BOLD Ventures

A virtual series exploring the canon of William Shakespeare created by JaMeeka Holloway, will host its second installment of the series with 3-three-week workshops, a host of community conversations, and culminate in 3 live-virtual public concept-driven staged readings. Helmed by Black women directors, this project will widen the pipeline of opportunity for Black women interested in creative leadership positions inside of Shakespeare practice by partnering them with other traditionally marginalized communities of color as dramaturgs, actors, technicians, and designers to create conceptualized Staged-Readings that push back on today’s social dissonance by embracing new-traditional approaches to process and presentation.

Progress update: Project was completed this fall in a partnership with Plan ON Shakespeare from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Three virtually streamed staged readings took place, along with a community conversation series, titled Beyond Shakespeare: Confronting the Past, Exploring the Now and Shaping the Future facilitated by The Blueprint, a network of professional, working artists who are Black, Indigenous and People of Color, dedicated to providing comprehensive, holistic training to emerging artists from BIPOC communities.

This collaborative initiative seeks to address a need for opportunities for artists of color who are often denied engagement due to an absence of equity, diversity and inclusion in many theatre and performance institutions. It involves development of the webisode “Cast Me Damn It” which centers on a Black actress who struggles to find work. In response, she decides to create her own work with the help of friends. Believing that she is stuck in a catch 22 scenario, Eva recreates generic scenes for the sole purpose of putting them on a reel to appear that she has been hired to do the work she so desperately seeks to do. This is a passion project for Michelle Elaine, BOLD Associate Producer at the Ensemble Theatre, Houston and brings performance industry students from Houston area colleges into a professionally produced creative piece. This initiative seeks to employ minorities, primarily minority women, in the creation of the webisode while the content highlights a young artist’s approach to creating work for herself.

Progress update: The web series premiered on October 9, 2023.

Is a trilogy musical based on Eh Dah? by writer, performer Aya Aziz. that follows an Egyptian-American family across continents and generations as they search for home and belonging. The show was presented by Hopkrit Theatre in 2016 in the New York Musical Festival where it won awards for Best Book and Best Individual Performance and was the first musical by a Muslim woman in NYMF’s 15 year history. Currently, Aziz and Arpeeta Muhkerjee are expanding the piece into a musical trilogy. Part one: Along the boardwalk, is about Aya's cousins Dina and Mona in Egypt, their relationship, and the different struggles they faced as they became women. Part two: American Made, is about Aya's family that emigrated from Egypt to West Philly and back again after facing the challenges of assimilation. Part Three: On the Roof of a Train is about Aya's uncle who died in Philly, his relationship with her father, and their differing views of a changing Egypt.

Hypokrit Productions plans to present a developmental concert of the trilogy in spring 2022 as a culmination of this work which is being supported by the BOLD Grant. This is key as it is notoriously difficult to develop musicals, and the grant enables the writers to go beyond the initial 29-hour readings to present a polished concert, one which embraces the intimacy of the five-person cast, but also the ambition of this expansive musical.

Progress update: Artists are going on a 3-day retreat and will be doing a workshop of the piece in October at Off-Broadway’s 59E59. Another workshop will be held at the start of 2023, which would culminate in a public showing by the end of FY23. The artists’ goal is to partner with a regional theatre company for the latter workshop. They have worked diligently to develop the piece, and the realization of this development can be largely attributed to the BOLD grant! They would like to thank the HGB Foundation for their immense support on this project!

This project focuses on the continued development of Jess Honovich’s play Giant Slalom. In the play, Dagny, Skylar and Lauren are three teenage ski racers who have dedicated their whole lives (and familys’ finances) towards the sport they love in the hopes of one day soon joining the US Team. When a sponsorship representative arrives offering only one of them the opportunity of a lifetime, the three young women must compete for his attention in order to make or break their careers. Director Jenna Duncan applied for the BOLD Associate Artistic Director position at Northern Stage. Though she did not get the position because of so many competitive applicants, this is a passion project for her and will enable her to direct professionally at the Olney Theater where she is the Associate Artistic Director and is not afforded directing opportunities by her all male leadership team. An excellent story centering women athletes’ in the headlines struggles with the systemic sexism and abuse in sports.

Progress update: A workshop was held recently and more information will be coming from the team about future plans. They were thrilled with the progress.

This performance piece follows Catherine, a 30-something Cuban-American journalist frustrated by her life’s direction, as she embarks on a “Jack Kerouac/Lewis-and-Clark-esque” road trip across America. The trip is sponsored by Monteverde Moonshine, and its ostensible purpose is to showcase “the real America” as part of a marketing campaign. But Catherine is in search of something closer to the heart: the truth about her late mother, who was airlifted out of Cuba as a kid and semi-orphaned in the U.S. As Catherine travels the country, posting photos and interviews of an immigrant worker, a wayward nun, a queer homeschooled teen and more, she raises more questions than answers: about “the real America,” her own identity, and what “authenticity” even means anymore. The BOLD Grant is supporting a Spring 2022 workshop with actors in a physical space and public showings.

