BOSTON CENTER FOR THE ARTS LAUNCHES PLAYWRIGHT RESIDENCY WHERE BOSTON-AREA PLAYWRIGHTS CAN FULLY OWN THEIR WORK
The BCA Playwright Residency fills the dire need for a residency that holistically supports playwrights’ entire creative process from inception to reading.
Important Dates:
Application due by: September 11, 2022
Notification on or by: September 23, 2022
BOSTON, MA — Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) is thrilled to announce the new BCA Playwright Residency. This year-long residency has been designed to support three rising Boston-based playwrights in the creation of new work, while protecting the creative control and ownership of their innovative work. The BCA Playwright Residency will provide access to office, rehearsal, and performance space, marketing support, professional mentorship, community partnerships, and workshops.
The BCA Playwright residency helps further the playwrights’ creative process by catering support and direction to each artists’ needs. It is a process-based residency where the playwright can focus on a new work–defined at BCA as something that does not exist or is an idea that needs cultivating.
Specifically, playwrights will have their own station in a shared office space with their fellow playwright residents. Each resident will have access to five days in the Black Box Theatre or Martin Hall in the Calderwood Pavilion, for a mid-year workshop of the play. Playwrights will have a budget to cast actors and dramaturgs; and the option to seek industry feedback. To conclude the residency, there will be a final staged reading in the Plaza Theatre.
Like other residency programs at BCA, the BCA Playwright Residency aims to gather a diverse and inclusive community of artists for the purpose of supporting innovative work across disciplines, connecting artists with peers and resources, and providing a vibrant platform for new art in Boston. Each application will be evaluated based on the artist's demonstration of experimentation, responsiveness, balance, community engagement, and potential impact.
Fernadina Chan and Jessi Stegall, Latest Boston Dancemakers Residents, Creating New Dance Pieces Exploring Concepts Of Legacy And Race
New works build on Michael Alfano’s sculpture “Cubed” and theremin virtuosa Clara Rockmore’s music
Jessi Stegall and Fernadina Chan will both develop work during their year-long residencies at BCA inspired by, and in deep conversation with, other two artists who inspire each of them.
Left: Fernadina Chan (photo: Phyllis Bretholtz) / Right: Jessi Stegall (photo: Lo Kuehmeier)
In Jessi Stegall’s case the theremin virtuosa Clara Rockmore is the inspiration behind
Stegall’s upcoming piece “The Theremin Vignettes.” Stegall notes that her own work is,
“rooted deeply in odes — responding to, building, and furthering the legacy of worlds
crafted by others,” which in this case is the extraordinary but under-appreciated work of
Rockmore. For Fernadina Chan, Michael Alfano’s interactive sculpture “Cubed” is the
starting point for Continuum Dance Project’s new work that will develop into an
exploration of race and gender from a female perspective, contrasting and harmonizing
with Alfano’s sculptural intention.
About Fernadina Chan and project:
Accomplished educator and choreographer Fernadina Chan is the founding artistic dean
and former chair of Boston Arts Academy (BAA). Fernadina Chan founded Continuum
Dance Project (CDP) — together with her collaborator and co-director Adriane Brayton
— as a means to create site-specific, cross-disciplinary collaborative work that reflects
the backgrounds of their collaborating artists.
In a new evening-length work CDP will explore the multi-layered connection with
Michael Alfano’s interactive sculpture “Cubed.” Built like a jigsaw puzzle, “Cubed”
consists of nine moveable pieces. Each piece is pigmented with a different skin tone,
representing individual diversity within a united community. Fitted together they form a
four-foot by four-foot face, depicting a male image on one side and an inverted female
on the other.
This new cross-disciplinary dance will challenge audiences to consider the nuances of
race and the label of gender; while empowering them to interact with, touch, and take
ownership of the work. This project will feature four diverse female dancers, with family
backgrounds from The Dominican Republic, Haiti, South Korea, The U.S. Virgin Islands,
and United States. Along with female choreographers Adriane Brayton and Fernadina
Chan, this creative team will explore race and gender from a female perspective,
contrasting and harmonizing with the sculptor’s intention.
About Jessi Stegall and project:
Jessi Stegall is a dance-theatre artist, applied ethicist, and arts educator based in Boston.
Jessi currently approaches performance as an act of ode: expressing curiosity and
homage toward worlds built by others. She has been an artist-in-residence at the
Harvard ArtLab, National Parks Service, Windhover Performing Arts Center, and Jacob’s
Pillow Dance Festival, and was recently featured as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to
Watch” (2022) alongside her close collaborator, Ilya Vidrin.
Jessi Stegall’s upcoming work “The Theremin Vignettes” is an evening-length dance
production made up of a series of choreographic vignettes within the musical world of
thereminist Clara Rockmore. Despite being credited as the best theremin player to have
ever lived, Rockmore remains under-recognized and overlooked for her immense
contributions initiating the relationship between electronic interface and classical music.
