from the journal of
Read through selections from Henry’s journal in the following pages and continue his story or explore your own at the back of this program.
Journal text by Jackie Sibblies Drury.
Journal illustrations and collage by Joanna Neborsky. Neborsky is an artist specializing in collage, illustration, and animation based in Los Angeles, California.
We are thrilled to welcome you to the New York City premiere of Illinoise in the Armory’s expansive Wade Thomson Drill Hall. This piece boasts an all-star creative team, considered some of today’s most brilliant artistic minds—director and choreographer Justin Peck, playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury, and musician and composer Sufjan Stevens. Together, they combine live music and vocals, impressionistic choreography, and a narrative of self-discovery and community. Based on Stevens’ acclaimed 2005 concept album Illinois, this genre-spanning work upends our expectations of their work and, in turn, offers an authentic and deeply personal theatrical experience for audiences.
Drawing from his personal and creative journey with Stevens’ album and a long-standing friendship with the artist, Peck has assembled an impressive group of creative collaborators to bring the music to life, including Sibblies Drury, Nathan Koci, Timo Andres, Adam Rigg, Brandon Stirling Baker, Garth MacAleavey, Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung, Andrew Diaz, and Julian Crouch. Gathered around a campsite in the American heartland, the stellar company enlivens the spatial music and movement to powerfully reflect on the complexity of human connection.
Illinoise exemplifies some of the themes of the Armory’s 2024 Season programming, transporting audiences to an imaginative dreamscape for a boundary blurring performance by some of today’s most legendary artistic voices. We are proud to offer these artists and others in our season the opportunity to pursue their boundary-breaking visions within our historic space.
We hope you find joy, community, and togetherness in this bold and moving work.
Rebecca Robertson
Adam R. Flatto Founding President and Executive Producer
Pierre Audi
Anita K. Hersh Artistic Director
Illinoise is generously supported, in part, by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, Slobodan Randjelović and Jon Stryker, Jody and John Arnhold, and the Harkness Foundation for Dance.
Support for Park Avenue Armory’s artistic season has been provided by the Thompson Family Foundation, Charina Endowment Fund, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, The Shubert Foundation, Wescustogo Foundation, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, Mary W. Harriman Foundation, the Reed Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Richenthal Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Armory’s Artistic Council. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature as well as the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams.
PUBLIC SUPPORT SEASON SPONSORSMARCH 2 – 26, 2024 WADE THOMPSON DRILL
Sufjan Stevens Music and Lyrics (Based on the album Illinois)
Justin Peck, Jackie Sibblies Drury Story
Justin Peck Direction, Choreography
Nathan Koci Music Direction and Supervision
Timo Andres Music Arrangements and Orchestrations
Adam Rigg Scenic Design
Brandon Stirling Baker Lighting Design
Garth MacAleavey Sound Design
Reid Bartelme, Harriet Jung Costume Design
Andrew Diaz Props Design
Julian Crouch Masks
Adriana Pierce Associate Direction and Choreography
Sean Peter Forte Associate Music Direction
Taylor Williams, CSA Casting Consultant
Rick Steiger Production Stage Manager
Brian Freeland Production Manager
This performance will run approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.
Co-commissioned by Park Avenue Armory, Fisher Center at Bard, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Southbank Centre, TO Live, and Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC), and produced in association with Nate Koch (Executive Producer) and ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann by special arrangement with the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC)
Originally commissioned, developed, produced, and premiered at the Fisher Center at Bard
Cover illustration by Andrew Diaz.
Kara Chan Star, player
Ben Cook Carl, player
Jeanette Delgado Jo Daviess, player, dance captain
Gaby Diaz Shelby, player
Robbie Fairchild Clark, player
Christine Flores Anâkwa, player
Rachel Lockhart Morgan, player
Craig Salstein I-94 East Bound, player, dance captain
Ahmad Simmons Douglas, player
Byron Tittle Estrella, tap dancer, player
Ricky Ubeda Henry
Alejandro Vargas Wayne, player
Jada German, Zachary Gonder, Dario
Natarelli (Fall Captain), Tyrone Reese
Swings
Elijah Lyons vocalist, keyboard
Shara Nova vocalist, electric guitar
Tasha Viets-VanLear vocalist, electric guitar
Nathan Koci conductor, keyboard, banjo, vocals
Sean Peter Forte associate music director, piano, accordion, vocals
Christina Courtin violin, viola, percussion, vocals
Domenica Fossati flute, percussion, vocals
Daniel Freedman drums, vocals
Kathy Halvorson oboe, percussion, vocals
Eleonore Oppenheim acoustic bass, electric bass, vocals
Brett Parnell electric guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo, percussion, vocals
Brandon Ridenour trumpet, vocals
Kyra Sims horn, vocals
Jessica Tsang vibraphone, bass drum, percussion, vocals
Illinoise is a fictional show that explores aspects of mental health, including suicide and suicidal thoughts.
If you or someone you know needs support now, please call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
A hike through the woods, in the bright, crisp, early autumn. A special, air-filled, hard-to-reach place, where individual people become a community by sharing stories and imaging each other … lit by a campfire.
Prologue (or, A Conjunction of Drones …)
Three Stars (or, Concerning the UFO Sighting near Highland, Illinois)
The Long Hike
Come On! Feel the Illinoise!
a story about Jacksonville
a story about Zombies
a story about John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
a story about The Man of Metropolis
Decatur
Chicago
To the Workers of the Rock River Valley Region, I Have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament Casimir Pulaski Day
Prairie Fire That Wanders About
The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!
In This Temple as in the Hearts of Man for Whom He Saved the Earth
The Seer’s Tower
A Conjunction of Drones, again
Chicago (reprise)
The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders
Epilogue (or, Riffs and Variations… and Out of Egypt …)
MORGAN
a griot and expert debater who shares a story about the attempts to understand a lineage, and find the lessons left by those who came before (or: ancestry is more than DNA, it’s how we see, how we move, how we talk to God)
JO DAVIESS
a historian and horror enthusiast who shares a story about the hold The Founding Fathers have on the American Imagination (spoiler alert: They are zombies!! They’re out to get us!!)
WAYNE
a poet and murder balladeer who shares a story about the serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (or: the damning cycle of exclusion borne of outcasts forced to sympathize with monsters)
CLARK
a mentor and dreamer who shares a story about a vulnerable Superman (or: the seductive fiction of the individual hero)
… and,
HENRY
a memoirist in denial who eventually shares a tragic and true tale about first loves … and, of course, The Three Figures in Henry’s story:
CARL
Henry’s childhood best friend, and first love, and a hero of sorts: brave, playful, and unknowable
SHELBY
Henry’s other childhood best friend, and Carl’s first love: goodness, vibrancy, and heartache
DOUGLAS
Henry’s first adult love, a mirror Henry doesn’t feel deserving of: radiance, inventiveness, and presence
In the fall of 2009, I got a Facebook message from a 22-year-old New York City Ballet corps-de-ballet dancer named Justin Peck, explaining what choreography was and that he wanted to choreograph a ballet to Run Rabbit Run. Did I think that was something Sufjan would be interested in? I had drawn the album artwork for the record: string arrangements of Sufjan’s electronic song-cycle for the Chinese Zodiac, Enjoy Your Rabbit. The morning Sufjan came over to explain what he wanted me to draw, he rang the doorbell and said, “There’s a rabbit in your yard.” Someone had dumped a bunch of rabbits in Ditmas Park. The black-and-white one out front was easy to catch. We called Shara who loved rabbits. She took it and then I drew a giant hare framed by the moon for the cover.
I thanked Justin for the definition of choreography, but said it wasn’t necessary as I had been in class with the great Balanchine ballerinas Maria Tallchief, Allegra Kent, and Melissa Hayden before he was even born. Once a ballerina, I had come to New York to dance in 1991, working my way into the furthest margins of the downtown dance scene, which used to keep things going by listing auditions in the Village Voice. Here was a portal opening through the ether into a dance compartment with an aura of impenetrability: the New York City Ballet, the glossy Uptown Citadel for Balanchine, so far from the scrappy DIY worlds of dance and music where me and my family and friends (Sufjan, Shara) circulated.
I was curious but concerned—Justin was 22, at the height of his dance capabilities.
Making dances was a tough business, but he could always fall back on his day job in the corps. I went on my own to a rehearsal, to see what “the kid” was up to. The second the dancers started to move in that steamy studio, I began strategizing how to navigate Sufjan’s reservations around those ballet hallmarks of unnaturalness and masochistic shoes. Justin was up to something else. He got the green light to make his ballet, The Year of the Rabbit. Sufjan and I sat through packed, dynamic rehearsals with more phenomenal dancers than we had ever seen up close. We went to City Ballet performances as often as Justin could hook us up with free tickets. We drilled him for ballet gossip, learned the dancers’ names and our way around the innards of Lincoln Center. The love for the permutations of the rabbit rushed into the next ballet at City Ballet: 2014’s Everywhere We Go.
