New York Theatre Workshop Reveals 2050 Fellows, New Company-in-Residence and Artistic Department Expansion

New York Theatre Workshop has announced the artists selected for the 2023/24 Season 2050 Artistic Fellowship. NYTW also announced today that Ebony Noelle Golden’s Jupiter Performance Studio will join Safe Harbors NYC, Dominican Artists Collective (DAC), JAG Productions and Noor Theatre as a Company-In-Residence at NYTW.
 
Additionally, NYTW has shared that Aaron Malkin has been named Associate Artistic Director, Theatre & Productions; Rachel Silverman has been named Associate Artistic Director, Workshops & Development; and Leo Angulo has been named Artistic Programs Manager. Promoting these three members of the artistic staff into new roles will be complimented with a newly added position of Literary Manager. Applications are currently being accepted for the Literary Manager position with full information available at NYTW.org. The expansion of the artistic department under Artistic Director Patricia McGregor is an ongoing effort to bring more voices and perspectives to the team, more wholly support the artists in our midst, and deepen relationships within the artistic community, from the Usual Suspects to the emerging artists they have yet to meet. Claire Yenson will continue to serve as NYTW Casting Director-in-Residence.
 

2050 Artistic Fellows
 

The new 2023/24 Artistic Fellows are Emily Abrams, Andrea Ambam, Raz Golden, Celeste Jennings, Ying Ying Li and Nicholas Polonio. NYTW Usual Suspect and former 2050 Directing Fellow Miranda Haymon will return as advisor to the 2023/24 Fellows, working directly with each fellow to build their individual fellowship experience as well as with the cohort and NYTW Artistic Staff to create community. Full information about the fellowship program is available at nytw.org/artist-workshop/2050-fellowships.
 
The 2050 Fellowship is named in celebration of the U.S. Census Bureau’s projection that by the year 2050, there will be no single racial or ethnic majority in the United States. This projection provokes thoughts at New York Theatre Workshop about the transformations that will take place in the American landscape—demographically, technologically, environmentally, and artistically—now and in the future. They are a catalyst for broader questions about our ever-transforming field. How can theatre challenge our conceptions of storytelling? How can we push aesthetic boundaries in the 21st century? What is the power of theater today?
 
Each year NYTW is honored to invite a cohort of 2050 Artistic Fellows to join them in making art, engaging in deep conversation, and being in community. The 2050 Artistic Fellowship embodies the values of nurturing and cultivating an artistic community that challenges dominant paradigms and amplifying those whose experiences are not often heard. The 2050 Artistic Fellows are early-career artists who, with their unique voices, give us perspective on the world in which we live and who inspire us all to contend with this changing world.
 
The 2050 Artistic Fellows gather monthly with artists from the NYTW community to discuss craft, aesthetics and artistic development. Fellows are awarded a stipend as well as an artistic development fund to support their fellowship. They receive access to rehearsal space and opportunities to share works-in-progress with the NYTW staff and entire fellowship cohort. Fellows receive mentorship from the NYTW staff and contemporary theatre artists and an invitation to participate in the artistic life of the theatre by attending staff meetings, developmental readings and other NYTW special events.
 
Past Fellows include Tara Ahmadinejad, Melis Aker, Michael Alvarez, Elena Araoz, Jeff Augustin, Nissy Aya, Matt Barbot, Hilary Bettis, Lileana Blain-Cruz, Eleanor Burgess, Jade King Carroll, Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, Jeesun Choi, Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Miranda Cornell, Nana Dakin, Josiah Davis, Nathan Alan Davis, Will Davis, Mashuq Deen, Reginald L. Douglas, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Kareem Fahmy, Sanaz Ghajarrahimi, Noelle Ghoussaini, Simón Adinia Hanukai, Michel Hausmann, Miranda Haymon, Kimille Howard, Phillip Howze, Ed Sylvanus Iskandar, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Hansol Jung, Seonjae Kim, Patricia Ione Lloyd, Matthew Lopez, Kareem Lucas, Martyna Majok, Divya Mangwani, Adil Mansoor, Thaddeus McCants, Aileen Wen McGroddy, Julián J. Mesri, Alexandru Mihail, Janine Nabers, Beto O’Byrne, Matthew Paul Olmos, Brian Otaño, Tatiana Pandiani, Ming Peiffer, Francis Weiss Rabkin, Attilio Rigotti, Andrew Rodriguez, Danny Sharon, Ruth Tang, Danya Taymor, Tyler Thomas, Minghao Tu, Stevie Walker-Webb, Gabriel Vega Weissman, Whitney White, Nia Ostrow Witherspoon, Tamilla Woodard, Zhu Yi, Pirronne Yousefzadeh, Catherine Yu, David Zheng and Mo Zhou.
 
