programs
click here for production history and a calendar of programming
Creation Story
This Southwest-inspired musical by Octavia Chavez-Richmond follows a writer and her disobedient characters as they wander from the jungles of Eden to the caverns of the underworld searching for signs of life and history. As the worlds of creator and created collide, so do the forces of human and mother nature, rupturing the world and threatening the very existence of life on earth. A first reading of the play took place on March 11th in NYC . And a full workshop took place on May 28th at Dance Theatre of Harlem with a public sharing on May 31st at The Flea Theater.
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Cafe Utopia
Amazon and Starbucks are the behemoths of the 21st Century, much like Big Steel and Big Auto were at the beginning of the 20th Century. Now, as then, mass strikes herald a labor uprising that may shape the working person's future for decades to come. Café Utopia by Gwen Kingston engages the individuals and organizations behind the current unionization movement in the creation of an original dystopian comedy that speaks to this urgent moment in America.
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Remember2019
Notch joins Mauricio Salgado, Arielle Julia Brown, Carlos Sirah and Yazmany Arboleda, along with community partners The Delta Cultural Center, The Elaine Legacy Center, and the Boys, Girls, and Adults Community Development Center for Remember2019 -- an effort to make space for the congregation of Black communities in the Arkansas Delta. Since 2017, we have supported and facilitated local practices of self-determination, reflection, and healing as directly related to the mass lynching of 1919, the lasting effects of racial terror, and the current and future health of these communities. These joint explorations have resulted in a touring blues concert, publication of a book, a community mural designed by youth, a story sharing institute, an annual artist residency, and more.
Remember2019 was awarded a MAP Fund grant, an NEA ArtWorks grant, and has been featured on HolwRound, Monument Lab, and profiled by the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture. More at Remember2019.org |
Through Time
Through Time is in it's fifth year of creating original theatrical events with refugees and asylees to address the issues these communities face in trying to find home.
In 2022, Notch was honored to work with St. Ann's Warehouse and The Walk to invite Little Amal to New York City . In 2020 & 2021, Notch worked with coLAB Arts, The Black Community Watchline, and RCHP-AHC, which helps resettle refugees from around the world in central New Jersey, provides home studies and post-release services to unaccompanied refugee minors, and assists people who have been subjected to human trafficking, creating original theater pieces with the diverse refugee communities served by these organizations. Check out the blog or read a Broadway World article about the collaboration's launch. Currently, we are offering theater workshops for refugee youth in New Jersey in collaboration with Church World Services, an international organization transforming communities around the globe through just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, displacement, and disaster. |
Wild Home
Co-Created with Jessica Kahkoska, Wild Home, which takes an odyssey across America, collaborating with rural towns significantly pressured by fossil fuel industries.
In each community, we develop a series of plays, through public storytelling events, that are performed by community and professional actors in outdoor, wilderness spaces. The program is currently collaborating with communities in Alaska, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah and West Virginia. Wild Home was awarded a creative residency in Montana with the Taft-Nicholson Center, an NEA Artworks grant, multiple Travel and Exchange grants from Network of Ensemble Theaters, and has been featured on HowlRound and Broadway World. Most recently, the program brought communities from across the country to our nation's capital in Washington D.C. You can learn about that event in this article in this article in American Theatre Magazine. |
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Time Exiles, spearheaded by playwright Liz Appel, seeks to explore what gratitude means at this moment in time. How does it appear, how is it coded for different people in different places? What can we learn about the way our communities function and what they value through a collective gratitude process? The Grate was piloted with 10 artists in spring of 2022, workshopped at Notch's annual retreat in summer 2022 and presented as part of New Georges' JAMboree at the Center for Performance Research May 2024.
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When Ama, a Tanzanian woman with Albinism, escapes a brutal attack, she is taken in by a political candidate in the upcoming elections. Authored by Notch ensemble member Ashley J. Hicks, this play brings attention to the little known reality for people with Albanism in Tanzanian who suffer violence, discrimination, and abuse almost constantly. A reading on Zoom took place in March 2024, and a full workshop is currently in development.