Progress update: Artists would like to share that Zoetic Stage in Miami has committed to producing the show in the 2023 Spring, thanks to the support of this grant! The grant money will therefore go to a final development session this coming fall, the timing of which will hopefully be helpful towards the production in the spring. Artists will submit the final report after the workshop production in the fall.

INTERIOR is an immersive dance adaptation of the 19th century symbolist play Intérieur by Maurice Maeterlinck. Conceived by choreographer Veronica Sofia Burt and composer Shaye Swanson, INTERIOR investigates the collective grief and voyeurism that accompanies unexpected trauma, by engaging the audience in an ambient choral soundscape while they experience a live dance performance. Meant to be seen through a glass wall or window, the piece will be developed for a site specific showing in Vermont/New Hampshire breaking down the barriers to arts attendance. The female sound designer is brilliantly talented and a new discovery for the BOLD Circle network.

Progress update: The artists are grateful for the rewrite session and a dancer workshop in summer, 2022. They will be presenting this project in the coming theater season!

The Jungle Theater aims to be at the forefront of shaping and healing the future of Minneapolis. Minneapolis has been the epicenter of the country’s racial reckoning this past year and the neighborhood where Jungle Theater is located, not far from George Floyd Square, has been deeply affected. To bring life, joy, pride, and healing to the community where Jungle Theater has been for 30 years, Jungle Theater, in partnership with LynLake Business Association (Jungle Theater’s neighborhood association), is producing the LynLake Street Art Series: a community festival that uses live performance, film, and public visual art to promote connection, reflection, and joy in the South Minneapolis neighborhoods of LynLake, Lowry Hill East, and Uptown.

This multidisciplinary arts project spanned the month of July, 2021 included music and spoken word performances, primarily by Twin Cities women artists, live on an outdoor stage. Happening concurrently during these performances, the Street Art Series featured professional Twin Cities painters and muralists to paint allocated empty wall space.

The LynLake Street Art series occurred on August 7 and 8, 2021. The dates differed from the ones originally stated in the application in effort to avoid conflict with an event held by Twin Cities Pride. Unfortunately, as a result, the band Kiss the Tiger was unavailable to perform on the new dates. With essential support from the BOLD grant, LynLake Street Art Series was a success. Over 1,000 people attended the free 2-day event, which featured live mural painting across the neighborhood and outdoor performances constructed by the Jungle. The series featured over 70 muralists and 3 pairs of writers and musicians, creating works in response to each other.

RRWG was created in 2019 for under-produced artists interested in re-engaging with playwriting through audio-focused storytelling, breaking away from traditional forms of visual storytelling. The RRWG residency is free of charge, and starting with the second cohort The Parsnip Ship intends to pay each member an honorarium. The RRWG is the first writers group in the theater industry specifically dedicated to developing and commissioning plays for audio. The grant will support the RRWG Play Festival comprising four new audio plays individually written by the RRWG.

Project update: “The Parsnip Ship pivoted its Radio Roots program for FY23 from a writer's group to a Residency for an early career writer that identifies as: BIPOC, Queer, Trans/Non-Binary, or Female+. This residency will teach and guide a playwright through writing for audio theater via intimate and individual dramaturgical support and commission of a short audio play. The Radio Roots Residency runs over a course of six-months and will be led by The Parsnip Ship's Associate Artistic Director, Al Parker, and Librarian and Dramaturg, Gabriella Steinberg. Currently, the residency includes a retreat outside of NYC for the Radio Roots Fellow and the Radio Roots Dramaturgs and Facilitators.”

Partially supported by the BOLD grant, “the residency culminates in a commissioned play that will be performed and recorded as a special Parsnip episode on June 12, 2023 at The Mark O'Donnell Theater at The Entertainment Fund Center in Downtown Brooklyn."

By Colette Robert presented by New Georges Theater and The Movement Theatre Company

The Cotillion is experienced as a black debutante ball in a large American city in real time. Guided by The Emcee and The Club’s esteemed Madam President, as well as three singers and a trove of ingeniously stylish songs, we follow six well-to-do black girls on the night of their Coming Out. In the process, the play -- with its cast of eleven black women -- explores respectability politics in the black community and the history and language of “presenting” black female bodies. Sadly, the project has been postponed due to COVID 19. Funding has been held for FY 21 in agreement with the theater until the workshop can be continued.