Past 2050 Fellows have had their work produced and have directed throughout New York and the country. Recent credits include The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz (Lincoln Center Theater); Sanctuary City by Martyna Majok, directed by Rebecca Frecknall (NYTW); The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez, directed by Stephen Daldry (Young Vic, West End, Broadway); Wolf Play by Hansol Jung, directed by Dustin Wills (Soho Rep); Exception to the Rule by Dave Harris, directed by Miranda Haymon (Roundabout Theatre Company); On Sugarland by Aleshea Harris, directed by Whitney White (NYTW). The NYTW 2023/24 season will include two works by former 2050 Fellows: The Refuge Plays by Nathan Alan Davis, directed by Patricia McGregor; and Merry Me by Hansol Jung, directed by Leigh Silverman.
 

Companies-In-Residence
 

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. Safe Harbors NYC, Dominican Artists Collective (DAC) and JAG Productions joined Noor Theatre as companies-in-residence in 2022. 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.
 
“We are thrilled to welcome the extraordinary multi-hyphenate Ebony Noelle Golden and her Jupiter Performance Studio into our community as our newest Company-in-Residence,� said NYTW Artistic Director Patricia McGregor. “Ebony is a nationally recognized artist and organizer whose expansive practice includes soulful rituals, immersive experiences in the natural world, and rigorous investigations of the intersections between scholarship and activism. Her spirit of collaboration and clarity of purpose rooted in strategies of social justice are inspiring. Her work is both intimate and expansive, vivid and visceral, modern with a sharp eye on how the past influences every inch of our present. We look forward to supporting her visioning and creation during her residency.�
 
Ceremony. Spectacle. Flight. Established in 2020 by Ebony Noelle Golden, Jupiter Performance Studio (JPS) is a hub for the study of diasporic Black performance traditions. Current projects include: The Keeping, commissioned by Weeksville Heritage Center with major support from Creative Capital and In The Name Of The Mother Tree, commissioned by Apollo Theater and National Black Theatre with major support from Double Edge Theatre and the National Theater Project. JPS supports climate justice and reparations through Watering (W)hole, the studio’s community-powered engagement platform. IG: @jupiterperformancestudio Web: jupiterperformancestudio.com
 
 

New York Theatre Workshop

empowers visionary theatre-makers and brings their work to adventurous audiences through productions, artist workshops and education and community engagement 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; Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me; Jeremy O. Harris’s Slave Play; Kristina Wong’s Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord; Aleshea Harris’s On Sugarland; and eight acclaimed productions directed by Ivo van Hove. NYTW’s productions have received a Pulitzer Prize, 25 Tony Awards, 2 Grammy Awards and numerous Obie, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards. NYTW is represented on Broadway with Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown, developed with and directed by Rachel Chavkin; and the upcoming Broadway engagement of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along, directed by Maria Friedman and choreographed by Tim Jackson.
 
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.
  
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT NYTW:
NYTW.org
 

 

NYTW ARTISTIC TEAM BIOS
 

Aaron Malkin is the Associate Artistic Director, Theatre & Productions at New York Theatre Workshop and has been on the Artistic Staff at the theatre since 2012. At NYTW, Aaron serves as dramaturg, curator, and creative producer, making space for artists to explore curiosities in their work and collaborating to bring artists and audiences together in acts of collective imagination. Before moving to New York, Aaron worked at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and Arena Stage as a dramaturg and producer. As a freelance dramaturg, Aaron has worked with the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ma-Yi Theater Company, and People’s Light and Theater Company. He has collaborated with Hansol Jung, Aleshea Harris, Hammaad Chaudry, Celine Song, Martyna Majok, Anaïs Mitchell, Rachel Chavkin, Colman Domingo, Nathan Alan Davis, Mfoniso Udofia, Whitney White, Heidi Schreck, Jeremy O. Harris and Lucas Hnath, among others.
 
