SPOILED: The Film Project

Performers:
Cherrye J. Davis, Ninoshka De Leon Gill, Rebeca Miller

Company: The Hess Collective
Artistic Director: Elizabeth Hess
Playwright: Elizabeth Hess
Co-directors: Cherrye J. Davis & Elizabeth Hess
Director of Photography & Editor: Catalin Stelian
Production Assistant: Nilan
Dramaturg: Gina Stevensen
Managing Director: Victoria McNaughton
Marketing Director: Kelly Kirby
Marketing Intern: Bella Maxwell
Moderator: Elizabeth Scott Osborne

Originally commissioned and developed by Elizabeth Scott Osborne

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

The Hess Collective generates new work based on a hybrid approach to embodied performance. A fusion of physical theater modalities culled from Western and Eastern practices, diverse ensemble members unlock impulses, experience and imagination to generate transformative, empathetic and expansive artistic expression. The work addresses issues of social and global urgency through heightened realism, cross-cultural collaboration and inter-disciplinary creation. www.thehesscollective.com

Cherrye J. Davis is an actor, vocalist, playwright, and filmmaker. Education: NYU-Tisch-UG Playwrights Horizons.  NY Theater:  HOW TO MOURN AN AMERICAN, (Rough Draft Festival), THE LOOPHOLE (The Public Theater), THE SPORTING LIFE OF ICARUS JONES (Drama League), AND SHE WOULD STAND LIKE THIS (TMTC), AND THEN I WOKE, (Downtown Arts), TROJAN WOMEN (Oppressed in Heels), HOPE SPEAKS (La Mama), IMMORTAL: THE GILGAMESH VARIATIONS (The Forge), BINTOU (TMTC), HAMLET (Classical Theater of Harlem).  TV/Film: Scavenger (The Public Theater), For Flow (2011 HBO Black Film Fest. Finalist), Scribbles: The Webseries (NYC Indie Film Fest). Commercial/Ads: Cherrye has appeared in commercial advertisements for clients such as Sling, SAP, Google, and Triscuit. Most recently, her self- directed short film Covered (A Certain Something Productions) is scheduled to screen at both the Toronto Black Film Festival 2021 and Dumbo Film Festival 2021. A teaching artist in history and spoken word performance, Cherrye has performed and taught at institutions such as at The Public Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, BedStuy Alive!, Harlem School of the Arts, New Museum, and Urban Word NYC. She can be found performing with blues experiment The Nervous, or fronting the live hip hop band Deathrow Tull. Follow her moves at www.CherryeJDavis.com

Ninoshka De Leon Gill selected credits include: NYC: Meshahnye (Theatre for a New City), Dracula (Morris-Jumel Mansion), Cabaret (The Secret Theatre), The Wishing Tree (Signature Theatre). Regional: Sleepy Hollow Meets the Headless Horseman (Pancake Productions), The Music Man (Sharon Playhouse). NYC Labs: The Wave (Ars Nova), Counting Sheep (3LD Art and Technology Center), Amelie (Lyric Theatre). Film/TV: Foreign Nationals (Foreign Entertainment, LLC), Love My Roomie (YháWright Productions). Ithaca College: B.S.

Elizabeth Hess is an actor, playwright, director, Arts educator and artistic director of The Hess Collective. The company’s inaugural work, LOVE TRADE, premiered at La MaMa during their Tony-Award winning season. The second co-production with La MaMa, SPOILED, originally slated for early 2020, was postponed due to the pandemic. Ms. Hess’ other ensemble works include PERFECT CURIOSITY, developed at The O’Neill Theater Center and NYU; SCARBERIA, developed at TheaterLab and La MaMa; NOMADS, developed at The New Group and The Lark. Elizabeth has performed her acclaimed solo work around the globe, in New York, and at the UN Conference on Gender Violence. Ms. Hess’ other acting credits include work with The New Group, Women’s Project, Irish Rep, MTC and NYTW in New York, as well as extensive regional theaters. TV/ Film credits include series lead in Clarissa Explains It All and numerous Indie films. Her book, ACTING & BEING: Explorations in Embodied Performance, published by Macmillan, is based on her hybrid approach - culled from teaching performance primarily at New York University and workshops internationally. Elizabeth is the recipient of a Madolin Cervantes Grant; ITI Armmono Festival Director’s Award; ITI Thespis Mono Festival Organizers and Audience Awards. Internationally, she was also sponsored by Regione Venezia in Italy; Columbia Global Center (CGC) in Chile; US State Department as an ACULSPEC (American Cultural Specialist) in Armenia; participated in the ITI / UNESCO Conference in The Philippines; sat on the jury of the ITI Thespis Mono Festival in Germany and Saint Muse Festival in Mongolia and conducted an atelier in Kosovo, resulting in the devised work, INTERNALLY DISPLACED. www.elizabethhess.net

Kelly Kirby is a New York based stage manager and theatre professional. She has stage managed various productions in and around the city. Her credits include The Conversationalists (The Bushwick Starr and Kimmel Center) Fern Hill (59E59 Theatre), Nixon in China (The Princeton Festival). She was also an intern at New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Season and on Signature Theatre’s production of F**king A.  Kelly received a Bachelor of Business Administration with a minor in theatre from Adelphi University and is very excited to join The Hess Collective in creating theatre.

