New York Theatre Workshop Announces Three New Companies-In-Residence

New York Theatre Workshop has announced that Safe Harbors NYC, Dominican Artists Collective and JAG Productions will join Noor Theatre as Companies-In-Residence at NYTW.

NYTW is continuing their support of Safe Harbors NYC & DAC after earlier collaborations. In November 2020, NYTW presented The Cooking Project, a short film created by members of the Dominican Artists Collective as part of the 2020/21 Artistic Instigator Season; in January 2020 and 2021, in partnership with La MaMa Indigenous Initiative, they hosted Safe Harbors NYC's first and second annual Reflections of Native Voices Festival, a two-week festival featuring theatre, music and native dance performances by visionary Indigenous artists from across the country. As part of their residencies this season, NYTW and DAC will collaborate on an upcoming masterclass series, and NYTW will continue to support Safe Harbors NYC's third annual Reflections of Native Voices Festival this spring. In the 2022/2023 Season JAG Productions, based in White River Junction, VT, will join the companies-in-residence roster. NYTW is excited to begin a formal collaboration with JAG after building a relationship in the Upper Valley through its annual residency at Dartmouth College. JAG will serve as NYTW's first non-New York City based company-in-residence and represents NYTW's continued commitment to artists building work deeply within their communities.

NYTW believes that there are many ways to make a play and that director-, community- and ensemble-generated work are necessary components of a theatrical landscape. To that end, NYTW is committed to nurturing and providing support for theatre ensembles, collectives and small companies and building long-term relationships beyond one-time collaborations. In 2005, NYTW formalized these relationships by creating the Companies-in-Residence program. This initiative offers artistic and institutional support to small theater companies, supporting their growth through mentorship by NYTW staff members, access to free rehearsal and performance space in NYTW's 4th Street Theatre, supplies, office space and connections to NYTW's theatrical community at large. In 2010 NYTW welcomed their third official Company-in-Residence, Noor Theatre, who remain in residence today. Some of the outstanding groups and companies that NYTW has supported over the years include the Five Lesbian Brothers, Red Bull Theater, Siti Company, Tectonic Theater Project, Theater Mitu and Elevator Repair Service.

"Each of the collectives joining NYTW's companies-in-residence initiative-Safe Harbors NYC, DAC and JAG Productions-embody NYTW's belief that artists provide a necessary function: they enrich and better our collective lives," said Artistic Director James C. Nicola. "The passion, vision and purpose of these three companies have distinct and commanding voices, and supporting them helps create a richer, more vibrant theatrical landscape. As a cohort, these three companies also reflect NYTW's commitment to uplift the voices of cultures that have not been as present as they deserve to be. Safe Harbors NYC, DAC and JAG each demonstrate tremendous promise and importance and their artistic and collective pursuits share a kinship with the spirit of NYTW."

"It is an honor to make this multi-year commitment towards supporting the artistic and organizational growth of Safe Harbors NYC, DAC & JAG Productions," said Rachel Silverman, Director of Project Development, Workshops and Residencies. "NYTW's workshop and residency programs strive to make deep connections with artists who are generating theatre from a multiplicity of starting points, engaging expansively with theatrical forms, and investing in community. Safe Harbors, DAC and JAG are all brilliant examples of collectives with a deep commitment to these ideals. The entire NYTW community is enriched by this collaboration, and we are excited for all that is to come."

"DAC is excited about our continued collaboration with NYTW after our presentation of The Cooking Project via the 2020/21 Artistic Instigator Season," said the DAC Artistic Producing Team. "Now as one of the Companies-in-Residence, we look forward to excavating new ways of creating symbiotic relationships with audiences, our artistic community uptown and across diasporas."

"I have dreamt about expanding the work of JAG and building into NYC ever since I started the company," stated JAG's Founder and Producing Artistic Director, Jarvis Green. "Finally, after five years of rising and falling, the moment is here. Finally. Last year the board and staff committed to expanding our artistic development and presence in New York City as part of our strategic vision to establish greater ties with New York-based theatres and the artist community. So, I am beyond thrilled to begin this process with the support, wisdom, and guidance of the endlessly brilliant folx at New York Theatre Workshop. The timing of this opportunity is divine and a thrilling moment for all of us at JAG!"

Safe Harbors NYC is an arts initiative that focuses on the development and production of Indigenous Performing Arts in NYC. Safe Harbors seeks to build an understanding of Native American methodologies in performance that in turn will function as a cultural liaison to non-Native Theatre artists in the City. The more successful they are in engaging these populations, the closer they hope to be to creating truly cross-cultural lines of communication. Safe Harbors' mission focuses on the development and production of Native Theater and Performing Arts in New York City within the broader American theater; they combat stereotypes and support vibrant Native communities. They develop ongoing dialogue with Policymakers about the approach to cultural and socioeconomic issues using Theatrical performances, Performing Arts, Native Cultural Consultancy, panel discussions, and Cultural Events. For more information, visit safeharborsnyc.org or @safeharborsnyc.

