By Maria Irene Fornes
Sweet Briar College
Babcock Fine Arts Center
An immersive, absurdist play that follows a group of woman whose authentic selves are stifled to the point of madness.
Designed with two sets — a prosceinium living room in front, and a 4-cube house built in the back for audiences to move through.
Stage Manager: Lee Stanley
Scenic Designer: August Applewhite
Costume Designer: Riley Kawanesicayuga
Lighting Designer: Cheryl Warnock
Props Master: Sachi Nopala
Sound Designer: Zoe Dickerson
Photos by me
FEFU & Her Friends (2024)
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Boston University
Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre
An intimate fantasia that tries to unravel the social, political, and gender binaries holding reality together. Wild and epic in scale, but a very human story.
Director of Movement: Yo-EL Cassell
Assistant Director/Director of Movement: Lana Sage
Dramaturg: Adrian Speth
Production Manager: Hannah Eckert
Stage Manager: Chris Daly
Scenic Designer: Maggie Shivers
Costume Designer: Andrew Wehling
Lighting Designer: Rachael Harned
Props Coordinators: Zoe Charbonneau, Liv King
Sound Designer: Katie Chen
Project Manager: Autumn Munsell
Technical Designer: Nathaniel Crain
Photos by Katie Nelson
ORLANDO (2023)
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Heartbeat Opera
Directed by Emma Jaster
Arranged and Music Directed by Daniel Schlosberg
Role: Assistant Director
A distinctly American adaptation of Verdi’s Macbeth that centers Lady M's privileged ascent that destroys her marriage, her sleep, and her sanity.
"Flat-out brilliant." - NYT Review
Scenic Design: Afsoon Pajoufar
Costume Design: Beth Goldenberg
Lighting Design: Oliver Wason
Projection Designer: Camilla Tassi
Sound Design: Michael Costagliola
Electronics and Live Processing: Gleb Kanasevich
Lady M (2023)
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Drexel University
Co-Directed w/ Brett Ashley Robinson
A student-written play examining the destruction of an established black community to make
way for Drexel University’s expansion in the 1960’s.
Sets: Michael Lambui
Costumes: Leigh Paradise
Lights: Aimee Hanyzewski
Sound: Adiah Hicks
Resilient: Black Bottom (2023)
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Pig Iron Theatre Company & Josephine Decker
Role: Associate Director
A dark fairy tale about the terrors, joys, and deep uncertainties of pregnancy. Inspired by Maria Tatar's research on the history of fairytales, this immersive performance explores the complex decisions that mothers, fictional and real, must make about their children's lives.
Performed at Rigby Mansion as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.
Visual Design: Maiko Matsushima
Lighting Design: Tuçe Yasak
Sound Design: Tina Hanae-Miller
The PATH OF PINS OR THE PATH OF NEEDLES (2022)
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Written & Performed by
Maren Montalbano
Directed and staged for livestream on Twitch. Part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.
At the intersection of romantic tropes and operatic gender power dynamics, Grammy-winning Maren Montalbano's one-woman show explores sexuality and abuse through the lens of humor, storytelling, and original music.
The Bodice ripper project (2020)
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Written by Vanessa Ogbuehi
Performed by Jesse Gottschalk
Part of Directors Gathering (DG) JAM 2021
Special thanks to Swim Pony Performing Arts
With only 10 minutes to spare, a young writer scrambles to work out the last line of their epic tome.
A "first-person" theatrical experiment in dynamic intimacy with the audience.
Made with a head-mounted GoPro Hero 8.
Colossus
(2021)
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Pig Iron Theatre Company & Mimi Lien
Role: Assistant Director
Superterranean is a new work of visual theatre driven by award-winning designer Mimi Lien’s fascinations with urban infrastructure acting in concert with the human body.
Performed at 2300 Arena as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.
Sets: Mimi Lien
Costumes: Olivera Gajic
Lights: Barbara Samuels
Sound: Lea Bertucci
Superterranean (2019)
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Performance
Double Edge Theatre
A free, public celebration of Ashfield’s unique history of tolerance, freedom, and creativity, performed in the heart of the town by the people of the community.
Grown directly from the theatre’s questions about the roots of identity, the Town Spectacle extends this search to include the whole community through a kaleidoscope of history, art, and spectacle.
The Ashfield town spectacle (2017)
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By JD Stokely, Vanessa Ogbuehi and Jackie Soro
What do projection, karaoke, and an infamous Eartha Kitt interview all have in common? Inspired by Grada Kilomba's book "Plantation Memories: Episodes of Everyday Racism", Mouth/Piece is an exploration of the Black feminine mouth as a site of trauma, heartbreak, and resistance.
Presented at HERE Arts Center as part of the SANCTUARY Sublet Series.
Mouth/piece (2017)
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An experimental staging, after Anne Carson
Created by Erik Ruin and Dan Rogers
A collaboration with shadow puppet artist Erik Ruin, performed at Panorama Space in Philadelphia.
The staging combined three overhead projectors with shadow puppetry, illuminated cantastoria choruses, and original music for harp, violin, viola, electronics, and operatic soprano.
A benefit show for the Youth Art and Self-Empowerment Project,
ANTIGONICK (2016)
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