New 42 Reveals 2023-24 Cohort of New Victory LabWorks Artists

New 42 has revealed the 2023-24 cohort of New Victory LabWorks and LabWorks Launch artists. Established in 2012, New Victory LabWorks offers individualized support for artists of color, including those who identify as LGBTQIA+, and those who identify as disabled, to help them develop new work and diversify the field of performing arts for young audiences and the productions seen on stages across the nation. This year, the New Victory LabWorks program welcomes a company of all femme-identifying artists.

 

The new cohort of New Victory LabWorks Artists are Divya Mangwani, Mahayla Laurence, Melle Phillips, and Tidtaya Sinutoke. Now in its eleventh year, the New Victory LabWorks program has supported over 100 artists in the development of adventurous new work for young audiences. 

 

Each New Victory LabWorks artist receives a $15,000 stipend in addition to opportunities for networking and community-building, including the chance to connect with industry professionals, education partners, and New Victory families to hold invited rehearsals with facilitated feedback sessions. By providing mentorship and exposure to new creative and artistic principles through New Victory’s international community of leaders, New Victory Labworks invites artists to create boundary-breaking art while exploring, devising, and reimagining what theater for families can be.

 

In 2021, New 42 established New Victory LabWorks Launch, a special program which offers further development support for a particular project with the aim of presenting the work at the New Victory and/or on other national or international stages in the future. While continuing to receive individualized resources from the LabWorks program, LabWorks Launch artists focus on taking tangible steps towards  bringingtheir work to the stage with production support, dramaturgical input, industry connections, rehearsal space, and a stipend of $20,000. 

 

Nehprii Amenii returns this year to lead the 2023-24 New Victory LabWorks Launch Project to continue development of HUMAN, an interactive multimedia experience for all ages that uses puppetry, projection, music, and dance to explore what it means to be a human being. 

 

“The New Victory LabWorks program continues to grow and strengthen.” said Mary Rose Lloyd, New 42 Artistic Director. “Our new cohort of artists, a dynamic group who happen to all identify as femme and come from different performing arts genres, is no exception. They are all agents of change who are focusing on theory and creating work for audiences of varying ages.” 

 

More about the 2023-24 cohort of New Victory LabWorks Artists: 

 

Divya Mangwani

(she/her) is a theater artist from Pune. She creates reimaginings that question our perception of narrative truths and shared mythologies. Divya was the founder and Artistic Director of Moonbeam Factory Theatre and wrote, directed, and produced plays in India, Singapore and the UK. In New York, she has developed work with UNICEF, Soho Rep, NYTW, Bushwick Starr, The Civilians,  Rattlestick, Mabou Mines, The Flea, among others. 

 

Divya is a member of the New Georges Jam and The Civilians R&D Group, and was a fellow of Soho Rep’s Writer/Director Lab, Gingold Speakers Corner, NYTW 2050 Fellowship, Hypokrit Theatre’s Tamasha, Project Y Writers’ Group and Pipeline Theatre’s Playlab. 

 

As a journalist, Divya has worked with ESPN, The Times of India and Daily News & Analysis. As an arts educator, she has developed youth theater programs sponsored by organizations like The Pune International Literary Festival and the US Department of State.www.divyamangwani.com

 

 Mahayla Laurence

(they/she) is queer, biracial, multidisciplinary artist engaging in work that generates personal inquiry around mental and spiritual health, joy, humor, and stewardship of community and self. They are the producer & director of Lack History alongside writer & performer Sam Kebede. Lack History first premiered in 2022 at Ars Nova as a part of the Comedy Artist Makers’ Program (CAMP). Mahayla also co-founded and currently facilitates CAMP, which is a nine-month residency for emerging comedians and storytellers pursuing long-form comedic theater. 

 

Mahayla is a teaching artist with Chautauqua Institution, Broadway Bound Kids, and Story Pirates. They have also written, directed, and performed in Story Pirates programming for their live shows, PBS-sponsored television program, and award-winning podcast. Mahayla graduated from NYU where they received their BFA in Drama and was awarded the Beth Turner Award for Scholarship in the African Diaspora. Additionally, they are a certified breathwork practitioner and are finishing up an herbalism apprenticeship with Master Herbalist Empress Karen Rose at the Sacred Vibes Apothecary.

