The Alcove

In 1900, Josephine Tilden of Minnesota travelled by canoe to a remote beach on Pacheedaht territory, becoming one of the world’s experts on seaweed, setting up her research station and educating women to be scientists, along with professors from Japan to Jamaica. Seaweed explores how Tilden carved out a place for herself, as well as her relationship to the Pacheedaht, her students, colleagues, philanthropists and seaweed itself, especially its fascinating, ancient mysteries and astonishing potential to mitigate the climate crisis.

What if an object in our possession, in fact, possesses us? This is the central question of ANIMAL, a darkly funny two-hander in which a child plays a game of 20 Questions with a grown man – who turns out to be a gun. What starts as a cheerful guessing game devolves into an explosive dialogue about power, fear and memory, and how supposedly inanimate objects have a way of making us fulfill their purpose.

In the Space Between” is an exploration of the complexities of MENA diasporic existence. It weaves together a new fable of a child on a long quest for healing with a series of interconnected but non-linear dreams of home, belonging, and family. Characters and dreams collide, transcending the conventions of time, place, generation, gender, and politics. Through this dreamlike journey, memories and forgetting intertwine, wounds and pain grow bigger or fade away, and the audience is drawn into a world of shape shifting characters, arrivals and departures, vivid colors, the enticing scent of grandma’s jasmine tree, and sunflower seeds.

In a familiar city of tents fashioned between broken streets and falling buildings, five women fight for their lives. By day, Nadine helps her catatonic sister Aliya care for her children, bringing them to a tent classroom run by Sarah. By moonlight, Nadine practices a dance forbidden to women, dreaming of one day leading her own troupe. One night she meets Hana who is hiding from her aunt who’s taken to running a particular type of establishment. Hana, now a thrice refugee, shares with Nadine her penchant for making music from the most unlikely instruments – drone planes, ticking clocks and crackling generators. Together, Nadine and Hana try to make a life that is wholly their own despite all that stands in their way.

Nico and Eddie are two cousins from the Bronx barely getting by.  Like so many others their perpetual frustrations with the government from of lack of help on anything: healthcare, student loans, living wage has them ready to say “Shit’s bout to get real real.”

“The Soul Patrol,” was an all-Black 1971 police unit in a then segregated Boston. The Soul Patrol was a tactical response to avoid integrating after a series of murders and protests against police brutality from a predominantly white force. It exemplified successful community policing, resulting in decreased murders and safer neighborhoods. However, the unit was disbanded abruptly after a year. Uncovering the mystery of why this unit was disbanded, the dynamics within it, and the motives and actions of its members can address broader questions of safety and public decorum in a divided society. I’m interested in why this unit failed so quickly, in the Shakespearean and Greek human moral lessons that repeatedly stand in the way of progress.

The surprising death of his estranged father, and Freddie’s many strained relationships, prompt him to travel to Poland to meet his long lost cousin Tekle and finish the genealogy research his father was never able to complete. The uncovering of family secrets during the Holocaust, has him rethinking his life, relationships, and purpose in the world. “Here Rests the Heart” challenges us to find our voices and account for what matters most in the world, and calls us to take action with what precious little time we get to live.

Citizens United explores the consequences of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision through the lens of a high school student election. When money talks, who gets heard  – and who loses their voice. Just because there’s a Taylor Swift bracelet on her wrist, doesn’t mean there isn’t a knife behind her back.

Udaya is a linguistic anthropologist suffering from debilitating night sweats; her efforts to figure out what the hell is going on with her body lead her down a darkly revealing rabbit hole. She learns, for example, that “vagina” is the Latin word for “scabbard,” or “sheath.” As in the vagina is literally named as a receptacle for the penis. And that’s just the beginning – the deeper she dives, the darker shit gets. What does it mean to live in a body the culture’s named this way? What does it do to a person, their sense of self?