Synchronicity Theatre Announces 21-22 Stripped Bare Arts Incubator Projects

Atlanta's Synchronicity Theatre has announced the four works that will be produced as part of this season's Stripped Bare Arts Incubator Project.

They are: What The Water Gave Me by Emily McClain, Jennifer Boutell, Rose Mancuso, and Gabrielle Diaz (October 27, 2021), How to Be A Lesbian by Kayla Parker (November 10, 2021), My Shell, My Shelter by Nadya Zeitlin and Peter Flamming (January 12, 2022), and The Free Woman's Guide to Dying by Zeena Regis (May 11, 2022).

Performances are free and open to a live, socially distanced audience at Synchronicity Theatre, 1545 Peachtree St NE Atlanta, GA 30309. Reservations are required. Complete project descriptions are below. Please go to synchrotheatre.com to reserve tickets and for more information.

2021-2022 STRIPPED BARE ARTS INCUBATOR PROJECTS

What The Water Gave Me

By Emily McClain, Jennifer Boutell, Rose Mancuso, and Gabrielle Diaz

Performance Date: October 27, 2021 at 7:30 p.m.

Inspired by Frida Kahlo's work of the same name centering on her self-comfort in times of grief, What the Water Gave Me is a collaboratively written one act play exploring the themes of care-giving and motherhood through the lens of a surreal theatrical experience: a modern day woman waking up in Frida Kahlo's bathtub with no recollection of how she got there (or how she travelled back in time) and discovering that Frida is convinced she is the reincarnation of the child she recently miscarried. The two-woman play utilizes music and movement/dance elements to evoke symbolic images of motherhood and nurturing found in Kahlo's work, at the same time interrogating the toll those expectations take on the individual women. Throughout the course of the play, Vivian and Frida navigate their understanding of their connection to each other and bring the audience into awareness of how society's notions of motherhood and care-giving can become unbearable burdens that prevent women from self-actualization.

Emily McClain is a professional playwright and theatre educator working at the new School of the Arts at Central Gwinnett High School. Emily is a proud member of Working Title Playwrights and the Dramatists Guild, and a founding member of Playwrights Thriving and Write Stuff Atlanta. Her play SLAYING HOLOFERNES was co-winner of Essential Theatre's Playwriting Award and received a world premiere production in 2019. Her full length comedy JULIE'S PLACE was selected for the JOOKMS Spotlight Series in July 2020 and later went on to be a semi-finalist with the New American Voices with The Landing Theatre Company. Her tragedy TERMINUS ANDRONICUS was a finalist at the American Shakespeare Center Shakespeare's New Contemporaries competition in 2019. Her play CHILDREN OF COMBS AND WATCH CHAINS was named a finalist for the Risk Theatre International Competition in August 2020. Her short plays have been staged at many professional theaters across the country including Mississippi, California, Wisconsin, Virginia, New York, and numerous venues in Georgia.

Jennifer Boutell has spent most of her life writing and making theatre with some fine, fine folks- including writing, directing, designing, and performing with these amazing Bodies. She was born and raised in Texas, moved to California, then New York, and now she lives in Georgia. SAG-AFTRA/AEA/DG/HRC jenniferboutell.com

Gabrielle Diaz is an actress and dancer based in Atlanta.

Odelia San Diego was raised by wild dogs in the forest of Patagonia. Then this Chilean actress came to the US to steal hearts and laughs through dark comedy and auto-bio stories.

Rose Mancuso has been singing, dancing, and making silly faces inside and out of the theatre for most of her life. She has a Bachelor's of Musical Theatre from Coker University, and continues to train/cope with the Meisner Technique at the Robert Mello Studio. Some of her recent theatrical credits include: Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream with Shakespeare in the Ponce, Princess Katherine in Henry V with Shakespeare on Draught, and Vanda in Venus in Fur at Pinch n' Ouch Theatre.

How to Be A Lesbian

By Kayla Parker

Performance Date: November 10, 2021 at 7:30 p.m.

How to Be A Lesbian is a comedy one act where a queer Black woman comes out of the closet and realizes that there is much more to being a lesbian than she anticipated. Led by an omniscient male voice, the protagonist is thrust into different sectors of lesbian culture, trying to figure out where she fits in.

Kayla Parker (she/her) is a writer, director, and actor. After receiving a B.F.A in acting from Howard University, she moved to Atlanta, GA excited to get involved in the bustling theatre community. Parker began her Atlanta career as an acting and directing intern at Actor's Express during the 2019-2020 season. This year, Parker is excited to have produced her short piece, "On Being Born" as a DK Fellow with True Colors Theatre Company as well as being a writer for the serialized podcast drama, Crossroads, produced by Actor's Express. Her latest project, Maschood, is a documentary film that was commissioned as part of the Alliance Theatre's Spotlight Studio. Parker is ecstatic to be sharing, How To Be A Lesbian on the Synchronicity stage.

