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Artistic team

Sylvia Milo
(Project Creator, Writer, Director, Actress)

An award-winning theatre artist, writer, director and actress, based in New York City. Originally from Poland, she was 2018 Fellow at the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy and was awarded that year’s Fellowship at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York.
Milo wrote, starred in, and self-produced her solo play, The Other Mozart, about the forgotten, genius sister of Amadeus Mozart. The play had a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run at HERE Arts Center, earning Drama Desk and Off Broadway Alliance nominations, and 8 New York Innovative Theatre (NYIT) nominations, including Outstanding Full Length Script. The Other Mozart won two NYIT Awards, including Outstanding Solo Performance by Milo.
The play has had over 300 performances to date, including a run in London at St. James Theatre, a run in Munich at the Pasinger Fabrik, and in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Cultural Center. It was presented in Vienna at the Mozarthaus Vienna (the “Figarohaus”, Wolfgang’s home on Domgasse) and in Salzburg at the invitation of the Mozarteum Foundation (inside the Mozarts’ Wohnhaus apartment). The play inspired the creation of an annual symposium on Maria Anna Mozart at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, and was performed as part of its first edition.
In the US, Milo performed the play at venues including: Shea’s Performing Arts Center (Buffalo), Kravis Center (Palm Beach), Tobin Center (San Antonio, TX), The Academy of Music (Northampton, MA), The Strand Theatre (Shreveport, LA), The Grand 1894 Opera House (Galveston, TX), Rubicon Theatre (Ventura, CA), MATCH (Houston, TX), at the Fermilab (Batavia, IL), Eisemann Center (Richardson, TX), Cherry Lane Theatre (NYC), Players Theatre (NYC), Norton Center For The Arts (Danville, KY), at the Oklahoma Contemporary (Oklahoma City), at Chamber Music Northwest (Portland, OR), and at Balboa Theatre (San Diego).
The play has also been presented at universities, where Sylvia gave lectures to students about creating their own plays. These included: University of the South (Sewanee, TN), Washington & Lee University (Lexington, VA), University of Florida (Gainesville, FL), NC State University (Raleigh, NC), University of Utah (Salt Lake City), Michigan State University (East Lansing), Southern Illinois University (Edwardsville), University of Arkansas (Fayetteville), University at Albany (Albany, NY) and at the University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada).
In 2016, Milo was commissioned by The Guardian to write an article about The Other Mozart and its cultural impact. The play continues to be presented internationally, performed by Milo and four other actresses (whom she trained), in four languages (English, French, German and Portuguese), and it returns each year for a run at the Players Theatre in NYC.
Sylvia also created the character of Bob Dylan in the OBIE Award-winning The West Village Fragments by Peculiar Works, and as a member of the Bats at the Flea Theater she co-wrote and starred in Seating Arrangements, directed by Eric Pold of Gob Squad. She adapted and directed an all-female version of Hamlet and starred as Ophelia in The Ophelia Landscape at the Mark Morris Center. She has performed at La Mama, Ontological-Hysteric, Theatre For the New City, Dixon Place, Cherry Lane, The Ohio Theatre and at MoMA.
Sylvia is also a violinist (acoustic and electric violins – Irving Plaza, Knitting Factory, CBGB’s, Joe’s Pub) and has composed scores for dance and theater (Merce Cunningham Studio, La Mama). She is a graduate of New York University, with extensive training at the Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg Theatre Institutes, and at The Grotowski Institute in Poland.

www.sylviamilo.com

Nathan Davis
(Co-creator, Composer, Sound Designer, Performer)

Nathan Davis “writes music that deals deftly and poetically with timbre and sonority,” according to the NYTimes. His ballet/opera Hagoromo premiered at BAM Next Wave Festival in a production from American Opera Projects, performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) with dancers Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto. His work also includes premieres at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, PS122, the Park Avenue Armory, The Kitchen, and Roulette; as well as at festivals in Germany, Austria, Australia, Finland, Holland, Poland, and Cuba; and Portrait concerts at both the Mostly Mozart Festival and Spoleto Festival USA. Nathan has received commissions from ICE, Calder Quartet, Yarn/Wire, La Jolla Symphony Chorus, Steven Schick, Claire Chase, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Miller Theatre, and the Ojai Festival. He has received awards from Meet the Composer, Fromm Foundation at Harvard, Copland Fund, Jerome Foundation, American Music Center, MATA, ASCAP, and a residency fellowship at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis (France). He and Phyllis Chen won an NY Innovative Theater Award for their score to Sylvia Milo’s play The Other Mozart, for which Davis also received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Sound Design. CDs include “On the Nature of Thingness” (winner of 2016 Independent Music Award for Best Contemporary Classical Album), “The Other Mozart”, and “The Bright and Hollow Sky”. As a percussionist, Nathan is a member of ICE, and has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Seattle Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, and the Nagoya Philharmonic. He holds degrees from Yale and Rice.

www.nathandavis.com

Janice Orlandi  (Movement Director)

