About
Lemons is a workshop play in development that explores how social media affects our individual and collective relationship to grief. The play centers on an obsession with fitness guru Amanda Kloots' instagram account. Amanda lost her husband, Broadway performer Nick Cordero, to COVID in 2020; the protagonist had recently lost her Mom to cancer. Lemons weaves together personal narrative and cultural criticism as the protagonist absorbs Amanda's public grief in the context of her private one.
Lemons is an examination of female strength, both physical and emotional, as defined by the capitalist patriarchy. Exploring the intersection of wellness culture/self-care, which is overwhelmingly marketed to women, and capitalism, Lemons looks at how these contradictions have come to inform our relationship to grief, our identities, our bodies, and each other. Dance and movement at times draw out, at times provide counterpoint to the rhythm of the first person narrative.
Team Bios
Sarah Todes (playwright/ creator/ ensemble) recent work includes: GAMP, a dark comedy pilot about two dysfunctional sisters who run a puppet show company, proud recipient of a NYFA MOME Womens Fund grant; Silvia and Lucetta in Franklin Stage Company's production of Two Gentlemen of Verona; Lifetime Supply at IRT; My Unfinished Girl at The Cell Theater; and the NEON NIGHTS performance series at The Carriage House in Stamford, NY. Sarah is also the founder of Puppetsburg, a contemporary puppet show company based in Brooklyn which recently received a rave review in the NYTimes, and Puppetsburgs nonprofit, HeartFelt, which brings Puppetsburg shows to underserved communities, most recently via the City Artist Corps grant. @gamptheseries / @neoncaviar / @puppetsburg / @todeyouso
Sarah Hughes (director/ creator) is a director, producer and parent based in NYC. She makes live performances of all kinds: new plays, VR pieces, devised work, virtual concerts, hybrid new media projects, and more. Recent collaborators include Julia May Jonas, MJ Kaufman, Julia Izumi, Pablo Helguera, Sunita Prasad, Eliza Bent, Zarina Shea, and Carl Holder, and her work has been programmed at The Bushwick Starr, Abrons Arts Center, and New Ohio, among others. As a producer she's developed pieces with artists & institutions such as Sibyl Kempson, MoMA, Half Straddle, Tribeca Film Festival, New York Theatre Workshop, and The New York Times. Sarah was a longtime company member with Elevator Repair Service, is an Affiliated Artist of New Georges and Target Margin Theater, and is an alum of the WP Theater Directors Lab, the ONeill National Directors Fellowship, Clubbed Thumb's Directing Fellowship, and The Civilians R&D Lab. She's taught at Dartmouth College & NYU, and created the role of Director of Artistic Programming at Theatre Row, where she conceived & led the Kitchen Sink Residency, a new-work development program for emerging performance companies. www.sarahcameronhughes.com
Marisa Caruso (ensemble) has performed with a variety of theater companies across New York State, including the Irish Classical Theatre Company, Road Less Traveled Productions, 4th Wall Productions and Theatre of Youth, as well as appearing in commercials, independent films and the occasional web series. She has managed the Torn Space Theater company for six years, in addition to producing independent live events in comedy and theater. She teaches workshops in improv for the NYSTEA youth theater conference, and for fun in the community. She has a BA in Theater Arts and Arts Administration from SUNY Fredonia.
David Gould (ensemble) is a performer living in Brooklyn. He's been a regular in New York's experimental theater scene for many years, with such collaborators as Katie Brook, Liza Birkenmeier, Sarah Hughes, Meghan Finn, Julia May-Jonas, KatieRose McLaughlin, and Jess Barbagallo. His work has been seen at LaMaMa, The Kitchen, The New Museum, The Signature Theater, Dixon Place, The Bushwick Starr, Abrons Arts Center, and The Ontological Incubator among others.
