CAMPFIRE: THE SNEAK PEEK MAY 18 @ 7PM ET Hosted by MAHAYLA LAURENCE & MATT GEHRING With Pieces Created & Performed by MAKASHA COPELAND & CHASE DOGGETT & GABRIELLE SILVA; ELY KREIMENDAHL; GUS LAUGHLIN; CHRISTIAN LUU; JOÉL PÉREZ; ELEANOR PHILIPS & JESSIE CANNIZZARO; MARINA TEMPELSMAN & NICCO AEED; KUHOO VERMA CAMPFIRE: THE SNEAK PEEK MAY 18 @ 7PM ET THE TEAM Hosted by MAHAYLA LAURENCE & MATT GEHRING With Pieces Created & Performed by MAKASHA COPELAND & CHASE DOGGETT & GABRIELLE SILVA ELY KREIMENDAHL GUS LAUGHLIN CHRISTIAN LUU JOÉL PÉREZ ELEANOR PHILIPS & JESSIE CANNIZZARO MARINA TEMPELSMAN & NICCO AEED KUHOO VERMA Captions TRANSCRIPTION STAR 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 CHRISTIAN LUU (Creator/Performer) (they/them/theirs) is a nonbinary first-generation Vietnamese writer and performer from Dallas, Texas. Their work can be found on Reductress and Awf Magazine. They are also a member of Overstep Comedy, a sketch team made up of all Asian Americans. Other favorite credits include Thomas Paine in Violence, Addy & Dahlia and Make Them Hear You, a virtual benefit concert for Black Lives Matter they self-produced and hosted during the pandemic. They graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2017 with a Bachelor of Music in Musical Theater. ELEANOR PHILIPS (Creator/Performer) (she/her/hers) is a Mad actor, singer, storyteller and lifelong New Yorker. She’s performed at New World Stages, Joe’s Pub, Club Cumming, The Flea, The PIT, JACK, The Wild Project, New Georges and more, and often makes mayhem with Mondays in the Club with Lance at Club Cumming and beyond. eleanorphilips.com @ecphilips JESSIE CANNIZZARO (Creator/Performer) (she/her/hers) is an actor, writer and director, born and raised in NYC. She was last seen at Ars Nova in If You Do This Right You’ll Probably Break Their Chest (ANT Fest) and The Royal Pyrate (Uncharted). Select theater credits include The Gods of Comedy (The Old Globe), Puffs (New World Stages), Romeo and Juliet (Lincoln Center Education), The Mysteries (The Flea), The Haunting of Ichabod Crane (Park Avenue Armory) and the title role in Hamlet (American Theatre of Actors). Select film/TV credits include Selah and The Spades (Sundance), Nella the Princess Knight (Nickelodeon) and Puffs: Live Off-Broadway (Amazon). As a writer, Jessie’s work has been seen in comedy festivals nationwide, and her comedic pilot is currently being developed as part of the inaugural Story Institute at Catalyst Content Festival. Her original songs can be heard in commercials, on the stage and on the screen. She trained at Upright Citizens Brigade and writes and performs sketch comedy with her team Infinite Sketch at The Peoples Improv Theater. Jessie graduated from Swarthmore College with high honors in Theater and Political Science, and from Space Camp with high honors in model rocketry. jessiecannizzaro.com ELY KREIMENDAHL (Creator/Performer) (she/her + they/them) is a queer comedian, actor and writer. She studied improv, sketch writing and acting at Upright Citizens Brigade, HB Studio NYC and Brooklyn Comedy Collective. She has performed stand-up with The Tiny Cupboard, Glass Houses, Don't Call Me Sweetie, NYC Comics and Women Behind Glass, and regularly posts original sketch/character videos on Instagram and Twitter @elykreimendahl. Ely was a 2010 RADAR Lab Fellow through RADAR Productions, a literary and arts organization dedicated to supporting emerging queer artists. In 2020, Ely's sketch "Women for Biden" won Funny or Die's Best of the Web competition Volume 3 and was featured on their website. In their other life, Ely is a nationally registered drama/creative arts therapist, and has provided therapy and created therapeutic theater with young people and adults in inpatient psychiatric settings, a specialized PTSD clinic, public high schools and community mental health centers. GUS LAUGHLIN (Creator/Performer) (he/him + they/them) is a writer, director and theater artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He’s a recent graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Experimental Theatre Wing where he was the director of Hammerkatz, NYU’s premiere sketch comedy group. He is currently a member of the sketch, improv and filmmaking group Lisa, and is someone who proves that you can love both dogs AND cats. JOÉL PÉREZ (Creator/Performer) (he/him/his) is an award-winning actor and writer living in NYC. His theater work includes Fun Home (Broadway, The Public), Kiss My Aztec! (Berkeley Rep, La Jolla Playhouse) and Sweet Charity (New Group; Lortel Award Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical). TV work includes Jesus Christ Superstar Live! (NBC), Person of Interest (CBS) and Odd Mom Out (Bravo). Broken Box Mime Theater ensemble member. He performed with the UCB Maude sketch team Peach and is a writer and performer for the musical theater comedy sketch show SHIZ which has performed at UCB, The Pit, Improv Asylum and 54 Below. His play, The Church of the Holy Glory, premiered at Ars Nova ANT Fest 2018. He is in the 2020 Ars Nova Makers Lab for his Untitled Sabado Gigante Project. He participated in the Actors Who Write Fellowship at Rattlestick and is a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Playwriting from NYFA. Follow him at @misterjoelperez and visit joelperez.com. KUHOO VERMA (Creator/Performer) (she/her + they/them) is an NYC-based artist who is seen at Joe's Pub, 54 Below, Lincoln Center and countless developmental workshops. Some favorite roles include Velma in Dave Malloy's OCTET, (Lucille Lortel Award, Drama Desk Award) and Zubeida (X-Files Girl) in the Academy Award-nominated film The Big Sick. Upcoming: a show at The Public and the film Plan B on Hulu. Gratitude to family, friends, Innovative & Soffer/Namoff. Much love and light! MAKASHA COPELAND (Creator/Performer) (they/them/theirs) is a writer, actor, comedian and your babysitter during those formative years. Their plays Extreme Home Makeover and Fabuloso! have been developed and produced with San Diego REP, Vertigo Productions, Agnes Nixon Festival, Teatro Espejo (upcoming) and Sideshow Theatre (upcoming). They are a member of femme sketch group Resting Witch Face at iO and Second City. They graduated from Northwestern University, where they performed, wrote and improvised with The Titanic Players, Griffin’s Tale, Mee-Ow and Out Da Box. CHASE DOGGETT (Creator/Performer) (he/him/his) is a Tejano writer, comedian and full-time protagonist from Austin, TX. He is the creator of the running comedy-variety show Kid Biologist through the Brooklyn Comedy Collective. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he was a member of The Titanic Players, Griffin's Tale, and Out Da Box. He is currently in production on his comedic podcast series, You’re Gonna Remember Me. GABRIELLE SILVA (Creator/Performer) (she/her/hers) is a performer from outside Boston, MA who loves comedy and singing. She is a graduate from Northwestern University where she co-directed, performed and wrote for Out Da Box and was a member of Resting Witch Face at Second City. She currently works in marketing but doesn’t really want to. NICCOLO AEED (Creator/Performer) (he/him/his) is a Black/Palestinian comedian, writer and director based in New York. He is half the comedy duo Marina & Nicco, whose sketches have appeared on The New Yorker and Funny or Die. Recent plays include: Room 4 (The PIT), Unpacking: A Ghost Story Told in the Dark (HERE Arts), If You Do This Right You'll Probably Break Their Chest (Ars Nova), No King in Israel (Hudson Guild Theater) and One Morning Soon (Fire This Time Festival). Nicco was a resident writer at Serials at The Flea Theater from 2018 to 2020. He teaches storytelling with the Moth and sketch comedy at the UCB Theater. MARINA TEMPELSMAN (Creator/Performer) (she/her/hers) is a writer and director based in New York. Her work has been featured by Comedy Central, Fusion, The New Yorker, College Humor, Funny or Die and many other places. She is half the comedy team Marina & Nicco, whose work has been featured by HERE Arts Center (SubletSeries), ANT Fest at Ars Nova, The New Ohio Theatre (ICE Factory Festival), The PIT, The UCB, The Flea and many other places. Their play Room 4 was a New York Times critic’s pick, and their pilot, Smüchr, won Best Comedy at The New York Television Festival in 2018. Their four-episode audio drama series The Off Season about the #MeToo movement was included in The Guardian's list of Best Home Entertainment and Refinery29's list of Best Podcasts of 2018, and was praised as "subtle and slyly funny" by The New York Times. She currently teaches at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and is co-writing an original series for Audible. MAHAYLA LAURENCE (Host) is an actor and a writer based in Brooklyn, NY. She’s a natural-born empath and loves connecting with people through comedy and storytelling.