A movement specialist in period styles, historic dance, psychophysical techniques, character transformation and physical dramaturgy. Trained and co-taught with Loyd Williamson and Richard Schechner. Recent directing credits include: Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies (Five Stars at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, St. James Studio London; Theater Row, Laurie Beechman, 59E59), Garbo Dreams (Red Room NYC). Movement Director: The Contrast (Mirror Repertory Company St Clements), An Ideal Husband and Tartuffe (Sonnet Repertory NYC). A certified teacher of Michael Chekhov and Williamson Technique. Period style specialist of Elizabethan and Restoration, Baroque, Regency, Victorian, Edwardian, 1920’s-1970’s. Artistic director at Actors Movement Studio NYC, faculty at TISCH School of the Arts, Atlantic Theater Company, Tom Todoroff Conservatory, University of the Arts Philadelphia, Rutgers University, New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. Her work as an educator, director, actress and movement coach has been seen at Williamstown Theater Festival, State Theater School Denmark, Lindenberg Center for Culture Netherlands, Princeton Repertory Shakespeare Festival, Classic Stage Company, Circle Rep Lab. Founding Member of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot. Featured in BACKSTAGE and the AMERICAN THEATER MAGAZINE on current “Trends in Movement Training” in theater. Member of SAG/AFTRA, AEA, SSDC.

www.actorsmovementstudio.com

Natalie Lomonte (Choreographer)

Natalie Lomonte is a Choreographer, Director, Performer and Teacher in NYC.  As a dancer, she collaborated to create work and toured extensively with Momix, Pilobolus, The Chase Brock Experience and Parsons Dance. She has performed on national television in the U.S., Europe and Japan and danced with Liza Minnelli in the movie Sex And The City 2. Natalie was in the original Broadway cast of Spiderman:Turn Off the Dark, where she eventually served as the Dance Captain and Dance Supervisor. In 2012 Natalie became the Movement Director for One Year Lease Theater Company and an Adjunct Professor of Dance at Fordham University. She choreographs for theater, dance, film, live events and has led creative movement workshops at Harvard University, Fordham University, Vassar College, PACE University, and Marymount Manhattan College, where she now sits on the Dance Department Advisory Board. Her choreography has been honored by the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Edinburgh Arts Festival & such publications as the New York Times. In 2015, Natalie was honored to premiere two original pieces Within (a work commissioned by Parsons Dance for the Joyce Theater) and Common Heart (a piece commissioned for the Ailey/Fordham BFA Fall Concert). That year she was also Assistant Stage Director and Choreographer for the live-broadcast stadium show, 44th National Day Abu Dhabi. In 2016 Natalie served as Assistant Choreographer to Mia Michaels, creating the brand new New York Spectacular starring the Radio City Rockettes. She was the guest choreographer for the 2017 Whitney Houston Biennial, was awarded a grant by The Ailey Foundation’s New Directions Choreography Lab, and choreographed an original play, BALLS, which had a successful world premiere in Houston before moving Off-Broadway in 2018. That year, Natalie also performed with PILOBOLUS at the Natural History Museum in NYC for Earth Day and the historic Apollo Theater for the launch of Moving On. She then spent the second half of the year in Japan, where she assisted David Parsons in choreographing an original musical, A Knights’ Tale, written and directed by John Caird.  In celebration of the hundreds of female-identifying artists showcased in the 2019 Every Woman Biennial (La Mama Galleria, NYC), Natalie created the I Wanna Dance With Somebody flash mob – a love letter to Whitney Houston, NYC and the divine feminine. She premiered her latest commission, Sentiments Of The Shooting Stars, in the 2019 Ailey/Fordham BFA Fall Concert (Ailey Citigroup Theater).  In the last year, Natalie’s choreographic projects have spanned genres, including an original music video, Goddess Logic (artist: Stephanie Carlin), Iron & Coal (Gerald W. Lynch Theater/ Prototype Opera Festival), Rise From Our Hearts (The Soap Gallery, visual artist: Aaron Jackendoff, musician: Kasey Yale), Boys Will Be Boys (The Pond Theater Co./ 59e59 Theaters), Pieces of the Moon arial workshops & production (OYL Theater Co/ The Muse Brooklyn/ Stages Repertory Theatre).  Currently, Natalie is thrilled to be working on a new musical, Estella: A Christmas Carol (creation & music by Paul Gordon, written and directed by John Caird).

Joanna Kotze (Additional movement)

