer, the Debate Society with Hannah Bos, Oliver Butler and Paul Thureen, the TEAM with Jessica Almasy, Kim Gaines, and Kristine Haruna Lee, Jenny Rachel Weiner, Nicole Weiss, and Stefanie Zadravec.
The Family Residency, in association with the Lilly Awards Foundation, is designed to give artists with children space to develop their craft in a residency environment. SPACE staff will facilitate creative and nature-focused programming for the artists’ children. Gail Biederman, Bryan Hamilton Chadwick, Linda Cho, Terrance Flynn, Mary Elizabeth Hamilton, Karen Hartman, Aditi Kapil, Todd London, Steven Millar, Yvonne Montoya, and Amy Shearn, along with their children, will attend.
The Creative Solutions Symposium, a weeklong residency for activists and human rights organizations, will include 5 Boro Defenders with Zohra Ahmed, Ying-Ying Ma, Rage and Alisha Williams; Fit the Description with Julian Alexander, Anthony Demby, Boyuan Gao, and Jahan Mantin; H.O.L.L.A. with Keron Bennett, Alexander Davis, and Machlie Edouard; and New York City Zen Center for Contemplative Care with Koshin Paley Ellison, Evan Henritze, and Red Schiller.
SPACE will also welcome companies for workshops, retreats, and programming on strategic planning. Visiting companies include And Also Too, the Dramatists Guild with Khiyon Hursey, Ensemble Studio Theatre, MCC Theater, the National Black Theatre, New Dramatists, New Georges, Page 73 Productions, Playwrights Horizons with Sarah DeLappe, Three Day Hangover, The Playwrights Realm, Roundabout Theatre Company, Soho Rep, and the American Playwriting Foundation with the Relentless Award Winner, Aleshea Harris.
In addition, SPACE will pilot two new residency programs this summer. Janicza Bravo, Chioke Nassor, James C. Strouse, and Anu Valia will be the first residents of the Film Lab residency, which will bring together early and mid-career filmmakers with industry professionals.
Lastly, the new Playwriting Mentorship Residency will offer emerging writers Victor Cervantes, Julissa Contreras, Ren Dara Santiago, Xavier Galva, Luis Herrera, Jaime Jaget, TJ Weaver, and David Zheng a week-long residency. The writers will have access to artistic and professional guidance from Adam Bock and Lucy Thurber.
