A VERY MENASA VALENTINE's FEBRUARY 12 @ 7PM ET Written by IDA ESMAEILI, RYAN J
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VISION RESIDENCY A VERY MENASA VALENTINE'S FEBRUARY 12 @ 7PM ET Written by IDA ESMAEILI, RYAN J. HADDAD, VISHAAL REDDY & NANDITA SHENOY Hosted by SHERZ ALETAHA Directed by DANNY SHARRON Curated by Vision Resident RONA SIDDIQUI A VERY MENASA VALENTINE'S FEBRUARY 12 @ 7PM ET THE TEAM Hosted by SHERZ ALETAHA Stage Managed by TIA HAREWOOD-MILLINGTON Directed by DANNY SHARRON Curated by Vision Resident RONA SIDDIQUI WILL YOU BE MY by RYAN J. HADDAD Featuring OLIVIA ABIASSI & CAITLIN NASEMA CASSIDY DATING IN THE TIME OF CORONA by NANDITA SHENOY Featuring JOLLY ABRAHAM I'M SORRY! by VISHAAL REDDY Featuring VICK KRISHNA, VISHAAL REDDY & ANEESH SHETH THE PERSIAN POD by IDA ISMAEILI Featuring ANITA ABDINEZHAD, SHERZ ALETAHA, ALI FARAHNAKIAN & POOYA MOHSENI THE ARTISTS WOULD LIKE TO THANK Sherz Aletaha, Thomas Dolan, Devanand Janki, Jonathan Raviv, Sharone Sayegh, Nandita Shenoy & Matthew Wise. Ars Nova operates on the unceded land of the Lenape peoples on the island of Manhahtaan (Mannahatta) in Lenapehoking, the Lenape Homeland. We acknowledge the brutal history of this stolen land and the displacement and dispossession of its Indigenous people. We also acknowledge that after there were stolen lands, there were stolen people. We honor the generations of displaced and enslaved people that built, and continue to build, the country that we occupy today. We gathered together in virtual space to watch this performance. We encourage you to consider the legacies of colonization embedded within the technology and structures we use and to acknowledge its disproportionate impact on communities of color and Indigenous peoples worldwide. We invite you to join us in acknowledging all of this as well as our shared responsibility: to consider our way forward in reconciliation, decolonization, anti-racism and allyship. We commit ourselves to the daily practice of pursuing this work. ABOUT THE ARTISTS DANNY SHARRON is a Brooklyn-based theater director with a focus on developing new plays and musicals. Danny is the Senior Associate Director for the Tony Award-winning Dear Evan Hansen (Broadway/West End/Toronto/Tour). He recently directed the world premiere of Jason Kim's The Model American at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and an environmental production of Taylor Mac's Okay at Bushwick's Central Arts. He has developed and directed work with The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Ars Nova, LAByrinth Theater Company, Primary Stages, Ma-Yi and The Lark. Danny is a recipient of New York Theatre Workshop's 2050 Fellowship, Williamstown's Bill Foeller Fellowship, The Drama League's New York Fellowship and is an alumnus of the Ars Nova Director's Troupe. Proud member of SDC. dannysharron.com TIA HAREWOOD-MILLINGTON is a Colorado-raised, New York City-based stage manager with a passion for working on live TV events, concerts, new theatrical works and projects that center and uplift womyn and minority groups. Past credits include How I Learned to Drive (Manhattan Theater Club), one in two (The New Group), The New Englanders (Manhattan Theater Club), Lempicka (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Selling Kabul (Williamstown Theatre Festival), soft (Williamstown Theatre Festival) Bright & Brave (Dixon Place), Shipwreck (The Public). Proud alumna of Hofstra University 2019 and member of Actors' Equity. Thanks and love always to Mom, Lindsey, Noah and Lowe 217. Instagram: @tia.h.millington RYAN J. HADDAD is an actor, playwright and autobiographical performer based in New York. His acclaimed solo play Hi, Are You Single? was presented in The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival and continues to tour the country. Other New York credits include My Straighties (Ars Nova/ANT Fest), Noor and Hadi Go to Hogwarts (Theater Breaking Through Barriers) and the cabaret Falling for Make Believe (Joe’s Pub/Under the Radar). Regional theater: The Maids, Lucy Thurber’s Orpheus in the Berkshires (Williamstown Theatre Festival) and Hi, Are You Single? (Guthrie Theater, Cleveland Play House, Williamstown Theatre Festival). He has a recurring role on the Netflix seriesThe Politician. Additional television: Bull, Madam Secretary and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Haddad is a recipient of IAMA Theatre Company’s Shonda Rhimes Unsung Voices Playwriting Commission and Rising Phoenix Repertory’s Cornelia Street American Playwriting Award. His work has been developed with The Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Noor Theatre, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Primary Stages and Pride Plays. He is an alum of The Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group and a former Queer|Art Performance and Playwriting Fellow, under