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Global Forms Theater Festival
The Global Forms Theater Festival is back for the THIRD YEAR! This annual summer theater festival focuses on works by immigrant artists, a historically marginalized group. Since its inception during the midst of the pandemic, we have involved over 100 artists from 34 countries - truly bridging the world together when travel was made impossible. This year, we are back - bigger and better.
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We will be premiering:
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3 workshops and 1 staged reading of new works
Conversations with theater companies around the world
Workshops led by immigrant artists
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A cross-cultural conversation
Global Share (posted on our Facebook & IG accounts)
Artists sharing tidbits about their home country
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GFTF 2022 will be a festive celebration of immigrant artists! Spread the word to immigrant artists you know!
GLOBAL STAGE
(in person)
All the Lonely Women
By Inés Braun (Argentina) and Leigh Flayton​
June 2, 7:30pm ET in-person performance
June 3,7:30pm ET in-person performance
+ talkback
June 4, 7:30pm ET in-person performance
All the Lonely Women is a queer fairytale about the strangeness of looking for love during the pandemic. Infused with magical realism, the play explores the poignancy — and inevitable humor— of love and longing during a time of isolation and separation.
Playwright/Director - Inés Braun
Playwright - Leigh Flayton
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CAST
Lola - Paulina de la Parra
All the other women - Anula Navlekar
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CREATIVE TEAM
Poster Design - Pilar Otero
Set & Costume Designer - Johanna Pan
Sound Designer - Evdoxia Ragkou
Assistant Stage Manager - Julieta Sverdlick
Lighting Designer - Nic Vincent
Stage Manager - Eszter Zador
Line Producer - Salma S. Zohdi
Chava the Giant and the Oldest Bird (reading)
By Ran Xia (China)
June 5, 2:00pm ET in-person performance
June 5,7:30pm ET in-person performance
This is a story of arrivals, and survivals. Over the span of a century, we meet the Golem who grows into a part of the city that witnesses and remembers, the Jinni who hides from her identity but hopes to one day run her own metal shop, the Chinese witch who speaks about premonitions, believing herself to be a reincarnated snake goddess. And there's Bird, who comes around every year like clockwork.
Playwright/Director - Ran Xia
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CAST
Bird - Seth Clayton
Cardiff - Shani Hadjian
Bai Lin - Rachel Lin
Chava - Kaila Wooten
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CREATIVE TEAM
Incidental Music - Sean Devare
Line Producer - Dorothea Gloria
Scenic Designer, Puppetry - Olivia Hern
Associate Producer - Kaylin Kellin
Stage Manager - Renate Mattar
Lighting Designer - Yang Yu
SKIN
By Yuriko Shibata (Japan) and Andrew Strano (Australia)
June 9, 7:30pm ET in-person performance
June 11, 7:30 pm ET in-person performance
+ streaming
June 12, 2:00 pm ET in-person performance
+ talkback
An elemental, impressionistic window into a world of yearning, queer identity, and parts of who we are that we so savagely cut ourselves off from, SKIN tells the story of Cath, Ed and their adult child Siobh as the tide of memory washes over them, threatening to reveal the secrets Cath has kept for years.
Music Director - Robbie Cowan
Composer - Yuriko Shibata
Book Writer/Lyricist - Andrew Strano
Director - Genevieve Wilson
Choreographer - Mandarin Wu
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CAST
Heather - Hannah Bailey
Eddie - Brenton Cosier
Cath - Lynn Craig
Cate - Sara James
Siobh - Mariah Lotz
Ed - Ben McHugh
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CREATIVE TEAM
Lighting Designer - Bailey Costa
Line Producer - Jody Doo
Band - Nya Holmes (Bass), Zachary Larson (Guitar), Morgan Parker (Percussion)
Stage Manager - Abbey Howard
Assistant Stage Manager - Andrew Kasper
Sound Designer - Sean Ramos
Costume & Scenic Designer - Lukas Wassmann
The Aliens Make Thanksgiving Dinner
By Derya Celikkol (Turkey), James Clements (Scotland), and Maamoun Tobbo (Lebanon)
June 10, 7:30 pm ET in-person performance
June 11, 2:00 pm ET in-person performance
+ streaming
June 12, 7:30 pm ET in-person performance
+ talkback
The Aliens Make Thanksgiving Dinner is a new experimental play-in-process exploring immigrant identities through art and food. Set in an empty theatre on Thanksgiving, this absurdist piece depicts three immigrant artists desperately trying to create an All-American spectacular - to secure their ever-elusive green cards.
