How to Fill It
You.
A companion.
Your living room.
One weirdly large box that arrives on your doorstep.
HOW TO FILL IT is a play designed to be performed at home, one scene per week, over the course of six weeks. Beginning with an internet purchase gone wrong, the characters find themselves in the presence of a new, well, presence in their home. As they try to figure out how to live with or escape it, they must contend with their own beliefs, frustrations, uncertainties and disagreements about what it means to be a “good” white person in America.
Distributed January 20 - March 1, 2024
via the United States Postal Service
to homes across these United States (plus one home in Nova Scotia)
What participants had to say:
“I loved how poetically things unfolded, the ritual of a weekly meeting, making space for introspection and expansion around my whiteness.”
“Didn’t anticipate the amount of props it would entail… but was surprised and delighted by it. Especially the week where we created an installation of white objects from things found throughout my home.” (see photos)
“I am so into this play I want to distribute it to my parents!”
“I love the creative and accessible way this conversation around race was facilitated and explored. I believe anyone could benefit from such an experience, both folks similar to myself, and whose relationship to race is different than mine.”
Circus Trick
Clown is a professional. They have always taken pride in giving the audience what they came for: a good, old-fashioned trick. But in our digital world of ready-made delights, what counts as a trick? What does the circus have to offer that you can’t get fasterbrightercheaper somewhere else? Circus Trick is the story of a clown who stages a rebellion against the commodification of entertainment in an on-demand world, and in doing so, explores some of the stranger possible benefits of live performance.
Performances:
Weasel Festival, The Tank, NYC, 2022 - featuring Sagan Chen
Exponential Festival, Brick Aux, Brooklyn, 2023 - featuring KP Sgarro
Both productions directed by Lauren Zeftel
Costume by Xindi Xu
Photos by Maria Baranova (Weasel), Lee Rayment (Exponential) and David Rauch (Exponential).
A Different Long Stretch of Earth
The American cowboy. Hero or villain? Casanova or colonizer? Either way, his myth rides on. And in this rural Montana town, everyone must reckon with his long, stooped shadow. That includes Marcia, an aging environmental activist and AirBnB host, and her guests, a group of non-profit workers doing a weekend-long decolonization workshop. It includes Levi, her nextdoor neighbor, a taxidermist and fifth generation Montana cowboy who is still seen as an outsider. And most of all it includes Marcia’s adopted child Brucie, whose quietly building identity crisis creates a calamity no one saw coming. A play about the American West, and how the mythologies and mindsets of our collective past shape our ability to envision the future.
Produced by Ragged Wing Ensemble at The Flight Deck (Oakland, CA) 2018
Developed with and directed by Amy Sass
Performed by Ragged Wing Ensemble: Akaina Ghosh, Emmy Pierce, Keith Davis, Mary Matabor, Fenner, Ryan Takemiya, Rachel Brown
Original music by Jaren Feeley
Photos by Serena Morelli (see full gallery here)
Manifest
Oakland is changing faster than anyone can keep up with. Friends are leaving, new coffee shops are appearing, and Lourdes knows it’s only a matter of time until the change comes for her. So she has been quietly revisiting all her old haunts, collecting her memories in preparation. But when a giant highrise appears literally overnight, she and her friends have to decide whether it’s time to fight.
Manifest was produced as part of a larger project called Overnight, a set of interlocking stories chronicling Oakland’s gentrification written by different theatre companies. Produced by Ragged Wing Ensemble with The Lower Bottom Playaz, Gritty City Rep, Theatre Aluminous, and Kev Choice
The Flight Deck, Oakland, CA, 2017
Directed by Addie Ulrey
Featuring Fenner, Anna Maria Luera, Mary Matabor, Venus Morris and Emmy Pierce
Design: Lili Fore (scenic), Ella Cooley (sound), Keira Sullivan (lights), Regina Evans (costume), Andy Falkner (props), Marc-Eddy Loriston (projections).
