GREAT COMET's Dave Malloy Among 2017 Residents at SPACE on Ryder Farm

SPACE on Ryder Farm, the non-profit artist residency program located on Ryder Farm, an idyllic 221 year-old working organic farm in Brewster, NY, announces its 2017 season, which will support artists, activists and changemakers through its residency programs: The Working Farm, Family Residency, Creative Solutions Symposium, Creative Residency, Institutional Residency and inaugural Film Lab and Playwriting Mentorship Residency.

The 2017 residents include Tony nominee Dave Malloy (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812); Tony-winning costume designer Linda Cho (Anastasia); Obie winners Erin Courtney (Map of Virtue), Kirsten Greenidge (Milk Like Sugar) and Ethan Lipton (Tumacho); Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah DeLappe (The Wolves); MacArthur Fellow Samuel D. Hunter (The Harvest); visionary theatre writer and scholar Todd London; acclaimed monologist Mike Daisey; The American Playwriting Foundation Relentless Award winner Aleshea Harris (Is God Is); Lanford Wilson Award winner Mike Lew (Tiger Style!); Jonathan Larson Award recipient Shaina Taub; Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Janicza Bravo; actor and comedian Brett Gelman; independent filmmaker James C. Strouse; firebrand legal activist team 5 Boro Defenders and companies including The Debate Society, The National Black Theatre, New Dramatists, New Georges, Playwrights Horizons, Playwrights Realm, Roundabout Theatre Company and Soho Rep.

"I couldn't be more excited about the residents we have joining us on The Farm this season," said Executive Director Emily Simoness. "In these charged times, it's vital to offer these thought leaders and artistic luminaries the time and space to wrestle with the big ideas that shape our culture."

In 2017, SPACE is emboldening and recommitting to its belief that inclusion, equity, supportand radical hospitality are not only important to creating art, but are vital in creating dialogue that leads to lasting change. In support of these values, SPACE has made all individual and small group residences free, granted at least 50% of its residencies to persons of color and underrepresented voices and doubled the number of spaces for the Family Residency, in association with The Lilly Awards Foundation.

Members of the 2017 Working Farm, SPACE's resident playwrights group, are Kevin Armento (Good Men Wanted), Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas (Recent Alien Abductions), Erin Courtney (Map of Virtue), Emily Feldman (My Lover Joan), CA Johnson (Thirst), Ethan Lipton (Tumacho), Shaina Taub (Public Works' Twelfth Night) and Andrea Thome (Pinkolandia). Past members of The Working Farm include Rob Askins, Jeff Augustin, Eliza Bent, Adam Bock, Sarah Burgess, David Cale, Cusi Cram, Daisy Foote, Madeleine George, Samuel D. Hunter, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Jen Silverman and Mfoniso Udofia. Plays developed through the The Working Farm residency have been subsequently produced by LCT3, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater and elsewhere. The five-week residency culminates in The Roving Dinner, an eight-course farm fresh meal paired with excerpts from the resident's new plays and served at historic locations around Ryder Farm. Tickets to The Roving Dinner on September 16, 2017 are available at www.spaceonryderfarm.org/events.

Participants in the 2017 Creative Residency program, which supports artists and social activists with weeklong stays on Ryder Farm, include Brittany Allen, Ama Codjoe, Sam Chanse, Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Cusi Cram, Halley Feiffer, Katherine Fritz, Donnetta Grays, MJ Kaufman, Kimbritive with Brittany Brathwaite and Kimberly Huggins, Abe Koogler,Kris Kukul, Dane Laffrey, Martin Moran, Isaac Oliver, Sam Pinkleton, Jen Silverman, Charly Simpson, Keith Randolph Smith, Daniella Topol, Jenny Rachel Weiner and Stefanie Zadravec.

Now in its third year, the Family Residency, in association with The Lilly Awards Foundation, hosts working artists and their children for a weeklong residency designed to give parents space to work on their craft in a retreat environment while SPACE staff facilitate creative and nature-focused programming for their children. The 2017 Family Residency participants include Linda Cho, Terrance Flynn, Kirsten Greenidge, Mary Hamilton, Karen Hartman, Aditi Kapil, Todd London and their children.

Among the participants in the Creative Solutions Symposium, a weeklong residency for activists and human rights organizations creatively addressing social justice issues, are 5 Boro Defenders, a coalition of New York City public defenders, and How Our Lives Link Altogether (HOLLA!), a youth community organizing organization dedicated to social justice.

Through its Institutional Residency program, SPACE welcomes a number of companies to Ryder Farm this season for workshops, retreats and strategic planning, including And Also Too, The Dramatists Guild, Ensemble Studio Theatre, MCC Theater, The National Black Theatre, New Dramatists, New Georges, Page 73, Playwrights Horizons, Playwrights Realm, Roundabout Theatre Company and Soho Rep.

This season, SPACE pilots two new residency programs. The Film Lab brings together a diverse group of early and mid-career filmmakers and their collaborators to offer one-on-one consultations with established industry professionals, artists, subject-matter experts and thought leaders. Residents include Janicza Bravo, Chioke Nassor, James C. Strouse and Anu Valia. The Playwriting Mentorship Residency offers promising emerging writers a weeklong residency on Ryder Farm with access to artistic and professional guidance from Obie winners Adam Bock (A Life) and Lucy Thurber (Transfers).

For a full list of the 2017 residents, visit www.spaceonryderfarm.org/2017-residents.

Founded in 2010 by Emily Simoness as a one-of-a-kind artistic home away from home for artists and innovators, SPACE on Ryder Farm is a non-profit artist residency program located an hour north of New York City on the grounds of Ryder Farm in Brewster, New York.SPACE creates an environment singular in its ability to invigorate artists and innovators and their work, and contributes to the sustainability and resourceful preservation of one of the oldest organic family farms on the East Coast. SPACE counts among its alumni Academy Award winners, Tony Award nominees and winners, Pulitzer finalists, Guggenheim fellows, Obie Award winners and MacArthur Genius Award recipients. For more information about SPACE on Ryder Farm, its programs, and events open to the public, visit www.spaceonryderfarm.org.