Experiments 16: Felice Belle’s ‘It Is Reasonable to Expect’
Is Em on the verge of a breakdown or already broken? Eleven years into her dissertation on the infinite nature of choice, she’s out of viable options. To save herself, she’ll launch an internal investigation to pinpoint the moment her life went wrong.’
About the Playwright
FELICE BELLE is a poet, playwright, and pop culture enthusiast. She was a featured poet at TED’s inaugural City2.0 conference and her first young audiences play, Game On!, premiered at the Kennedy Center, as part of the One Mic: Hip Hop Culture Worldwide festival. Her writing has been published in several journals and anthologies including Oral Tradition, SLAM, and Bum Rush the Page. Playwriting credits include Joy in Repetition, Tell the Truth Lying, and History of the Word. She holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Columbia University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Long Island University. When she is not solving fictional crimes, she is editing her first collection of poetry.
For Experiments 16: New Century Female Dramatists, curators Jessica Hagedorn & John Jesurun have invited four New York based female playwrights to present a concert style reading of a new work in progress. The four writers represent a cross section of New York’s population, and each work brings a unique perspective on contemporary relationships, attachments, and identities.
FELICE BELLE is a poet, playwright, and pop culture enthusiast. She was a featured poet at TED’s inaugural City2.0 conference and her first young audiences play, Game On!, premiered at the Kennedy Center, as part of the One Mic: Hip Hop Culture Worldwide festival. Her writing has been published in several journals and anthologies including Oral Tradition, SLAM, and Bum Rush the Page. Playwriting credits include Joy in Repetition, Tell the Truth Lying, and History of the Word. She holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Columbia University, an M.A. in Individualized Study from New York University’s Gallatin School, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Long Island University. In her spare time, she solves fictional crimes. www.felicebelle.com.
JILL DeARMON (Director) is so happy to be working on this project. Jill is a member of LAByrinth Theater Company, and Artistic Director of Developing Artist’s. Next up, you can see Jill’s work in REBEL VERSES Youth Arts Festival 2016 this April. Check www.developingartists.org for more info.
YEAUXLANDA KAY (Em) was dubbed “America’s Poet” and “smart” by the New York Times. She was in LOCKER #4173b winner of a NYIT Award. She performed in The New Black Theatre Festival w/Suzan Lori Parks and Lynn Nottage. Her first solo play, UNTITLED & UNFINISHED was last seen in festivals all over the country including the Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival and The ASPEN COMEDY FESTIVAL. She aired on The Peabody Award winning, Russell Simmons’ HBO Def Poetry Jam, (seasons 3 & 4). She can be seen in the HBO film UNDEFEATED directed by and starring John Leguizamo and WHAT GOES AROUND, winner of Best Urban Film in The NY Independent Film Festival. She was “Fee” in Mac Rogers’ Sovereign, a part of the Honeycomb Trilogy a New York Times and The Guardian’s Best Of 2015 Theatre listing. Commissioned by the Kerry Campaign, she wrote BUSHWHACKIN’, which made its premiere at Primary Stages (west) September 2004. She was one of eight handpicked poet/actors to be in residence at Kennedy Center. She is also a Neo- futurist and can be seen in Forbes’ Best of 2015 Theatre listing; TOO MUCH LIGHT MAKES THE BABY GO BLIND. Her latest solo play, BIBLE STUDY FOR HEATHENS which chronicles her personal journey through 10 religions will be the New York Neo-Futurists’ next prime time production that opens May 2016 at Judson Memorial Church.
YARITZA PIZARRO (Jo) A graduate of the CUNY City College Department of Theater, her many professional credits include Klub Kat at La MaMa Etc., Don Quijote De la Mancha with National Theatre for Arts and Education, the films August The First, The Scrolls and Desire.com. You can also see her in The Blacklist’s episode, The Judge. With Pregones she has appeared in La Caravana, Suzan-Lori Parks’ 365 Days/ 365 Plays, Betsy, Aloha Boricua, Hey Yo! Yo Soy!, Chuy Sánchez’s God’s Creatures, and Pregones’ production of Magdalena Gomez’s Dancing In My Cockroach Killers at The Puerto Rican Traveling Theater.
SHAWN RANDALL (Dale) is an actor/poet/musician and board member of Ensemble Studio Theatre. He recently was an understudy for Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Between Riverside and Crazy. Shawn curates and performs in the Symphonics Liveconcert series that showcases talented artists from across the globe. Symphonics Live has featured in the Blue Note Jazz Club, Highline Ballroom, Joe’s Pub, and is now in residence at the Bowery Poetry Club. http://www.iloveshawnrandall.com.
JON NORMAN SCHNEIDER (Barba) was most recently in Mike Lew’s Tiger Style! at Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. NY credits include: Awake & Sing! (NAATCO/The Public), City Of (Playwrights Realm), The Oldest Boy (LCT), The Architecture of Becoming (Women’s Project), A Map of Virtue (13P), Queens Boulevard (the musical) (Signature), Ching Chong Chinaman (Pan Asian Rep), Durango (The Public), Blind Mouth Singing (NAATCO), among others. London: Paper Dolls (Tricycle). Regional: Old Globe, Goodman, McCarter, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Long Wharf, Barrington Stage, Magic, Kennedy Center. Film: The Girl in the Book, The Normals, The Rebound, HBO’s Angel Rodriguez. TV: “Jessica Jones,” “Veep,” “The Electric Company,” “30 Rock,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”.
Experiments Play Reading Series
For the 23rd season of La MaMa Experiments we will focus on theatrical works in progress addressing mental health issues. No one is more familiar with the need to create greater access to mental healthcare than our New York audience, who come face to face with this crisis on a daily basis. After 3 years of a global pandemic, all of us are feeling the upsurge of anxiety and depression, but these trends have been on the rise long before Covid-19. The works this season shed light on important, personal stories and deal with this subject matter in many different and unique ways. From tongue in cheek comedies to absurdist tragedies, Experiments hopes to create a season that will destigmaify, enlighten and, yes, even entertain.