The Center at West Park
Presents

The EVOLUTION FESTIVAL will present three original works of theater, dance, music, and interdisciplinary performance from September 14th to 30th, 2023, at The Center at West Park in New York City.

CWP’s 2023 Evolution Festival is curated by artists Nick J. Browne, Haruna Lee, and Sloan Pearson, and features new works by Christian Flynn, Franck Muhel Dance Ensemble, and Sheer Spectacle.

EVOLUTION FESTIVAL ARTISTS

CHRISTIAN FLYNN
Gamepiece

September 14-16

A play made live, on the spot, by the actors, director, and you, the audience!!! 

Created, directed, and hosted by Christian "The Chuck Barris of Experimental Theater" Flynn, with an instruction manual co-written by Kelsey Sullivan, and performed by an ever-changing cast of dynamic performers from the downtown theater and indie comedy scenes, Gamepiece is an interactive theater piece that the audience helps to create in the moment through a series of games, sports, skill challenges, auction paddles, DnD style character sheets, and yes, a big spinning wheel. 

Gamepiece is a theater piece so interactive it isn't a play—it's a game. Play it. Play it. Play it.

Christian Flynn (he/they) is a mixed race Puerto Rican writer, director, and performer in NYC.. His play "everyone in new york is beautiful" was a semifinalist for the 2023 Meditative Writing fellowship and breaking & entering theatre collective's 2023 season. Their screenplay "Something Beautiful" was a quarterfinalist for the 2020 Big Break Screenwriting Contest. He hosts a popular monthly show, The Kids Are "Alright" at the People's Improv Theater. Check out his plays on New Play Exchange!

FRANK MUHEL DANCE ENSEMBLE
Lambi “The Call of Freedom”

September 21-23

Lambi is the journey of a determined slave who escapes a plantation in the West Indies in search of justice. Through his long haul, he travels from various Caribbean islands and reaches New York, the land of freedom. This rebirth of his soul consecrates a singular destiny which is also that of humanity. In the end, dignity, courage and strength prevail and are the framework of this spectacular show.

The Lambi (creole word for conch shell), transformed into a wind instrument, was used during slavery for unification, communication and the slave revolution. The choreographer Franck Muhel, in memory of enslaved women  and men of these painful and historic times, invites us  to travel via music and dance through the islands of the Caribbean. Let's come together to celebrate life!!

We will take the audience on a journey from the Caribbean to New York City, showcasing traditional French Caribbean folkloric dances (Mazurka, Bele, Gwoka, Afro-Cuban) passing through Cuba and bringing the evolution and journey to what we know today as Mambo and Salsa dance.

Franck Muhel is the Executive Producer of Salsa the Celebration, an all-star and music extravaganza at the Manhattan Center with Eddie Torres The Mambo King, Mitch Frohman, Frankie Morales among others, sponsored by American Airlines and Martinique with charitable contributions going to Haitian earthquake victims.

Franck has performed on stage with internationally acclaimed orchestras including: The Mambo Legends Orchestra (formerly of Tito Puente), Eddie Torres and his Mambo Kings Orchestra, Orlando Marin Orchestra, Mitch Frohman and the Bronx Horns, Bobby Sanabria, The Jimmy Bosch Orchestra, The Latin Jazz Quartet...

Performed on stage at New York's major venues including, Lincoln Center, The Apollo Theater, Manhattan Center, Lehman Center, Summer stage, Teatro Latea, and dancer featured in the movie In The Heights

SHEER SPECTACLE
Kissing Friends

September 29-30

Kissing Friends is a collection of stories told by a group of young artists gathering to share their greatest hopes and desires. We are in the process of creating a script to partner with our choreography. The movement and dialogue fold in and out of reality and daydreams inside the overarching container of friendship in relation to intimacy. As the show continues to unfold the audience acts as the performers’ inner psyche. It’s a mirror reflecting our dreams back at us. We are reaching towards memories and make-believe wishes that tie us together. Moments that hold our collective aliveness.