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Playwright/Actor - Derya Celikkol
Playwright/Actor - James Clements
Playwright/Actor - Maamoun Tobbo
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CREATIVE TEAM
Assistant Stage Manager - Zeynep Akca
Lighting Designer - Alexandra Dheming​
Sound Designer - Nori Hung
Set & Prop Designer - Luis Marciliano
Photo/Videographer - Hany Osman​
Costume Designer - Dan Wang
Stage Manager - Jo Wiegandt
Line Producer - Salma S. Zohdi
GLOBAL DIALOGUE
(via Zoom)
Global Dialogue is a series of virtual conversations with theater companies around the world.
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A conversation among queer creatives from Kenya and Rwanda in East Africa. In this dialogue, we will be discussing what it means to create queer themed content for the LGBTIQ+ community in the countries where it is illegal and considered taboo to be queer. These artists share their stories of pains when their queer themed art have been canceled or postponed indefinitely by local authorities or homophobic individuals in their own countries. The artists (Riann, Becky and Obel) are also proud of their wins when they had to defy these malicious structures to put up a show that spoke to the target audience regardless of the hardships.
Featuring panelists Joseph Obel, Riann Njeri, and Uwamahoro Mucyo Rebecca A.K.A. Becky, and hosted by Gikuiyu Kang'ari.
Theatre Here and There is a conversation between a group of theatre makers and artists from a variety of international backgrounds. They will uncover the differences between theatre making here in the USA and in our their home countries — what have we learned here? What have we brought here? What do we wish was true here and at home?
Featuring panelists Ioanna Katsarou, Russell Legaspi and Joe Staton, and hosted by Andrew Strano.
In this dialogue, festival producers will talk about the ins and outs of creating a theater festival. They will talk about their experiences, challenges, and tips on how to run a successful festival. In this dialogue, you will learn about how theater producers manage a big group of artists and their shows and why they do it.
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Featuring host Chrysi Sylaidi with panelists Hope Azeda, Tianding He, and Emilio Maxwell Cerci.
GLOBAL LEARN
(via Zoom)
Global Learn is a platform for wonderfully talented artists to share their expertise, and a space for our international community to expand their frontiers of knowledge.
A session designed specifically to guide international actors applying to acting programs in the United States. The 90 minute session will include drama school audition dos and donts, facets of the admission process. Second half of the session will cover insights on the industry- talent agencies, management companies, resources/platforms for professional auditions. The final 15 minutes of the session will be reserved for an open Q/A. ​
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Welcome to the Audio Explosion. Audio content – fiction and non-fiction – has boomed since the pandemic. Over the course of this workshop, participants will learn how to leverage podcasting as a means to create their own artistic work, generate press and elevate their careers. Whether you’re hungry to create a radioplay, podcast musical, interview show or even your very own true crime podcast, we will share the journey of how to start on a shoestring budget (crafting a vision, recording setup/gear/tech and workflow) and end up listed on directories like ApplePodcasts and Spotify. We will also discuss ways to find opportunities to be a guest on podcasts, how to monetize and even submit your production to festivals.
Join us to learn another avenue to help establish yourself as ‘extraordinary’ and/or an ‘expert’ to boost your career and satisfy USCIS criteria. Share your voice. Share your talent. Share your story.
