The Civilians Announces Eleventh Annual R&D Group

The Civilians is presenting the newest members of The R&D Group, marking the Group's 11th season. The R&D Group is comprised of playwrights, composers, and directors who work together as a writing group for nine months to develop new plays and musicals. The season culminates in the Findings Series, a works-in-progress reading series, anticipated taking place in June 2022. The artists were selected from a competitive application process that included 143 submissions.

The members of The Civilians' 2021-22 R&D Group are Calley N. Anderson, Lila Rachel Becker, Phillip Gregory Burke, Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, Denmo Ibrahim, Eric Marlin, and Liba Vaynberg.

Led by The Civilians' Resident Dramaturg Phoebe Corde, the artists share work as it develops, discuss their creative processes, and provide a community of support for one another. Each project develops according to its unique methods of creative inquiry, offering new approaches to the idea of "investigative theater." Methods may include interviews, community engagement, research, or other experimental methods of inquiry. The artists will meet twice a month.

"The six projects in this season's R&D Group contain a spark, question, and voice that particularly inspired us. These artists possess a unique talent for approaching our world with an inquisitive, eager eye, and I am thrilled to be developing these projects over the next year with them," said Corde.

Artistic Director Steve Cosson added, "During the theater shutdown, we were glad to have sustained The R&D Group as a fully active, albeit virtual, program. As we gradually move back into the real world, I am thrilled to do so with this exceptional group of artists. I was deeply inspired by each of their proposed projects, and I am eager to see how their work evolves over the course of this season."

The 2021-22 R&D Group projects are as follows.

Someone Else's Bullet

Written by Calley N. Anderson
What happens when we relegate a place and its people to a moment in history they had no say in? What does this conflation do to its citizens-culturally, politically, socioeconomically, even psychologically? Someone Else's Bullet considers what happens to American cities where violence has left an irreparable stain that its citizens can't quite repair. The piece will focus namely on Memphis, TN--the site of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination--and those who have been touched by the city, the assassination, or (more likely) both. It will use interviews of both native Memphians and non-Memphians of all generations to investigate trauma, place, and collective memory of what has become Memphis's unwanted legacy.

Untitled Jewish Pirate Play

Written by Eric Marlin

Directed by Lila Rachel Becker

In the sixteenth century, Jews who had been expelled from Spain began working with Muslim governments as pirates to attack Spanish vessels - partially as revenge for the Inquisition. Untitled Jewish Pirate Play is a pirate adventure epic about this chapter of history, taking inspiration from historical sources as well as Hollywood swashbuckling movies.

The Suncatchers of Sahel: An Ancestral Tale Told to Today's Griot

Part I: The Crumble Under the Crescent
Part II: Untitled
Written by Phillip Gregory Burke
The first in a five cycle play chronicling war and spirituality, this two-part medieval West African saga, investigates the cultural impact the transatlantic and Arabian slave trades had on the region's society. Told though an unapologetically Afro-queer lens by ancestral witnesses from the MOTHER land, this cinematically theatrical experience examines the social dynamics associated with an empire on the precipices of the white gaze - heavily pregnant with colonial and imperialistic twins, but yet reigned defiantly and culturally free from its curious clutches. An epic work of historical fiction inspired by historical fact, this lyrical love letter reveres its divine deities, ancestors, and nature, catapulting audiences on a fantastic crusade, cascading across rediscovered narratives that boldly center people of the global majority, while celebrating the complexity of their storied humanity.

Wait No Longer

Written by Aeneas Sagar Hemphill
Nearly a century ago, Clifford Odets' play Waiting for Lefty wrestled with the state of American labor, inspired by a 40-day New York taxi driver strike of 1935. Today, in this moment of severe social and economic inequality and revitalized labor action, its themes continue to reverberate. What has changed since that Depression-era play, and what has stayed the same? What is the worker in a tech-dominated "gig economy" and what is their relationship to the means of production? Through research and interviews, this project seeks to create a Waiting for Lefty for this particular moment, rekindling its fire and transcending its relative limitations.

Little Palestine

Written by Denmo Ibrahim
Little Palestine is a new play developed through a series of community-based investigations in Little Palestine (Bay Ridge, Brooklyn). The project explores one of the most ethnically diverse immigrant communities in America and aims to illuminate how a neighborhood becomes part of one's identity. The project will center characters and storylines that have been historically excluded and strives to illuminate the complexity and nuance of immigrant family narratives while also embracing the joy and humor inherent in that struggle. The research also explores the essential archetype of the immigrant transcending race or religion: how do we face that which is foreign? Little Palestine chronicles the heartbeat of a community and will hold space for people to meet their neighbors in a new way. The project will amplify the voices of this thriving American community through an inclusive, celebratory, and affirming process.

Miriam

Written by Liba Vaynberg
Is birth an act of hope? Or a deflection from a dying world? Miriam is a project about reproduction in crisis. Inspired by my sister's pregnancy and my IUD, this play will explore fertility for women, drawing on YERMA, interviews, and dramatizations. Conceived with Dina Vovsi. Developed at Rattlestick (TheaterJam) and Xavier University.

