Presented by The Bushwick Starr and Jeremy O. Harris
in partnership with El Puente
and in association with Clubbed Thumb

A SONG OF SONGS
by Agnes Borinsky
directed by Machel Ross

March 10 - April 3
At El Puente’s Williamsburg Leadership Center
Thursdays - Sundays at 7pm 

Featuring Sekai Abeni, Agnes Borinsky, and Ching Valdes-Aran*

CREATIVE TEAM:
Frank Oliva (Scenic & Lighting Designer), Machel Ross (Costume Designer), Patricia Marjorie (Props Designer), Nazareth Hassan (Lead Sound Designer), Sheldon Bennett (Sound Co-Designer/A1), Joe Matunis & Vera Weinfield (Muralista Co-Conspirators), Joseph White (Composer), Fay Simpson (Intimacy Coordinator), Gineiris Garcia (Production Stage Manager), Jana Lynne Umipig (Company Manager), Federica Borlenghi (Associate Director/Covid Compliance Officer), Sabrina Merayo (Props Associate), Itzel Ayala (Production Manager), Jay Maury (Technical Director), John Del Gaudio (Creative Producer)

Alumni of El Puente's For the Movement Theatre Collective: 
Kaila Cruz, Kristina Feliciano, Raisa Garden-Lucerna, Melvin Morales, Jaylin Nunez, Scarlette Peña, Polenis Ramos, Oak Red 

Los Muralistas de El Puente: 
Genesis Adames, Melanie Adames, Xavier Colon, Dashley Concepcion, Alma Corona, Shareef Dean, Josiel Delacruz, Elliana Duran, Ryan Gonzalez, Justin Jimenez, Chrisleidy Paez, Ashlyn Quezada, Laura Rodriguez, Monse Sanchez, Davien Surriel

CREW:

Head Electrician and Programmer: Adrian Yuen

Crew: Adam Wyron, Kourtney Charles, Terra Gorman, Noah Stape, Isabella Pascutto, Samy Ravs, Art Kopischke, Ryan Gamblin, Liam Canet, Clara Wiest, Steven Waggoner, Jameel Watson, Nathan Mullen

Run Crew: Tayshawn Edmonds

A Song of Songs show graphic by Leo Maldonado

*These Actors are appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity Association. Equity Approved Showcase.

This project received development at Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, NY through a new partnership with The Bushwick Starr. 

BIOS:

Sekai Abeni, a native of Portland, Oregon, is a recent graduate of The Juilliard School with her B.F.A in Acting. Sekai can be seen in the forthcoming Amazon/Plan B series Paper Girls. She was in the Sundance Theater Lab and Williamstown Theater Festival workshops of Aziza Barnes' Nana. She appeared in Garage Magazine's A Cake Walk, directed by Miranda Haymon. Her performance art work Blues Blood Black Future, in collaboration with jazz musician Immanuel Wilkins, premiered last year at The Roulette Center. Sekai apprenticed at New York Stage & Film/Powerhouse Theater, and was a Young Arts silver medalist. She is excited to make her New York stage debut with The Bushwick Starr, under the direction of Machel Ross. All thanks to her mother and her ancestors.

Agnes Borinsky (she/they) is a writer and performer who has collaborated on all sorts of projects in basements, backyards, gardens, circus tents, classrooms, bars, and theaters. Selected plays include Ding Dong It’s the Ocean (Rady&Bloom), Brief Chronicle, Books 6-8 (i am a slow tide), and Of Government (Clubbed Thumb). Last year, she convened the Working Group for a New Spirit, also with the Starr. She lives in Los Angeles.

Federica Borlenghi is an Italian-born writer, creative producer and director based in Brooklyn. She specializes in the development of new work. She is the Executive Director at the Italytime Cultural Center, the founding Artistic Director of HERE WE GO, a Multidisciplinary Production Company, as well as a proud Rising Sun and Dirty Laundry Company Member. She is also the curator of colorando, a paint therapy photography series. She is grateful and fond of her continuous collaboration with the Bushwick Starr and the brilliant Machel Ross.

