March 15 - 31, 2018 MODESTO FLAKO JIMENEZ & OYE GROUP ¡OYE! FOR MY DEAR BROOKLYN MODESTO FLAKO JIMENEZ & OYE GROUP ABOUT ¡OYE! FOR MY DEAR BROOKLYN OYE GROUP Runtime: 60 minutes “Listen to the beats / The rhythm of my Oye Group (formerly Brooklyn Gypsies) Writer & Performer Bushwick streets.” Brooklyn impresario is an artist collective made up of New Modesto Flako Jimenez Modesto Flako Jimenez conjures his Yorkers both native and immigrant to beloved borough in this bilingual elegy, the city. We present annual showcases Director told through poems, projections, of new work in theater, dance, poetry Artem Yatsunov and music. With lyrical brilliance and and film that spark dialogue on Video Designer irreverent play, ¡Oye! For My Dear critical issues such as immigration, Kevin Torres Brooklyn complicates our perceptions gentrification, economics, and urban of race, language, and gentrification survival. We curate a mix of established Lighting Designer and calls us to be truly present to ask and emerging artists and give them Megan Lang the question: “What is my moral worth?” a platform to share their art in a Sound Designer stimulating environment. Oye Group is a Drew Weinstein playground to celebrate what is unique about ’s eclectic and Set Designer converging art communities. Michael Minahan Stage Manager Kendall Allen Installation Artist Sara Sciabbarrasi Production Manager Skye Morse-Hodgson Production Consultant Jose Esquea WHO’S WHO Modesto Flako Jimenez Co-Founder of the North Jersey nomadic Drew Weinstein Writer & Performer collective StrangeDog Theatre (est. Sound Designer Modesto Flako Jimenez is a Dominican- 2008), called “very raw, very present” Drew is a New York-based director, born, Bushwick-raised theater maker, by the New York Times. As an educator, sound designer, composer, and producer, and educator. ATI Best Actor Artem leads writing workshops, devised producer. He has created original work Award Winner for 2016. HOLA Best theater and storytelling programs in in and around New York City at venues Ensemble Award Winner for 2015 professional residencies across NYC and including HERE Arts Center, The Brick, and HOLA Outstanding Solo Performer NJ; he’s taught with Two River Theater, LEIMAY, The Hive, Redwood Studios, and for 2017, NY Times and Wall Street Creative Arts Team, Town Hall, Stella The Jersey City Theatre Center. He has Journal profiled. Flako is best known for Adler Studios, School For Excellence at directed additional works at The Wild original productions and three signature Morris Campus, Bronx NY, and was a Project, The Shakespeare Theatre of New festivals – Ghetto Hors D’Oeuvres, One part of educational programs at Writopia Jersey, Dixon Place, Porterspace, the Catches Light, and Oye! Avant Garde Labs NYC, Luna Stage Theater, and the Sheen Center, and the Bridge at Shetler Playwrights Theater of NJ. Artem’s work Night! – produced with his company Studios. His designs have been heard is deeply influenced by his experience Oye Group. Flako has appeared on at venues including the Public Theatre, as a multilingual Ukrainian immigrant, TEDxBushwick, Early Shaker Spirituals HERE Arts Center, The Performing and currently he performs Please Google (Wooster Group), Last Night At The Garage, the Brick, Under St. Marks, Ukraine, a solo-show for adults and Palladium (Bushwick Starr/3LD), and at the NYC Fringe Festival. Drew students on the place of immigrants in Yoleros (Bushwick Starr/IATI theater), has worked as an associate with the the US. Select Directing: Oye For My Dear Conversations Pt.1: How To Make It Black PROTOTYPE Festival and produced works Brooklyn (/Under In America (JACK). Take Me Home (3LD/ for LEIMAY including Frantic Beauty at The Radar-PUBLIC Theater/ Abrons Arts Incubator Arts Project), and Richard Center), Last Night At The Palladium the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Maxwell’s Samara (Soho Rep.). Modesto (Associate Dir; 3-Legged Dog Arts + received the 2016 Princess Grace Award Media), Growing Into My Beard (Horse Megan Lang Honorarium in Theater. In 2018 he Trade/Minnesota & Philly Fringe/The Lighting Designer became the first Dominican-American Tank), Basic Help (Frigid Festival), Tilt The Megan Lang has designed lighting at Lead Artist in The Public Theater Under Unlit Candle (Luna Stage), Omnivores BAM, La Mama, Abrons Arts Center, The Radar Festival. (Playwrights Theater of New Jersey). EST, Under St. Mark’s, the Wild Project, Writer/Performer: Please Google Ukraine Dixon Place, 59E59, JACK, Atlantic Artem Yatsunov (One Catches Light Festival, Stage 2, among others. Recent designs Director Early College Academy, American AF include A Star Has Burnt My Eye (BAM Artem Yatsunov is a Ukrainian-born, Festival). Artem holds a BFA in Acting Next Wave, directed by Paul Lazar), Riot Jersey-raised, Brooklyn-based theatre from Montclair State University. Antigone (La Mama, directed by Seonjae director, storyteller and educator. www.artemyatsunov.com Kim), and Furry/La Furia! (The Bushwick He has been developing new work Starr, directed by