Petri Projects
Come to the 2025 Petri Potluck: June 7 at 4 PM!
Join us for the second annual Petri Potluck on Saturday, June 7, at 4 PM to get a taste of new work by our 24-25 Petri artists—Ato Blankson-Wood, Amyra Léon, Leo Lion, Libby King, Curtis Holland, and Eric Emauni—in the sun-filled new Bushwick Starr space! They will share 10-minute excerpts of their projects, and then we’ll spill out onto the street for some tamales, popsicles, and cold drinks. Don’t wait to get your tickets—capacity is limited!
About Petri Projects
Launched in 2017, Petri Projects seek to support the development of new work by artists in the TEAM community and to decentralize project leadership within the organization. The program’s guiding values are artist autonomy; unique support for early-stage work; budget transparency and education; and anti-oppression (including anti-racism). Petri provides funding, rehearsal space, and producing support to seedlings of new theatrical work. Past Petri Projects have gone on to full production at Ars Nova, BAM, the Bushwick Starr, and more.
Current Petri Cycle
UNTITLED DIONYSUS PROJECT, led by Ato Blankson-Wood
The Untitled Dionysus Project reimagines Euripides’ The Bacchae as a ritual of liberation, using Dionysus as a symbol of divine retribution against white supremacist systems. Developed in response to the racial reckoning of 2020, it explores how oppression afflicts the mind, soul, and body, and seeks to exorcise these forces through theory, spiritual ritual, and performance. The piece aims to process rage and envision healing through immersive, transformative theatrical experience.
SWEET CANAAN, LED BY ERIC EMAUNI
Inspired by true events, Sweet Canaan explores the legacy of Grace Olivier, a Black woman who acquired land in 1934 Arkansas and used it to empower her family. Drawing on archival research and personal connection to the land, this new musical examines and reclaims suppressed histories of Black ownership, autonomy, and resilience while challenging ongoing erasure of Black American narratives.
THE GARAGE, LED BY CURTIS HOLLAND
An exploration of tap dance as the main form of storytelling, communication, and expression, in the story of three tap dancers consecutively warming up for an eight-show week at a Broadway show.
MOM DANCE PRACTICE, LED BY LIBBY KING
Co-created by Amber Gray, Gaby Hoffman and myself, with videography by Adam Fontana, Mom Dance Practice is a movement-based meditation on the art of being a mom. I am interested in capturing quotidian and abstract movements of our MOM bodies both zoomed in and out and both indoors and outside. Through movement, interaction with nature and monologue, we explore the Holiness and mundanity of Mothering, all in pursuit of the question: “How do we give the daily dance of motherhood a voice?”
BLOOD and THIRST, LED BY AMYRA LEÓN
BLOOD AND THIRST is a poetic symphony written through the lens of León’s personal experience with foster care, chronic illness and institutional racism – chronicling a harrowing experience with endometriosis. This piece aims to explore the nuance and chaos of the capitalist systems that structure our society and the cycles of exploitation and bloodshed that stem from them.
TROUBLE FEATURE: a live horror RPG, LED BY LEO LION
A live show where a rotating cast of improv performers, actors, comedians, and drag artists create an original Horror Movie in real time. This experimental show format fuses improv and roleplaying game show elements to create a raucous, bawdy, spooky atmosphere where audiences never know what’s coming next, because the actors don’t either.
UNTITLED DIONYSUS PROJECT, led by Ato Blankson-Wood
The Untitled Dionysus Project reimagines Euripides’ The Bacchae as a ritual of liberation, using Dionysus as a symbol of divine retribution against white supremacist systems. Developed in response to the racial reckoning of 2020, it explores how oppression afflicts the mind, soul, and body, and seeks to exorcise these forces through theory, spiritual ritual, and performance. The piece aims to process rage and envision healing through immersive, transformative theatrical experience.
SWEET CANAAN, LED BY ERIC EMAUNI
Inspired by true events, Sweet Canaan explores the legacy of Grace Olivier, a Black woman who acquired land in 1934 Arkansas and used it to empower her family. Drawing on archival research and personal connection to the land, this new musical examines and reclaims suppressed histories of Black ownership, autonomy, and resilience while challenging ongoing erasure of Black American narratives.
THE GARAGE, LED BY CURTIS HOLLAND
An exploration of tap dance as the main form of storytelling, communication, and expression, in the story of three tap dancers consecutively warming up for an eight-show week at a Broadway show.
MOM DANCE PRACTICE, LED BY LIBBY KING
Co-created by Amber Gray, Gaby Hoffman and myself, with videography by Adam Fontana, Mom Dance Practice is a movement-based meditation on the art of being a mom. I am interested in capturing quotidian and abstract movements of our MOM bodies both zoomed in and out and both indoors and outside. Through movement, interaction with nature and monologue, we explore the Holiness and mundanity of Mothering, all in pursuit of the question: “How do we give the daily dance of motherhood a voice?”
BLOOD and THIRST, LED BY AMYRA LEÓN
BLOOD AND THIRST is a poetic symphony written through the lens of León’s personal experience with chronic illness and institutional racism – chronicling a harrowing experience with endometriosis. This piece aims to explore the nuance and chaos of the capitalist systems that structure our society and the cycles of exploitation and bloodshed that stem from them.
TROUBLE FEATURE: a live horror RPG, LED BY LEO LION
A live show where a rotating cast of improv performers, actors, comedians, and drag artists create an original Horror Movie in real time. This experimental show format fuses improv and roleplaying game show elements to create a raucous, bawdy, spooky atmosphere where audiences never know what’s coming next, because the actors don’t either.
Support for the Petri Projects Program is provided by the Axe-Houghton Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
P_T _ND V_NN_ (pat and vanna) photos by Ben Holbrook
QUINCE photos by Catharine Krebs