Gineiris Garcia is the Production Stage Manager for A Song of Songs, marking her first NYC stage management credit with Bushwick Starr. She is a Bronx-born-and-based creative freelancer focused on artistic directing, producing, assisting, performing and teaching. She has assisted directors such as Jackson Gay, Awoye Timpo, Saheem Ali, Lou Moreno and Arpita Mukherjee through MCC Theater, New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW), Atlantic Theater Company, INTAR Theatre and Hypokrit Theatre Company, respectively. Her work has been featured in the Dominican Artists Collective's THE COOKING PROJECT, which premiered at NYTW via their Artistic Instigator program in Fall 2020, as well as with Pregones Theater and the Latinx Playwrights Circle via the Greater Good Theater Festival. In addition to her personal projects, she is currently one of the six Artistic Producers of the Dominican Artists Collective. Gineiris Garcia received her BA in Theater Studies from Yale University as a proud member of Pierson College, 2016.

Nazareth Hassan is an interdisciplinary artist working in writing, performance, music, sound, video, and photography based in Brooklyn, NY. Recent: Untitled. (1-5)  @ The Shed (writer/director), Kinfolk Vol. 2: Butch Queen @ Judson Church (Sound Designer/Composer), A Map to Nowhere @ Soho Rep (Sound Designer/Composer). His performance score Untitled. (1-5) is being published this spring by 3 Hole Press. www.nazarethhassan.com

Frank J Oliva is a Cuban-American Stage Designer. Recent projects include world premieres and new productions with The Shed, The Bushwick Starr, Gablestage, Area Stage Company, Weston Theatre Company, Colorado Springs Theatre Center, Two River Theatre Company, The Guthrie Theatre, Urban Stages, The Kitchen Theatre and The Cincinnati Symphony, among others. Frank was Associate Designer on the recent Broadway productions of Oklahoma!, West Side Story and Hangmen. Forthcoming work includes projects at Geva Theatre Center, Clubbed Thumb and TheatreWorksUSA. Frank is a recipient of the 2022 OperaAmerica Director/Designer Prize, the 2017 Innovative Theatre Award for Stage Design, and was nominated for a 2018 Audelco Award for Set Design. His design for the world premiere of Lost/Not Found was selected for the American exhibit at the 2019 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design. Executive Committee Member of Wingspace, a non-profit providing mentorship, fostering conversation and furthering activism in the field of theatrical design. Frank is a member of United Scenic Artists and a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. www.frankjoliva.com // @frankjoliva

Machel Ross is a Dominican American director and creative collaborator based in NYC, who specializes in the development of new work and aesthetic world building. Regardless of medium, she’s invested in generating rigorous images, in support of framing stories to their fullest potential. She’s developed work with Aziza Barnes (NANA), Daniella De Jesús (Mambo Sauce), PigPen Theatre Company (Phantom Folktales), Ellen Winter (This House Is your Home), and directed the world premiere of Jeremy O. Harris’ Black Exhibition at The Bushwick Starr. She’s worked as an associate for Lileana Blain Cruz (Marys Seacole, The House that Will not Stand), Drew McOnie (King Kong), Lila Neugebauer (Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie, The Antipodes, The Wolves) and Annie Baker. Machel is a Ars Nova 2022 Vision Resident, a 2020-2022 WP Directing Fellow, a 2020 Sundance Theater Lab fellow, and a 2019 grant recipient of the Women's Fund for Film, TV and Theatre for her short film Signs He Made at Home.  BFA-NYU Playwrights Horizons Theater.

