Experiments: Sleep/Wake
By Yael Haskal
Reality begins to fracture when high school student Alice Carney begins an AP Psychology project on homicidal sleepwalking. A feminist study in dissociation, portraiture, and the latent power of the supine woman.
By Yael Haskal
Cast: Balfour Clark, Brynn Gauthier, maura nguyễn donohue, Kim Savarino
Yael Haskal is a writer/performer based in Brooklyn. She is a member of the New York Neo-Futurists and La MaMa's Great Jones Repertory Company. Her work has been performed at La MaMa, IRT, The Tank, Dixon Place, Midtown Int'l Theatre Festival (NYC); Echo Theater Company (CA); Ivoryton Playhouse, Warner Theatre (CT); Echo Theatre Dallas (TX); Theatre Simpson (IN); the InspiraTO Festival (Toronto); and others across the U.S. www.yaelhaskal.com.
Balfour Clark (Henry) is an actor, choreographer, and comedian based in New York City. He recently graduated from Vassar College with a double major in Drama and Philosophy, also being awarded the Molly Thacher Kazan Memorial Prize for excellence in Drama. Balfour is an experienced comedian, being a member of Big K!dz (Vassar’s oldest sketch comedy group) as well as being the president of Vassar College Vassar Improv. In addition to comedy, Balfour also specializes in classical text, he has acted alongside the Prague Shakespeare Company and the Elm Shakespeare Company where he works as a teaching artist.
Brynn Gauthier (Alice) is an actor and writer born and raised in Denver, Colorado. She has never been one of those people that can answer the question “where you from” by saying “everywhere and nowhere.” She belongs to her place. She holds a BA in Drama from Vassar College, and is currently a Third Year working towards her MFA at NYU’s Graduate Acting program as one of 15 students.
maura nguyễn donohue (she/they) (Miriam) is Associate Professor and the director of the MFA in Dance Program at Hunter College/CUNY. She's made work in NYC since 1995 touring the US, and to Canada, Europe and Asia with maura nguyen donohue/inmixedcompany and has toured the world playing mortals, monsters and goddesses in La MaMa’s Great Jones Rep Co since 1997. Her current and ongoing Tides Project uses reclaimed plastics to examine the legacy of bodies ecological and diasporic. She co-curates/produces the estroGenius festival for femme, trans, non-binary, non-conforming artists, serves on the NY Dance and Performance (Bessies) Awards Steering Committee and lots of other advocacy platforms, writes a lot about dance and performance in academic and public press, most recently for Dance Studies Association’s “Dancing in the aftermath of Anti-Asian Violence,” and thanks the ancestors and offspring for keeping the path clearly lit.
Kim Savarino (Margot) is an artist working in theater and dance. Kim is a proud company member with Third Rail Projects and La MaMa’s Great Jones Rep, and has worked with artists including Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Andrei Serban, Jawole Zollar, Miguel Gutierrez, and Romeo Castellucci. She loves dim sum, walking in the woods, and her black cat Hermes. Kim grew up in West Virginia. www.kimsavarino.com
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.