Joanna Kotze is a Brooklyn-based dancer, choreographer and teacher. She was awarded the 2013 “Bessie” Award for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer and has received support from the Jerome, Mertz-Gilmore, and Harkness Foundations, NYFA BUILD, New Music USA, Brooklyn Arts Council, Yellowhouse, and Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grants. Her choreography has been presented at the Wexner Center, Velocity, National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Baryshnikov Arts Center, American Dance Institute, Bard College, Danspace Project, New York Live Arts, Jacob’s Pillow, Dance New Amsterdam, Movement Research at Judson Church, and other venues and galleries. Joanna has created new works on Toronto Dance Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury (Salt Lake City), Zenon Dance (Minneapolis), the James Sewell Ballet (Minneapolis) and Gibney Dance Company (NYC). She has had residencies at The Bogliasco Foundation (Italy), The Camargo Foundation (France), Milvus Artistic Research Center (Sweden), Jacob’s Pillow, Sedona Arts Center, Djerassi, Marble House, The Yard, Bennington College, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Movement Research, 92nd Street Y, LMCC, Gibney Dance Center, and Mt. Tremper Arts. Joanna danced with Wally Cardona from 2000-2010 and again in 2018. She currently dances for Kimberly Bartosik and Kota Yamazaki, and has worked with Stacy Spence, Netta Yerushalmy, Sam Kim, Sarah Skaggs, Christopher Williams, the Metropolitan Opera ballet, Daniel Charon, Nina Winthrop and others. Joanna is on faculty at Movement Research and has taught at Barnard College, NYU’s Tisch, The New School, Long Island University, Southern Utah University, Ohio University, Miami University, Salt Dance Fest and the American Dance Festival. She is originally from South Africa and has a BA in Architecture from Miami University.

Jess Applebaum (Dramaturg)

Jess Applebaum is a dramaturg and public scholar whose practice is rooted in contemporary performance. As a dramaturg she works collaboratively with performance makers, academics, and activists to develop and facilitate creative processes. Her artistic relationships include directors Ashley Tata, Anna Brenner, and Simón Hanukai; choreographer Jody Oberfelder; and theater ensembles One Year Lease Theater Company and Kyoung’s Pacific. Jess is currently developing Edge Effect Media Group, a think-and-do tank that designs hybrid performances, across media, for the public good, with creative director and scenographer Nic Benaceraff. She holds both an MA in Performance Studies from NYU and an MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University. She is also pursuing her PhD at CUNY Grad Center’s Theater and Performance Program. Her scholarship focuses on the labor of dramaturgy: pushing the perceived boundaries of how research is performed and applied in both creative and academic work.  I Am the Utterance of My Name is Jess’s second collaboration with Nathan and Sylvia.

http://www.jessapplebaum.com

 

Magdalena Dąbrowska  (Costume Design)  

A versatile Polish designer whose projects include fashion, theatrical costumes and set designs, Magdalena is a graduate of Łazarski University in Warsaw and of the Cracow School of Art and Fashion Design. Her designs have been finalists at such prestigious competitions as Oskary Mody, OFF Fashion, and Złota Nitka. She participated in joint shows organized during the International Millinery Competition in France. She designed costumes for the plays, Taksówka, Spacerowicz and Ukryj Mnie w Gałęziach Drzew directed by Igor Gorzkowski for Studio Teatralne KOŁO. She also designed sets and costumes for Obchód Teatru, Czyli Kim Jest Wojciech B.? at the National Theatre of Poland and for the opera, Hamlet, at the Teatr Wielki in Poznan, Poland.  She also runs INNI – a fashion and costume design studio.

 

Monica Duncan (Projection Design)

Monica Duncan is a video and performance artist. Her time-based work investigates the nature of visual perception, audience-performer relations and queer potentiality through camouflage, stillness and collective image-making. Duncan’s video and performance work has been exhibited at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Hebbel am Ufer HAU1, zeitraumexit, Komuna//Warszawa, The Kitchen, Roulette, Parkhaus Projects, Atlanta Contemporary, Hallwalls, La Casa Encendida, ZKM, LACMA, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, amongst others. She has been a visiting artist at the Atlanta College of Art, Georgia State University, Hunter College, Signal Culture, Experimental Television Center, Scena Robocza (Poznań), PACT Zollverein and at the Institute of Electronic Arts in which she and her collaborator Senem Pirler developed and live-streamed their audiovisual performance Surface Connection. Duncan received her MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego and while on a D.A.A.D fellowship her MA in Choreography and Performance at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen. Duncan joined the faculty of the Department of Music, Multimedia, Theatre & Dance at Lehman College in Fall 2019.

Nicholas Houfek (Lighting Design)

Nicholas Houfek is a NYC based Lighting Designer working in Music, Dance, and Theater. Selected projects include: Claire Chase’s Density Project (The Kitchen,) International Contemporary Ensemble, Natalie Merchant, Maya Beiser, Ojai Music Festival, Silk Road Ensemble, Tyshawn Sorey’s Perle Noire directed by Peter Sellars, Marc Neikrug’s A Song by Mahler, Anohni’s She Who Saw Beautiful Things at The Kitchen, Suzanne Farrin’s La Dolce Morte at the Metropolitan Museum of Art directed by Doug Fitch, George Lewis’ Soundlines featuring Steve Schick and directed by Jim Findlay (Skirball,) Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s In The Light of Air, Ash Fure’s The Force of Things (Mostly Mozart,) The 39 Steps (Olney Theatre Center). In addition to traditional lighting for live performance Mr. Houfek has been developing a light organ software interface called the ColorSynth that acts as an intermediate between a performer and their lighting. Additionally, Mr. Houfek has designed for the Martha Graham Dance Company, Cedar Lake Contemporary Dance, and Ian Spencer Bell Dance; is an ensemble member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, a member USA829, and a graduate of Boston University.