The Center at West Park presents

CREATED AND PERFORMED BY
GABRIELLE SCHUTZ AND ANDREW MURDOCK

CREATIVE TEAM

Creator / Performer: Gabrielle Schutz (She/They)
Creator / Performer: Andrew Murdock (He/Him)
Performer: Sifiso Mabena (She/Her)
Video Designer / Performer: Camellia Bayle-Spence (She/Her)
Sound Designer / Performer: Jackson Tucker-Meyer (He/Him)

PRODUCTION TEAM

Production Assistant: Sarah Finn (She/Her)
Production Assistant: Marcella Murray (She/Her)

PROGRAM NOTE

After almost two years of limited and/or virtual development of new work, to say that we are filled with gratitude to now be sharing physical space with our collaborators and audience would be a gross understatement. The theme of The Center at West Park’s Fall season, Pardon The Interruption, for us acknowledges the tremendous shift in our artistic identity/practice and the ways in which we have been forced and inspired to re-imagine what live performance can be. We hope that Be(ings) is both a tender re-entry to sharing space, and a radical proposal for how we might experience live performance. Be(ings) is an interdisciplinary experiment. Be(ings) is an aquarium of imagined worlds. Be(ings) is an artistic lifeboat. Welcome aboard.

Production History: Early developmental workshops of Be(ings) were supported and presented by Object Movement Festival (The Center at West Park, 2020) and PuppetBlok (Dixon Place, 2019).

Be(ings) is a Coyote + Badger Production. Coyote + Badger Productions serves as an incubator for original live performance and immersive installations. We specialize in generating interdisciplinary theatrical productions and value the illogical, reflexive, rigorous, experimental, and playful process of making new work. Our work draws inspiration from, and integrates expertise in, various artistic disciplines including dance, physical theatre, sculpture, puppetry, animation, and live-video manipulation. Utilizing both traditional theatrical techniques and emergent technologies, our hope is to preserve histories of craft while innovating and enriching the American contemporary performance terrain. Our versatile body of work includes innovative re-imaginings of historic plays, public art (performance/visual installations), and short films featuring puppetry/dance. Coyote + Badger productions put the audience at the center of visually and thematically layered experiences.

While Coyote + Badger is primarily led by Co-Artistic Directors Andrew Murdock and Gabrielle Schutz each project, either collaborative or solo in nature, brings together a diverse ensemble in terms of artistic discipline, race, sexual orientation/identity, culture, country of origin and economic standing. Our artistic collaborators may include performers, directors, writers, designers, visual artists, and anything in between. We strive to center diverse, non-white male voices both in our process, and the narratives we present. And to create multi-layered performances that break down domineering systems of thought, promote self-reflection, and provoke the imagination. Coyote + Badger Productions is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization.

Gabrielle Schutz and Andrew Murdock
Creators and Perofmers

Artist BIOS

GABRIELLE SCHUTZ (She/They) is an interdisciplinary theatre artist based in New York City, specializing in original contemporary performance and innovative reimaginings of classical material. Their work often engages dance, theatre, and emergent media to create visually eccentric and fully embodied productions. Their Direction/Choreography of new work(s) has been presented by Dixon Place, Object Movement Festival, Pace University, TheatreLab NYC, The Hudson River Museum, Seattle International Dance Festival, and The Northwest New Work Festival, among others. Schutz is also an active educator with recent credits at Pace University (Adjunct Faculty), Sarah Lawrence College (Adjunct Faculty), Long Island University-Post (Guest Artist), and more. They hold an MFA in Theatre from Sarah Lawrence College (2015). www.gabrielleschutz.com

ANDREW MURDOCK (He/Him) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. His work often bridges the tangible and digital by utilizing techniques in video, physical theatre, and puppetry. He currently works at Poly Prep Country Day School as a scenic designer and videographer. Recent credits include: Video Designer and Livestream Technician for 36.5 / PROCESS by Sarah Cameron Sunde (Socrates Sculpture Park/Hallett’s Cove, NYC) and commissioned video project AMASS (ArtYard, Frenchtown, NJ). More info at www.AndrewMurdock.com