This workshop is designed to provide a general background about the Commedia dell’Arte’s history, its characteristics, languages and techniques. Through the introduction of the masks and the relationship between characters (Servant and Master) the participants will get to learn more about this ancient art form and how to implement it into modern or classical physical roles.
The session will be (online) 90 minutes, covering the following topics:
- The History of Commedia dell’arte
- The Masks
- Grammelot and Languages
- Physicality
- Commedia dell'Arte in classical and modern physical roles
- Final Q&A
GLOBAL GAB
(via Zoom)
A cross-cultural conversation hosted by Jody Doo. Global Gab is a monthly program at Rattlestick Theater since Summer 2019. Every month, alongside reputable panelists, Jody strives to dig deep into a topic that is of interest to immigrant artists.
A couple of hit sessions have been How to book WITHOUT an agent, How safe do you feel?, Grant Writing 101 and Finding Love as an Immigrant.
At this year’s Global Forms Theater Festival, Global Gab brings you two engaging sessions.
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On the commencement day of the festival, we feature two remarkable female international artists - Anna Cherkezishvili and Yi Qing Zhao.
Yi Qing Zhao (China) is an actor, filmmaker, author and coach. She has self-produced and acted in multiple short films and plays. Yi Qing will be sharing with us all about how to create your own work despite all odds.
Next up, Anna Cherkezishvili (Georgia) is an actress who has traveled the world for work - Slovakia, Ecuador to name a couple. She will be sharing with us how to best pitch yourself as an immigrant actor to Directors, Writers and Producers.
Hosted by Jody Doo (Singapore), this Global Gab session oozes the essence of strong international women who are here to share and impart valuable lessons from their artistic journey.
For our second Global Gab session at GFTF, we bring you a reprise of 'How to book WITHOUT an agent'. This gab sesh first took place in January'22 and you Global Gabbers want more! We hear you loud and clear.
This time round, we bring on Eddy Lee as our panelist. Eddy is currently a swing on Broadway's Hamilton - which he booked WITHOUT an agent.
Eddy was the first Asian-American male dancer to be hired on Hamilton. He also swings in for the titular role of Hamilton. This fall, Eddy will be part of the cast for the premiere of Kpop on Broadway. Insta: @edru00
Join host Jody Doo as she gabs with Eddy about his journey on booking without an agent. This inspirational story is not to be missed.
Global Share is an offering in which immigrant artists share tidbits about their home country.
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This year's featured artists include:
Anna Cherkezishvili (Georgia)
Dorothea Gloria (Philippines)
Emile Aslan Lacheny (France/Turkey)
Nick Lambrou (Greece)
Ana Moioli (Brazil)
Maria Müller (Romania)
Jan Ohlenmacher (Germany)
Caroline Rou (Denmark)
Chrysi Sylaidi (Greece)
Julio Vaquero (Spain)
Yi Qing Zhao (China)
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Check out their videos, which will be rolled out during the festival, on our Facebook and Instagram!
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GLOBAL SHARE
(posted on our Facebook & IG acounts)
Production Team
Lead Producer - Yue Liu
Line Producers - Jody Doo, Danilo Gambini, Dorothea Gloria, Iman Mirza, Salma S. Zohdi
Production Manager - Kasper Klop
Festival Producing Assistants - Florence Lebas, Isabella Pipitone
​Advisory Board Members
​Pun Bandhu, Catherine Coray, Derek Goldman, Martyna Majok, Arian Moayed, Evren Odcikin,
Penny Pun, Chay Yew
Selection Committee
Pun Bandhu, Catherine Coray, Jody Doo, Danilo Gambini, Yue Liu, Penny Pun, Salma S. Zohdi
Thank you to our generous supporters: Faith Catlin and John Griesemer, Juliet Moser, Heather Randall, The Darnell-Moser Charitable Fund, The Tony Randall Theatrical Fund, and the Houghton Hall Arts Community.