Rachel Silverman is a theater producer, dramaturg and artist advocate based in New York City. Rachel is the Associate Artistic Director, Workshops and Development at New York Theatre Workshop, where she has served as a member of the Artistic Staff since 2010. In her role, Rachel is a senior leader of the artistic team that curates programming, builds and sustains relationships with artists, and upholds NYTW’s mission and values. Rachel oversees all of NYTW’s developmental initiatives inclusive of Mondays @ 3 readings, Larson Lab workshops, summer lab residencies, and the 2050 Fellowship for early career generative artists. She was integral in the creation of new programming at NYTW including NEXT DOOR @ NYTW, a reimagination of NYTW’s 4th Street Theater that supports self-Producing Artists and small companies, and the Artistic Instigator initiative during COVID-19. As an independent producer, Rachel served as lead producer for Kaneza Schaal’s JACK & from 2016-2019 which toured nationally to venues including BAM, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the Walker Arts Center, among others. Rachel served as festival producer for PRELUDENYC in 2012 and 2013 and the Associate Producer of 13P for its final years. Other producing credits include 13P’s OBIE Award-winning A Map of Virtue and UglyRhino’s site specific What it Means to Disappear Here. BA: Wesleyan University, Theater and Sociology.
 
Leo Angulo is a producer, artistic administrator, curator and director based in New York City. He is the Artistic Programs Manager at New York Theatre Workshop. In this role, Leo line produces the Mondays @ 3 Reading Series and Larson Labs workshops, manages the Call for Proposals and 2050 Artistic Fellowship application processes, co-leads the 2050 Artistic Fellowship program, helps manage and oversee NYTW summer residencies at Adelphi University and Dartmouth College, supports the curation of NYTW artistic programs, leads communications between NYTW and its artistic community of Usual Suspects, and provides administrative support for the artistic department as a whole. Leo Angulo has previously been a 2050 Administrative Fellow (Artistic Workshop) at NYTW as well as an Artistic Fellow at The New Group. He associate-directed Audible Theatre’s production of The Way She Spoke written by Isaac Gomez, directed by Jo Bonney. He has also worked as a general management associate at The Playwrights Realm and as a freelance producer at the Orchard Project. BA: Columbia University; Theatre and Psychology.
 
2050 ARTISTIC FELLOW BIOS
 
Emily Abrams (she/her) is a director, administrator, and silly human who creates community by putting audiences through one-of-a-kind experiences. Currently, Emily is the ongoing resident director of Spiegelworld’s THE HOOK. Her work is heavily influenced by the theatre of the ridiculous movement, camp, parody, clown, and midnight-cult-classic movies.  Emily has worked for leading not-for-profits, including Ars Nova, Manhattan Theatre Club, Studio Theatre, Roundabout, Asolo Rep, New York Theatre Workshop, People’s Light, The Kimmel Center, The New Group, Life Jacket Theatre and more. She has worked as an Assistant Director for Andrew Neisler, Rory Pelsue, Knud Adams, David Muse, Candis C. Jones, Sivan Battat, Josh Rhodes and others. She is an alum of Studio Theatre’s Directing Apprenticeship, Ars Nova’s Emerging Leaders Fellowship, and Asolo Rep’s Directing Fellowship. She holds a BFA in Directing from The University of the Arts and is an alum of The National Theatre Institute’s Advanced Directing program. When she is not directing, Emily cares for her very small—very fluffy—dog and competes in Rubik’s cube speed-solving competitions. Find out more about Emily, her work, and her obsession with Tommy Wiseau by visiting EmilyAbramsDirects.com. 
 
Andrea Ambam is a performance artist and writer whose roots sprout from Cameroon. As a politically engaged storyteller, Andrea puts narrative to use, creating theatrical experiences that worldbend and record truth. Currently, Andrea is a New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Artistic Fellow and the Programming Manager at Level Forward, where she hosts the Anthem Award-winning podcast More To Talk About. She has developed her multi-hyphenated practice as a Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, a Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX) Artist-In-Residence, an Artistic Fellow with Signature Theatre, a Writing As Activism Fellow with PEN America, an Artivism Fellow with Broadway Advocacy Coalition (BAC), an Artist-in-Residence for Anna Deavere Smith, an EmergeNYC Fellow, and as a competitive public speaker/performer where she was awarded “Top Speaker in the Nation’’ three times. Her plays include Fragile State (Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship 2022-23), R(estoration) I(n) P(rogress) (NYU Educational Theatre/Provincetown Playhouse 2023, ANPF Semifinalist 2021, Playwrights Realm Semifinalist 2021), Rehearsing Justice: A One-Woman Show (Presentations with BAX 2022 & BAC 2021), and Angelina Weld Grimke (Classical Theatre of Harlem/Playbill, Broadway Podcast Network). Andrea lives in Brooklyn and has a master’s in Art & Public Policy from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. andreaambam.com 
 