Bella Maxwell (she/her) is an NYC based actor, writer and director that is currently a Senior at NYU Tisch getting her BFA in Drama. Through NYU she has studied at the Atlantic Studio, where she played her most recent acting credit of Juliet, in Berlin where she participated in the Brecht and Stanislavski training program and is now studying at Stonestreet Studios for Film and TV. On top of acting, she has worked as a stage manager, production assistant, and director and has worked with notable theaters in New York such a En Garde Arts, Theater for the New City, and The Acting Company. She recently worked as a production assistant for the zoom series “The Building: Under Lockdown.”

Eric McGriff (pronouns: He/Him) is a Gender-Based Violence Prevention Specialist and Prevention Coordinator for the Crime Victims Treatment Center (CVTC), https://www.cvtcnyc.org/ which was New York City's first Rape Crisis Program, and he is also a Global Peace Ambassador specializing in strategies to reduce violent extremism. Eric has been working in Gender-Based Violence Prevention for over 12 years. In his role at CVTC, Eric works with several college campuses, the Nightlife Community, Youth, and the Criminal Justice System to help build comprehensive strategies to prevent and respond to gender-based violence through education, training, community mobilization, and by helping to shape policy and protocols that reduce risk factors for gender-based violence and increase protective factors in the communities he serves.

Victoria McNaughton is a New York based producer, arts administrator, and dramaturg born and raised in Miami, Florida. She holds a BFA in Theatre with an emphasis in New Work Development from Cornish College of The Arts. Raised by a single mom in a large Nicaraguan family she strives to tell stories of women and the immigrant experience. Previous theatrical experience includes two seasons as company manager for The Powerhouse Theater Festival training program, Company Management Apprentice for Asolo Repertory Theatre, an associate dramaturg & assistant director for Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, ACT Theatre-Seattle, & Red Caravan Productions, in addition to the role of producer or production manager on many independent productions. She’s also spent three years working in talent representation and is thrilled to be part of The Hess Collective.

Rebeca Miller has worked regionally in theatre at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Florida Studio Theatre, and toured nationally with Theatreworks USA.  In New York she has been privileged to work with: Classic Stage Company, On The Rocks Theatre Company, New York Shakespeare Exchange, Shakespeare in the Square, and the NYC Fringe Festival. She has worked with playwrights developing new work at: The Ensemble Studio Theatre, Ars Nova, and New Georges. TV/ New Media Credits Include: The Perfect Murder and Diabolical (Investigation Discovery), The Preppie Murder (AMC Sundance) and The Chanticleer (YouTube). Rebeca also works as a Costumed Interpreter at The Lower East Side Tenement Museum.  NYU: BFA. www.RebecaMiller.com.

Elizabeth Scott Osborne (she/her) is a gender equity advocate, lawyer, teacher, and international development professional. She speaks regularly on activism and the global gender gap. She has lived in seven countries on four continents, working with schools, international development agencies, and local non-profits. She is currently writing a book about the lives of women and girls in India. While living in India, Scott’s research on gender issues led her to the concept that would become SPOILED, a play about violence and masculinity. Scott is on the national board of UN Women USA and the BARKA Foundation, serves on the Dining for Women Grant Selection Committee, and is Chair of the Through Women’s Eyes International Film Festival.

Catalin Stelian was born in Bucharest and is based in New York City. He is a media director, photographer, cinematographer, and video editor with a long history of award-winning work with both professional and personal clients. He specializes in product photography, portraiture and music videos. As an editor, his film and television series include COVERED, THE DAMNABLE, DEPRIVATION OF DMITRI, HEY BABE, EXTRA ROOM, and SEASON TO TASTE, among others. He was recently nominated for best editing at the 2020 Madrid International Film Festival.

Gina Stevensen is a playwright, dramaturg, and writing instructor based in NYC. Her play THE COLONY was a 2019 winner of the Columbia@Roundabout New Play Reading Series and will receive its world premiere production in August of 2020 at Good Luck Macbeth Theatre Company in Reno, Nevada. Gina’s plays have been developed in NYC and regionally with American Stage, Urban Stages, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Hartford Stage, The Tank, and The Joust Theatre Company. She has been a finalist for the Jewish Playwriting Contest, Austin Film Festival Pitch Competition, and MFA Playwrights Workshop at The Kennedy Center, and a semifinalist for the Princess Grace Award, O’Neill NPC, and Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Gina is an Affiliated Artist with The Hess Collective and has been a guest lecturer at NYU’s Open Arts program. She teaches playwriting at Tribeca Performing Arts Center and The Writer’s Rock. MFA Playwriting: Columbia University. www.ginastevensen.com