Ching Valdes-Aran* was on tour internationally and nationally for two and a half years in Geoff Sobelle's HOME until the world pandemic lockdown.  Selected Roles:  Aying (OBIE Award, Flipzoids, Ma-Yi Theatre),  Imelda Marcos (Lucille Lortel  nomination, Dogeaters, Public Theatre), Lady Macbeth, Lady Capulet, Duke Senior  (NYSF “Shakespeare on Broadway”, Belasco Theatre), Medea (Medea, Pan Asian Repertory), Bernarda Alba (The House of Bernarda Alba, Naatco), Clytemnestra (Iphigenia in Aulis, Yale Rep), Athena (Iphigenia in Taurus, La Mama E.T.C. & tour of Greece), Empress Tzushi (Empress of China, Cincinnati Playhouse). Other Awards:  2021 Ruthie Award, 2021 TEAM”S Petri Project Grant, Fox Foundation Fellowship, Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, New Dramatist’s Charles Bowden Award,  Ma-Yi Award for Artistic Excellence,  MAP grantee (Foundry), U.S. Congressional Award for Arts & Culture, others. Films: Missing Link (Golden Globe, 6 Oscar nomination), Sex & The City !, Across the Universe, Mula Kung Ano Ang Noon (Palm de Oro, Locarno Int’l FilmFestival). Ching is also a director and a visual artist.

Vera Weinfield is an artist and educator working in a variety of mediums, from small drawings and comics to large scale murals and puppets. After receiving a BFA in painting in 2014 from The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Vera has taught and collaborated with youth and adult artists in Texas, Mexico, North Carolina and New York. Vera is currently the Arts Facilitator at El Puente’s Williamsburg and Bushwick leadership centers where she is leading social justice oriented art projects with youth. Vera is also a member of Los Muralistas de El Puente, where she collaborates with adult and youth artists to create murals grounded in social justice.

Joseph White writes, performs and produces experimental music, theatrical pieces and sound art, focusing on unique approaches to harmony, digital sampling, speech, and the exploration of various social themes. A nomad of genre, country, and cultural scene, his music has been heard in the parks of Mexico City, Lower East Side rock clubs, Off-Broadway theatres, experimental music venues, and everywhere in between. His experimental radio opera, The Wagging Craze, developed with director Anne Cecelia DeMelo for ANT Fest 2019, with subsequent performances at Ars Nova, the Kyoto International Performing Arts Festival, and upcoming at Prague Fringe 2022, was released as a studio album on Gold Bolus Recordings in 2021. He engineered, edited, and co-composed performer/composer Gelsey Bell’s sound walk, Cairns (NYTimes Best Theatre of 2020) and co-created the 2021 sound walk, Meander, commissioned by HERE Arts Center and Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Joseph is currently composing an opera for New Music ensemble, ThingNY, an AI text piece for Popebama, and an outdoor sound installation based on the research of Diana Deutsch. Joewhitenoise.com

Actors' Equity Association (“Equity"), founded in 1913, is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 51,000 professional Actors and Stage Managers. Equity fosters the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, improving working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors' Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. #EquityWorks

“We Are Living Altars" - Alumni of El Puente's For the Movement Theatre Collective

“Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of transforming society. Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just waiting for it.”- Agusto Boal

Alumni Youth of El Puente's For the Movement Theatre Collective were invited into a virtual gathering space where they engaged in an exploration of Love and Grief. Together they sat in reflection, interrogating and traversing their understandings of Love and Grief in their individual and collective lives and co- created the construction what they called a Living Altar that will activate the audience in an immersive experience of their deepest memories of Love dancing with Grief. Each session encouraged them to intertwine artistic expression/creation that mirrored their generative conversation between each other and include written, digital visual and musical/sound creative components as well as incorporation of somatic elements.

This process was facilitated by their past facilitator during their time at El Puente as youth - Jana Lynne “JL” Umipig, in collaboration with writer and lead actor of A Song of Songs Agnes Borinsky and director of the play’s El Puente/ Bushwick collaboration Machel Ross. This experience brought back this collective of students together after almost a decade of their departures from El Puente, as youth leaders who used their creative musical, movement, written and theatrical expression work to invite audiences at El Puente to address topics of Social Justice and human experience most important to them. They accepted an invitation to return to one another to reconnect in this sacred space of reflection and creation to give their artistic voices again to El Puente in partnership with the Bushwick Starr and this work of A Song of Songs.

SPECIAL THANKS:

Frances, Asenhat, Yazmin, Helen, Jorge, and everyone at El Puente
Ethan Steimel
Materials for the Arts