My Shell, My Shelter

By Nadya Zeitlin and Ptar Flemming

Performance Date: January 12, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.

A dance / physical theatre work, combining movement, original sound score and spoken word. This work explores how the view on the concept of home shifted during the pandemic. Feeling "at home" is presumed to be a positive one: a shelter that provides safety and rest. During the pandemic though, home became a prison that we had to lock ourselves into to avoid a dangerous disease and keep our loved ones healthy. Now every day is overwhelmingly routine and exhaustingly predictable, and every time we leave home, we do it with conflicting feelings. People developed a new array of neurotic disorders: Zoom fatigue, Zoom anxiety. Online shopping, empathy fatigue and infinite scroll are our coping mechanisms. This piece examines the question, how do we adapt to these new circumstances and stay as sane as possible?

Nadya Zeitlin started her artistic journey with Gabbasov Sisters Dance Theatre in her home city Almaty, Kazakhstan. Since relocating to Atlanta in 2013, she has presented her works in various venues and curated two multi-disciplinary shows herself. In 2020 she founded Bautanzt Here, a site-specific dance theatre (from Bau - "build", Tanzt - "dances" in German). Zeitlin's works have been selected for feature at the Modern Atlanta Dance Festival 2015 (as a winner of 24 Hours Dance competition), Eyedrum Gallery, 368 PONCE, Midtown Players Club, Fall For Fall and Spring For Spring Dance Festivals, and EnCORE among others. Her work for the Solo Theatre's Little Prince won Best Choreography at the International Festival of Russian-Speaking Children's and Youth Theaters in Washington, DC in May 2019. In 2020 she has been honored with a Dance Canvas and Atlanta Contemporary Choreographic Residency, was chosen to participate in Excuse The Arts program by Fly on a Wall and Windmill Arts Center, and became a Hambidge's Cross-Pollination Art Lab Fellow (facilitating Dance Hub ATL which was a part of the Art Lab). In 2020 Nadya received a grant from City of Atlanta Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs to create a series of dance movies for the PANDEMIC ATLANTA initiative. To know more about Nadya, please go to https://www.bautanzt.art/

Ptar Flemming is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer based in Atlanta, Georgia. He specializes in electronic soundscapes, and intricate beat-oriented textures. Ptar worked with various dance artists across Atlanta: Jacquelyn Pritz, Fly on a Wall, The Mediums Collective, Atlanta Dance Collective, Benji Stevenson, and Kit Modus among others.

To know more about Ptar, please go to ptarmusic.squarespace.com

The Free Woman's Guide to Dying

By Zeena Regis

Performance Date: May 11, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.

She has always lived her life on her own terms, but will she be able to die that way? Cynthia has been an artist, a muse, a cult defector, a spy, a reality TV star, and so much more. But being a hospice patient is by far the hardest role. As the queen of reinvention, she is working to reinvent the deathbed. Cynthia hires a death doula to help coordinate her unconventional end-of-life plan that includes vibrators, edibles, and eclectic playlists, as well as notifying friends and lovers across the globe of her impending death. Cynthia uses her final wishes to reflect on her fabulous life and build a timeless legacy, inspiring the audience to do the same.

Zeena Regis is a chaplain, consultant, and writer. Her training includes a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from Agnes Scott College and a Masters of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary, where she was honored with the HJ Riddle Memorial Book Award for excellence in pastoral care. She is the founder of the Threshold Planning Project and is passionate about ensuring all people have access to quality and culturally-responsive end-of-life and grief resources. Zeena was recently selected as a 2021-2022 fellow in Collegeville Institute's Emerging Writers Mentorship Program.

In addition to the 4 projects chosen to be part of this year's Stripped Bare series, 5 additional applicants have been invited to apply to the 360 Arts BLVD "Boost" program.

About the 360 Arts BLVD Boost program:

360 Arts BLVD is partnering with Synchronicity for the second year in a row to offer scholarships to select Stripped Bare program applicants to their BLVD Boost program.

'The BLVD Boost', is a unique opportunity for professionals across the creative disciplines. Over six sessions, program recipients are provided with the tools needed to take their project to the next level by developing an effective promotional package and pitch. Each participant is awarded a $500 grant, the BLVD's Boost "toolkit", a coach to help guide them through the process, six (6) hours of rented studio space, and a team of creatives to help them complete their package.

As part of this partnership, Synchronicity will provide one day each in our rehearsal Annex for these two projects.

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