Kali Petrizzo and Lily Mello began collaborating in 2018 while in school at The University of the Arts. In 2019/2020 they both received their BFA in dance from the university, under the direction of Donna Faye Burchfield. Their developing research is in, "Drama as Action." Kali and Lily utilize voice performance alongside grandiose movement and queer intimacy to make performances embellished in expressionism and fantasy. In January of 2022 they founded the dance theater company, Sheer Spectacle, which currently is based out of Philadelphia, PA. Sheer Spectacle debuted their first self produced evening length work, Ripped Tights, Stoned Heart to three sold out performances in May of 2022. From August-December 2022 they were commissioned by the University of the Arts to create a new work on the third and fourth year undergraduate students. The 19-minute work, I Spit Out the Gold, explored triumphant wins, devastating losses and the aftermath of failing in dedicated dreams. This April, Sheer Spectacle made its NYC debut at the 92nd St Y. They were selected by Dante Puleio to share an excerpt of I Spit Out the Gold as part of the Future Dance Festival, curated by Taryn Kaschock Russell. Sheer Spectacle has been in process since February 2023 for their newest full length, Kissing Friends. This work will premier at Philadelphia’s Fringe Arts Festival, with support from the Cannonball Festival this September. They are so excited to be back in NYC to share Kissing Friends for The Evolution Festival at The Center at West Park’s Sanctuary Space.

FESTIVAL PRODUCTION TEAM

Line Producer: Madelyn Paquette
Stage Managers: Jamie Chen and Dailee Morrone
Technical Director: Merie McCown

FESTIVAL CURATORS

NICK BROWNE

Nick Browne (he/they) is a freelance director, administrator, producer, and educator based out of New York City. They are dedicated to creating spaces that are nurturing for artists of all disciplines and producing work that operates within the intersection of art and activism. Previous directing credits include Is My Microphone On? by Jordan Tannahill at the Center at West Park, Keynote at Necro-Con by Max Keane at the Brick, Song of Joy by Carol Mazhuvancheril (The Tank), Simon Stephens’ Punk Rock (Chinatown Soup), a site-specific production of Ike Holter’s HIT THE WALL (the National Historic Monument; The Stonewall Inn), Chair by Joey Merlo (The 2022 Weasel Festival, The Tank), Jordan Tannahill’s Concord Floral (Brooklyn College), Platforms (LAByrinth Theater Co. Barn Series), HIT THE WALL (NYU, A Streak of Violet). They attended the 2022 La MaMa International Directors Symposium in Umbria Italy, were in the 2019 LAByrinth Theater Company Intensive Ensemble, and participated in the 2015 SITI Summer Intensive. Nick holds a BFA from Point Park University and an MFA from Brooklyn College. 

HARUNA LEE

Haruna Lee is a Taiwanese/Japanese/American theater maker, screenwriter, educator and community steward whose work is rooted in a liberation-based healing practice. Recent plays include Suicide Forest published by 53rd State Press (Ma-Yi Theater Company and The Bushwick Starr), plural (love) (Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab; New Georges), and Memory Retrograde (UTR; Ars Nova; BAX). Lee is a recipient of an Obie Award for Playwriting and Conception of Suicide Forest, the Steinberg Playwright Award, the Ollie New Play Award, FCA Grants to Artists Award, the Mohr Visiting Artist Fellowship at Stanford University, a Keith Haring MacDowell Fellowship, the Map Fund Grant, Lotos Foundation Prize for Directing, and New Dramatists Van Lier Fellowship. They were a member of the 2019 artEquity cohort, and is a co-founder and lead facilitator for the Women-Trans-Femme-Non Binary Asian Diasporic Performance Makers Potluck. They write for AppleTV+'s Pachinko, HBO Max’s The Flight Attendant, and are currently developing multiple projects for TV. They also co-direct the Brooklyn College MFA Playwriting Program. harunalee.com

SLOAN PEARSON

Sloan Pearson (she/her) is a dancer, professor, and model currently based in New York City. Originally from Charlotte, she began studying at Charlotte Ballet under the direction of ballet luminaries Jean- Pierre Bonnefoux and Patricia McBride. She graduated from Northwest School of the Arts. She received her BFA (modern dance focus) from Point Park University Conservatory of Performing Arts. While at Point Park, Sloan was offered an apprenticeship with the August Wilson Dance Ensemble.

Sloan has danced with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Kybele Dance Theater, and Debbie Allen. She was honored to dance with the Paul Taylor 2 Dance Company, where she was Paul Taylor’s last chosen dancer. During her four seasons at Paul Taylor, she worked with Ron K. Brown, Larry Keigwen, and Peter Chu, before joining chuthis. after Taylor.

Sloan has most recently worked with Tommie Waheed-Evans — Princess Grace Recipient, for a new creation entitled, “Sermon on the Mount,” in Residency with waheedworks at NYU Center for Ballet Arts, Holly Blakey for Puma New York Fashion Week, and Yin Yue Dance Company. 

THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS

The Evolution Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The Evolution Festival is supported, in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with The City Council.

We would also like to thank and acknowledge our donors for their generous support of The Evolution Festival and our programming year-round.