Joy Arab (Curatorial Assistant) is currently the assistant to the executive director at MESTC. She received her undergraduate degree at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, where she received her BA in studio arts with a focus on sculpture and a minor in theatre. After graduating, Joy was the production manager of two major AUB productions. She recently moved to New York to pursue a career in theatre.
Chloë Bass (Curator) Chloë Bass (b. 1984) is a conceptual artist working in performance, situation, publication, and installation. Chloë has received commissions from LUMEN, the Culture Project’s Women Center Stage Festival, the Bushwick Starr’s Bushwhack Festival, and 3rd Ward’s Moviehouse. She has received residencies from the Bemis Center (Omaha, Nebraska), D21 Kunstraum/5533 art space (Leipzig, Germany and Istanbul, Turkey), and Eyebeam (New York). She is also the recipient of a 2014 Create Change Residency from the Laundromat Project, and a 2013 Fellowship for Utopian Practice from Culture Push. Recent work has been seen at the Neuberger Museum, Momenta Art, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Flux Factory, Kunstkammer AZB (Zürich), Akademie Schloss Solitude, Exit Art, Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, ITINERANT Performance Festival, Glasshouse, Panoply Performance Laboratory, and Agape Enterprise, among others. Selected profiles of her work have appeared in BOMB, Entorno, ArtInfo, Art Observed, and Hyperallergic. From 2007 – 2011, Chloë served as the co-lead organizer for Arts in Bushwick, which produces Bushwick Open Studios, BETA Spaces, and Armory Arts Week performance festival SITE Fest, which she founded. She has guest lectured at the Queens Museum, Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, Sotheby’s Institute, the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico, and Brooklyn College CUNY. She holds a BA in Theater Studies from Yale University, and an MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Arts (PIMA) from Brooklyn College. Learn more about Chloë at chloebass.com, or email info@chloebass.com to start a conversation.
Blake Bishton (Curatorial Assistant) is a Brooklyn–‐based playwright and founding member of the Exquisite Corpse Company. His plays have been performed throughout upstate New York, as well as at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and in NYC. His most recent short play, Light Work, was performed at New York Theatre Workshop’s 4th Street Theater. His latest longplay, Unequilibrium was performed at HERE Arts Center. As Literary Director of ECC, he has served as a producer and overseen their Writers’ Lab. He has also worked as an assistant producer for 13P, been a substitute teacher of creative writing at Rutgers University, and was assistant to the Literary Associate at NYTW. He is a graduate of Bard College, the British American Drama Academy, and is very proud to be a NYTW Usual Suspect.
Brad Burgess (Segal Center Associate) is the executive producer of The Living Theatre, and associate artistic director under Judith Malina. He oversaw all productions at 21 Clinton Street from 2007-2013, the longest run in an NYC venue for The Living in 67 years. He has produced 11 plays with the company, 6 new works written by Malina and 5 revivals, including an OBIE Award-winning production of The Brig in 2007. He is a founding board member of The LITFund (litfund.org), a consortium of over 100 companies in NYC, as well as a founding board member of Sophie Gerson’s Healthy Youth, committed to bringing underprivileged youth Arts and Sports programs and education.
Shelley Carter (Party Producer/Social Media Manager) is an independent creative producer and director. She currently works with Taylor Mac (company manager/ assistant) and CATCH and is a producing associate for 600 Highwaymen, STEIN|HOLUM Projects, and Andrew Schneider. She frequently directs and shows short-form devised work at Cloud City in Williamsburg, where will curatorially collaborate with Peter Mills Weiss and Eric Shethar on the 2nd season of the New Skin // Old Ceremony series. She spent 2013 as an apprentice to Andy Horwitz, intern to Daniel Fish, and company manager for PRELUDE.
Jackie Sibblies Drury (Curator) is a playwright. Her play We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 had its its world premiere at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago, its New York premiere at Soho Rep, and productions at Company One, The Matrix in LA, InterAct, Woolly Mammoth, Undermain and The Bush Theatre in London, among others. Jackie’s work has been featured or developed at The Humana Festival, Trinity Rep, The Sundance Theater Lab, The Ground Floor at Berkley Rep, PRELUDE’11, The Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and Victory Gardens 2010 Ignition Festival. Jackie received a 2012-13 Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists. She was a member of the Soho Rep Writer/Director lab, The Civilians’ R&D Group, and is a NYTW Usual Suspect. Jackie is the inaugural recipient of the 2012-14 Jerome New York Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center.
