Newly Founded Black and Women-Led Theatre Organization Set To Debut Work In Progress This Month

SOHUMANITY, the newly founded New York City based theatre organization, by Broadway talent, Tanya Birl-Torres (On The Town, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), joined by Sasha Hutchings (Hamilton, Oklahoma!), is scheduled to complete its Critical Breaks Artist in Residency at Hi-Arts with a public share of a work in progress, 'A Play in 3 Movements,' - at Hi-Arts/ El Barrio's Artspace in East Harlem on April 21, 2023.

Written and directed by the duo respectively, 'A Play in 3 Movements,' is an immersive and ritualized choreo-play that explores how autoimmunity is an expression of non-consent to a diseased natural defense system.

With a strong emphasis on Afro-Hebrewism and the 12 lost tribes of Israel, this semi-autobiographical tale tracks four black women's journeys throughout history, breaking the chains of physical, mental, and systemic slavery. A trinity of ancestors guide a young Black girl who has chosen to fight "the system" within her own cells as she travels through time and across generations. Centering around themes of remembrance, this participatory work employs movement and ritual. The three movements consist of medical, historical, and spiritual memory.

A Play in 3 Movements, features Tony-award nominee Karine Plantadit (Come Fly Away, The Lion King), Shonica Gooden (Hamilton, Cinderella), Gabrielle Hamilton (Oklahoma!), and Bahiyah Hibah (Moulin Rouge!, The Color Purple).

Tanya Birl-Torres (Writer) believes in telling stories that move us towards curiosity and connection. She has a passion and a vision to use her artistry to reach a diverse crowd and blur the lines between performer and audience, recognizing that we are all creative by nature of being born. Over the last five years, Tanya has shifted from her career as a sought-after Broadway performer, and transitioned to Movement Direction, Choreography, and Embodied Systems Facilitator. She has served as Movement Director and Choreographer for many prestigious institutions including The Public Theater (Mobile Unit: Twelfth Night), The Guthrie Theater (As You Like It), Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Peter and the Starcatcher, How I Learned What I Learned) and The Signature Theater (The Red Letter Plays).

Tanya is a 2022/23 MAP Fund Grantee and a 2022 NoMAA grant recipient. She is the Artistic Director of the Washington Heights Womanist Arts Festival whose mission is to bridge everyBody to liberation led by the example of Black and Latinx women. The Festival is the recipient of the 2023 CitizensNYC grant and NewYorker4NY honoree featured as 'Women breaking glass ceilings & exercising their voice in NYC and beyond'. @sohumanity

Sasha Hutchings (Director) is a stage and television actress, teaching artist, director, and creative producer. She recently starred as Laurey Williams on the National Tour of Oklahoma! Sasha is notably an original cast member of Hamilton and is featured in the Disney+ Hamilton Film. Additional Broadway credits include My Fair Lady, Rocky, Motown, and Memphis. Sasha appears as Hope on Run The World (STARZ). Spring 2023 Sasha joins the premiere season on Demascus as well as Season 2 of Run The World (STARZ). As a consultant in theatre education, Sasha designs curricula on narrative building and storytelling through movement. At the center of Sasha's work is a passion for equitable access to the arts, equity within the arts, and a belief that performance art embodies the radical imagination necessary to envision a better world.

CRITICAL BREAKS is a residency program for artists who are in a pivotal phase of developing new work at Hi-ARTS.

Hi-ARTS is supported in part by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with Council Member Diana Ayala and the City Council, with additional support from the NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. Leadership support is provided by the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, Ford Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Scherman Foundation, and David Rockefeller Fund. Additional support comes from the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, New York Community Trust, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Emma A. Sheafer Charitable Trust, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and Lucille Lortel Foundation.

Photo Credit: Laura Yost

To post a comment, you must register and login.