Keren Lugo (ensemble) Off Broadway: At The Wedding (LCT3), Romeo y Julieta (Radio Play, The Public Theatre), Privacy (The Public Theatre), Actually, Were F*cked (Cherry Lane Theatre), Two Mile Hollow (Womens Project). Regional: Girls, Scenes From Court Life (Yale Repertory Theater), Water by The Spoonful (Mark Taper Forum), Men on Boats (Baltimore Center Stage), Women of Padilla (Two River Theater), Henry V, Our Town (Chautauqua Theater Festival). TV: New Amsterdam (NBC), Orange is the New Black (Netflix), The Americans (FX). Education: MFA NYU Graduate Acting
Lemons is a workshop play in development that explores how social media affects our individual and collective relationship to grief. The play centers on an obsession with fitness guru Amanda Kloots' instagram account. Amanda lost her husband, Broadway performer Nick Cordero, to COVID in 2020; the protagonist had recently lost her Mom to cancer. Lemons weaves together personal narrative and cultural criticism as the protagonist absorbs Amanda's public grief in the context of her private one.
Lemons is an examination of female strength, both physical and emotional, as defined by the capitalist patriarchy. Exploring the intersection of wellness culture/self-care, which is overwhelmingly marketed to women, and capitalism, Lemons looks at how these contradictions have come to inform our relationship to grief, our identities, our bodies, and each other. Dance and movement at times draw out, at times provide counterpoint to the rhythm of the first person narrative.
Team Bios
Sarah Todes (playwright/ creator/ ensemble) recent work includes: GAMP, a dark comedy pilot about two dysfunctional sisters who run a puppet show company, proud recipient of a NYFA MOME Womens Fund grant; Silvia and Lucetta in Franklin Stage Company's production of Two Gentlemen of Verona; Lifetime Supply at IRT; My Unfinished Girl at The Cell Theater; and the NEON NIGHTS performance series at The Carriage House in Stamford, NY. Sarah is also the founder of Puppetsburg, a contemporary puppet show company based in Brooklyn which recently received a rave review in the NYTimes, and Puppetsburgs nonprofit, HeartFelt, which brings Puppetsburg shows to underserved communities, most recently via the City Artist Corps grant. @gamptheseries / @neoncaviar / @puppetsburg / @todeyouso
Sarah Hughes (director/ creator) is a director, producer and parent based in NYC. She makes live performances of all kinds: new plays, VR pieces, devised work, virtual concerts, hybrid new media projects, and more. Recent collaborators include Julia May Jonas, MJ Kaufman, Julia Izumi, Pablo Helguera, Sunita Prasad, Eliza Bent, Zarina Shea, and Carl Holder, and her work has been programmed at The Bushwick Starr, Abrons Arts Center, and New Ohio, among others. As a producer she's developed pieces with artists & institutions such as Sibyl Kempson, MoMA, Half Straddle, Tribeca Film Festival, New York Theatre Workshop, and The New York Times. Sarah was a longtime company member with Elevator Repair Service, is an Affiliated Artist of New Georges and Target Margin Theater, and is an alum of the WP Theater Directors Lab, the ONeill National Directors Fellowship, Clubbed Thumb's Directing Fellowship, and The Civilians R&D Lab. She's taught at Dartmouth College & NYU, and created the role of Director of Artistic Programming at Theatre Row, where she conceived & led the Kitchen Sink Residency, a new-work development program for emerging performance companies. www.sarahcameronhughes.com
Marisa Caruso (ensemble) has performed with a variety of theater companies across New York State, including the Irish Classical Theatre Company, Road Less Traveled Productions, 4th Wall Productions and Theatre of Youth, as well as appearing in commercials, independent films and the occasional web series. She has managed the Torn Space Theater company for six years, in addition to producing independent live events in comedy and theater. She teaches workshops in improv for the NYSTEA youth theater conference, and for fun in the community. She has a BA in Theater Arts and Arts Administration from SUNY Fredonia.
David Gould (ensemble) is a performer living in Brooklyn. He's been a regular in New York's experimental theater scene for many years, with such collaborators as Katie Brook, Liza Birkenmeier, Sarah Hughes, Meghan Finn, Julia May-Jonas, KatieRose McLaughlin, and Jess Barbagallo. His work has been seen at LaMaMa, The Kitchen, The New Museum, The Signature Theater, Dixon Place, The Bushwick Starr, Abrons Arts Center, and The Ontological Incubator among others.