“The Theremin Vignettes” is, first and foremost, an ode to Clara: a Jewish woman,
virtuosa and pioneer of electronic music, strong-willed and charismatic yet barely 5 feet
tall.
More broadly, this piece will pay homage to what is simultaneously so human in spirit,
yet not human in form: the musical theremin. The only instrument to be played without
physical contact, the theremin produces a warbly and eerie tone made from thin air,
often associated with science fiction films. Rockmore’s theremin arrangements of
classical works elevated the instrument above novelty status, bringing precision and
composition to an otherwise seemingly random and crude instrument. It has been said
that Clara aimed to “bestow the non-human [theremin] a soul.” In an age where the
relationship between humans and machines is becoming increasingly more intimate, her
goal has more meaning now than ever. By choreographically illuminating Rockmore’s
unique use of the theremin, “The Theremin Vignettes” aims to choreographically
highlight the music’s soulful charm through idiosyncratic narratives of departure, grief,
and remembrance.
More Artists’ Quotes:
Fernadina Chan, Continuum Dance Project (CDP):
“We are so excited to have Boston Center for the Arts be our “home” for inspiration and
creation in 2023. Through our Dancemakers Residency, we look forward to continuing
the development of ideas generated during our initial exploration of Michael Alfano’s
“Cubed” at our AiR Residency in 2022. The accessibility of the sculpture throughout our
creation period will be vital to the creative team. During the residency we will focus on
experimentation; ideation; and shaping the full-length work as an interdisciplinary team.
We will initially share the work through informal showings with invited audiences to test
the interactive and participatory elements we will be crafting.”
Jessi Stegall:
“I am extremely excited to spend this year deepening my practice of ode-making with an
interdisciplinary team. With the support of the Dancemakers Residency, I am looking
forward to experimenting, prototyping, and reflecting — not only in building
choreography, but all the moving parts of developing a performance production.”
Andrea Blesso, Director of Dance & Interdisciplinary Arts, Boston Center for the Arts:
“Boston Center for the Arts and Boston Dance Alliance are delighted to welcome two
extraordinary dancemaker talents in Fernadina Chan and Jessi Stegall as this year’s
Boston Dancemakers Residents. Together with their equally talented collaborators, they
will each create what promises to be thought-provoking and ground-breaking pieces
that will move us all. I am eager to deepen our partnership with these visionaries as they
both return to BCA in their new roles as our Dancemaker Residents.”
Debra Cash, Executive Director of Boston Dance Alliance:
“Boston Dance Alliance’s partnership with BCA to create the most comprehensive dance
residency in Boston continues again this year with two extraordinary dancemakers
pushing the boundaries of their discipline. We are thrilled by the wonderful selection of
Fernadina Chan and Jessi Stegall and can’t wait to see the work that emerges!”
About The Boston Dancemakers Residency:
The Boston Dancemakers Residency supports Boston-area dance artists who are striving
to develop, adapt or reinvent their creative process. Produced through a partnership
between Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) and Boston Dance Alliance (BDA), the
residency serves as a laboratory for ideas that are in the exploratory phase and need
dedicated time and space to be fully realized.
Designed to promote artistic growth and the development of original ensemble work,
dancemakers will be offered support for research, development, rehearsal, financial,
and production phases of their project. Resources include a regional three-day retreat,
six weeks of intensive studio time, discounted rehearsal space, dancemaker and
collaborator stipends, and rehearsal pay for up to six dancers.
The residency must be used to develop new work and the majority of rehearsal time
should be dedicated to the proposed project. BCA and BDA encourage dancemakers to
take risks, invest time and focus in working with their dancers, build the skills to develop
and advance original ensemble work, and dive deeply into their creative process.
The Boston Dancemakers Residency is made possible with support in part from the Aliad
Fund at The Boston Foundation.
About Boston Center for the Arts:
Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) is the nexus of the arts in Boston, fostering the
development of contemporary visual and performing arts and convening artists and
audiences to create, explore and celebrate all creative disciplines. An integral part of the
cultural fabric of the City of Boston, Boston Center for the Arts utilizes its historic
campus in the vibrant South End to present world-class exhibitions and performances,
provide affordable work space, engage cultural consumers throughout the region, and
nurture artists with the resources to take risks and develop new art works.
About Boston Dance Alliance:
Boston Dance Alliance (BDA) builds capacity for dance by identifying and creating shared
resources, information, and productive partnerships to help dance flourish across the
Boston metropolitan area and New England region. BDA is an independent service
organization representing dancers, choreographers, teachers, presenters, allied arts and
cultural professionals, arts journalists and scholars, wellness and health providers, and
dance enthusiasts brought together across dance genres and geographies. BDA strives
to increase cultural equity and access to dance for diverse communities, build dance
audiences, and promote quality and sustainability.
Photography and more information:
● Boston Dancemakers Residency on the BCA website
● Fernadina Chan’s Dancemakers Residency page on the BCA website
● Jessi Stegall’s Dancemakers Residency page on the BCA website
● The BCA website
● The BDA website
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