And so, Justin entered into our fairly seamless 24/7 cascade of creative banter and buzzing around each other: the social nonsense would spill over into working on each other’s projects and vice versa. Justin recently reminded me, with Illinoise, his collaborations with Sufjan across these 13 years of friendship has come to a total of seven projects. I had lost track of the number, but of course they tallied up because when we weren’t racing bikes around the city to gigs and the best Szechuan, we were in deeply entangled communal reveries about artmaking and life. There’s never been a break from “making.” On trips to Miami, when I thought we were just soaking off New York stress in The Raleigh’s pool, there was Justin, floating at the pool’s edge with a book on Balanchine and Tchaikovsky,
the next ballet percolating. Justin brought Sufjan’s musical redemption of Brooklyn’s notorious expressway, The BQE, across the country to the San Francisco Ballet with In the Countenance of Kings in 2016. Even at their most formal (see NYCB’s The Decalogue, 2017 and Principia, 2019, or Houston Ballet’s Reflections, 2019, the ballets seem to always be in the middle of or on the verge of a fresh communion within this circuit of life-intoart-into-life.
And this quality has endured and seasoned over the years into reflections of a visionary love. Despite the scattering, the illnesses, the losses, we rarely need to catch up with each other when we come together because we never really came apart. This is the feeling I get when I look at Justin and Sufjan’s collaborations: the sense that disparate astral bodies once isolated by uptown/downtown old school art divisions, or racing past each other in their youth, have come into an ever-evolving new cosmos, one totally absent of having to prove or say anything about its origins or archetypes. And here, with Illinoise, is yet another fullness of choreography and composition as LIFE, with all of its transcendent, fleeting allegiances and mysteries—here are arpeggios, scales, canons, songs, remarkable bodies in dances to “celebrate our sense of each other,” to remind us: “we have a lot to give one another.”
Jessica Dessner is an artist, poet, dancer, and choreographer.
Some of the passion inherent in our teenage years stems from the desire to be understood by others and find community at a time when we continue to define ourselves. The people we encounter at that age, the places we call home, and the ideas and stories we consume can all make a lifelong impact. At 17, a young Justin Peck encountered Sufjan Stevens’ album Illinois, and it stuck with him because it made him feel seen. The album connected with a young Jackie Sibblies Drury as well. All these years later, their artistic collaboration has the opportunity to return the favor and inspire the next generation of people trying to make sense of themselves and their place in the world. Over 850 New York City public school students will engage with Illinoise through Park Avenue Armory’s Arts Education programs, which offer young people the opportunity to identify meaningful connections between their own experiences and the artistic projects presented here, highlighting the creative process as a path for personal reflection and action. 20 years from now, who knows what might come of it? All things grow.
The middle and high school students engaging with Illinoise through attendance at the student-only matinee on March 11th are exploring storytelling and the multitude of ways stories can be communicated, asking the questions: What stories do we tell about New York? What do those stories say about
us? How do they bring us together as a community? By exploring the choices made in Illinoise and then making creative choices of their own, classes from over 20 schools are invited to find the extraordinary in the otherwise ordinary, mining memorable stories from their own personal narratives and embodying them through visual arts, theater, music, and movement. This exploration is part the Armory’s Production-Based Programming, which invites school groups to experience the Armory’s unconventional works of music, theater, dance, and visual arts in conjunction with workshops co-facilitated by multi-disciplinary Teaching Artists.
The Armory’s Partner School Program offers long-term, customized residencies that support school curriculum and community goals at eight partner schools, with multiple Partner School students spending this semester connecting the context, themes, and form of Illinoise to different classroom curriculums. In one example, 9th and 10th grade theater students from Claremont International High School connect curricular readings to the themes of self-discovery and identity present in the work; they collaboratively devise their own version of a concept album using multidisciplinary art forms including theater, movement, spoken word, and film to offer an ode to their neighborhood of Claremont in the Bronx. In another borough, 10th grade students from Williamsburg High School
for Architecture and Design enhance their exploration of short stories and poetry through a multi-disciplinary residency that celebrates the communities inherent in their classrooms using performative visuals such as stop motion animation, puppetry, and live drawing.
The Armory’s Youth Corps Program offers paid and closely mentored internship programs for students ages 16 to 25+. One of these programs—Armory Art Together— commissions Youth Corps members to create art based off communal prompts, and then come together to share their work as a community. Inspired by Illinoise, 46 Youth Corps members spent the month of February creating art around a space or spaces that felt important to them. Youth Corps began this process by first exploring the physical aspects of their chosen space— how it feels, smells, looks—and making art in response to those senses. They then moved on to creating art about the stories, myths, or memories attached to their space, how their space is shared with others, and how their space inspires them. As a result of this process, Youth Corps members created over 150 original new works of art spanning the genres of visual art, movement, written word, sound, and theater.
Engaging with the arts—creating, experiencing, imagining—invites us into a community not all that dissimilar from ones made around a campfire. While the physical gathering may be ephemeral, the connections made are real. Like the characters gathered around the campfire onstage, each of the Armory’s Arts Education programs offers students the chance to have their own individual moment to share a personal history within a circle of collective support, making space for the individual narratives and perspectives within a community and shedding light on the things that bring us together.
The New York singer, songwriter, and composer has a preoccupation with epic concepts that have motivated two state records (Michigan and Illinois), a collection of sacred and biblical songs (Seven Swans), an electronic album for the animals of the Chinese zodiac (Enjoy Your Rabbit), a full length partly inspired by the outsider artist Royal Robertson (The Age of Adz), a masterwork memorializing and investigating his relationship with his late mother (Carrie & Lowell), and two Christmas box sets (Songs for Christmas, vol. 1-5 and Silver & Gold, vol. 6-10). BAM has commissioned two works, a programmatic tone poem for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (The BQE) and an instrumental accompaniment to slowmotion rodeo footage (Round-Up). He has collaborated extensively with the New York City Ballet choreographer Justin Peck (Year of the Rabbit, Everywhere We Go, Countenance of Kings, Principia, The Decalogue, and Reflections). Stevens contributed three songs to Luca Guadagnino’s film Call Me By Your Name, including the Oscar and Grammynominated song, “Mystery of Love.” In 2020, he shared The Ascension, a reflection on the state of humanity in freefall and a call for a total transformation of consciousness. In 2021, he released Convocations, a fivevolume, two-and-a-half-hour requiem mass for present times. 2021 saw a collaborative release with Angelo DeAugustine, A Beginner’s Mind, featuring songs inspired in part by popular films. In October 2023, Stevens’ tenth solo studio album, Javelin, was released and made its way on to countless “Best Albums of 2023” lists.
Justin Peck is a Tony Award-winning choreographer, director, filmmaker, and dancer based in New York. He is currently the acting Resident Choreographer of New York City Ballet. Peck has created and developed over 50 dance and theater works for stages around the world, including Lincoln Center, Broadway, Palais Garnier, Sydney Opera House, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. He has created extensively for film, most notably choreographing Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story (2021). Honors include the Tony Award for Best Choreography for Carousel (2018), National Arts Award (2018), Golden Plate Honor from the Academy of Achievement (2019), Bessie Award for Outstanding Production for Rodeo (2015), and World Choreography Award for the film West Side Story (2021).
Plays include Marys Seacole (OBIE Award), Fairview (Pulitzer Prize), Really, Social Creatures, and We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Südwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915. The presenters of her plays include Donmar Warehouse, The Young Vic, Lincoln Center Theatre’s LCT3, Soho Rep., Berkeley Rep, New York City Players and Abrons Arts Center, Victory Gardens, Trinity Rep, Woolly Mammoth, Undermain Theatre, InterAct Theatre, Actors Theater of Louisville, Company One, Bush Theatre, and T: The New York Times Style Magazine. Drury has developed her work at Sundance, Bellagio Center, Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Soho Rep. Writer/Director Lab, New York Theatre Workshop, Bushwick Starr, LARK, and MacDowell Colony, among others. She has received a PEN/Laura Pels International
Foundation for Theater Award, a Steinberg Playwright Award, a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a Jerome Fellowship at The LARK, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, and a WindhamCampbell Literary Prize in Drama.
Broadway: Associate Music Director Hadestown (8 Tony Awards), Oklahoma! (Tony Award-Best Revival, OBIE Award).
Tour: Hadestown, War Horse (1st National).
Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Most Happy in Concert (Williamstown Theater Festival, Bard Summerscape). International: The Great Yes, The Great No (dir. William Kentridge), The Head and The Load (dir. William Kentridge).
Dance: Principles of Uncertainty (Maria Kalman, John Heginbotham, BAM Next Wave). Opera: The Source - (Ted Hearne/ Daniel Fish, LA Opera, SF Opera, BAM Next Wave), Cold Blooded - (Alicia Hall Moran, National Sawdust). Select Recordings: The Hands Free (New Amsterdam Records); The Solomon Diaries Vol 1-3 (Adhyropa Records); The Opposite of a Train (Shrimp Records).
