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SHAWN HAMILTON, Alley Theatre, Houston, TX
Shawn Hamilton will engage with residents of several historically black neighborhoods of Houston as well as local musicians as he researches the city’s jazz history. The Fox Fellowship will give Shawn both the time and resources to study with skilled artisans and develop skills, both musically and theatrically, as he creates a new theatre piece for musicians and actors. Shawn’s research will include talking with members of the current music scene, older residents with connections to the past and music scholars and historians. The intended outcome is to create a piece about Houston for Houstonians, telling a story the Alley Theatre has yet to tell to an audience that would not necessarily have engaged with the material otherwise. Shawn has worked with the Alley Theater, Guthrie Theater, Stages Repertory Theater, Main Street Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, Park Square Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Trinity Repertory Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Penumbra Theatre, Ordway Center and Ten Thousand Things Theater.
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PHILLIP LUNA, Su Teatro, Denver, CO
Phillip Luna’s goal is to build a bridge and find parallels between the Group Theatre acting techniques he has practiced for over thirty years and the styles of acting utilized in the Teatro Chicano Movement (Teatro for short) and carpas, tent shows. He wants to empower actors to embrace Teatro and excel in communicating to the audience and community. He will study with master teachers in Mexico and the U.S., then develop a way of bridging the forms between Method and Meisner acting techniques and Teatro. Su Teatro is the third oldest Chicano theatre company in the United States - their commitment to their community began over 40 years ago and they are still dedicated to serving that community. Su Teatro views their relationship with Phillip as integral to the long-term health of the organization especially regarding the conversation of the eventual inter-generational transition of leadership. His influence is considered key to bridging Su Teatro’s community activism and their artistic vision as an artist-activist-based theatre with artistic traditions and methodologies. Su Teatro will host workshops and create opportunities for actors to work with Phillip and learn Teatro methodologies. Phillip has worked with Spotlight Theatre, Su Teatro, The Betsy Stage, Spark Theatre, Crossroads Theatre, Aurora Fox, Mercury Theatre, El Centro Su Teatro, Denver Civic Theatre, Industrial Arts Theatre and The Avenue Theatre.
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NICKY PARAISO, La MaMa ETC, New York, NY
Nicky Paraiso will create a new collaborative dance-theatre work, now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories, an evening-length work exploring how a generation of artists deal with aging, individually and collectively, with a cast of esteemed choreographer/performers. This piece is a reflection on his life's work as a performer in New York City - Nicky has been with La MaMa ETC for 40 out of their 56 years and this piece is a reflection on the aging of the artists that are part of their rich community. Nicky will undergo dance, movement, physical training to prepare for performances. He will direct and perform in the work, incorporating his working process as an actor, composing music and text as well. Nicky will engage the downtown experimental dance community and will invite both the theatre and dance communities to view work in progress showings and share in the feedback and development of this work with the hopes of building communication between and among these communities. His goal is to see whether barriers in communication between the theatre and dance communities can be breached and overcome, even in small, incremental ways, and, additionally, open up inter-generational dialogue between artists of totally different fields and disciplines. Nicky has worked and developed work at La MaMa, Dublin Theatre Festival, Singapore Initiation Performance Festival, Trinity College/Hartford CT, Muhlenberg College, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, National Asian American Theatre Company, Asian-American Writers’ Workshop, Dance Theater Workshop, Dixon Place, HERE, Artists Space, The New Museum, BACA Downtown, Performance Space 122, among others.
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