'NECESSARY EXPOSURE' Portrait Installation to Highlight Female Playwrights at Dixon Place, Beginning 1/5

Necessary Exposure: The Female Playwright Project (on view January 5 - 26) is a series of installations displaying portraits of playwrights who identify as female.

In 2013, Jody Christopherson began a photo initiative to help fund a transmedia project, The Skype Show, which employed visual and performance art. She was working at an art school, experimenting with their equipment and began taking photos of female playwrights for donations.

When the Kilroys and the Kiljoys came out, Christopherson wished to add to the conversation by creating an experience that would further the story of the volume and diversity of female playwrights.

As a theater maker/visual artist, Christopherson seeks to engage an audience through many mediums, leaving new clues in each vehicle to reveal a larger expression of a human being. An image can be powerful on its own, yet there are many ways that women are objectified in print media. This work is an expression of the need to reach beyond that kind of limitation. In these installations the image is only one component of the portrait. Printed text is included allowing for an interior representation of the exterior image.

Gallery opening includes performance of each portraits text.

Jody Christopherson is an actress, musician, media artist and writer living in New York. As a generative artist she creates and performs interactive events within the context of theater, film/new media and music. Her transmedia event The Skype Show or See You in August was developed at the East Fourth Street Theater and has recently been presented by The New York International Fringe Festival (2013), Filmgate Miami, The Brick Theater and StoryCode (2014). Other works include the international theatrical band Greencard Wedding (DROM, Parkside Lounge, LES Music Festival (at Dixon Place), INTAR Theater and more), Eschaton Cabaret (Dixon Place, Bowery Poetry Club), DIVE (Philadelphia Shakespeare Classical Cabaret) Like This (Winner of The Exquisite Corpse Film Festival, NYC), and is a performer and co-producer of Upon the Fragile Shore by Caridad Svich, an international reading and video action.

Acting credits include; Working Theater, Lincoln Center Film Society, The Kitchen, The Public Theater,Classic Stage Company, Actors Theater of Louisville, Nebraska Repertory, Performance Space122, The Bushwick Starr, Ensemble Studio Theater.

Additionally, Jody is the creator and Editor in Chief of the New York Theatre Review, and indie media source for and by indie theater artists, a blogger for The Huffington Post, Creator of the Photography for Art, initiative (photo samples) and has been a guest artist at The Orchard Project and Mason Gross School of the Arts. She has photographed over 60 subjects and locations including; The Mount ( The Edith Warton Estate), Sleep No More and fine artist Henry Richardson's sculpture. Her work has been displayed at Schhol of Visual Arts 23rd Street Gallery, curated by Allene LaSpina and Chris Jessick.

The Dixon Place Lounge is open before and after the show. Proceeds directly support Dixon Place's artists and mission. Dixon Place is located at 161A Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Delancey), in Manhattan's Lower East Side (By subway: F to 2nd Ave, J/Z to Bowery, 6 to Spring St, M to Essex St).

Dixon Place, an incubator for performing and literary artists since 1986, is a non-profit organization committed to supporting the creative process by presenting original works of dance, theater, music, puppetry, literature, performance and visual art at all stages of development. Presenting over 700 artists each year, this local haven inspires and encourages diverse artists of all stripes and callings to take risks and push personal and professional limits. Dixon Place's foremost priorities are to serve as a safety net for artists, and to provide vivid experiences for audiences. Many artists, such as Deb Margolin, Blue Man Group, John Leguizamo, Lisa Kron, David Cale, Penny Arcade, and Reno began their careers at Dixon Place. In addition to emerging artists, Dixon Place has also been privileged to present evenings of new and experimental work by more established artists, such as -- Theater/Performance: Justin Vivian Bond, Taylor Mac, Lily Tomlin, Wallace Shawn, Craig Lucas, BD Wong, John Fleck, Kate Bornstein, Ethyl Eichelberger, Holly Hughes, Karen Finley, Kate Clinton, Peggy Shaw, Alan Cumming, Big Art Group; Literary: A.M. Homes, Rick Moody, and Oscar Huelos; Dance: Mark Dendy, Jane Comfort, Douglas Dunn, and Yoshiko Chuma; Music: Vernon Reid, Rodney Crowell, Diamanda Galas, Martha Wainwright, Loudon Wainwright, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Suzzy Roche, Maggie Roche, Rodney Crowell, Cyndi Lauper, and They Might Be Giants.

In 1989, Ellie Covan, founding director, was a recipient of a Bessie, a New York Dance and Performance Award, for her service to the community; and Dixon Place received a Village Voice Obie Grant Award in 1990 and 1999. Additionally, in 1999, Dixon Place was awarded an Edwin Booth Award for Excellence in Theater.