Sam French (Volunteer Coordinator) is a recent graduate of the John Wells Directing Program at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. In New York, he was worked or interned with NYTW, Vineyard, Ensemble Studio Theater, and the National Theatre for Student Artists. His play, Freaks: a legend about growing up was recently produced at FringeNYC. No relation to the publisher beyond a mutual respect for top hats. www.samuel-french.com
Camille Gaume (Administrative Intern) is a third year student at Science-Po Aix-en-Provence (France). As part of a year abroad, she has joined the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center as an administrative intern to learn more about theatre management.
Frank Hentschker (Executive Director, The Segal Center) Dr. Frank Hentschker, who holds a Ph.D. in theatre from the now legendary Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen, Germany, came to the Graduate Center in 2001 as program director for the Graduate Center’s Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and was appointed to the central doctoral faculty in theatre in 2009. Among the vital events and series he founded at the Segal Center are the World Theatre Performance series, the annual fall PRELUDE festival, and the PEN World Voices Playwrights Series. Before coming to the Graduate Center, Hentschker founded and directed DISCURS, the largest European student theater festival existing today; he acted as Hamlet in Heiner Müller’s Hamletmaschine, directed by the playwright, performed in the Robert Wilson play The Forest (music by David Byrne) and worked as an assistant for Robert Wilson for many years.
Allison Hicks (Company Manager) is an artist, costumer, and graduate of St. John’s College Annapolis. She has sewn for regional DC theaters, Busch Gardens Virginia, and Colonial Williamsburg. This is her first Prelude Festival.
Emilyn Kowaleski (Party Producer/Social Media Manager) is a New York based writer, director and performer. She is graduated from New York University earning a B.F.A. in Drama at Tisch School of the Arts Experimental Theater Wing with a double major in Psychology. Emilyn has assisted a handful of experimental theater companies across the country and is currently the associate director of Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company. She is the co-founder (2007) and advisor for a CA based, student lead performing arts organization, Performers for Progress, and the lead singer/song-writer for the music project Red Queen on the River (2012). She is currently developing a play called Root of the Rosebush based on interviews divulging people’s romantic history from first crush to present day. Visit her at www.EmilynKowaleski.com
Sarah Rose Leonard (Curator) is a dramaturg, director, and creative producer. She is the Literary Associate at the Signature Theatre. She has been the Associate Agent at AO International and the Next Generation Fellow at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the CUNY Graduate Center. In 2013, Sarah ran Smith + Tinker, a collaborative writers group hosted by HERE Arts Center; she produced the 5 writers’ plays in a mini-festival called LADDER TO THE MOON. Sarah’s curating/producing work includes GUADALUPE, an annual event about femininity, DESORIENTACIÓN, a cross-cultural reading series in Chile, and producing the performance parties for the PRELUDE Festival. She has dramaturged plays at The Women’s Project, The TBA Festival, and The Bushwick Starr, among others, and read scripts for Page 73, the Sundance Institute, Playwrights Realm, and The O’Neill. Her work as a director/deviser includes IN THE FOG (Dixon Place, Brooklyn Arts Exchange), and THE NORTH-SOUTH TRILOGY: DESTINO (Little Theatre at Dixon Place), DESTINATION (site-specific, Chile), and LOS HÍBRIDOS (Chilean-North American Institute of Culture, Chile). She is the Theatre Editor for Culturebot and is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Upcoming projects: GUADALUPE has been renamed FEM and will take place at JACK on November 24.
Yu Chien Liu (Company Manager/Graphic Designer) is a Taiwanese young professional in the field of arts and nonprofit administration. She received her master’s degree in Public Administration and Arts Management from SUNY, Brockport and her BA in Political Science in Taiwan. In addition to working at The Segal Center as designer of the PRELUDE Ten Year Commemorative Book, Yu Chien is currently an administrative assistant at Educational Theater of New York. Before moving to New York City, she was involved in various art-related and community-based nonprofits in upstate New York. Prior to moving to the States, she interned at Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan.
Michael LoCicero (Design Coordinator/Next Generation Fellow, The Segal Center) is a young arts administrator and the current MESTC Next Generation Fellow. He received his undergraduate education at Wake Forest University, where he studied music, with a focus in musicology. Michael worked for a brief time as an administrative and production assistant at the David Rubenstein Atrium at The Lincoln Center in 2012. In 2013, Michael graduated from Wake Forest with a BA in Music.