Photos by Serena Morelli
How to Ripen
Instructions:
Accept that time is passing.
You may never feel ripe, but at some point you will feel past ripe.
You will wonder what ripe may have felt like. You will recall moments when you thought, “this is the beginning.”
You will recall arrival, departure.
But the thing itself?
This life is not a fruit.
The body is a fruit, but this life is not a fruit.
We are always ripe and ready to be taken.
Productions:
Ragged Wing Ensemble Fierce Play series, Oakland, CA, 2014
Fury Factory Festival, San Francisco, 2014
Directed by Addie Ulrey
Featuring Anya Kazimierski, Sabrina Wenske, Christina Shonkwiler, Mary Matabor, Fenner, Lisa Drostova, Caitlin Evenson.
Images by Serena Morelli
Making It
We all know about dysentery, bad water, and losing your oxen while fording the river. But what about the pioneers who decided to turn around and go home? A meditation on quitting, failing, and questioning the value of your endeavors set on the lonesome trail West.
Produced by Ragged Wing Ensemble in the Destination Home series
The Flight Deck, Oakland, CA 2015
Directed by Addie Ulrey. Featuring Puja Tolton and Travis Coleman
Images by Serena Morelli
Inanna’s Descent
A contemporary retelling of the Sumerian myth of Queen Inanna’s journey to the underworld, accompanied by an immersive path of installations exploring each character in the myth.
Ragged Wing Ensemble Fall Festival production
Codornices Park, Berkeley, CA, 2011
Directed by Anna Shneiderman
Featuring Amy Sass, Keith Davis, Phil Wharton, Cecilia Palmtag, Lisa Klein, Kelly Rinehart, SAM Luckey, Soren Santos, Scout Tran.
Original music by T Carlis Roberts, Jenny Holland and Addie Ulrey
Images by Serena Morelli
A Queer Story of the Boy Band
In 2018 I acted as dramaturg and content writer for this narrative concert show by the Oakland-based group The Singing Bois.
A playful exploration of gender, race, and sexuality, A Queer Story of the Boy Band traces the evolution of the male pop vocal ensemble through barbershop, doo-wop, Motown, and more. Combining unique arrangements, dynamic choreography, and the artists' personal stories, this musical revue pushes the boundaries of masculinity and reveals how women, transmen, and non-binary people shape its construction.
Queer Story was conceived and directed by T Carlis Roberts
Performed at multiple locations in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Los Angeles and Utah, including the Fresh Meat Festival, The National Queer Arts Festival and SF Pride.
Band members: Rhonda Kinard, Vassilisa Johri, Terezia Orosz, Jade Way and T Carlis Roberts. Also pictured: bassist Jesse Strauss.
Photos by Kerry Kehoe Photography
Choosing Here: A Performance Art Museum
Choosing Here was a series of installations and interactive performances exploring place and place-making, co-curated by Addie Ulrey and Amy Sass.
Produced by Ragged Wing Ensemble at The Flight Deck, 2015
Individual installations by Azya Barron, Puja Tolton, Fenner, David Stein, Rory Terrell, Lisa Drostova, Nick Louie, Allison Bergman, Sarah Petta, Mary Matabor and Eric Bohr, Amanda Artru, Sango Tajima, Anya Kazimierski, Kelly Sanchez, Laura Van Duren, Julia Robertson, Cid Pineda and Herczog.
Images by Serena Morelli.
Fish Tank Piece
Is your job a place you have to spend a lot of time so you can live your life, or is your job the place where you do the important things in life? Does a boring job make you boring? What’s the most valuable thing you do with your time? Would you rather crochet enough squares to fill an aquarium or drive all the cars off a container ship? A play in which these questions will almost certainly not be answered.
Ragged Wing Ensemble Fierce Play Series, Oakland, CA, 2012
Directed by Keith Davis
Featuring Anna Shneiderman, Davern Wright, Molly Gilbert, Michael Correa