About the 2020-2021 R&D Artists

Calley N. Anderson (writer, Someone Else's Bullet)

Is a Southern Black woman and Brooklyn-based playwright from Memphis, TN. Her work has been staged at several colleges and 10-minute play festivals around the country, including recent commissions by the Davidson College Theatre Department and the University of Memphis Department of Theatre and Dance. Anderson is a member of American Theatre Group PlayLab, Clubbed Thumb Early Career Writers Group, and The Civilians' R&D Group and a Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellows alum. Beyond her writing, she is one of eighteen Memphis Hub fellows of the Salzburg Global Seminar's Cultural Innovators Forum and serves as a Program Manager for NY Writers Coalition. BA: Davidson College | MFA: New School for Drama. www.calleynanderson.com

Lila Rachel Becker (director, Untitled Jewish Pirate Play)

Is a DC-born, NYC-based director and one half of the theatre collective Portmanteau. She has directed and developed work with theaters all over the country, including Actors Theatre of Louisville, Woolly Mammoth, Portland Stage Company, The Tank, Folger Theatre, and the Source Festival. Recent productions: and come apart by Eric Marlin (Portmanteau + The Tank); THREE SISTERS by Anton Chekhov (University of Iowa); bad things happen here by Eric Marlin (Portmanteau + Edinburgh Festival Fringe); CLARABELLE, 86 by Anna Fox (Cloud City). Member, LCT Directors Lab. BA Wesleyan University. MFA University of Iowa. Associate Member, SDC. www.lilarachelbecker.com

Phillip Gregory Burke (writer, The Suncatchers of Sahel: An Ancestral Tale Told to Today's Griot)

American born and classically trained in The United Kingdom, Phillip Gregory Burke's writing chronicles the sociology of the African Diaspora experience. His plays have been developed/workshopped at The Arches Theatre Company, 24 Hour Pride Fest, The National Black Theatre, Salon NYC, The Classical Theatre of Harlem. His play, A Holy Her, received a podcast recording at The Parsnip Ship and was a Semi-Finalist for the Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship Award. He works in every medium as an actor, most recently in commercials: CBS Sports "A Girl Named Raven," Citi Bike, Tyson Foods, Now This/Visible. His ad with Veteran's Home Commitment, is displayed at your local Walmart. MA Classical and Contemporary Text-The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland; BFA Drama & BS Sociology-Syracuse University; Shakespeare's Globe Education, The Alexander Gibson School of Opera. Proud member of Actors' Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, The New York SAG-AFTRA Film Society, The Latinx Playwrights Circle. For Sally Ann Jones. Follow him @PhillipGBurke

Aeneas Sagar Hemphill (writer, Wait No Longer)

Is an Indian-American playwright and screenwriter based in NYC and DC. Weaving through genres, his work builds new worlds to illuminate our own, using passion, pathos, and humor to investigate the ghosts that haunt our lives and communities. His plays include: Karma Sutra Chai Tea Latte (Gingold Speakers' Corner), Black Hollow (Argo Collective, Dreamscape Theatre), The Troll King (Pipeline), Childhood Songs (Monson Arts), The Republic of Janet & Arthur(Amios), The Red Balloon (Noor Theatre), A Stitch Here or There (DarkHorse Dramatists, Slingshot Theatre), A Horse and a Housecat (Slingshot Theatre). MFA Playwriting, Columbia University.

Denmo Ibrahim (writer, Little Palestine)

Is an American playwright, actor, author, and entrepreneur of Egyptian descent. A Sundance Theatre Lab and Rainin Fellowship Finalist, her work has toured to international festivals in Cairo, Berlin, and Loire Valley, and to parks, black box theaters, and universities throughout the U.S. Her children's book Zaynab's Night of Destiny will be published by Fons Vitae in late 2021. Her next writing project is a ten-part historical drama for Audible. Ibrahim holds an MFA from Naropa University. www.denmoibrahim.com

Eric Marlin (playwright, Untitled Jewish Pirate Play)

Has been produced and developed by The Public Theater, Ars Nova ANT Fest, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, The Tank, Dixon Place, Samuel French, HOT! Festival, Exquisite Corpse Company, PTP/NYC, Tennessee Williams Festival, Play Date @ Pete's, and Wildclaw Theatre. Winner of the Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival and shortlisted for the Berliner Festspiele Stuckemarkt. Finalist for SPACE at Ryder Farm, the Jewish Plays Project, and two-time finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. Former Resident Artist at Montclair's New Works Initiative. He is one half of theatre collective Portmanteau. MFA: Iowa Playwrights Workshop. BA: Bennington College.

Liba Vaynberg (writer, Miriam)

Is a first-generation American writer and actor. Bilingual in English & Russian, she studied Molecular Biology & International Studies at Yale before receiving her MFA from Columbia. Plays include The Gett: A Young Wife's Tale (Rattlestick/CBE), Round Table (59E59/Fault Line Theater), Scheiss Book (Theater Row), The Russian & The Jew (with Emily Perksin, The Tank), and The Oxford Comma (Xavier). She contributed to Lilith Magazine and the CANVAS Compendium. Performance highlights include playing Annie Blumberg opposite Ed Asner in the PBS broadcast of The Soap Myth, Madam Secretary (CBS), New Amsterdam (NBC), The Deuce (HBO), The Oregon Trail (WP/Fault Line) and The Golem of Havana (La Mama). Regional include Yale, Williamstown Theater Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Hartford Stage, CATF, Huntington, Penguin Rep, Miami New Drama. www.libavaynberg.com

For more information visit: https://thecivilians.org/

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