Writers In Performance Present DREAM At Tribeca PAC

Writers in Performance is a 12-week writing and performance workshop hosted by BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, culminating in two public presentations. Throughout the course of the workshop, talented actors, playwrights, poets and storytellers have explored writing exercises, theater games, improvisation, movement techniques, and ensemble work in a safe, creative environment. This season, the theme and title of the Writers in Performance show is "Dream." Writers in Performance participants are diverse by design; not only in ethnicity, but by age, and experience as well, mixing professionals with students.

On Friday, December 6 & Saturday, December 7, 2019 at 7:30PM, the troupe will showcase the monologues and short scenes they have been crafting. We are proud to have members of the BMCC student community in the production (denoted below). Join us to experience this dynamic exchange between the written word and the art of performance! Tickets are FREE, with a suggested donation of $10, and can be purchased in person at Ticketing Services in the lobby of 199 Chambers St. on the night of the event. (No advance reservations necessary.)

Yvette N. Beshier is performing for the second year with the Writers In Performance Ensemble. In 2018 Yvette made her 1st stage appearance with the Ensemble and performed her monologue, "Can You Hear Me Now." Yvette thanks the Writers In Performance program for helping her overcome her fears of performing allowing her to fulfill her longtime dream of writing and performing.

Caroline Cao is a writer, screenwriter, playwright, poet, librettist, children's book writer, film and theatre reviewer, writing tutor, and Star Wars fanfiction writer. She won't shut up about movies, TV, animation, and Star Wars. She recently snagged her Nonfiction MFA at The New School. You can find her wit on SlashFilm, Birth Movies Death, and The Mary Sue. She also really like drawing Skeksis from Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal and experimenting with noodles. She is a native of Houston, Texas.

Jasmine Dorothy Haefner is an actress and writer, as well as a producer and assistant director for film/tv. Jasmine is a member of Teatro Yerbabruja Experimental and most recently devised and premiered EVICTED, a traveling show, at their headquarters in Bay Shore, NY. Her film credits include: I'm Listening (Best Comedy Finalist, NY State International Film Festival) and The Unexpected (Hoboken International Film Festival). Her television credits include: The Twisted Cult of Tony Alamo (Sundance TV) and Celebrity Ghost Stories (A&E). Follow on Instagram @TheJasmineDorothy. www.JasmineDorothy.com.

Javan Howard is a poet and writer from the Bronx. He currently is the Tap lead mentor for Teaching Artist Project at Community-Word Project. He is also a Teaching Artist for USDAN for The Arts and Teachers & Writers Collaborative. He has also facilitated for The New York State Office of Children and Family Services, Voices UnBroken, The GO Project, and others. Howard participates in open mic events under the moniker "Righteous Teacher." His work has been featured online at Black Heart Magazine and Brooklyn Stories Vol. 13. He has read his work at The HBO Shop, The Inspired Word Reading Series, Lamprophonic, The Dead Rabbits Reading Series, and more. For more: www.Javanjhoward.com

Dominique Lynch, also known on stage by the name of A Moment Of Epiphany, is a host, spoken word artist, actress, photographer and model. She was born and raised in the culturally enriched village of Harlem, New York. Epiphany has been featured at Soul Sweet Sanctuary for Black Amethyst Woman, Friday Nite With Ron at 449 LA Scat as a spotlight feature, and at Hunter College School of Social Work for the Women of Color Collective. She hosted the Uptown Arts Festival Benefit. She performed in a staged reading for V-Day "A Memory, A Rant, and A Prayer". She was cast as Amanda Fish in an original play called "The Execution of St. Luke" at the Gerald Lynch Theater. She has been in Tribeca's Writers in Performance Workshop in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2019.

Sizo Mahlangu is a actor, performance artist, based in New York. American Born (1993), Sizo and his family moved back to Johannesburg, South Africa shortly before the presidency of Nelson Mandela. After finishing his studies at the Waterfront Theatre School in Cape Town in 2015, Mahlangu has pushed the conventions of the performative arts within the mediums of theatre, film, and public space intervention. Mahlangu is featured as Obi in the fourth season of Black Sails (2017), and will also be featured in National Geographic's original series Origins: The History of Mankind (2017). Mahlangu received favorable reviews for his role as Othello in The Galloway Theatre's production of Othello (2015). In February 2017 Mahlangu performed his original work, Black Jesus, The Chosen Few and HOMELESSNESS at Gallery MOMO Cape Town.

Daniel Peña (BMCC STUDENT) is a Dominican actor, singer, & dancer born and raised in New York. Currently a student at BMCC and so excited to appear in "Writers in Performance."