Commissions: Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Takács Quartet, Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw, Barbican, Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Orchestra: LA Philharmonic/Green Umbrella, North Carolina Symphony, Britten Sinfonia, Albany Symphony, New World Symphony, Metropolis Ensemble, North Carolina Symphony. Recital: Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, San Francisco Performances, the Phillips Collection, (le) Poisson Rouge Other: Principia (arranger) by Sufjan Stevens with the New York City Ballet. Radio: New Sounds (2023), NPR Tiny Desk (2024). Recordings: Sufjan Stevens’s Reflections and The Decalogue (Asthmatic Kitty); I Still Play,
Home Stretch, Shy and Mighty (Nonesuch Records). Awards: 2016 Pulitzer Prize Finalist (The Blind Banister), 2021 Grammy Award nomination (The Arching Path). Education: Yale School of Music. Andres is a Yamaha/ Bösendorfer Artist and is on the composition faculty at the Mannes School of Music at the New School.
Broadway: The Skin of Our Teeth (Lincoln Center Theater, Tony Nomination, Outer Critics Circle Award). Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Teeth (Playwrights Horizons); A Transparent Musical (Center Theatre Group); The Listeners (Norwegian National Opera); White Girl in Danger (Second Stage Theater/The Vineyard Theatre); On Sugarland (NYTW, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Scenic Design), Cullud Wattah (Lucille Lortel Award Nomination, The Public Theater); Fefu and Her Friends (TFANA, Henry Hewes Design Awards Special Citation for Scenic Design); soft (MCC Theater); Is God Is (Soho Rep). Special Drama Desk Award, 2022.
Upcoming: El Niño (Metropolitan Opera); Lincoln In The Bardo (Metropolitan Opera/ Los Angeles Opera).
Brandon Stirling Baker is an award-winning lighting designer working internationally in the areas of theater, opera, and dance. His work can be seen on stages throughout the United States and abroad including Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Hollywood Bowl, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Australian Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Boston Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, and many others. Baker is best known for his extensive work with director and choreographer Justin Peck where they have collaborated on over 30 premieres worldwide since 2010. Recent collaborations with Sufjan Stevens and Justin Peck include Everywhere We Go, Reflections, In the Countenance of Kings, and Year of the Rabbit. Recipient of the Knight of Illumination Award and Lotus Foundation Prize.
Park Avenue Armory: The Let Go (2018), FLEXN (2015). Credits: The Night Falls by Ellis Ludwig Leone; Song of Songs by David Lang (Pam Tanowitz Dance, SummerScape, Barbican Center); Paola Prestini’s Old Man and the Sea (ASU Gammage); In Our Daughter’s Eyes by Du Yun, Grammy-nominated Soldier Songs, Black Lodge and Dog Days by David T. Little, Pulitzer Prize-winning p r i s m by Ellen Reid; Aquanetta by Michael Gordon (SummerScape, 2019); A God of Her Own Making by JOJO ABOT and Esperanza Spalding; Spatial ... no problem by Lee Scratch Perry/Mouse on Mars. Education: Contemporary Percussion and Classical Music, UCSC under Willie Winant. MacAleavey is a leader in new-music, opera, and theatrical sound design specializing in spatial sound, immersive theater, and classical instrument reinforcement, and serves as Director of Sound and Technical Design at National Sawdust. In partnership with Meyer Sound, he is an expert in Constellation, Space Map, and speaker systems.
Broadway: Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’. Regional: Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’ (The Old Globe); Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater). International: Dispatch Duet (Royal Ballet); The Ninth Hour (Ballet National de Cuba); Un autre passion (Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève); New World (Ballet am Rhine); Watermark (Australian Ballet); Snow (NorrlandsOperan). Dance: Song of Songs, Four Quartets (Pam Tanowitz Dance); Under the Folding Sky (Houston Ballet); Law of Mosaics, Rotunda, Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes (New York City Ballet); Finale Finale (San Francisco Ballet); Thousandth Orange (Boston Ballet); Curious Kingdom (Pacific Northwest Ballet); All at Once (Paul Taylor Dance Company); Heatscape (Miami City Ballet); Counterpoint (Hubbard Street Dance). Education: AAS Fashion Design, FIT; MFA Dance, UArts. Fellowships: NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts 2017; New York Library for the Performing Arts 2018. Commissions: Guggenheim Works and Process 2018 and 2019, Fashion Show (Museum of Art and Design) 2015.
Broadway: Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’. Regional: Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’ (The Old Globe); Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater). International: Dispatch Duet (Royal Ballet); Ballet des Porcelaines, The Ninth Hour (Ballet National de Cuba); Un autre passion (Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève); New World (Ballet am Rhine); Watermark (Australian Ballet). Dance: Song of Songs, Four Quartets (Pam Tanowitz Dance); Under the Folding Sky (Houston Ballet); Law of Mosaics, Rotunda, Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes (New York City Ballet); Finale Finale (San Francisco Ballet); Thousandth Orange (Boston Ballet); Curious Kingdom (Pacific Northwest Ballet); All at Once (Paul Taylor Dance Company); Heatscape (Miami City Ballet); Counterpoint (Hubbard Street Dance). Film: It Goes Quiet. Education: BA
Molecular/Cell biology, UC Berkeley; AAS Fashion Design, FIT. Fellowships: NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts, 2017; New York Library for the Performing Arts, 2018. Commissions: Guggenheim Works and Process 2018 and 2019, Fashion Show (Museum of Art and Design) 2015.
Broadway: Doubt, The Sign In Sidney Brustein’s Window, The Thanksgiving Play, Leopoldstadt, Birthday Candles. Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Off-Broadway: Jonah, Primary Trust, The Wanderers (Roundabout Theater); White Girl In Danger, Camp Siegfried (Second Stage); English, Kimberly Akimbo (Atlantic Theater). Televison: Nickelodeon, Walt Disney Productions, SNL (NBC). Awards: Henry Hewes Design Award.
Broadway: Little Shop of Horrors, The Addams Family, Big Fish, Head Over Heels, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Tony Nomination).
Opera: The Egyptian Helena, Hansel and Gretel, Ernani (La Scala, Milan); Cosí fan tutti, Falstaff (Teatro Del Maggio, Florence); Satyagraha, The Enchanted Island, Doctor Atomic, Marnie (English National Opera/ Met Opera); The Barber Of Seville (Dutch National Opera); The Magic Flute (Welsh National Opera); King Arthur (Berlin Staatsoper); Orpheus in the Underworld (Voksoper, Vienna). Credits: co-directed, co-composed, designed Jedermann (Salzburg Festival); co-created The Aging Magician (BMP at the New Victory Theater); designed The Nutcracker for Christopher Wheeldon (The Joffrey Ballet); Cinderella (Dutch National/San Francisco Ballet); Birdheart (tour including Brussels, Zimbabwe, Abu Dhabi). Crouch is an independent mask maker, director, designer, librettist, illustrator, musician, Co-Founder of Improbable, and Co-Director and Designer of Shockheaded Peter. Awards: residencies
at Park Avenue Armory and BRIC House Fireworks; American Lyric Theater Libretto Fellowship.
Broadway: Carousel. Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Paper Mill Playhouse. Dance: Miami City Ballet, New York City Ballet. Film: West Side Story. Television: Fosse/Verdon (FX). Education: School of American Ballet. Pierce is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of #QueertheBallet.
Broadway: MJ the Musical, Hadestown, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. OffBroadway: Here We Are. Tour: Into the Woods (Fiasco Theater). Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Most Happy (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Bard Summerscape); Cinderella (Paper Mill Playhouse); Bullets Over Broadway (Ogunquit Playhouse). Forte’s performance in Illinoise is dedicated to the memory of Adam North.
Lily Guerin is a scenic and production designer living in Brooklyn. Some favorite recent credits are: Production Designer of feature films Miranda’s Victim (currently streaming) and Bad Shabbos (in post-production); Scenic Designer of the world premiere of Happy Life (Walker Space Theatre); and Associate Scenic Designer on The Skin of Our Teeth (Lincoln Center, 2022 Tony Nominee). A graduate of SUNY Purchase ‘14 and Yale School of Drama ‘20. Proud member of IATSE local USA 829.
Coby Chasman-Beck is a New York-based designer whose work around the world includes theater, opera, dance, fashion, industrials, TV, film, corporate retail, and museum exhibitions. International work in Canada, China, Dominican Republic, England, Ireland, India, Italy, Mexico, and Poland. Broadway work on Tootsie, Kiss Me Kate, Hello Dolly!, In Transit, She Loves Me, Time and The Conways, Death of A Salesman, Betrayal (Associate). Off-Broadway/Regional: Princess Ivona, Mutant Olive, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Peter Pan, Godspell, Footloose, Mary Poppins, and Sophisticated Ladies. TV/film: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Oceans 8, Gossip Girl, MTV, and Spirited. Additional work: Battery Dance, Debbie Allen Dance, Spectrum Dance Theater, The Guthrie Theater, 5th Avenue Theater, Tom Ford, Brooks Brothers, CFDA, Estee Lauder, Hugo Boss, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Member United Scenic Artists Local 829.
Based in New York City, Roya Abab is an experienced Lighting Director with a focus on dance productions. She was most recently the Lighting Director for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and has had the pleasure of working with companies such as Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Washington Ballet, and Limón Dance Company; she is currently the Lighting Director of the annual Vail Dance Festival. Abab’s passion for lighting extends into programming, where she thrives on the collaborative process and opportunities for varied creativity that it brings. She spends much of her time programming the lighting for theater shows throughout New York City.