Keren Lugo (ensemble) Off Broadway: At The Wedding (LCT3), Romeo y Julieta (Radio Play, The Public Theatre), Privacy (The Public Theatre), Actually, Were F*cked (Cherry Lane Theatre), Two Mile Hollow (Womens Project). Regional: Girls, Scenes From Court Life (Yale Repertory Theater), Water by The Spoonful (Mark Taper Forum), Men on Boats (Baltimore Center Stage), Women of Padilla (Two River Theater), Henry V, Our Town (Chautauqua Theater Festival). TV: New Amsterdam (NBC), Orange is the New Black (Netflix), The Americans (FX). Education: MFA NYU Graduate Acting
PAST EVENTS
NEON NIGHTS Summer Series 2021: Each month we collaborated with a different group of actors, artists, writers, musicians, directors, dancers, + more to bring a fresh evening of original performance to the Western Catskills after hosting the artists for a week long residency in preparation for the show. We had fabulous turnout every night, and two of the projects have received City Artist Corps Grants for future development!
September: We were thrilled to present a workshop performance of THE MOTHERHOOD PROJECT, created by Christy Escobar with collaborators Marinda Anderson, Rosa Gilmore, Keren Lugo, Kedren Spencer, and Sarah Todes, as well as visual art by Melike Baskoylu, a Turkish-born interdisciplinary sculptor and woodworker based in Brooklyn, NY. Their practice pursues a marriage between Eastern and Western influences in form-driven narratives and pattern-makings, bridging the divide between traditional and emerging technology. Inspired by Ottoman-Safavid Era miniature paintings and late 20-21st century sculptural movements of US/Europe, they reinterpret the visual and spacial relationships central to fine woodworking and painting.
August: Stephanie Jean Lane (Sleep No More), Kyra Sims (NY Neofuturists), and Sarah Todes (GAMP) presented My Unfinished Girl, an immersive multimedia performance featuring live French Horn, dance, and video, that raises questions about the things in our life that are unfinished, unresolved, or lost to the void.
July: "This Little Light" is an original performance devised by Sarah Hughes (Target Margin Theater), Leemore Malka (The Mysteries), Sarah Todes (GAMP), and Rachel Yong (Overstep Comedy). The upstairs Art Gallery featured a solo show by Lauren Ciarpella. Post-show Studio 54 Dance Party with SPECIAL DJ: Jezz Harkin!
September: We were thrilled to present a workshop performance of THE MOTHERHOOD PROJECT, created by Christy Escobar with collaborators Marinda Anderson, Rosa Gilmore, Keren Lugo, Kedren Spencer, and Sarah Todes, as well as visual art by Melike Baskoylu, a Turkish-born interdisciplinary sculptor and woodworker based in Brooklyn, NY. Their practice pursues a marriage between Eastern and Western influences in form-driven narratives and pattern-makings, bridging the divide between traditional and emerging technology. Inspired by Ottoman-Safavid Era miniature paintings and late 20-21st century sculptural movements of US/Europe, they reinterpret the visual and spacial relationships central to fine woodworking and painting.
August: Stephanie Jean Lane (Sleep No More), Kyra Sims (NY Neofuturists), and Sarah Todes (GAMP) presented My Unfinished Girl, an immersive multimedia performance featuring live French Horn, dance, and video, that raises questions about the things in our life that are unfinished, unresolved, or lost to the void.
July: "This Little Light" is an original performance devised by Sarah Hughes (Target Margin Theater), Leemore Malka (The Mysteries), Sarah Todes (GAMP), and Rachel Yong (Overstep Comedy). The upstairs Art Gallery featured a solo show by Lauren Ciarpella. Post-show Studio 54 Dance Party with SPECIAL DJ: Jezz Harkin!
PROJECTS
snak storeezBite-sized dramadies about snack foods. Once you pop the top, the existential crisis don't stop:
www.snakstoreez.com |
lifetime supplyNEON CAVIAR's debut production. In this live graphic novel, Hannah collects a Lifetime's Supply of Acai Berry Supplements to win back the heart of the man she loves. Presented at the acclaimed IRT Theater in Manhattan.
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GAMP
A dark comedy TV Pilot about two sisters who run a puppet show company, currently being shopped to networks. The series is narrated by puppets. Learn more:
www.gwenandmina.com |
