VISION RESIDENCY RONA & HER SKETCHY FRIENDS FEBRUARY 19 @ 7PM ET Featuring & Curated by Vision Resident RONA SIDDIQUI With the talents of MANIK CHOKSI, raja feather kelly, SADE NAMEI & ASSAL GHAWAMI RONA & HER SKETCHY FRIENDS FEBRUARY 19 @ 7PM ET Featuring & Curated by Vision Resident RONA SIDDIQUI HOODIE TRILOGY Created & Performed by RONA SIDDIQUI "FOLLOW A FOLLICLE" FROM SALAAM MEDINA: TALES OF A HALFGHAN Book, Music & Lyrics by RONA SIDDIQUI Animation by MANIK CHOKSI Directed by raja feather kelly Featuring SHERZ ALETAHA, MEETU CHILANA, JAMEN NANTHAKUMAR, JONATHAN RAVIV, LOUIS SALLAN, SHARONE SAYEGH IRAN MUSTACHE CRISIS Written, Directed, Edited & Performed by SADE NAMEI & ASSAL GHAWAMI THE ARTISTS WOULD LIKE TO THANK Sherz Aletaha, Thomas Dolan, Devanand Janki, Jonathan Raviv, Sharone Sayegh & Nandita Shenoy. 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 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. SADE NAMEI is a member of Peydah Theatre company. She’s a comedian and actor. She recently appeared in Hook and Eye Theatre Company’s Echo and Narcissus. Previous stage work includes Eve Ensler's Emotional Creature at the Signature Theatre (NYC) and Berkeley Rep, Against The Hillside at The O’Neill, In The Line at A.R.T. NY, Mika at The U.N., Leaves of Grass at The Cell, #Serials@theFlea, United Front (Primary Stages) and her one-woman show In Medias Res at the Brick Theater. She has also performed at the Argentinian Consulate and The Asia Society among others. TV/Films: New Amsterdam, Subways, Fatima and The Elegant Clockwork of the Universe. She works as a TV/ film Farsi translator/dialect coach on The Blacklist, Madam Secretary, Limitless, Mr. Robot and Homeland. ASSAL GHAWAMI is a multifaceted storyteller, trained actress and award winning filmmaker who fell in love with theater when she was cast as child performer in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Born in Iran, raised in Germany, Ghawami is finally a full fleshed permanent resident of Brooklyn, New York. Ghawami is a member of Alliance of Women Directors and has been featured at New Director Showcase at DGA. She is a recipient of the Maurice Kanbar Scholarship, Peter D Gould and Tisch School of the Arts Grants and has graduated from NYU Grad Film School. In recent years, Ghawami has directed and produced corporate videos for GUM Studios and produced alongside writer/director Abu Bakr Shawky’s Palme d’Or nominated feature film Yomeddine. In 2020 Ghawami reconnected with her love of performing and started a comedy improv group with collaborator Sade Namei named Iran Mustache Crisis. MANIK CHOKSI Broadway: Great Comet, Off-Broadway: Indian Ink, Roundabout; Bunty Berman Presents (Lortel Nomination), New Group; Great Comet, Ars Nova; God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, Encores!; King Tot and D, Deb, Debbie, Deborah, Clubbed Thumb; Huck & Holden, Cherry Lane. Regional: Moby Dick, A.R.T.; Film/TV: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt; New Amsterdam; Good Fight; Mindhunter; Elementary; Happyish; One Life To Live (Vimal Patel), Home, Passing Season. Composer: Those Lost Boys (workshop), The Ramayan (workshop) Ars Nova; Food Odyssey, 3LD; Education: The Juilliard School. raja feather kelly is an Obie-winning choreographer, director, artistic director of the feath3r theory and Creative Associate at The Juilliard School. In 2020, kelly made his directorial debut at Second Stage Theatre with We're Gonna Die. Since 2016, raja has choreographed extensively for