Progress update: Postponed till later

Artists reported that the Cotillion had to postpone the production due to COVID and scheduling conflicts with the creative team. For their March workshop, playwright/director Colette Robert and choreographer nicHi douglas chose to focus on developing movement and collaborative vocabulary for the piece. The Cotillion will be produced by New Georges and The Movement Theatre Company in the Mezzanine Theatre at the ART/New York Theatres from May 3 to 27, 2023, following 4 weeks of rehearsal and production development in residence in the Mezzanine Theatre, where the production will take place. Artists are extremely excited to see The Cotillion come to fruition next year, at last. The early support of BOLD Ventures has been an anchor for the project throughout its disrupted journey toward production The artist would like to express gratitude for the Foundation’s generosity.

The Nut, the Hermit, the Crow and the Monk, by Rhianna Yazzi, is a Native, self-help, hero’s journey, with hints of Alice in Wonderland and the Odyssey told through an indigenous dramaturgical structure. The heroes are a brother and sister who are trying their best to not become their parents. They are two generations away from the Indian boarding school era and the first ones in their family not to learn their Native language and ceremony. The play goes inside the psychology of alcoholism and historical trauma. It even finds dignity in the fall and rise of a family due to its members’ neurosis and traumas. It is being developed for performance with the First Peoples Fund’s Rolling Rez Bus that drives all over Pine Ridge and other Native specific communities bringing arts and even banking to very rural areas.

Progress update: The project is being workshopped this coming season.

By Paula Lazaro at Woolly Mammoth Theater, Washington DC

Scheduled world premiere by and starring a Latinx artist and directed by a Latinx director. Artistic Director Maria Goyanes committed to showcasing the work of writers left out of the theater’s history, and this play challenging audiences to face the ramifications of sexual abuse in the Latinx community promises to be unforgettable. Sadly, the production is postponed due to COVID.

Progress update: Postponed till later

“The BOLD Ventures grant helped Woolly bring Paola Lázaro’s There’s Always The Hudson to the stage.” While the project had been postponed from 2020 to 2022, artists are grateful that the entire team was able to return, including director Jess McLeod. The production ran from May 9 to June 5, 2022, bringing a Latinx voice to the Woolly stage. “Paola spent the pandemic break creating deeper and clearer storyline arcs for many of the characters,” shifting them not only in terms of the plot but also in how the character could “play to the strengths of the actor.”

As the play quite explicitly deals with disturbing and uneasy topics such as sexual abuse, Woolly’s staff was dedicated to mitigate potential harm that could be done to the audience through content warning and transparency. “Post-show talkbacks were facilitated by sex educator Justyn Hintze, whose trauma informed proactive made her the ideal conversation leader for the challenging material about sexual abuse in the play.”

Woolly will “continue to build up their audience relationships and allow plays like Paola’s to reach more people.” This was an extremely rewarding process, and, as critic John Stoltenberg concluded in his review, the production was “a heart-rending journey that is astonishingly entertaining, deeply moving, and a profoundly important contribution to the canon of truthtelling theater.”

WAIL is a ritual theater performance, co-created by five different groupings of community members/stakeholders within Houston and Sugarland, Texas, to be held at Bullhead Camp Cemetery--the burial site of 95 Black persons who died at the convict leasing camp between 1897-1907. The performance itself is informed by the funerary traditions of Blacks in the Antebellum South, the Dagara of Burkina Faso, the Yoruba of Nigeria, and Haitian Vodou. The outside, community accessible free performance is to be devised over a series of months with the five groupings of community stakeholders and will be multi-disciplinary in form, merging visual film, song, dance, West African drumming, spiritual prayers and ritual, theatrical performance.

Progress update: Artists reported that WAIL’s first iteration has been completed. This first iteration premiered in October-November, 2021, with community members performing in a community-based ritual that involved art and history. Their performance was included as part of a final film that acted as the documentary of the artistic process. Artists are excited to share that a new exhibition of the film project with an adjoining in-person, site-specific performance will take place in Winter/Spring 2023.

This project is an immersive theatre piece about immigrant rights with an advocacy engagement strategy. The first part of the project is “The Grimmigration Play” by Liz Morgan, which is a short adaptation of Cinderella with a twist. In the play, Cinderella finds her way to the American Palace ball but after staying past midnight, she ends up losing her status, undocumented and trapped in place where she has no rights. Ultimately, the piece will be performed on a ferry back from the Statue of Liberty. After the play, the audience is invited to join the actor-facilitators for a larger festival of magical interactive events co-dream art and policy that would redefine the idea of sanctuary and liberty. The grant is supporting a developmental workshop production at a small New York venue.

Progress update: Artists plan to do a public workshop in September, 2022. The fully realized version may not come to fruition as artists are trying to move carefully through COVID.