Allison Lyman (Curator) is the Artistic Producer at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (CUNY), where she annually co-curates more than 30 programs on international theatre and performance. As a dramaturg/producer, her past work includes productions with The Foundry Theatre, New York City Players, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Meghan Finn, Ben Gassman, Corina Copp, and Trish Harnetiaux. In 2012, she founded Teeth of Tooth Atelier, which creatively builds new work across a variety of media. Upcoming work includes One Month Revival in collaboration with Moe Yousuf, and an adaptation of Enrique Vila-Matas’ Never Any End to Paris with Eduardo Lago. MFA Brooklyn College. www.teethoftooth.com
Eric Marlin (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be joining Prelude for the first time. Previous New York credits – Gertrude: The Cry, The Castle, Serious Money, Victory: Choices in Reaction, Spatter Pattern (PTP/NYC); The Foundry Theatre’s Good Person of Szechwan (La MaMa and the Public); Loot (Red Bull Theater); Public Works’ The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale (The Public); Family Play: 1979 – Present (CTown). As a playwright, recent work includes Scenes of Ascending (Playground Series; PTP/NYC After Darks) and ‘Neath Shuttle Clicks (Rhapsody Collective). He is a co-founder of the Healthy Oyster Collective, and wrote their debut production If the Saints Arrive in Germany.
Kaitlin Meyers (Graphic Designer) is a New York based designer and friend of the Segal Center. She is thrilled to be working on her second Prelude Festival.
Peter Mills-Weiss (Technical Director) is a performer, designer, and technician. As a performance artist, his work is frequently seen at Cloud City, The Silent Barn, Little Theatre at Dixon Place, Fresh Ground Pepper and other zones. He is the very recent recipient of LMCC’s nine-month workspace studio residency program and is a founding member of GRANDMA, where he collaborates with Ben Gansky, Tim Platt, and Mike McGee. GRANDMA’s last show SATURDAY premiered at Incubator Arts Project in November 2013. His last sound design was for Richard Foreman’s Old Fashioned Prostitutes and he stuck around for a “role” in Designated Mourners at The Public Theatre. More recently he performed in this summer’s TOO MANY LENAS (Ars Nova’s ANT FEST, New Ohio’s Ice Factory Festival) and will be soon be performing in OAK PARK.
Greg Redlawsk (Stage Manager, Elebash Recital Hall) is a Director, Stage Manager, and Playwright living and working in NYC, and he is extremely excited to be returning to PRELUDE for fourth year. Most recently he has completed filming of a documentary entitled Just Go with RedReel Productions and UnReel Films. Prior to this he has worked in various production positions with The Public Theater, Theatre for a New Audience, and The Vineyard, among others. As a Director and Playwright he has had work presented with That Toy Pony, Theater IN ASYLUM, Emerging Artists Theatre, and Ugly Rhino. In addition, he has served as a Teaching Artist with New York Theatre Workshop, where he was also an Artistic/Casting Intern in the fall of 2010.
Rebecca Sheahan (Managing Director, The Segal Center) is Managing Director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. She began her career in the Arts at The Market Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Rebecca has lived in New York City since 2003, working as Director of Marketing for St. Ann’s Warehouse and 651 ARTS, and as a marketing and PR consultant for various artists and companies. She was also a co-producer and marketing consultant for the Prelude Festivals in 2008 and 2009.
Mary Spadoni (Associate Producer) is so glad to be working on her third Prelude Festival! New York: The Who & The What (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater) Loot, Volpone (Red Bull Theater) Good Person of Szechwan (The Foundry/The Public) Somewhere Fun (The Vineyard), Luther, Enfrascada, Dot (Clubbed Thumb), Map of Virtue (13P), Paradox of the Urban Cliché (LAByrinth), The Birthday Boys (ArtEffects), The Book of Grace (The Public). Regional: Weathervane Theater, Goodspeed Musicals, Music Theatre Green Bay, and three seasons at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Mary is a graduate of St. Norbert College and a proud member of AEA.
Sarah Stites (Producer) is a Brooklyn-based theatre artist and producer. She has developed dance and theater pieces with King William Players, HERE Arts Center Summer Sublet Series, The Mud Bone Collective, 9BC Performance Project, The Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre, The Habitat, and The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. Look for the publication of her adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour in Fall 2014 and her dance piece What Doesn’t Kill You in Pittsburgh, PA in Spring of 2015. Sarah is a Development Associate at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and the 2013-2014 MESTC Next Generation Fellow. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy and the History of Mathematics and Sciences from St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD.
Carl Whipple (Technical Director) is a freelance technician and technical director based in New York City, he has worked at a wide variety of theaters for any number of different types of performance and art. Recent credits include Donkey Punch (SOHO Playhouse), Tail!Spin! (Lynn Redgrave Theatre), and An Octoroon (SOHO Rep).