SIFISO MABENA (She/Her) is a Zimbabwean multidisciplinary theatre-maker who’s skilled in acting, singing, puppetry, playwriting, education and devising. Her work often explores displacement, diaspora, history and identity. Off Broadway: Riddle of the Trilobites (Flint Rep; New Victory Theatre), Red Hills (En Garde Arts), Art of Luv Part 6 (Abrons), Molly’s Dream (The Public: Fornes Marathon), Shoot Don’t Talk (Labapalooza, St Ann’s Warehouse), Ocean Filibuster (Abrons). International: Winter’s Tale (National Arts Festival, SA), The Comeback (HIFA, ZW). Sarah Lawrence: Macbeth, Harmless, Under African Skies. Recently co-directed The Othello Project (Shake on the Lake), artist in residence at Dixon Place & artist at Storefront Festival (Perry,NY). CUNY Adjunct Professor/Guest Faculty at Sarah Lawrence College. www.fisopearlmabena.com

CAMELLIA BAYLE-SPENCE (She/Her) is a projection designer and digital artist based in NY. She has designed for many off-broadway shows in NYC, one abroad in the Prague Fringe Festival, and has collaborated with the Advanced Beginner Group at Mabou Mines. She additionally has an MA in Child Development from Sarah Lawrence College.

JACKSON TUCKER-MEYER (He/Him) is a fabulously autistic playwright and performer who creates work that is weird for weirdness' sake, determinedly anti-conventional, and shamelessly wackadoo. Most recently, Jackson's play Banana Guy and Banana Girl with Banana Dreamz in a Krazy World was part of Roundabout Theatre Company's inaugural Reverb Theatre Arts Festival (2021). He has performed in new works by Stew, Dan Hurlin, and the Rat Queen Theatre Company. In addition, Jackson is the Program Manager and Playwriting Teaching Artist for Actionplay, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing autistic, neurodivergent, and disabled teens and adults with equal access to education, arts, and culture. MFA Theatre, Sarah Lawrence College. www.jacksontuckermeyer.com

PRODUCTION AND MAJOR SUPPORT Credits

This project is made possible in part by individual contributions. Special thanks to major gift donors Lois Schafer Lisowski, Diane and Steve Murdock, Matt and Rachel Murdock, Jack Finn, Chris Burnside and Karl Green, Peter Wollons, Emily Melnick, Mike Burnside and Janet, and Alexander Ross.

Be(ings) was originally produced by The Center at West Park. Early developmental workshops of Be(ings) were supported and presented by Object Movement Festival (The Center at West Park, 2020) and PuppetBlok (Dixon Place, 2019).

Special Thanks

We would like to extend special thanks to Dan Hurlin, Zachary Tomlinson, Natasha Katerinopoulos, Debra Ann Byrd, Melanie Greene, Elliot Reed, Object Movement Festival (Justin Perkins, Rowan Magee, Maiko Kikuchi), and Dixon Place/PuppetBlok.

About the Center AT WEST PARK

The Center at West Park is a community performing arts center based in the historic West Park Presbyterian Church, a New York City landmark. We present engaging and boundary-pushing early-career and established artists through our artist residency programs, provide affordable rental space for artists to develop their work, and steward the restoration of our historic home’s landmark exterior. The Center is a secular, 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.

This program is made possible by the generous support of audience members like you. To make a donation to support future residencies, go to centeratwestpark.org/donate.

Staff

Natasha Katerinopoulos, Managing Director
Zachary Tomlinson, Artistic Director
Dane Jerabek, Marketing Associate
Kate Sann, Development Consultant
Daniel Hess, Videographer
Tarela Kelvin Ebiotu, Videographer
David Shocket, Consulting Technical Director
Gary Eisenkraft, CPA, Accountant
Mercedes Marrero-Alvarado, Porter
Dion Thompson, Porter

FALL 2021 GUEST CURATORS

Debra Ann Byrd
Melanie Greene
Elliot Reed

OBJECT MOVEMENT CURATORS

Maiko Kikuchi
Rowan Magee
Marcella Murray
Justin Perkins

Board of directors

Marian M. Warden, President
Marsha Flowers, Vice President
Theodore S. Berger, Treasurer
Beryl Abrams, Secretary
Robert L. Brashear
Jennifer Rogers Carlock
Don Frantz
Derrick McQueen
Mitchell Schamroth
Susan E. Sullivan