Celia Keenan-Bolger & Portia to Host Instagram Live Conversation on PLEASURE MACHINE

Tune in this Wednesday, February 2nd at 12pm ET to Colt Coeur's Instagram page (@coltcoeur) for a live discussion between Colt Coeur Board member Celia Keenan-Bolger, and her To Kill A Mockingbird co-star Portia. The two will discuss Colt Coeur's original 9-part audio drama Pleasure Machine, which features Portia, Starr Busby, Jasmin Walker, Adam Harrington, and many more. Pleasure Machine, collides Sophie Treadwell's 1928 expressionist drama Machinal with adrienne maree brown's Pleasure Activism. The piece was conceived by director Tara Elliott, creative producer Emma Orme, and writers Diane Exavier, May Treuhaft-Ali, and Phaedra Michelle Scott. Pleasure Machine was recently extended (now available through March). Pleasure Machine will also be featured in the 4th Annual Segal Film Festival on Theatre and Performance, which is focusing on work made by theatre artists during the time of Corona. The festival will be held digitally from March 1-15, 2022. More information is available at www.coltcoeur.org/pleasure-machine.

On the heels of an ambitious year of virtual programming (seven different shows!), as well as a return to live performance (world premiere of Xandra Nur Clark's Polylogues), and two recently announced new commissions, Colt Coeur is thrilled to announce their new Executive Producer, Crista Marie Jackson. Crista will be Colt Coeur's first full-time employee and brings diverse work experience in theater, opera, television, film, commercials, and circus. She will continue her work as a dynamic force behind innovative works that drive industry change as she collaborates with Founding Artistic Director Adrienne Campbell-Holt and the greater Colt Coeur community.

Crista's work has been featured in a variety of venues and creative spaces: including as an Associate Producer on the musical adaptation of Sara Gruen's novel Water for Elephants, and as the Assistant Artistic Director on the reimagining of Cirque du Soleil's iconic show, Alegria. She has worked at New York Theater Workshop, the Lynn Redgrave, Loretto Theater, and The Pearl. Her work has also been featured at The Metropolitan Opera House, LA Opera, and Radio City Music Hall, as well as in The Greatest Showman, Project Power, Broadway Bares, and The Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards. As a performer, she has collaborated with artists including Zendaya and Beyoncé.

As a black woman, she is acutely aware of power dynamics in work environments. It is her mission to amplify disenfranchised communities in every room by creating intersectional advocacy. Her work as an advocate is multi-faceted and dictated by the rooms she finds herself in and the collaborators she is working with. As a producer, she has coordinated anti-bias workshops that speak to LGBTQIA+ awareness, anti-ableism and anti-racism. Crista is an artist advocate for Healing TREE Trauma Resources, Education and Empowerment. She is also seeking her certification through Intimacy Directors and Coordinators International to continue her mission to create safe and brave spaces for artists to be empowered in telling a variety of stories. Crista is the co-owner of BoldFro LLC, a New York City based movement company that choreographs, directs and coordinates movement for television, stage and screen. She is currently completing her Master of Business Administration (May 2022) from Hofstra University, where she also received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater arts.

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