Raz Golden is a director of theatre and film. His work employs classical texts and new stories to dissect history, performance, and liminality, while continually centering people of color. He has directed and developed work with Second Stage, Juilliard, the National Queer Theatre, the Mercury Store, The Public Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, NYU Tisch, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. He is a Drama League 2019 Fellow, a member of Roundabout Directors Group Cohort 2 and a founding member of the Fled Collective. As a filmmaker he has collaborated on numerous projects with the creative agency Adventure We Can and in 2021 on Eisa Davis’ Afrofemononomy. BA, Carnegie Mellon University. Directing: What the Constitution Means to Me (Weston Theatre Company), Orestes (SUNY Purchase), How to Catch Creation (Juilliard), Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues (Shakespeare & Company), We Are Proud to Present… (Purchase), The Mountaintop by Katori Hall (Weston), Queen of the Night, a new play by travis tate (Dorset Theatre Festival), Macbeth, (HVSF). Associate Directing: Good Night Oscar (dir. Lisa Peterson), Macbeth (dir. Sam Gold).
 
Celeste Jennings is a playwright and costume designer. Using the language of her family, she quilts love songs for Black folks. Her work invites her community to stop and rest awhile as they refamiliarize themselves with the poetic diction of home. She loves to incorporate her unique perspective into her work and is particularly motivated to uplift and protect Black women as a writer and designer. Her dream projects evoke the past, present, and future and remind Black women that they are loved, that they’re soft, powerful, capable of resting, deserving of liberation, and that they are everything- that they always have been. Most recently, her play ‘Bov Water was produced at Northern Stage, and she developed another play with music, Contentious Woman, with PlayCo.  Selected work includes Citrus (produced at Northern Stage), and Processing. Lately she collaborated with JAG in a designer workshop for Urinetown and worked as an assistant designer on The Notebook. Celeste recently studied costume design at NYU Tisch and graduated this spring. She’s grateful to her community of friends, family, and mentors for encouraging and uplifting her work and is incredibly happy to be a NYTW 2050 Fellow.
 
Ying Ying Li was born in Beijing and grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She came to America to attend Yale Law School and practiced corporate law in NYC before restarting her life as a writer and performer with no training or experience whatsoever. She is a member of The Public Theater's 2020–2023 Emerging Writers Group, and the Parent/Caregiver Playwrights Group, sponsored by Project Y Theatre. She is an alumna of The Tank’s Playwrights Group, The Tank’s TV Writers Group, Harvardwood’s TV Writers Group and Hot Buffet Sketch Comedy Group. Full-length plays include This Could Be You (EWG Spotlight Series) and Dance Moms (Premiere Play Festival semi-finalist, NEA grant recipient). Her work has been commissioned by Project Y, and developed or seen at The Public, The Tank, Boomerang Theatre, Rule of 7x7, Decent Company, Yes Noise, The Brick, and on The Highline (so many helicopters, lesson learned). Her humor writing and videos have appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Buzzfeed, Wired, MSN, Lifehacker, Men’s Health and Mental Floss. She has two delicious small children. 
 
Nicholas Polonio is a Filipino-American director originally from the Bay Area and currently based in Brooklyn. He has directed productions including The Police (The Wedge @ Hangar Theater), pov: u run Joe Biden's tiktok (Ars Nova ANTFest), Mary Stuart (Strasberg Institute @ NYU Tisch), Late Fame: A History Play (Rutgers University), and The 100 Most Beautiful Names of Todd (Williamstown PTP). As Associate Director, productions include Slave Play (Broadway, remount, CTG), Public Obscenities (Soho Rep), A Raisin in the Sun (Public Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival), Richard III (Shakespeare in the Park, Public Theater), A Long Day's Journey Into Night (Audible, Minetta Lane Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire (Audible, Williamstown Theatre Festival), and X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (The Metropolitan Opera). Nicholas has directed and developed new writing with Bedlam, The TEAM, Normal Ave, the Asian American Arts Alliance, the Sống Collective, Ma-Yi Writer's Lab, and the American Playwriting Foundation. He is an alum of the Drama League Directing Fellowship, Roundabout Directors Group, Mercury Store Directors Lab, Williamstown Theatre Festival Directing Corps, the Young Vic Genesis Directors Program, and the National YoungArts Foundation. Nicholas received his BFA in Acting from Rutgers Mason-Gross School of the Arts.
 

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