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This new comedy by Lydia Blaisdell dives into the love triangle between the renowned composer Arnold Schönberg, Schönberg’s wife, Mathilde, and Austrian painter, Richard Gerstl. The project partners with non-binary + Trans communities to challenge how we frame historical narratives and to interrogate who we center in those stories. After a workshop at the Eugene O'Neill in fall 2022, the play premiered at New Ohio Theatre's Ice Factory 2023 and was then part of New Georges' JAMboree in May 2024.
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Voices from a Pandemic
Since April 2020, Voices from a Pandemic has been inviting artists and cultural workers to remotely collect testimony from frontline workers to hear their experiences during this worldwide crisis. This includes anyone continuing to do the in-person work that keeps a country and its people alive and functioning, not only essential employees but also the frontline protesters who are risking their safety and health to fight for a revolution that uplifts us all.
As we embark on vaccine distribution, Notch has launched the first installment of a digital story bank and is presenting a workshop of the plays, featuring theatre-makers and community stories from all over the world. Voices is a communal creation, collaborating with more than 100 cultural workers, community members and artists. More on Broadway World. |
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FIT
FIT, conceived by Marina Morrissey and written by Gwen Kingston, follows the story of Carrie Buck, who in 1927 was the test case for a Supreme Court ruling allowing the forcible sterilization of women deemed “feeble-minded,” a ruling that has never been overturned. In a contemporary storyline, Don and June, who have Down Syndrome, want to have a baby. June’s mother is taking her to court because she believes her daughter isn’t equipped to raise a child. She is not "FIT." Developed in partnership with members of the intellectual disability community, FIT premiered at White Heron Theatre on Nantucket, was presented at La Mama Studios in NYC, and with Trinity Rep (in collaboration with Spectrum Ensemble) in Providence, RI.
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Recovery
Co-developed with Jayne McLendon, Recovery brings communities in recovery (i.e. people healing from traumatic injury, addiction, loss and grief, eating disorders, ancestral and generational trauma, etc.) together in the creation of an interdisciplinary performance combining video, interactive theater, meditation, and a museum installation to raise awareness, build community, and create spaces for healing. Recovery was awarded a residency with HB Studio in NYC that took place July 2023.
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Fellowships & Retreats
Each year, Notch hosts a retreat on the Broad River in North Carolina where female identifying artists are invited to connect, commune, recharge, and workshop new Notch programs. Additionally, we award two annual fellowships. Our Generous of heART Fellowship is dedicated in memory of Darlene Windom, and created for cultural workers who use their art to uplift their communities.
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Fiscal Sponsorship
Notch is Proud to fiscally sponsor The Pack, an award-winning new play collective exploring alternative models for creating live theater. (Pictured: Mitchell Winter, Christopher Bannow, Esco Jouléy, Nicole Villamil, Brian Quijada, Lexy Leuszler, Hansol Jung, and Dustin Wills.)
Notch is Proud to fiscally sponsor The Pack, an award-winning new play collective exploring alternative models for creating live theater. (Pictured: Mitchell Winter, Christopher Bannow, Esco Jouléy, Nicole Villamil, Brian Quijada, Lexy Leuszler, Hansol Jung, and Dustin Wills.)
thank you to our supporters.
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- Amy Aquino and Drew McCoy -
- Bill & Chloe Cornell - - Shannon Morzov - - Cotton & Julie Nash - - Mauricio & Cindy Salgado - - Bob & Toni Teague - - W Trust - - JKW Foundation - - Distracted Globe Foundation - - Cindy & William Horr - - Jody Wagner - - Sabrina Sikes Thorton - - Moira Squier - - Byron Gross & Ricky Tovim - - Colin Walker - - Sandy Mailliard - 
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© Notch Theatre Co. 2021