the mentorship of Moe Angelos. @ryanjhaddad | ryanjhaddad.com IDA ESMAEILI is a Swedish-Iranian actor and writer based in New York. She’s currently pursuing her MFA in Playwriting at Columbia University and holds a BFA in Musical Theater from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Her work includes tenderly, The Fig Tree, GIRLHOOD, wave; or the moment the earth shook, Lonely Hearts Club and her upcoming thesis play shahdokht. Her music can be found on Spotify, iTunes and at SoundCloud. This is her first time working with Ars Nova, and she couldn’t be more stoked. Instagram/Twitter: @idaesmiley NANDITA SHENOY is a New York-based writer-actor. Her Rage Play was recently named to the Kilroys List 2020. Her Washer/Dryer has been produced multiple times nationally after its world premiere at LA’s East West Players and an Off-Broadway production in which she also starred. Her first full-length, Lyme Park: An Austonian Romance of an Indian Nature, was produced by theHegira in Washington, DC. Her one-acts have been produced in New York City and regionally. Nandita won the 2014 Father Hamblin Award in Playwriting. Her acting credits range from dancing on national tours to Shakespeare festivals to world premieres of new plays by emerging playwrights. She is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, the dtfwaw, the Dramatists Guild, Actors Equity Association and SAG/AFTRA. Nandita holds a BA in English literature from Yale University. nanditashenoy.com SHERZ ALETAHA, which is pronounced like more than one Cher, has had the pleasure of performing at The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, in Prospect Theater Company's Archetypes, in Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway’s Disaster!, at Dixon Place in Spring Alive (cast album available), as Aldonza in Man of La Mancha (Triad Stage) and in numerous readings and concerts of new and developing work. On Camera work includes The Detour, The First Wives Club, Three Trembling Cities, Wing Women, Insomnia and numerous commercials. Follow her at @morethanonecher. VISHAAL REDDY is an actor, writer and producer from Tennessee and based in NYC. He received his undergraduate degree at Boston University, studying business administration and theater. He was recently selected as one of 2019 Tribeca Film Festival Creator N.O.W. creators. Upon moving to NYC, he was a part of numerous Off-Broadway plays and musicals, while also delving into the television/ film world. His recent credits include The Punisher (Netflix), Bull (CBS) and Big Dogs (Amazon). Feeling frustrated with the industry's portrayal of Indian characters, he started writing and producing his own screenplays and sketches. His ultimate goal is to launch his production company, focusing on the stories of South Asians and people in the LGBTQ community. RONA SIDDIQUI (Vision Resident, Curator) is a composer/lyricist based in NYC. She is a recipient of the Jonathan Larson Grant and Billie Burke Ziegfeld award. She was named one of Broadway Women's Fund's Women to Watch. Her show Salaam Medina: Tales of a Halfghan, an autobiographical comedy about growing up bi-ethnic in America, had a reading at Playwrights Horizons (dir. by raja feather kelly). Other musicals include One Good Day, Hip Hop Cinderella and The Tin. She is the recipient of the ASCAP Harold Adamson Lyric Award, the ASCAP Foundation Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Award and ASCAP Foundation/Max Dreyfus Scholarship. She has written pieces for Wicked's 16th anniversary commemoration Flying Free, 24 Hour Musicals, Prospect Theater Company, The Civilians and has performed concerts of her work at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Feinstein's/54 Below. Rona music directed the Off-Broadway Pulitzer Prize-winning A Strange Loop, for which she received an Obie along with the cast and creative team (Playwrights Horizons). She has orchestrated for Broadway Records, Broadway Backwards, NAMT and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. ABOUT THE VISION RESIDENCY Designed to foreground Ars Nova’s values through the creation of more equitable and power-sharing curatorial practices, the Vision Residency expands Ars Nova’s artistic vision by inviting seven artist-curators to populate our digital platform with their own work as well as work by artists they champion and admire. Each Resident is given broad support from Ars Nova’s full staff, and spends two months planning for one month of activity on Ars Nova Supra. Each Vision Resident is paid for their curation and administrative work, as well as allocated a program budget towards the creation, development and presentation of work during their curated month. Vision Residents are encouraged to invite other artists they feel inspired by, want to collaborate with or simply wish to amplify to make and share work using the budget and resources