Daniel Seo makes his costume design debut in this production of Illinoise. Seo brings his design and consulting experience from the fashion industry to this production; he has worked with brands like Adidas, Burberry, Calvin Klein, and Prada, among others. Seo obtained a degree in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley before moving to New York in 2010 to study menswear design at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. He continues his design practice with watercolor painting and illustration. He currently resides in Brooklyn with his partner, Jesse.
Artios Award-winning Casting Director. Film: The Front Room (A24, 2am Films, Two & Two Pictures), Omni Loop (2am Films), Good One (Smudge Films), Rocky’s Deli (Ben Cohen, Patrick Donovan, Grant Curatola), What the Constitution Means to Me (Amazon Prime). Broadway: The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (also BAM), POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, Slave Play (remount/original, CTG, NYTW), Is This a Room & Dana H, What the Constitution Means to Me (NYTW, Barrow Street, National Tour). New Media: amfAR’s The Great Work Begins, Ratatouille: the TikTok Musical. Other theaters: The Mercury Store, PAC NYC, Soho Rep, Rattlestick, TFANA, Two River Theater, Fisher Center at Bard, Shakespeare Theatre, Studio Theatre, Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, New York Stage and Film, among others. Resident casting director, Page 73 Productions. Upcoming: An Enemy of the People (Broadway), Teeth (Playwrights Horizons).
Nate Koch is a Lortel-award and Drama Deskaward winning executive producer of theatrical productions and immersive experiences and the founder and CEO of NVK, a New York City-based executive producing, general management, and business management firm. He has executive produced Illinoise (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), David Byrne’s Theater of the Mind (Denver Center), Love Around the Block (Hermès), Sweeney Todd (Barrow Street Theater), and Nevermore Park (Madison Wells Media). In addition to leading NVK, Koch is the COO of Seaview, a Tony and Olivier-award winning theater and film production company whose current Broadway productions include An Enemy of the People, Stereophonic, and Lempicka.
Regional: Illinoise (Bard Fisher Center, Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Dance: Twyla Tharp Dance (assistant to Twyla Tharp at American Ballet Theatre, staging Deuce Coupe and Ghostcatcher in 2019), Pam Tanowitz Dance, The Hard Nut (Mark Morris Dance Group), Artemis in Athens (Lar Lubovitch Dance Company), Isaac Mizrahi’s Peter & the Wolf (Guggenheim Museum), Janis Brenner & Dancers, Dance Heginbotham, Gleich Dances. Education: BFA, The Juilliard School; Contemporary Program at Jacob’s Pillow; Springboard Danse Montreal. Awards: Dance Magazine’s 2020 “25 to Watch.” Chan is a New York City-based freelance dance artist, originally from Vancouver, Canada.
Broadway: Newsies (national tour); Mean Girls, Tuck Everlasting, revival of Ragtime (2009), Riff in revival of West Side Story (2019), Billy Elliot: The Musical. Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Film: Mouthpiece in Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning remake of West Side Story; Race in Newsies: The Broadway Musical, Beckett in Happiness for Beginners (Netflix); Aaron Fisher in HBO’s Paterno alongside Al Pacino. Television: Pretty Little Liars (HBO/Max), The Penguin (HBO/ Max); Law & Order: SVU, 30 Rock (NBC); FBI (CBS); Veep (HBO); The First Lady (Showtime).
Dance: Principal dancer with the Miami City Ballet, performed in works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, and Paul Taylor, among others, recently performed in Twyla Tharp’s masterpieces Upper Room and Nine Sinatra Songs (New
York City Center); originated feature roles with choreographers Justin Peck, Alexei Ratmansky, and Liam Scarlett. Regional: world premiere of Illinoise (Bard Fisher Center, Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Film: Ili in Steven Spielberg’s Academy Awardwinning remake of West Side Story. Awards: Princess Grace Award in Dance. Delgado is a freelance artist based in New York, originally from Miami, Florida. She/her.
Regional: world premiere of Illinoise (Bard Fisher Center, Chicago Shakespeare Theater).
Dance: Jennifer Lopez’s Las Vegas show All I Have, Season 12 of So You Think You Can Dance tour, Shaping Sound Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. OffBroadway: Andy Blankenbuehler’s Only Gold. Film: Tick Tick... Boom!, Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning remake of West Side Story, Spirited, Maestro. Television: AllStar on seasons 13, 14, 16 of So You Think You Can Dance (FOX). Awards: 2023 Chita Rivera Award Winner, 2015 America’s Favorite Dancer, Season 12 of So You Think You Can Dance. Diaz is originally from Miami, Florida.
Dance: principal dancer at New York City Ballet, 2009-2017. Broadway: An American in Paris (Tony nomination). Regional: Illinoise (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (Signature); Brigadoon (City Center); A Chorus Line (Hollywood Bowl); Kiss Me Kate (Roundabout). International: An American in Paris (West End, Australia); Oklahoma! (London). Film: Cats, An American in Paris Live, The Chaperone, NY Export: Opus Jazz. Television: Soundtrack, Julie’s Greenroom (Netflix); Mixtape (FOX); Oklahoma! (BBC Proms), Romeo and Juliet, Carousel (PBS); Dancing with the Stars (ABC). Awards:
Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Theater World, National Dance, Astaire, Chita Rivera awards; Evening Standard, Drama League nominations.
Dance: Pam Tanowitz Dance, Dance Heginbotham, The Metropolitan Opera, Company XIV, Keigwin + Company, Danielle Russo Performance Project, NVA & Guests, Shinsa Collective, DanceLab NY, featured as a dancer in Hozier’s Almost (Sweet Music) and Lexxe’s Joyride music videos. Regional: Illinoise (Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Off-Broadway: Marie Claire/Sugar Plum in Austin McCormick’s Nutcracker Rouge. Education: BFA Dance, New World School of the Arts; Springboard Danse Montreal; Contemporary Program, Jacob’s Pillow; Cunningham Fellowship workshops. Awards: Dance Magazine’s 2021 “25 to Watch.” Flores is originally from Toronto, Canada and is currently based in New York.
Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Dance: company member with The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Twyla Tharp Dance (In the Upper Room, New York City Center); performances with Ballet Collective, Francesca Harper, Alan Lucien Øyen, Claudia Schreier; works by Ohad Naharin, Bobbi Jene Smith, Azure Barton, Olivia Ancona, Trisha Brown (Juilliard); an alumna of the b12 dance festival, Jacob’s Pillow, Orsolina 28, and others. Education: BFA Dance, The Juilliard School. German is a native of Frisco, Texas and is working as a freelance dancer based in New York.
Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Dance: works by Austin McCormick, Aszure Barton, Pam Tanowitz, Richard Alston, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Crystal Pite; performer with Pam
Tanowitz Dance, PARA.MAR Dance, Brian Brooks Moving Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, Zvi Gotheiner Dance, Studio 189, Lyric Opera of Chicago. Education: Chicago Academy for the Arts, under the tutelage of Randy Duncan; The Juilliard School. Gonder was born north of Chicago and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.
Regional: Illinoise (Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Dance: X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (The Metropolitan Opera); works by Robert Battle, Ohad Naharin, Camille A. Brown, Sidra Bell, Rena Butler, Wayne McGregor, Sonya Tayeh, Norbert De La Cruz, Jawole Zollar, Jermaine Spivey, Spenser Theberge. Television: Season 17 So You Think You Can Dance (FOX); East New York (CBS); 2023 Music Video Awards (MTV). Education: BFA, The Juilliard School. Lockhart’s choreography has been selected for the Black Lives Rising Dance Film Festival, Dance Against Cancer Youth Movement, Made By Women Festival, Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Open House, and Juilliard Choreographic Honors. She/her.
Dance: Vail Dance Festival artist (2016-2024), The Kennedy Center (choreographer/soloist), Jazz At Lincoln Center (Jared Grimes), among others. Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Newsies, Cabaret. Off-Broadway: Oliver!, Tap Dance Kid (Encores!); Ayodele Casel’s Artists At The Center (Co-Choreographer with Michelle Dorrance/performer), Tappin’ Thru Life. Film/Television: Maestro (Justin Peck); SNL (NBC); Netflix, Amazon, Breaking Brooklyn, Macy’s Parade, national commercials, and more. Education: BFA Musical Theater, Pennsylvania State University, LaGuardia Arts High School. Natarelli teaches tap dance at Broadway Dance Center and is a YoungArts finalist and US Presidential Scholar in the Arts. He is an Artist-in-Residence at The American Tap Dance Foundation.
Dance: performed works by Rena Butler, Justin Peck, Ohad Naharin, Aszure Barton, Jamar Roberts, among others. Regional: Illinoise (Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Education: Alabama School of Fine Arts under the direction of Wes Chapman, Mobile Ballet under the direction of Katia Garza; Reese is currently in his senior year The Juilliard School. Awards: 2020 Houston Youth America Grand Prix award, 2020 national YoungArts Foundation award winner in ballet. Reese is originally from Mobile, Alabama and is a recipient of Juilliard’s Greene Foundation scholarship. He/him.
Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater). American Ballet Theater: Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, first sailor in Fancy Free, Bronze Idol/Head Fakir in La Bayadère, Birbanto in Le Corsaire, Gamache in Don Quixote, Puck in The Dream, peasant pas de deux/Hillarion in Giselle, Champion Roper in Rodeo, Neapolitan Dance in Swan Lake, Eros in Sylvia, Devil in Three Virgins and a Devil, leading roles in Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes, In The Upper Room, Sinfonietta, Symphonic Variations. Broadway: Carousel. Film: Associate Choreographer to Justin Peck, West Side Story and Maestro. Education: Miami City Ballet. Awards: 1995 Grand Champion, Star Search.
Ahmad Simmons is a New York City-based performing artist, choreographer, director, and producer, and Co-Founder of Arterial Projects. Concert dance: River North Dance Chicago, Parsons Dance, Eisenhower Dance Detroit. Broadway: West Side Story, Hadestown, Carousel, Cats. Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Pittsburgh CLO (Julia Deberson Awardee). Off-Broadway: Only Gold, A Chorus Line (New York City Center).
Tour: Hamilton Philip Company (Dance Supervisor). Film: Maestro, Better Nate Than Ever. Television: Fosse/Verdon, Dirty Dancing, Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC), Tony Awards, Kennedy Center Honors (CBS), The Today Show (NBC). BFA: Point Park University.
Dance: Byron Tittle has been a decade-long company member of Bessie-award winning tap dance company Dorrance Dance and was assistant to Michelle Dorrance for her American Ballet Theatre debut (2018); his commercial credits include Janet Jackson, Doja Cat, Hugh Jackman, Jason Mraz, and Nicki Minaj. Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Artists at The Center: Tiler Peck (City Center). Film: In The Heights (2021). Education: student of Kendrick Jones II and David Rider. Awards: 2019 Princess Grace Foundation Dance Fellowship Award.
Broadway: On the Town, Cats (Chita Rivera Award nominee), Carousel, West Side Story. Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater). OffBroadway: Freddie Falls in Love (Signature Theatre Company). Film: Flaco in West Side Story, Maestro, In the Heights. Tour: Shaping Sound Dance Company. Television: So You Think You Can Dance (Fox), Fosse/Verdon (FX). Awards: Season 11 winner of So You Think You Can Dance.
Dance: performed works by Ohad Naharin, Aszure Barton, Camille A. Brown, Omar Román de Jesus, Rena Butler, Jamar Roberts, among others. Regional: Illinoise (Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Education: The Juilliard School, Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballet BC, Union County Academy for Performing Arts. Awards: 2020 National Honors Society for Dance Arts, New Jersey
Governor’s Award in Arts Education. Vargas is originally from Rahway, New Jersey where he began dancing at Dancin’ In the Spotlight. He/him.
Regional: Illinoise (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Sing Street (Huntington Theatre). Off-Off-Broadway: Rathskeller: A Musical Elixir (New Ohio Theater). Education: The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts.
Credits: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater); recording artist and touring member of Sufjan Stevens’ band for Illinoise; singer-songwriter of My Brightest Diamond; Detroit Opera. Composition: The Crossing, Conspirare, Roomful of Teeth, Detroit Opera, yMusic, BBC Concert Orchestra, Cincinnati Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, among others.
Recordings: Sufjan Stevens’ Age of Adz, Nova’s You Us We All, Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Penelope, Unremembered, David Lang’s Death Speaks, The Decemberists’ Hazards of Love, The Blue Hour. Awards: Artist-in-Residence, Park Avenue Armory and MassMOCA; featured artist, Carnegie Hall, MoMA, The Momentary; Opera America Discovery and Knights grants; Kresge Arts and US Artists fellowships; three Grammy nominations (2023).
Credits: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater); 2018 Alone at Last, and 2021 critically acclaimed Tell Me What You Miss the Most (Father/Daughter Records); tours across the United States as a headliner and opener for bands and artists including Hand Habits, Helado Negro, Nilüfer Yanya, Jamila Woods, Vagabon, Jeff Tweedy, Japanese Breakfast, Snail Mail, Julien Baker; appearances at Sled Island (Calgary,
Canada), FORM (Arcosanti, Arizona), Pitchfork Music Festival (Chicago, Illinois). Viets-VanLear is a singer, songwriter, and guitar player who performs under the name Tasha and is working on her third album with Gregory Uhlmann, to be released in 2024.
Violinist, vocalist, and composer Christina Courtin is a founding member of The Knights, based in New York, and has collaborated with Bonnie Prince Billy, Ed Sheeran, Chris Thile, Planetarium, Doyle Bramhall II, Le Ann Womack, Baaba Maal, Sara Bareilles, among many others. Courtin released her first solo self-titled album in 2009 on Nonesuch records and has since made several recordings, has toured all over the world, and continues to have a thriving solo career. She has sung with such artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Brooklyn Rider, and The Orlando Philharmonic and is working on an album of songs for 2024.
Regional: Summerstage, BAM, BRIC Theatre, Celebrate Brooklyn, Apollo Theatre, Groundup Music Festival. International: Trans Musicales Festival, Eurockeennes Festival (France); Querétaro (Mexico); Fusion Festival (Germany); Paradiso (Netherlands). Notable Recordings: Miguel Zenon’s Alma Adentro (2014), Marc Ribbot’s Songs of resistance (2018), Underground System’s What Are You (2018). Film: Little Orphan Annie (2014). Television: Late Show with Stephen Colbert with Bright Eyes (CBS); Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon with Andrea Bocelli, America’s Got Talent (NBC), Latin Grammy Awards (Univision). Education: BFA Music, University of North Texas; MFA Music, NYU. Awards: Latin Grammy 2018. Fossati is the frontwoman of New York indiedance band, Underground System.
World tours: David Byrne, Angeliqué Kidjo, Anat Cohen, Omer Avital. Broadway: David Byrne’s American Utopia, Hadestown (sub).
Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Carnegie Hall, Village Vanguard, Coachella. Film: American Utopia dir. Spike Lee. Television: SNL, Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CBS Sunday Morning, Jools Holland Show, PBS Live, The Marvelous Ms. Maisel. Selected recordings: Sting’s If on a Winters Night; Avishai Cohen’s Flood, The Big Rain; Ben Wolfe’s 13 Sketches featuring Wynton Marsalis; Daniel Freedman’s Trio, Bamako By Bus, Imagine That, Ghost Modern; among others
Education: Manhattan School of Music, Max Roach and Vernell Fournier. Co-leads ‘Saha Gnawa’ with Maalem Hassan Ben-Jaafar.
Credits: Symphony Orchestra de Mineria, Sylvan Winds, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, American Symphony, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Argento Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Westchester Philharmonic, Northeast Pennsylvania
Philharmonic, Toronto Chamber Orchestra. Broadway: On the Town. Tour: Les Misérables. Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater). International: Rotterdam Philharmonic, Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Calefax Reed Quintet, Netherlands Balletorkest, and many others. Recordings: Unraveled, Palette (Threeds); 2023 release of A Strange Day In June (Folklorkestra, 2023).
Education: New England Conservatory, Rutgers University, Royal Conservatory (Netherlands). Halvorson has also worked with the Mingus Epitaph, jazz bassoonist Michael Rabinowitz, and Bjork.
Oppenheim is a writer, arranger, chamber musician, soloist, recording artist, and large ensemble player working in theater.
Credits: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma! (Broadway/Off-Broadway); big dog little dog with composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery; acoustic trio with artpop auteur Glasser and multi-instrumentalist Robbie Lee; avant folk-jazz supergroup The Hands Free (with James Moore, Caroline Shaw, and Nathan Koci). She has worked with composers such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, Missy Mazzoli, Victoire and Florent Ghys, Bonjour, Bang on a Can, and others. Education: Juilliard, Yale, Stony Brook. Education work at Kaufman Music Center and Special Music High School.
Broadway: Oklahoma!. Off-Broadway: The Coast Starlight (Lincoln Center Theater), Fiddler on the Roof. Regional: Illinoise (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Cradle Will Rock, Kaiser Von Atlantis. Education: MM Classical Guitar performance, Yale School of Music. Founding member of post-rock ensemble Threefifty, country rock band Runaway Dorothy, and folk outfit Darlin Darlin. Founder of Bear in a Barn NYC recording studio.
Brandon Ridenour is a stylistically diverse trumpet soloist, collaborative artist, composer, and arranger. Following his studies at The Juilliard School, Ridenour toured with the Canadian Brass and embarked on a solo career. He has won competitions ranging from Concert Artists Guild to the American Composers Forum and is Co-Founder of two cross genre ensembles, Brassology and
Founders. In 2023, Ridenour joined the American Brass Quintet and became a faculty member at Juilliard. He is also on faculty at The New School and the Manhattan School of Music, where he is working to develop new, well-rounded, and progressive models of education.
