Virginia Grise writes plays that are set in bars without windows, barrio rooftops, and lesbian bedrooms. Her published work includes Your Healing is Killing Me (Plays Inverse Press), blu (Yale University Press), The Panza Monologues co-written with Irma Mayorga (University of Texas Press) and an edited volume of Zapatista communiqués titled Conversations with Don Durito (Autonomedia Press). Virginia is a recipient of the Yale Drama Award, Whiting Writers’ Award, the Princess Grace Award, and the Playwrights’ Center’s Jerome Fellowship. In addition to plays, she has created a body of work that is interdisciplinary and includes multimedia performance, dance theater, performance installations, guerilla theater, site specific interventions, and community gatherings. virginiagrise.com
Alexis Macnab is a multi-disciplinary director and deviser whose works have been produced internationally and across the U.S. Macnab brings her experience in environmental and site-responsive performance to this collaboration with Virginia Grise and CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP). Other site-specific projects include her company, Chamber Shakespeare, bringing intimate adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays into people’s homes. At Automata, Macnab has curated multiple interactive art events which brought together artists across media to engage with L.A.’s Chinatown and Downtown neighborhoods. Macnab recently directed the world premiere of Amanda Jane Shank’s The Fasting Girls, using Bunraku-style puppetry, in San Francisco. Whether inside or outside a theater, Macnab’s work explores interdisciplinary collaboration, ensemble creation, and audience agency. Her work has received support from The Jim Henson Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, the Automata Residency Program, Theatre Bay Area, HERE Arts Center, chashama arts, CNP, and the City of Santa Monica.
Tanya Orellana designs performance spaces for Theater, Dance, Opera, and Puppetry. She is a core member of the award-winning ensemble Campo Santo for the past 10 years, participating in their intimate New Work Process, conceptualizing and designing sets alongside the writing process. She received her MFA in Scenic Design from CalArts and is the 2016 recipient of the Princess Grace Fabergé Theatre Award. Her design work on Angels in America was presented in the US Emerging Designers Exhibit at the Prague Quadrennial 2019. Her work has been seen in Cuba, Mexico, Scotland, and across the USA.