We at the TEAM would like to extend our care and love to all who are being impacted by the spread of COVID-19. We are in awe of the generosity and resilience that our theatrical community has displayed during this time. There have been many resources shared and wondrous creativity displayed across social platforms. Below, we have shared some resources that might be beneficial to all of you in our community.
PAAL COVID Emergency Fund for Artists with Families: PAAL is creating an emergency fund to help artists with families who are suddenly unemployed. Consider donating to this organization and helping parent artists. Also, if you’re home with young children, PAAL is offering virtual dance classes and storytimes, led by theatre artists. Find out more here.
Actors Fund Emergency Assistance: The Entertainment Assistance Program functions as an entryway and guide through The Fund’s many programs when you’re facing personal or work-related problems.
No Neighbors in Need NYC: This is a quick guide for New Yorkers to contribute to the fight against the Coronavirus, and to help neighbors in need.
Arts and Culture Leaders of Color Emergency Fund: The Arts Administrators of Color Network is offering funds for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) artists and administrators who have been impacted by COVID19 nationally.
The Indie Theater Fund COVID19 Emergency Grant: The Indie Theater Fund is offering $500 rapid relief grants to indie theater companies and artists in need due to closings around COVID19.
COVID19 Freelance Artist Resources: This is a crowd-sourced shared Google Doc with resources on preparation, emergency funding, health, and mental health resources and more.
Artist Relief Tree: This fund is set up to support artists, particularly freelance artists who have been impacted by the global health crisis. If you have the means, consider donating.
To help curb your art needs in the age of social-distancing, TEAM cofounder Jessica Almasy alongside artistic badasses Lauren Miller (The Bushwick Starr) + Theresa Buchheister (The Brick) cocurate + present:
OUT OF AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION
an avant-garde micro-festival LIVE + online of quick and dirty-fascinating work responding to and from the places and people with whom we select to shelter, on a wildly inclusive and nonhierarchical platform. These secret sho’s happen Sunday evenings at 8pm EST via the platform twitch. Each Sunday pour yourself a drink, roll up to your screen + hang with them before + after the sho for music, visuals + live chat in The Lobby. You can also follow them on Instagram and learn more about this incredible group of artists at @outofcation.
Check out these pictures from work developing our Petri Project: P_T _ND V_NN_ (pat and vanna) which disrupted the narrative of America’s game and included characters Simone deBeauvoir, Pat Sajak, and Vanna White. We had a very small open rehearsal on Sunday and had a rich conversation on identity, partnership, gender roles and some of our favorite game shows. We will miss having Jess, Sanaz, Dito, Chad, Libby (And Jules) in the building.
We have two exciting workshops to catch this January. On January 23rd, Producing Director Alexandra Lalonde and Di Glazer will discuss contracts and collaboration agreements in our Self-Producing for Artists & Ensembles.
The TEAM’s signature workshop Devising Within a Democracy will be back for a 2-day workshop on January 24th and January 25th, led by TEAM company members Rachel Chavkin and Libby King.
The TEAM and our extended family of artists invite you to celebrate 15 years of groundbreaking work exploring the funny, messy, and mythic experience of being American.
The TEAM has 5 exciting workshops that you can register. This fall, our “Devising Within a Democracy” workshop returns and will be taught by TEAM member Libby King and collaborator Zhailon Levingston. Learn about the TEAM’s unique collaborative writing process.
We also have 4 “Self-Producing for Artists & Ensembles”. In this series, TEAM Producing Director Alexandra Lalonde and an industry guest will review topics on the business side of making and sustaining your work.
It’s been a moment since we last performed our hit-musical Mission Drift. However, we were thrilled to see that The Guardian named it one of the 50 best theatre shows in the 21st century. Check it out (and the other works that made the list) here.
The TEAM is seeking a part-time Associate Producer to work in partnership with the Producing Director to strategically advance the company’s mission to create new work about the experience of living in America today, and to tour that work nationally and internationally.
June 22:Devising Within A Democracy with Artistic Director Rachel Chavkin 12pm-4pm, 520 8th Avenue, Manhattan All the good stuff will be covered, including suggestions to move from intellectual or thematic ideas to dynamic theatrical moments, ways to generate material through different assignments, cultivating an ensemble bond and navigating emotional waters amidst a process, writing on your feet, strategies for editing as a group, and bridging into the editing and synthesizing process.
Strong and thoughtful… (ensemble and music) combine to create an ambiance, a taste of and for Scotland and Scottishness that likely to be matched only by Forfar bridies, meat pies and very buttery shortbread. Newsweek
Anything That Gives Off Light is both an entertainment and a thought piece that focuses on whether we are stuck in our histories, or whether we can cast off the constrictive ties and reinvent new and better histories for ourselves in the modern world. Front Row Center
[A] pugnacious, liquor-soaked musical… The songwriting duo the Bengsons composed the eclectic array of tunes—some poppy, some folksy, all good… A rich seam of aching observations about land and soil and property. New Yorker
When I first saw it in 2016…I found the magical adventure form of the show where we zip between Scotland and Appalachia “a fitting way to explore [something] as complex a morass as identity. Nothing is fixed. Ideas morph with time and so too must our storytelling.” With songs by the Bengsons, it is a foot-stomping journey where the characters go beyond that surface layer of who they are and start peeling back their own sense of where they come from and what home is in a smart, probing, and unique way. Recommended by Exeunt NYC
Interviews and First-person accounts
Jess Almasy + Reuben Joseph talk devising, identity, and the humanity on the other side of the aisle. [READ]
Jess Almasy writes about Sex, Politics, and Regional Control and the challenges of bringing Anything That Gives Off Light to the stage. [READ]
Davey Anderson talks to Broadway World about the show [LISTEN]
Diep Tran and Jose Solís talk about their impressions of Anything That Gives Off Light at Joe’s Pub onToken Theatre Friends. [WATCH]
Also, our friend Josh Groban stopped by:
Read what press had to say about Anything That Gives Off Light‘s 2016 Premiere here.
In the rehearsal room of Anything That Gives Off Light (Feb 2018)
