Taylor Talks with Nia Witherspoon on Tuesday 9 March 2021
Channel: HowlRound Theatre Commons
Date: 2021-03-10

HERE presents Taylor Talks: Episode 4 with Nia Witherspoon livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 9 March 2021 at 10 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 12 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 1 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).

Join HERE resident playwright Taylor Mac for a glimpse into the creative process and gain insight into exciting new multidisciplinary work coming out of the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP). Taylor’s guests, who include Gisela Cardenas, Misha Chowdhury, Baba Israel, Grace Galu, and Nia Witherspoon, span the disciplines of theatre, music, dance, opera, media arts, and more. They speak candidly about their experiences creating fresh, innovative performances in the midst of a global pandemic and racial reckoning.

Nia Ostrow Witherspoon is a black queer NAACP-nominated theatre-maker, vocalist/composer, and cultural worker investigating the metaphysics of black liberation, desire, and diaspora. Witherspoon is currently the Playwright-in-Residence at University of Massachusetts (Amherst), an AIR at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and was a 2017-18 2050 Playwriting/Directing Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop. Her award-winning work has been featured by JACK, Playwright’s Realm, BRIC, HERE, National Black Theatre, BAAD, Movement Research, BAX, Dixon Place, Painted Bride, 651 Arts, and elsewhere. As a performer, Witherspoon appeared in Sharon Bridgforth’s River See (Links Hall), and in Cherríe Moraga’s La Semilla Caminante/The Traveling Seed (Intersection for the Arts). She holds a B.A. from Smith College and a PhD from Stanford University in Theatre and Performance Studies, and has held tenure-track professorships at Florida State University and Arizona State University. Nia has recently been awarded a two-year Jerome Foundation Artist Fellowship.

Taylor Mac (who uses “judy” – lowercase sic – as a gender pronoun) is a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director and producer. Plays include: Gary, A Sequel to Titus Andronicus (Broadway), A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (shown in its 24-hour entirety at St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Curran Theater, the Ace Theater, the Melbourne Festival, upcoming at the Berliner Festspiele), Hir (Magic Theater, Playwrights Horizon, Steppenwolf and over sixty professional productions), The Walk Across America for Mother Earth (La Mama with the Talking Band), The Lily’s Revenge (HERE, Magic Theater, American Repertory Theater), The Young Ladies Of (HERE, Playmakers Repertory, Manchester’s Library Theater), Red Tide Blooming (PS 122), and The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac (highlights include: The Public Theater, The Sydney Opera House, and Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Taylor is the resident playwright at HERE as part of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s National Playwright Residency Program administered in partnership with HowlRound.
https://howlround.com/happenings/livestreaming-conversation-taylor-talks-here-resident-artists-talk-art-process-taylor-0