 

Melle Phillips

(she/her) is an actor, dancer, singer, and educator with Guyanese roots, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She received her B.A. in Creative Writing from Florida State University and her M.A. from New York University’s Educational Theatre program as a 21st Century Scholar. Her training continued with the Atlantic Theater Company's conservatory program, and finished at Oxford University, completing a certificate in Shakespearean work with the British American Drama Academy. 

 

She is an accomplished dancer, having studied under Eleo Pomare and John Micheal Goring. As a dancer, she’s performed with Bombazo Dance Company, Casa Brazilia, and KaNu Dance Theater at venues including Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Museum, Queens Theatre, and El Museo Del Barrio. As a singer and actress, she has worked with brands such as Wegmans, Delta, and others. Most recently, Melle wrapped filming with ABC Mouse and worked with Phil Johnston (Zootopia, Wreck-It Ralph) as a script consultant on The Empathy Project with NYU Langone. Melle is also a member of the New Victory Teaching Artist Ensemble where she is currently working on curriculum for Speak Up, Act Out (in collaboration with the Lorraine Hansberry project and The Lillys.) 

Tidtaya Sinutoke

(she/her) is a Jonathan Larson Grant, Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award, Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, and Fred Ebb Award-winning musical theater composer, writer, and musician. Composition credits: HALF THE SKY (The 5th Avenue Theatre's First Draft Commission & 20/21 Digital Season);SUNWATCHER (The Civilians R&D Group); and LITTLE DUGONG AND HER SEAGRASS SONG (American Opera Project). Writing credits: DEAR MR. C (Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative Award); KHAM (Dramatic Question Theatre's American Woman Fellowship); and SIAMESE CYCLE (NYU Steinhardt's New Play for Young Audiences). 

 

Her works have been developed and supported by the Composer-Librettists Studio at New Dramatists, Yale Institute for Music Theatre, Johnny Mercer Foundation, NYFA IAM Mentoring Program, Robert Rauschenberg Residency, Kurt Weill Foundation, Drama League, Tofte Lake Center, Loghaven Artist Residency, and Rhinebeck Writers Retreat. A proud member of ASCAP, Dramatists Guild, Maestra, MUSE, and Thai Theatre Foundation. BM: Berklee College of Music; MFA: NYU. tidtayasinutoke.com

Nehprii Amenii

(she/her) is a director, playwright, puppeteer and educator, who is returning as LabWorks’ Launch artist for the 2023-24 season as she continues to develop her piece, HUMAN. She’s worked with Bread and Puppet Theater, Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, La Mama, The New York  Philharmonic and more. 

 

Nehprii is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, the Stage Directors and Choreographer’s Society, an invited U.S. delegate of the Women’s Playwright International Conference and is a  recipient of the Lipkin Prize for Playwriting. She’s been awarded by the International Rotary Club, Puffin Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Jim Henson Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Nehprii is Artistic Director of Khunum Productions, a platform for creative anthropology.

 

 

About New Victory Theater

 

The New Victory opens new worlds to young people and families through extraordinary performances, education and engagement programs. Bringing kids to the arts and the arts to kids since 1995, this nonprofit theater has become a standard-bearer of quality performing arts for young audiences in the United States. Reflecting and serving the multicultural city it calls home, The New Victory is committed to arts access for all communities of New York to experience and engage with the exemplary international shows on its stages. A global leader in arts education, youth development and audience engagement, the New Victory Theater has been honored by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities with the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, by Americans for the Arts with a national Arts Education Award, and by the Drama Desk for "providing enchanting, sophisticated children's theater that appeals to the child in all of us, and for nurturing a love of theater in young people."

 

About New 42

 

Under the leadership of President & CEO Russell Granet, New 42 is a cultural nonprofit whose mission is to make extraordinary performing arts a vital part of everyone’s life from the earliest years onward. Driven by a deep commitment to performing arts access, New 42 connects people to world-class performances, essential education and employment programs, and creative communities that push culture forward. Through New Victory and New 42 Studios, the nonprofit serves artists, educators and New Yorkers of all ages with invaluable arts engagement and resources in and beyond the performing arts. Together with our supporters, New 42 opens new perspectives, incubates newworks and creates new opportunities to move us all.

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.