Off-Broadway. Frequent collaborators include: Lileana Blain-Cruz, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Michael R. Jackson, Rona Siddiqui and Sarah Benson. Other credits include: GIRLS (Yale Rep), Lempicka (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The House That Will Not Stand (NYTW), If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons, choreography nominee for Lucille Lortel Award and Chita Rivera Award) and two Pulitzer drama winners: Fairview (Soho Rep, Berkeley Rep, TFANA; SDCF Callaway Award finalist for choreography) and A Strange Loop (Playwrights Horizons; Obie Award for choreography; 2019 SDCF Callaway Award finalist for choreography). 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 of the residency during their month of programming. The 2020/21 Vision Residents are: Starr Busby, nicHi douglas, JJJJJerome Ellis, raja feather kelly, Jenny Koons, David Mendizábal & Rona Siddiqui. Ars Nova's Vision Residency program is supported by The Miranda Family Fund. ARS NOVA 2021 BOARD OF DIRECTORS TEAM JENNY STEINGART JASON EAGAN JASON P. BARUCH, MAKERS LAB FOUNDING CHAIR, CO-FOUNDER FOUNDING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR SENDROFF & BARUCH LLP MANIK CHOKSI & ZI ALIKHAN ALISA LESSING RENEE BLINKWOLT LEGAL CHAIR MANAGING DIRECTOR MAURY DONNELLY & PARR GUADALÍS DEL CARMEN, DANA KIRCHMAN EMILY SHOOLTZ INSURANCE DAVID MENDIZÁBAL, VICE CHAIR ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR RICH & BANDER, LLP JOÉL PÉREZ & EMMA RAMOS JUDY BEDOL CASEY YORK ACCOUNTING LAURA GALINDO SECRETARY GENERAL MANAGER STEVEN DALTON NIGHTDRIVE JASON KEMPER MAC INGRAM IT CONSULTANT MICHELLE J. RODRIGUEZ TREASURER DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR JOHN WYSZNIEWSKI, JILLIAN WALKER RICH BATTISTA JES LEVINE EVERYMAN AGENCY DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION PRESS REPRESENTATIVE NANCY BERGMAN COMPANY-IN-RESIDENCE RENEE BLINKWOLT ERIC SHETHAR MANAGER OF ARTISTIC PROGRAMS NICOLE BRODEUR RESIDENT ARTISTS ON THE ROCKS THEATRE CO. KATE WEBER GREG CORRADETTI INTERIM BUSINESS MANAGER VISION RESIDENCY JASON EAGAN JUSTIN SAMOY STARR BUSBY COMMISSIONED ARTISTS VICTOR EDOZIEN INDIVIDUAL GIVING & nicHi douglas MELIS AKER SPECIAL EVENTS MANAGER RICK FELDMAN JJJJJEROME ELLIS VIRGINIA B. TOULMIN LIZZY FLORENCE SARAH IVINS FOUNDATION COMMISSION MARKETING MANAGER raja feather kelly DEEKSHA GAUR KEVIN ARMENTO & SAMMY MILLER JAKE HAUNGS JENNY KOONS STEPHEN SIDEROW FUND MEI LIN KWAN-GETT OPERATIONS & FACILITIES MANAGER DAVID MENDIZÁBAL FOR NEW MUSICALS COMMISSION GRETA MANSOUR SIMON LASS RONA SIDDIQUI MICHAEL BRESLIN & PATRICK FOLEY DAVID MINER TECHNICAL DIRECTOR SEAVIEW PRODUCTIONS COMMISSION DOUG RAPPAPORT KRIS PRITCHARD HEATHER CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATE PRODUCTION MANAGER NEW YORK COMMUNITY TRUST STEPHEN SIDEROW VAN LIER FELLOWS nicHi douglas JON STEINGART MIRANDA HANSON NEW YORK STATE DIRECTOR EMERITUS, CO-FOUNDER DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE LAURA GALINDO COUNCIL ON THE ARTS COMMISSION BEN KLEIN MICHELLE J. RODRIGUEZ DEEPALI GUPTA AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT ASSOCIATE KHIYON HURSEY ALUMNI ADVISORY TINA SIMPSON JAMES & JEROME MANAGEMENT ASSISTANT PLAY GROUP BOARD ANTOINETTE NWANDU IMMI CHAUDHRY MELIS AKER CÉSAR ALVAREZ ON THE ROCKS THEATRE CO. EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT PRESTON MAX ALLEN RACHEL CHAVKIN RAY YAMANOUCHI CHELSEA BARKER SERENA BERMAN BILLY EICHNER HOUSE MANAGER & COMMUNITY ZACK ZADEK JOHN J.