Credits: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater); backing French hornist for artists Earth, Wind & Fire, Jon Batiste, Carole King, Lizzo, giving performances worldwide as both a soloist and a collaborative musician; performed with Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble, Bang on a Can, 8-Bit Big Band, Wordless Music Orchestra, Experiential Orchestra. National Tour: Spamalot. Off-Broadway: Carmen Jones, Superhero, Soft Power, Whisper House. Sims resides in New York and writes, directs, and performs regularly as Co-Artistic Director and Member of the award-winning experimental theater company The New York Neo-Futurists.
Regional: Illinoise (Bard Summerscape, Chicago Shakespeare Theater); No One’s Safe (Banff Centre); Ecstasies of Influence (matralab); There Might Be Others (New York Live Arts). Education: MM Percussion, McGill University; BM Percussion, Mannes School of Music. Recordings: sound shadows, party of one (madeFor Records). Tsang also works with Found Sound Nation to produce OneBeat, a global musical diplomacy program created by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Broadway: Back To The Future: The Musical, Flying Over Sunset, Head Over Heels, An American In Paris, Act One, War Horse, Twyla Tharp’s Come Fly Away, The Royal Family, 13, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Frost/Nixon, Spring Awakening, The Woman In White, Caroline, or Change, Topdog/Underdog, Elaine Stritch: At Liberty, The Wild Party, Epic Proportions, The Civil War, Titanic, Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk. Regional: Illinoise (Chicago Shakespeare Theater). Off-Broadway: Public Works’ Hercules, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mother Courage and her Children, This Is How It Goes, Radiant Baby, On The Town (The Public Theater). International: An American In Paris (Paris, London, Tokyo).
Broadway: Funny Girl, Head Over Heels, Michael Moore: The Terms of My Surrender, An American In Paris, Act One, War Horse. Regional: Illinoise (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Radio City Christmas Spectacular; Soundtrack of America (The Shed); Kings (The Public Theater). Tour: An American In Paris (Asia Tour).
Broadway: Appropriate, Here Lies Love, A Christmas Carol, Cost of Living. OffBroadway: Sorry for Your Loss, Lucy (Minetta Lane Theater); Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members (Soho Repertory Theater); Out of Time (The Public); The Crusade of Connor Stephens (Jerry Orbach Theater). Tour: Waitress (NETworks, Lulu Tour). Regional: Illinoise (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); A Strange Loop (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company). Education: BFA Stage Management, University of Miami. She/her.
Kanako Morita Company Manager
Amanda Harris Assistant Company Manager
Silas Rodriguez, Eden Battice, Naomi Santos
Production Assistant, Programming
Ruby Carmel Production Assistant, Production
Mark Grey Audio Supervisor
Andrew Lulling Audio Systems Engineer
Jeffrey Rowell Production Sound
Kortney Bernard A2
Nicholas Houfek Lighting Supervisor
Dave “Tater” Polato Production Electrician
Chris Stowell Light Board Operator
Ciara McAloon, Adina Valerio Spotlight Operators
Andrew Carey Deck Electrician
Daniel Santamaria Production Video
Carl Whipple Production Carpenter
Justin Hill, Joe Pietropaolo Deck Carpenters
Stephen Pucci Production Rigger
Victoria Bek Wardrobe Supervisor
Jazmine Curie, Dianela Gil, Caitlynne Simonton Dressers
Kelly Yamahiro Dayworker
Theodore Sarge Seating Supervisor
Tap dance choreography by Justin Peck with tap dance improvisations by Byron Tittle
Brian Freeland Production Manager
Rick Steiger Production Stage Manager
Christopher R. Munnell Stage Manager
Narissa Agustin Assistant Stage Manager
Ashton Pickering Stage Management Substitute
Chris Swetcky Technical Director
Lily Guerin Associate Scenic Design
Coby Chasman-Beck Associate Lighting Design
Roya Abab Assistant Lighting Design
Jeff Englander Moving Lights Programmer
Garth MacAleavey Audio Engineer
Daniel Seo Associate Costume Design
Thomas Jenkeleit Props Supervisor
Paula Cohen Production Wardrobe Supervisor
Gina Rodriguez Assistant Wardrobe Supervisor
Nate Thatcher Copyist and Music Assistant
Danie Kohn Acrobatics Coordinator
NVK – Nate Koch, Jenna Ready, Joanna Pisano
General Management
Marika Molnar Physical Therapy
BNW Rigging; Five Ohm Productions; Mind the Gap; Premier Stagehands; Lighting, Rigging, and Video Equipment by 4Wall Entertainment; Audio Equipment by Masque Sound; Steinway & Sons; Backline Equipment by Boulevard Carroll
Illinoise bears no affiliation, association, or endorsement with DC Comics, Inc, its subsidiaries or affiliated entities in any manner, form, or capacity.
This production was originally commissioned, developed, produced and premiered at the Fisher Center at Bard (Gideon Lester, Artistic Director and Chief Executive; Aaron Mattocks, COO; Caleb Hammons, Director of Artistic Planning and Producing; Jecca Barry, Producer; Jason Collins, Associate Producer) in July 2023.
Illinoise is a co-commission of Park Avenue Armory, Fisher Center at Bard, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Southbank Centre, TO Live, and the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) and is produced in association with ArKtype/Thomas O. Kriegsmann by special arrangement with the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC). Its creation was generously supported by Emily Blavatnik and the Blavatnik Family Foundation. It was developed during a Project Springboard: Developing Dance Musicals residency in New York City in July 2022 with lead funding from the Jerome Robbins Foundation, and its premiere at the Fisher Center was made possible with a commissioning grant from The O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation and the Ted & Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund. Additional support was received from the Fisher Center’s Artistic Innovation Fund, with lead support from Rebecca Gold and S. Asher Gelman ‘06 through the March Forth Foundation.
The Illinoise Health Fund was generously supported by The Ted & Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund, Cynthia and Ronald Beck, Henry L. Kimelman Foundation, and Charles and Deborah Adelman. This fund is used to provide health coverage for the cast members of the production during its engagements at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Park Avenue Armory.
ArKtype specializes in new work development and engagements worldwide with Kaneza Schaal, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Brook, Victoria Thiérrée-Chaplin, Yael Farber, Anna Deavere Smith, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, Peter Sellars, Julie Taymor, John Cameron Mitchell, and more. Recent: 600 Highwaymen’s A Thousand Ways, nora chipaumire’s Nehanda, Sam Green’s 32 Sounds with JD Samson (Oscar shortlist, Cinema Eye Best Feature), Bryce Dessner’s Triptych with Roomful of Teeth, John Cameron Mitchell’s The Origin of Love, Big Dance Theater and Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Man in a Case, and Nalaga’at Deaf-Blind Theater’s Not by Bread Alone. ArKtype recently closed the first citywide edition of Under the Radar. Upcoming: Bryce Dessner and Kaneza Schaal’s Ocean Vuong Project, Sam Green’s Trees with Yo La Tengo, and Penny Arcade’s autobiographical epic The Art of Becoming. Thomas O. Kriegsmann is a founding member of The Creative and Independent Producer Alliance.
The Fisher Center develops, produces, and presents performing arts across disciplines through new productions and context-rich programs, and tours them nationally and internationally. As a premier professional performing arts center, and a hub for research and education, the Fisher Center supports artists, students, and audiences in the development and examination of artistic ideas—offering perspectives from the past and present—as well as visions of the future. The Fisher Center demonstrates Bard’s commitment to the performing arts as a cultural and educational necessity. Home is the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts designed by Frank Gehry and located on the campus of Bard College in New York’s Hudson Valley. Building on a 164-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders.
Charles and Deborah Adelman, Salman Al-Rashid, Cynthia and Ronald Beck, Jana Bezdek, FourthWall Theatrical, Daniel Goldring, Shreyas Gupta, Henry L. Kimelman Foundation, Jill Hunter, Aleen Kim, Jen Hoguet, Rosanne Leshner, Dianne McKeever, Janine Racanelli, Susan Rose, Cameron Sczempka, The Ted & Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund, Peter L. Thorén, Orin Wolf Productions, Seaview Productions, Polk & Co., Gray Schwartz LLP / David F. Schwartz, Esq., AKA, Maury, Donnelly & Parr, Inc., WithumSmith+Brown, Delia Anderson-Colson, Kerry Concannon, Patricia Delgado, Jessica Dessner, Di Glazer, Eric Winterling Studios, Steven Gillenwater, Alicia Graf-Mack, Rebecca Habel, Ben Heller, The Juilliard School, Joffrey Ballet, Marty McGuire, Adam Miller, Lisa Moran, NETworks Presentations, Amanda Stephens, Maggie Swahl, Patrice Escandon, Everything Props, BNG Industries, and Stephen Kurowsi.
Part palace, part industrial shed, Park Avenue Armory supports unconventional works in the performing and visual arts that cannot be fully realized in a traditional proscenium theater, concert hall, or white wall gallery. With its soaring 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall—reminiscent of 19thcentury European train stations—and an array of exuberant period rooms, the Armory provides a platform for artists to push the boundaries of their practice, collaborate across disciplines, and create new work in dialogue with the historic building. Across its grand and intimate spaces, the Armory enables a diverse range of artists to create, students to explore, and audiences to experience epic, adventurous, relevant work that cannot be done elsewhere in New York.
