WP Theater Welcomes Ayana Parker Morrison as 'BOLD' Associate Artistic Director

WP Theater announced today that Ayana Parker Morrison (WP Producers Lab alumna, and former MCC Manager of Artistic Production) has been named WP Theater’s BOLD Associate Artistic Director, effective immediately.

 

“We are thrilled to welcome Ayana to WP’s artistic leadership team—I can’t wait to dive into artistic collaboration together,” said Lisa McNulty, Producing Artistic Director of WP Theater. “Ayana is a brilliant practitioner and producer, a thoughtful leader, and a joyful maker in a time when we could all use more joy.  I look forward to all the ways that WP will grow and change under Ayana’s eye, and for all of the extraordinary work that will flourish under her care.”

 

Parker Morrison says, “I’m thrilled to be stepping into this new leadership position within the WP community. It fostered so much of my artistic growth while I was in the Producing Lab at the height of the pandemic and I look forward to showing my gratitude by supporting the next cohort of artists. This is a troublesome time in the theater industry and yet I feel so inspired and invigorated by the work WP is developing and producing. How lucky am I to be at the forefront of it all now!”

 

Parker Morrison succeeds Rebecca Martinez, who joined One Nation/One Project as Cohort Collaborations Director in May. Martinez will soon return to WP to direct Bite Me by Eliana Pipes (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) presented as part of the WP fall season, performed at WP Theater (2162 Broadway at 76th St.).  Parker Morrison's artistic hire is supported by the BOLD Theater Women’s Leadership Circle and the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation, a grant dedicated to bridging career gaps for Women+ in American theater.

 

AYANA PARKER MORRISON

(she/her) is a creative producer in theater, live events, and across digital platforms. After graduating from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in Acting and a minor in Africana Studies, she shifted her focus to develop new projects that speak to the spectrum of stories from the African Diaspora. Ayana was the inaugural Producing Fellow with New York Theater Workshop’s 2050 Administrative Fellowship and an alum of the WP Producer’s Lab 21-22' cohort. As Manager of Artistic Production at MCC Theater, she produced many groundbreaking pieces including Bees & Honey, Wet Brain, and NY Times Critic’s Pick, Wolf Play. Currently, as a creative producer at Checkmark Productions, she develops work and cultivates community amongst the industry’s most exciting emerging artists of the global majority. Select freelance producing credits include Tender Napalm at HERE Arts Center;Saints of Failure, a solo show performed in Fort Greene’s Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church; and NY Times Critic’s Pick, Eureka Day with Colt Coeur. She is currently developing Self-Portraits by Phillip Howze with The Bushwick Starr. Ayana is also a public speaker sharing her philosophy on culturally responsive producing, and her expertise as an industry leader, on various platforms nationwide.

 

Rebecca Martinez

(she/her) is a multidisciplinary director, the Cohort Collaborations Director for One Nation/One Project, and the former BOLD Associate Artistic Director at WP Theater. Recent projects include a musical adaptation of The Comedy of Errors (The Public Theater’s Mobile Unit),Sancocho (WP Theater), Living and Breathing (Two River), Los Complicados (EST Marathon), Randy’s Dandy Coaster Castle (Egg & Spoon Collective), Songs About Trains (Working Theater and Radical Evolution), and Somewhere Over the Border (Syracuse Stage and Geva Theatre). Rebecca has developed new work with The Public Theater, Amas Musical Theater, the O’Neill, Latinx Playwrights Circle, the Sol Project, NAMT, INTAR, Working Theater, and The Playwrights Realm, among others. Affiliations: Sojourn Theatre Ensemble, 2021 TCG Rising Leaders of Color; Sol Project Collective, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, INTAR’s Unit52, New Georges Affiliated Artist, WP Theater Directors Lab, Drama League Directing Fellow, member of SDC. Awards: Colorado Henry Award for Directing; four Portland, Oregon Drammy Awards; Lilla Jewel Award for Women Artists. Rebecca is originally from Colorado with deep ancestral roots in the Southwest. rebeccamartinez.org

 

WP THEATER

(Lisa McNulty, Producing Artistic Director; Michael Sag, Managing Director) now in its 46th Season, is the nation’s oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of Women+ at every stage in their careers. For over four decades we have served as leaders at the forefront of a global movement towards gender parity, and the example we set and the artists we have fostered have grown into a robust and thriving community of artists in theater and beyond. WP Theater received a 2018 Lucille Lortel Award, a 2019 Obie Award, and a 2020 Drama Desk Award, all for Outstanding Body of Work, recognizing WP’s unique place and vital work in the theatrical landscape. WP empowers Women+ of all kinds to reach their full potential and, in doing so, challenges preconceptions about the kinds of plays women write and the stories they tell. As the premiere launching pad for some of the most influential Women+ theater artists today, our work has had a significant impact on the field at large. Nearly every prolific female theater artist has been through our doors, including 2019 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Musical, Rachel Chavkin, 2018 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Play, Rebecca Taichman, 2013 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Play, Pam MacKinnon, 2013 Tony Winner for Best Direction of a Musical, Diane Paulus, 2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner Martyna Majok, and two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner Lynn Nottage. These powerful women found an artistic home at WP and are a testament to our role as a driving cultural force.  

 

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