Julia de Avilez Rocha just graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and has returned home to New Jersey to begin her career as an emerging theatre artist, director, performer, and writer. After training with Shakespeare & Company and the Williamstown Theatre Festival in western Massachusetts, Julia has sought a variety of ensembles, pedagogies, teaching opportunities, poems, set theorems, clown inquiries, and most recently - a personal quest towards understanding her family heritage through the etymology of the Brazilian - Portuguese word : "saudade"- all to enrich her abilities in storytelling (I.e space giving).

Stéphanie Rupe is an actress, designer and writer based in Brooklyn, NY. This is Stéphanie's second year with Writers in performance. Her latest acting work includes "Lo Scandalo", "Fairies", and two seasons of "Same Coin". Stéphanie has costumed and set designed various productions including "My Move," "Avengement," "It Can't Happen Here," and "Dirt is Where Flowers Grow".

Nadine Seroor (BMCC STUDENT) is a freelance artist and comic creator. She's been taking commission work for 4 years and recently started publishing her first web comic The Dolls Are Lying on webtoon. She majors in Animation and Motion Graphics in BMCC. If she's not hunched over a desk drawing, then she can be found binging Steven Universe on her couch.

Zachary Sherry is a writer and actor, originally from Pompano Beach, Florida. He has been writing short stories and scenes since childhood, and has been acting professionally in New York City. This year, Zach made his debut as a producer for the Fall season of the Art of Warr Productions theatre company. In his spare time, he likes museums, cooking, nature, and activism.

Claire Taisco completed her MFA in Creative Writing at Hunter College. Her fiction has appeared in Catapult, Broken Pencil Magazine, NY Tyrant and the journal 580split. She is currently working on a second novel. When she isn't writing fiction she is writing songs, which can be streamed on SoundCloud.

Gina Stevensen has been involved in WIP since 2012 and is a playwright, dramaturg, and writing instructor. Her play The Colony was a 2019 winner of the Columbia@Roundabout New Play Reading Series and will receive its world premiere production in August of 2020 at Good Luck Macbeth Theatre Company in Reno, Nevada. Gina is a recipient of a 2020 Ragdale Residency. Her plays have been developed in NYC and regionally with American Stage, Urban Stages, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Hartford Stage, and The Tank. She has been a finalist for the Jewish Playwriting Contest, Austin Film Festival Pitch Competition, and MFA Playwrights Workshop at The Kennedy Center, and a semifinalist for the Princess Grace Award, O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, and Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Gina was a 2019 nominee for the Mentor Project at the Cherry Lane Theatre and is an Affiliated Artist with The Hess Collective. She has been a guest lecturer at NYU's Open Arts program and teaches playwriting at The Writer's Rock. MFA Playwriting: Columbia University. www.ginastevensen.com

Mario Giacalone (Director) has been working in the theater as an actor/director/writer and teacher for decades. In the 1970s, he wrote, produced and directed staged works for the Root Theater Collective, a theater group he created. In the 1980's, as Artistic Director of Mass Transit Street Theater, Mr. Giacalone worked within communities to create new theatrical works which later toured under an Actors' Equity contract. Mario wrote and directed children's theater for the SYDA Foundation, and wrote for a PBS produced children's show. Mr. Giacalone owned the Creative Acting Company, a school for professional actors. There he taught acting, and writing, produced and directed play festivals and short films. Mr. Giacalone continues to serve as the Consulting Programing Director for Tribeca Performing Arts Center, where he directs the Writers in Performance series, which brings together professional actors and writers to create new theatrical works. In recent years Mr. Giacalone has directed shows for The United Solo Theater Festival, The New York Fringe Festival, La Mamma ETC, The Strawberry Play Festival and The National Black Theater Festival. Mr. Giacalone also is a singer songwriter who appears frequently in Westchester and New York City. He is currently recording with his Trio with hopes of a spring 2019 release. www.mariogiacalone.com

BMCC Tribeca PAC is Downtown Manhattan's premier presenter of the arts, reaching audiences from the college community, downtown residential and business communities, local schools, families, and audiences of all ages. BMCC Tribeca PAC strives to present a broad global perspective through the presentation of high-quality artistic work in music, theatre, dance, film and visual arts. BMCC Tribeca PAC is located on the Borough of Manhattan Community College campus, 199 Chambers Street (between Greenwich Avenue & West Street) and is convenient to the 2/3, A/C/E and R subway lines and the New Jersey Path Train. For more information please visit our website, www.tribecapac.org

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