William Burke). She and creating theatrical experiences Kevin Torres is the resident lighting designer for around the country for over 10 years, Video Designer the Ubumuntu Arts Festival in Rwanda. bringing live shows to both theatre Born and raised in Jersey City, NJ. Kevin Assistant/associate special effects work fans and people who “mistakenly think Torres is a Video Director/Producer, includes Sting’s The Last Ship, Our Lady they don’t like plays.” Artem serves Photographer, and Technical Director of Kibeho and An Act of God. BA: Fordham as General Manager of Oye Group, an for Oye! Group. Has a B.S. in Mechanical University. artistic collective made up of native Engineering from the New Jersey www.meganlangld.com and immigrant New Yorkers, and is the Institute of Technology. WHO’S WHO continued Michael Minahan group/two-person exhibitions: FACES Skye Morse-Hodgson Set Designer & FIGURES: PAST/FORWARD (Amos Production Manager Previous work includes Drama Desk Eno Gallery, Brooklyn), Stereoscope Skye is a producer, filmmaker, nominated The Man Who Laughs (Stolen (Index Art Center, Newark), Art from photographer, and award winning Chair); The Last Night at the Palladium Astoria (COFFEED, Queens). She screenwriter. Originally from Los Angeles, (Oye Group/ 3LD); 59RPM (Current frequently teams up with theatre artist she moved to New York in 2015 after Harbour/ HERE Arts); Six seasons Brandon Monokian, with whom she graduating from Brooks Institute with with the Big Green Theater Festival has collaborated on a graphic novel a BFA in filmmaking. She has been (Superhero Clubhouse/ Bushwick Starr); of Monokian’s play Peter Pan is Dead. involved in the creation, management, Five seasons with Pig Iron’s annual Upcoming Sara is releasing an album of and shooting of productions at 3LD Art Benefit Cabaret (Trocodero Theater, original songs via Monokian’s multi- and Technology Center, The Tank, Dixon Philadelphia); She Kills Monsters (New media company Love Drunk Life. At the Place, Here Art Center, The Brick, The School), and more. Upcoming: Knot an moment, Sara is at work illustrating and Performing Garage, Danspace, Judson Opera (Fresh Squeezed). As a scenic authoring picture books for children Theater, The Metropolitan Museum of artist Michael has painted for the as well as adults, believing the latter Art, Deitch Projects, Collapsable Hole, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Westport need picture books as much as the Tisch NYU, and many others. Skye’s Playhouse, Lincoln Center, Classic Stage former. Sara is a sculpture fabricator photography work has been featured in Company, Roundabout, Signature at Socrates Sculpture Park and John Time Out New York, The New York Times, Theater, The Metropolitan Opera, Robert Clement Studios in Astoria, Queens. BFA and The New Yorker. Wilson (various projects), among others. Sculpture, Montclair State University. In addition to his theater and studio work, Michael & partner Preesa Adeline Kendall Allen Bullington own and operate Brooklyn Stage Manager Whiskers Bakery - a vegan wholesale Kendall Allen is a brooklyn based theatre and retail bakery with locations in artist, focusing her energy as a Stage Bushwick and Greenpoint. He holds an Manager. Select NY Credits Include: One MFA in design from the University of Catches Light Festival (JACK), Animal Washington, School of Drama. Wisdom (The Bushwick Starr), BURN, or www.minahandesign.com an Informal Presentation on the Finite Nature of Atoms (United Solo Artist’s Sara Sciabbarrasi Festival), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Hudson Installation Artist Valley Shakespeare Festival), GO FORTH Sara Sciabbarrasi, raised in New Jersey (LMCC, Governor’s Island), and soon and based in Queens, is a multimedia can be found at HERE Arts Center with artist, maker, set-designer, musician, Assembled Identity. Kendall studied and writer. She has created sets and Theatre; Design and Production at installations for theatre productions Fordham University. Endless thanks to at The Performing Garage, Luna Flako, Artem, the entire Oye Team, her Stage, Under St. Mark’s, The Red coffee pot, and her mother. Room, Montclair State University, and is a recurrent scenic designer for Columbia University’s MFA Directing and Playwriting programs. Select OYE GROUP FOUND SPECIAL FUNDING FOOTAGE THANKS Eric Acevedo, Alphabeta nyc, Vanessa 1. James Baldwin and Dick Gregory, Margarita Agramonte, Mercedes Olga Felix, Shahkeem Ez’rom, Theo Maltz, Jo “Baldwin’s Nigger,”1969. Viñales, Sandra Garner, Craig T. Peterson, Annesta, Emily Moler, Richard Maxwell, Ali Rosa-Salas, Jon Harper, Kenny Olguin, Skylar Fox, Jill Stanton, Amelia Kennedy, 2. James Baldwin vs. William F. Buckley, Catherine Dawes, Terrell Finner, Jorge Janelly Ramos, Minutolo A, Ann Marie “Has the American Dream Been Luna, Tiffany Zorrilla, SFDS, Materials for Dorr, Michael Gomez, Katarina Hybenova, Achieved at the Expense of the the Arts, Tei Blow, 3-Legged Dog, Tracy Lauren Miller, Jason Batcheller, Simón American Negro?” Oct 26th, 1965. Lopez, Stephanie Massanet, Shun Takino, Hanukai, Tony’s Pizzeria and Restaurant, Aaron “Radiosilence” Jaker, Susana Chris Wolfe, Armando Croda, Eliza Bent, 3. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo interview, Kwon , Antonia Lassar, Valentina & Victor Maria Kelly, Frances McDormand, Suzzy “Causes & Consequences,” May 30, Yatsunov, Shy Richardson, Carlos Ortiz, Roche, Jason Beck, Estefania Fadul, 1961. Pamela Pichardo Naftalyia St.Rose, Eva Vonschweinitz, 2012 Book/Documentary Eissa Saeed, Kamila Slawinski, Meredith The Bushwick Starr Theater, Alphabet Burns, Chelsea Harrison, Cynthia Hilts, Arts Puppets & Poets Festival, Capicu Xenia Rubinos, Alemagania, Nick E Cultural Showcase, Brooklyn Poets, Finn, Nicolas K Adams, Dawn Hall Hails, Lemon Andersen, Roya Marsh, Bonafide Minorca Sanchez, Jonathan Rivera, Rojas, Karen Taylor Maury Landsman, Aaron Landsman, Greig From The Performing Garage Sargeant, Marianna Houston, Sunny Cyr, Elizabeth LeCompte, Kate Valk, Mike Nancy Ahn, Mohammad Yousuf, Karen Farry, Cynthia Hedstrom, Erin Mullin, Taylor, Chloe Erskine, Daniel Maseda, Pamela Reichen, Matthias Kate Scelsa, Alaina Ferris, Sandra Garner, Neckermann, Dan Kent, Thomas Melissa Hernandez, Megan Hill, Betty Kavanagh, Deidrea Hamid, Aaron Peg, John Del Gaudio, Amber West, Radiosilence Jaker, Shun Takino, Sam Kate Benson, Becca Blackwell, Steven Silbiger, Daniel Ramirez & Yazmeen Tanenbaum, Keelie Sheridan Vargas , Nick E. Finn, Anna Rogovoy, Olander “Big O” Wilson, Jay Maury, Cinthia Candelaria, Jeannette Yew From SoHo Rep Feed Sarah Benson, William Burke From Incoming/UTR & PUBLIC Andrew Kircher, Mark Russel, Kelly Kerwin, Zach Longstreet, Barry Stagg, Alyssa Simmons, Jaime Sunwoo, and our INCOMING Cohort for their support: Julia Mounsey, Peter Mills Weiss, Annie Saunders, Becca Wolff, Kareem Lucas, Anisa George, Kristine Haruna Lee and Andrew J. Butler. From Bennington, VT Bennington College and Dina Janis, Kirk Jackson ABOUT ABRONS ABRONS FUNDING Abrons Arts Center is a home for contemporary interdisciplinary The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. arts in Manhattan’s neighborhood. A core The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation program of the Settlement, Abrons believes that The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts access to the arts is essential to a free and healthy society. The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes Through performance presentations, exhibitions, education The Barker Welfare Foundation programs and residencies, Abrons mobilizes communities with the British Council transformative power of art. The Bulova Stetson Fund Abrons values freedom of expression and creativity, ever striving Daniel J. and Edith A. Ehrlich Family Foundation to provide creative communities with a space that celebrates The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation diversity of thought and experience. Abrons aims to be an anti- Emily Davie & Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation oppressive home to people from all backgrounds and does not Exploring the Arts discriminate on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, citizen The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Inc. status, ancestry, age, religion, disability, sex or gender, gender The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust identity and/or expression (including a transgender identity), Howard Gilman Foundation, Inc. sexual orientation or any other characteristic. Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation Jerome Foundation Indigenous Land Acknowledgement Jerome Robbins Foundation Abrons Arts Center is situated on the Lenape island of Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation, Inc. Manhahtaan (Mannahatta). We pay respect to Lenape peoples and Mertz Gilmore Foundation ancestors past, present, and future, and acknowledge our reliance Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation on the land and waters of Lenapehoking, the Lenape homeland. We Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation offer our care and gratitude to Lenapehoking, and are committed Stavros Niarchos Foundation to resisting colonialism through the support of Indigenous-led Tita Cahn Trust programming and Indigenous artistic practices. Trust for Mutual Understanding You are welcome here. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer National Endowment for the Arts For tickets and showtimes: New York City Councilmember Margaret Chin New York City Councilmember Rosie Mendez abronsartscenter.org New York City Department of Cultural Affairs New York City Department of Education New York State Council on the Arts Support neighborhood businesses! As a thank you for As well as our numerous individual supporters supporting our programming, we’re offering discounts to some of our favorite Lower East Side hangouts. For more information, click on abronsartscenter.org/plan-your-trip/dining-and- attractions and get a discount when you bring this program!

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