The Armory both commissions and presents performances and installations in the grand Drill Hall and offers more intimate programming through its acclaimed Recital Series, which showcases musical talent from across the globe within the salon setting of the Board of Officers Room; its Artists Studio series curated by Jason Moran in the restored Veterans Room; Making Space at the Armory, a public programming series that brings together a discipline-spanning group of artists and cultural thought-leaders around the important issues of our time; and the Malkin Lecture Series that features presentations by scholars and writers on topics related to Park Avenue Armory and its history. In addition, the Armory also has a year-round Artistsin-Residence program, providing space and support for artists to create new work and expand their practices.
The Armory’s creativity-based arts education programs provide access to the arts to thousands of students from underserved New York City public schools, engaging them with the institution’s artistic programming and outside-the-box creative processes. Through its education initiatives, the Armory provides access to all Drill Hall performances, workshops taught by Master Teaching Artists, and in-depth residencies that support the schools’ curriculum. Youth Corps, the Armory’s year-round paid internship program, begins in high school and continues into the critical posthigh school years, providing interns with mentored employment, job training, and skill development, as well as a network of peers and mentors to support their individual college and career goals.
The Armory is undergoing a multi-phase renovation and restoration of its historic building led by architects Herzog & de Meuron, with Platt Byard Dovell White as Executive Architects.
Chairman Emeritus
Elihu Rose, PhD
Co-Chairs
Adam R. Flatto
Amanda J.T. Riegel
President
Rebecca Robertson
Vice Presidents
David Fox
Pablo Legorreta
Emanuel Stern
Treasurer
Emanuel Stern
Marina Abramović
Abigail Baratta
Joyce F. Brown
Cora Cahan
Hélène Comfort
Paul Cronson
Jonathan Davis
Tina R. Davis
Jessie Ding
Sanford B. Ehrenkranz
Roberta Garza
Kim Greenberg
Samhita Jayanti
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Edward G. Klein, Brigadier General NYNG (Ret.)
Ralph Lemon
Jason Moran
Janet C. Ross
Stephanie Sharp
Joan Steinberg
Dabie Tsai
Avant-Garde Chair
Adrienne Katz
Directors Emeriti
Harrison M. Bains, Jr.
Angela E. Thompson*
Wade F.B. Thompson*
Founding Chairman, 2000–2009
Pierre Audi
Anita K. Hersh Artistic Director
Rebecca Robertson Adam R. Flatto Founding President and Executive Producer
Pierre Audi Artistic Director
Michael Lonergan Chief Artistic Producer
Kevin Condardo General Manager, Programming
Rachel Rosado Producer
Samantha Cortez Producer
Darian Suggs Associate Director, Public Programming
Kanako Morita Company Manager/Associate Producer
Oscar Peña Programming Coordinator
Paul E. King Director of Production
Claire Marberg Deputy Director of Production
Nicholas Lazzaro Technical Director
Lars Nelson Technical Director
Aidan Nelson Technical Director
Rachel Baumann Assistant Production Manager
Cassidy L. Jones Chief Education Officer
Monica Weigel McCarthy Director of Education
Aarti Ogirala Associate Director of Education, School Programs
Nadia Parfait School Programs Coordinator
Ciara Ward Youth Corps Manager
Bev Vega Youth Corps Manager
Drew Petersen Education Special Projects Manager
Jason Moran Curator, Artists Studio
Tavia Nyong’o Curator, Public Programming
Emily Bruner, Donna Costello, Alexander Davis, Asma Feyijinmi, Hawley Hussey, Larry Jackson, Drew Petersen, Leigh Poulos, Neil Tyrone Pritchard, Vickie Tanner Teaching Artists
Wilson Castro, Shar Galarza, Daniel Gomez, Nancy K. Gomez, Maxim Ibadov, Amo Ortiz Teaching Associates
Arabia Elliot Currence, Victoria
Fernandez, Sebastian Harris Teaching Assistants
Felipe Aguirre, Terry Beaupierre, Jordan Busey, Marc Keven Chaudry, Chelsea Dennis, Moon Emigli, Annalisa Fortune, Juni Garcia, Raven Garcia, Jade Hernandez, Melina Jorge, Yenupaak Konlan, Nephthali Mathieu, Sofia Maza, Kailo Meng, Nino Morrison, Alan Munoz, MJ Polanco, Elijah Tejeda, Aniyah Suce, AJ Volkov, Milen Yimer Youth Corps
Ashlee Willaman Director of Human Resources
Marc Von Braunsberg Director of Operations and Security
David Burnhauser Collection Manager
Frank Duda Director of Facilities
Emma Paton Administrative and Office Coordinator
Williams Say Superintendent
Olga Cruz, Leandro Dasso, Mayra
DeLeon, Mario Esquilin, Jeferson Avila, Jose Campoverde, Branden Fell, Jacob
Garrity, Joshua Rosa, Tyrell Shannon
Castillo Maintenance Staff
Oku Okoko Director of IT
Jorge Sanchez IT Helpdesk Administrator
Natasha Michele Norton Director of House Management
Alejandra Ortiz, Clayton McInerney, Dawn Clements, Nancy GillSanchez House Managers
Adonai Fletcher-Jones, AJ Jones, Beth Miller, Christina Johns, Christine Lemme, Cody Castro, Eboni Greene, Eileen Rourke, Eliza Goldsteen, Glori Ortiz, Heather Sandler, Jacqueline Babek, Jane DeVoe, Janneurys Colon, Kat Rodriguez, Kathleen White, Kedesia Robinson, Kin Tam, Lana Hankinson, Mariel Mercedes, Melina Jorge, Milen Yimer, MJ Ryerson, Naomi Santos, Naz Black, Neda Yeganeh, Rachel Carmona, Raven Garcia, Regina Pearsall, Sandra Kitt, Sarah Gallick, Sebastian Harris, Tayler Everts, Tess Kondratiev, Yanitza Chan, Yao Adja Ushers
Melanie Forman Chief Development Officer
Charmaine Portis Executive Assistant to the Chief Development Officer
Indra Davis Director of Individual Giving
Chiara Bosco Individual Giving Coordinator
Angel Genares Director of Institutional Giving
Hans Rasch Manager of Institutional Giving
Séverine Kaufman Manager of Special Events
Michael Buffer Director of Database Operations
Maeghan Suzik Development Coordinator
Lori Nelson Executive Assistant to the President
Nathalie Etienne Administrative Assistant, President’s Office
Simone Elhart Rentals and Project Manager
Judy Rubin Chief Financial Officer
Tejal Patel Controller
Khemraj Dat Accounting Manager
Zeinebou Dia Junior Accountant
Tom Trayer Chief Marketing Officer
Nick Yarbrough Associate Director of Digital Marketing
Allison Abbott Senior Press and Editorial Manager
Mark Ho-Kane Graphic Designer
Joe Petrowski Director of Ticketing and Customer Relations
Monica Diaz Box Office Manager
John Hooper Assistant Box Office Manager
Meghan Lara Hrinkevich Box Office Lead
Victor Daniel Ayala, Fiona Garner, Isabelle Graham, Jordan Isaacs, Sarah Jack, Matthew Kamen, Max Komisar, Michelle Meged, Caleb Moreno, Miciah Wallace Box Office Associates
Anne Wolf, Grace Kent Tour Guides
Resnicow + Associates Press Representatives
MARCH 27 & 28
Artist and musician Jasper Marsalis, also known as Slauson Malone or son of the jazz impresario Wynton Marsalis, comes to the Armory to perform a set inspired by the Veterans Room, layering dissonant sounds on top of one another to create a dense and dizzying suite of sonic collages that invite close listening.
APRIL 12
As a capstone of the Radical Practice of Black Curation symposium in collaboration with Princeton University, multidisciplinary artist Richard Kennedy presents a musical encapsulation of the African diaspora in the Armory’s historic rooms. Titled Guttural (Conducted Contact), this new work opens a portal of participatory gathering as truth emerges through song, dance, and a series of wordless conversations with Afro-Brazilian dancer Vera Passos.
MAY 18
American poet, musician, and activist Moor Mother comes to the Veterans Room with two distinct programs that spotlight her work as a solo artist and her collaborations with other musicians who share her drive to dig up the untold. Following a solo set of fringe and avant-garde sonic landscapes rooted in industrial, electronic, noise, punk, and hip hop, she is joined by Irreversible Entanglements (IE), a free-jazz quintet with an experimental punk mentality that plays deeply improvised, rhythm music full of love and social commitment.
MAY 20 & 22
American tenor Matthew Polenzani comes to the Armory with a program of lieder and art songs that offer audiences the chance to get to know the beauty of his sound, the musicality of his legato, the suppleness of his phrasing, and the clarity of his diction in one of the only spaces that could provide such a personal encounter—the Board of Officers Room.
MAY 21
The Oxford Bach Soloists under the music direction of Tom HammondDavies and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street are joined by countertenor Reginald Mobley, tenor Nick Pritchard, and sheng player Wu Tong to perform a selection of Bach cantatas intermingled with spirituals in a staging by the celebrated director Peter Sellars. This musical call to action, presented in collaboration with the Asia Society, illuminates the undeniable truth that water is life, and that music is a universal language that can unite and inspire.
