A new panel of artists returns to discussion equity in representation of LGBTQIA+ artists in dance and theatre.
Stay tuned for panelist introductions!
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Meet the Panelists:
Andie Arthur (she/her) is the co-founding Artistic Director of
Lost Girls Theatre, the executive director of the South Florida Theatre
League, a contributor to the nationally recognized theatre blog
2amtheatre, the former east Florida regional representative of the
Dramatists Guild, and adjunct faculty at New World School of the Arts.
She is a graduate of the BFA Playwriting Program at DePaul University
and has participated in the Kennedy Center's Summer Playwriting
Intensive and the Miami-Dade County Playwright Development Program. She
is also a freelance new play dramaturg, having worked with Florida
Stage, City Theatre, FIU’s The Greenhouse, and The Naked Stage as well
as with local playwrights. In 2021, she was commissioned by Theatre Lab
(in Boca Raton, Florida) for their Fair Play Audio Drama Initiative,
which is for LGBTQ playwrights writing about LGBTQ history.
Arthur’s plays include In Common Hours (finalist for the 2005 David Mark
Cohen Award), Dueling Edwards (finalist for City Theatre’s 2012 National
Short Play Contest), Dinner at the End of the World, Juliet Among the
Changelings, Rev. Nathaniel’s Daughter, She Flies with Her Own Wings,
Abacus Jones: Boy Detective, A Girl’s Guide to Saving the Universe, The
Secret of the Biological Clock, and Outcasts of Eden. Her work has been
seen at Theatre Lab, Eclectic Full Contact Theatre, Lost Girls Theatre,
New Theatre, The Alliance Theatre Lab, The Naked Stage, The Theatre
School at DePaul University, Marquette University, GableStage, and
Chicago Dramatists. She's currently working on "Where or When?" an audio
drama co-produced by Lost Girls Theatre and the Incomparable Radio
Theater, which will be available via podcast starting in August 2022.
Mack Gillies (they/them) is an emerging non-binary interdisciplinary dance artist and activist, currently studying Critical Social and Gender Studies at York University. Although they do perform dance and work in the film industry, Mack is primarily a choreographer and teacher, with a heavy focus in dance film and contemporary / post modern dance. Their dance training includes 10 years of competitive dance training; the completion of the British Association of Teachers of Dancing examinations in ballet, tap, acro, and modern; B.A.T.D Associate level ballet certifications, and 4 years of studying dance and musical theatre in the O’Neill C.V.I performing arts program. Throughout their training, Mack has worked with a variety of choreographers including David Norsworthy, Allan Kaeja, and Aria Evans. As they grow as a dance artist, educator, and choreographer, Mack is interested in exploring dance as a method of activism and healing. They are the Founder and Co-Director of not-for-profit organization, Equity In Dance, a Queer led organization that seeks to create art, challenge norms, learn histories, celebrate all, as well as create safe and equitable dancing spaces. As an artist and educator, Mack seeks to use movement to explore their understanding of themselves and of dance, and consistently challenge the norms of dance. PayPal: mackenziegillies4@gmail.com
Shira Helena Gitlin (they/them) is a trans nonbinary director, dramaturg, gender consultant, and musical theatre enthusiast. They have held Trans Training workshops for Dramatists Guild, Directors Lab North, individual theatre makers, and various theatres across the United States. They are also a member of StageSource's Gender Explosion Initiative. They have directed for the National Women's Theatre Festival, Moonbox Productions, Flat Earth Theatre, Sparkhaven Theatre, Playwrights’ Platform, the Boston Theatre Marathon and more. Shira is a graduate of the Arden Professional Apprentice Class 26, was an Artistic Fellow at SpeakEasy Stage Company, and is an alumni of Directors Lab North in Toronto, Canada. They have a BA from Hampshire College in directing with an emphasis on musical theatre studies. They are currently the gender consultant on two new musicals, Psyche and Millennials are Killing Musicals, and will be directing Concord Player’s production of Indecent next season. For more information, please visit shirahelenagitlin.com. Venmo: @shira-gitlin
Michael J. Love is an interdisciplinary tap dance artist, scholar, and educator. He is a 2021-2023 Princeton University Arts Fellow and Lecturer in the Program in Dance at Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts and Affiliated Faculty member in the M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts (or MFAIA) graduate program at Goddard College. His embodied research intermixes Black queer feminist theory and aesthetics with a rigorous practice that critically engages the Black cultural past as it imagines Black futurity. In Austin, TX, his work has been supported and presented by Fusebox Festival, ARCOS Dance, Ground Floor Theatre, and The Cohen New Works Festival. He has received an Austin Critics’ Table Award and has been nominated for a B. Iden Payne Award. Love has also collaborated with film-based artist Ariel René Jackson on video and performance projects which have been featured in or programmed by The New York Times Style Magazine’s #TBlackArtBlackLife Instagram series, Digital Arts Resource Centre’s Project Space in Ottawa, the New Museum and CUE Art Foundation in New York, the Galleries at the University of Northern Colorado, and the Jacob Lawrence Gallery at the University of Washington. Love's performance credits include the Broadway laboratory for Savion Glover and George C. Wolfe’s Shuffle Along and roles in works by Baakari Wilder. Love holds an M.F.A. in Performance as Public Practice from The University of Texas at Austin and is an alumnus of Emerson College. You can visit DancerMLove.com to learn more.
Cristina (Cha) Ramos (she/ella) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist with a metric montón of books, swords, and altars in her NYC apartment. Cha works primarily as an intimacy and fight director, but can also be found in rehearsal rooms and classrooms as a dramaturg, playwright, performer, and instructor. Current projects include: fight and intimacy direction for Dom Juan at the Fisher Center at Bard, intimacy direction for Three Sisters at Two River Theater, associate intimacy direction for COMPANY on Broadway, dramaturgy for new works by José Rivera and Leslie Ayvazian, performing with the Vixens En Garde, teaching with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators, and ongoing development of her own original plays Fire Burn Them and Like to the Gods. More info at www.CallMeCha.com. Venmo: @chaofalltrades.
Meet the Moderator:
Colleen Hughes (she/her) is an intimacy director, choreographer, movement director, and teaching artist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is trained in trauma-informed practices and holds this focus at the center of her work. She also specializes in devised and ensemble-based physical theatre, mask work, and social dance.
She values the unique strengths that each artist brings to the rehearsal room and knows that the stories that we bring to our audiences are the most compelling when actors feel ownership over their work and confidence in the process. She builds her work on a foundation of trust in the rich humanity of artists and the importance of theatre as a means of connection, communication, and compassion.
Her intimacy and movement work has been seen at Philadelphia Theatre Company, Lantern Theatre Company, Curio Theatre Company, Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, Simpatico Theatre Company, Drexel University, and Commonwealth Classic Theatre. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and trained at the Stella Adler Studio.
Cashapp: $colleenhugh