The Dominican Artists Collective (DAC) is a collection of story tellers: community-centered gate openers, and culture expanders. DAC's mission is to dismantle systemic oppression through their art by building a community that challenges what is and what can be. DAC honors their Blackness. Their ancestors. Their stories. They aim to facilitate, educate, liberate and inspire present and future artists.

The DAC Artistic Producing Team includes Cindy De La Cruz, Gineiris Garcia, Maribel Martinez, Andres Piña, Little Veras and Merlixse Ventura. Members include Angy Abreu, Carlos Andrickson, Massiel Armengot, Daniella De Jesus, Guadalis Del Carmen, Melissa Crespo, Yohanna Florentino, Xavier Galva, Samuel Gomez, Kelvin Grullon, Katherine George, Dilson Hernandez, Glenis Hunter, Yaissa Jimenez, Dolores Pereira, Michelle Ramirez, Saso, and Edison Ventura Mata Diaz. For more information, visit dominicanartistscollective.org or @dominicanartistscollective.

At the confluence of the White and Connecticut Rivers, which separate Abenaki land into the states of Vermont and New Hampshire, JAG Productions has nurtured and sustained a multi-generational and multi-racial theatre company with Black artists and community organizers at its center. JAG's mission is to bring more compassion, empathy, and love into the world by telling stories that challenge hierarchies of race, gender, class, and sexuality. These stories are written and produced by and for Black, Brown, Queer, and Trans folx and the people that love them. JAG strives to tell these crucial stories and provide an artistic sanctuary for creatives seeking rejuvenation, time for reflection, and a space in nature to develop art that will change the world. Since its founding, JAG has curated, produced, and directed contemporary and classical Black theatre to engage and sustain individual and collective transformations that unsettle hierarchies of race, gender, and sexuality. JAG's primary programming includes: JAGfest, an annual new playwrights' festival; Theatre on the Hill, five weekends of workshops, concerts, burlesque, and staged readings hosted on the gorgeously picturesque lawn at King Arthur Baking Company in Norwich, VT; and the JAG Musical Theatre Lab, a multi-year lab that offers audiences a new vision of American musical theater storytelling. JAG is committed to expanding its artistic development and presence in New York City as part of its strategic vision to establish greater ties with New York-based theatres and the artist community. Today, JAG Productions offers productions five months out of the year, bringing in nearly 5,000 people each season to experience dynamic artists and education programming just five minutes from Dartmouth College. For more information, visit jagproductionsvt.com or @jagproductionsvt.

Noor Theatre is an Obie Award-winning company with a mission to support, develop and produce the work of theatre artists of Middle Eastern and North African/South West Asian and North African (MENA/SWANA) descent. Noor was founded in 2010 in order to serve these artists; they develop and amplify their voices for diverse audiences. As New York City's only company with this mission, Noor provides an important space for MENA/SWANA voices to be heard. In doing so, they counter negative stereotypes, share nuanced work that reflects the unique perspectives of our artists, and ensure that their communities are represented and celebrated in the larger theatre ecosystem. For more information, visit noortheatre.org or @noortheatre.

New York Theatre Workshop empowers visionary theatre-makers and brings their work to adventurous audiences through productions, artist workshops and educational programs. We nurture pioneering new writers alongside powerhouse playwrights, engage inimitable genre-shaping directors, and support emerging artists in the earliest days of their careers. We've mounted over 150 productions from artists whose work has shaped our very idea of what theatre can be, including Jonathan Larson's Rent; Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul; Doug Wright's Quills; Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde; Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla; Martha Clarke's Vienna: Lusthaus; Will Power's The Seven and Fetch Clay, Make Man; Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, A Number and Love and Information; Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's Aftermath; Rick Elice's Peter and the Starcatcher; Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová and Enda Walsh's Once; David Bowie and Enda Walsh's Lazarus; Dael Orlandersmith's The Gimmick and Forever; and eight acclaimed productions directed by Ivo van Hove. NYTW's productions have received a Pulitzer Prize, 25 Tony Awards and assorted Obie, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards. NYTW is represented on Broadway with Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown developed with and directed by Rachel Chavkin, Jeremy O. Harris's Slave Play directed by Robert O'Hara, and the upcoming Sing Street, based on the motion picture written and directed by John Carney, with a book by Enda Walsh, music and lyrics by Gary Clark & John Carney, directed by Rebecca Taichman. NYTW is also represented with the current National Tours of Hadestown and Heidi Schreck's What the Constitution Means to Me, directed by Oliver Butler.

Alongside its artistic and community engagement activities, NYTW is engaged in the essential, sustained commitment of becoming an anti-racist organization in support and affirmation of Black people, Indigenous people and People of Color in its community. In June of 2020, NYTW published its Core Values statement and initial action and accountability steps. In an effort to provide greater transparency, NYTW shares progress updates, further commitments and next steps at nytw.org/accountability.

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