JUNE 1
Led by playwright and poet Claudia Rankine, this symposium is punctuated with performances, panels, investigations of group dynamics, as well as imagined conversations between revolutionary thinkers. Participants include renowned postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha, acclaimed cultural historian Saidiya Hartman, and Guggenheim fellow and choreographer Shamel Pitts.
JUNE 5 - 15
Karlheinz Stockhausen’s magnum opus Licht—a seven opera cycle each representing a day of the week—is an epic 29-hour work for vocal, instrumental, and electronic forces that is rarely performed given its length and the different configurations of musicians and spaces needed. Several electronic compositions from this opus, performed by one of his original collaborators Kathinka Pasveer, are presented as two parts on separate evenings or in a full marathon with transformative lighting and video projections to fully immerse the audience in the all-encompassing, octophonic sound and surroundings in the vastness of the Wade Thompson Drill Hall.
Become a Park Avenue Armory member and join us in our mission to present unconventional works that cannot be fully realized elsewhere in New York City. Members play an important role in helping us push the boundaries of creativity and expression.
$64 is tax deductible
• 10% discount on tickets to all Armory tours and performances*
• 20% discount on member subscription packages*
• Invitations to member preview party for visual art installations
• Complimentary admission for two to visual art installations
• Access to the Membership Hotline for ticket assistance
• Discounts at local partnered restaurants
SUPPORTER $250
$194 is tax deductible
• All benefits of the Friend membership plus:
• Fees waived on ticket exchanges*
• Two free tickets to Armory Public Tours***
• Invitation to annual Member event
ASSOCIATE $500
$348 is tax deductible
All benefits of the Supporter membership plus:
• Complimentary admission for two additional guests (total of four) to visual art installations and member preview party
• Two free passes to annual fairs held at the Armory, such as TEFAF, The Art Show, Salon Art + Design, etc.**
• Access to the Patron Lounge at select productions
$824 is tax deductible
All benefits of the Associate membership plus:
• Recognition in the Armory printed programs
• No-wait ticket pick up at the patron desk
• Handling fees waived on ticket purchases*
• Invitation for you and a guest to a private Chairman’s Circle event
• Two complimentary tickets to the Malkin Lecture Series*
starting at $2,500
Chairman’s Circle members provide vital support for the Armory’s immersive arts and education programming and the restoration of our landmark building. In grateful appreciation of their support, they are provided unique and exclusive opportunities to experience the Armory and interact with our world-class artists.
starting at $350
The Avant-Garde is a group for adventurous art enthusiasts in their 20s to early 40s. Members enjoy an intimate look at Armory productions, as well as invitations to forward-thinking art events around New York City.
*Subject to ticket availability
**Certain restrictions apply
For information on ticketing, or to purchase tickets, please contact the Box Office at (212) 933-5812 or visit us at armoryonpark.org.
***Reservations required
For more information about membership, please contact the Membership Office at (212) 616-3958 or members@armoryonpark.org.
Each membership applies to one household, and one membership card is mailed upon membership activation.
The Artistic Council is a leadership group that champions and supports groundbreaking “only at the Armory” productions.
Co-Chairs
Noreen Buckfire
Lisa Miller
Anonymous (2)
Anne-Victoire Auriault/Goldman
Sachs Gives
Abigail and Joseph Baratta
Noreen and Ken Buckfire
Hélène and Stuyvesant Comfort
Caroline and Paul Cronson
Courtney and Jonathan Davis
Jessie Ding and Ning Jin
Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz
The Lehoczky Escobar Family
Adam R. Flatto
Roberta Garza and Roberto Mendoza
Lorraine Gallard and Richard H. Levy
Barbara and Peter Georgescu
Kim and Jeff Greenberg
Lawrence and Sharon Hite
Samhita and Ignacio Jayanti
Wendy Keys
Fernand Lamesch and Maria Pisacane
Almudena and Pablo Legorreta
Christina and Alan MacDonald
John and Lisa Miller
Lily O’Boyle
Valerie Pels
Amanda J.T. and Richard E. Riegel
Susan and Elihu Rose
Janet C. Ross
Caryn Schacht and David Fox
Stephanie and Matthew Sharp
Brian S. Snyder
Joan and Michael Steinberg
Emanuel Stern
Slobodan Randjelović and Jon Stryker
Merryl and James Tisch
Mary Wallach
Saundra Whitney
The Armory’s Legacy Circle is a group of individuals who support Park Avenue Armory through a vitally important source of future funding, a planned gift. These gifts will help support the Armory’s out-the-box artistic programming, Arts Education Programs, and historic preservation into the future.
Founding Members
Angela and Wade F.B. Thompson
Co-Chairs
Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz
Marjorie and Gurnee Hart
Members
The Estate of Ginette Becker
Wendy Belzberg and Strauss
Zelnick
Emme and Jonathan Deland
Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz
Adam R. Flatto
Roberta Garza
Marjorie and Gurnee Hart
Ken Kuchin
Heidi McWilliams
Michelle Perr
Amanda J.T. Riegel
Rebecca Robertson and Byron Knief
Susan and Elihu Rose
Francesca Schwartz
Joan and Michael Steinberg
Angela and Wade F.B. Thompson
Park Avenue Armory expresses its deep appreciation to the individuals and organizations listed here for their generous support for its annual and capital campaigns.
$1,000,000 +
Charina Endowment Fund
Citi
Empire State Local Development Corporation
Adam R. Flatto
Marina Kellen French
Barbara and Andrew Gundlach
Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Peter L. Malkin and The Malkin Fund, Inc.
Richard and Ronay Menschel
New York City Council and Council Member Daniel R. Garodnick
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
New York State Assemblymember
Dan Quart and the New York State Assembly
The Pershing Square Foundation
Susan and Elihu Rose
The Arthur Ross Foundation and J & AR Foundation
Joan Smilow and Joel Smilow*
The Thompson Family Foundation
Wade F.B. Thompson*
The Zelnick/Belzberg Charitable Trust
Anonymous
$500,000 to $999,999
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Lisa and Sanford B. Ehrenkranz
Almudena and Pablo Legorreta
Adam R. Rose and Peter R. McQuillan
Donna and Marvin Schwartz
Emanuel Stern
Anonymous
$250,000 to $499,999
American Express
Abigail and Joseph Baratta
Michael Field
Roberta Garza and Roberto Mendoza
Ken Kuchin and Tyler Morgan
The Rockefeller Foundation
Marshall Rose Family Foundation
Mrs. Janet C. Ross
$100,000 to $249,999
The Achelis and Bodman Foundations
R. Mark and Wendy Adams
Linda and Earle Altman
Blavatnik Family Foundation
Booth Ferris Foundation
Hélène and Stuyvesant Comfort
Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
Courtney and Jonathan Davis
Jessie Ding and Ning Jin
Howard Gilman Foundation
Kim and Jeff Greenberg
Marjorie and Gurnee Hart
Samhita and Ignacio Jayanti
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Leonard & Judy Lauder Fund
Mr. and Mrs. Lester Morse
New York State Assembly
New York State Council on the Arts
Stavros Niarchos Foundation
Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust
The Pinkerton Foundation
Slobodan Randjelović and Jon Stryker
Amanda J.T. and Richard E. Riegel
Daniel and Joanna S. Rose
Caryn Schacht and David Fox
Matthew and Stephanie Sharp
Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust
Joan and Michael Steinberg
Mr. William C. Tomson
Peter Zhou and Lisa Lee
$25,000 to $99,999
Jody and John Arnhold
Anne-Victoire Auriault / Goldman Sachs Gives
The Avenue Association
Melanie Bouvard and Matthew Bird
Noreen and Ken Buckfire
The Cowles Charitable Trust
Caroline and Paul Cronson
Maxine and Mark Dalio
Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
Emme and Jonathan Deland
Andrew L. Farkas & Island Capital Group LLC
Lorraine Gallard and Richard H. Levy
Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation
Barbara and Peter Georgescu
Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Kiendl and John Gordon
Mindy and Jon Gray
Agnes Gund
Janet Halvorson
Robert and Monica Hanea
The Keith Haring Foundation
The Estate of Anita K. Hersh*
The Emily Davie and Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation
Suzie and Bruce Kovner
The Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation
Fernand Lamesch and Maria Pisacane
The Lehoczky Escobar Family
Christina and Alan MacDonald
Christine and Richard Mack
Marc Haas Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
Katharine Rayner
The Reed Foundation
Rhodebeck Charitable Trust
Genie and Donald Rice
Rebecca Robertson and Byron Knief
The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation
The Shubert Foundation
Sydney and Stanley S. Shuman
Amy and Jeffrey Silverman
Sanford L. Smith
Brian S. Snyder
TEFAF NY
Terra Foundation of American Art
Tishman Speyer
Barbara D. Tober
Jane Toll
Mary Wallach
Wescustogo Foundation
Winston & Strawn LLP
Anonymous (5)
AECOM Tishman
Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation
Gabrielle S. Bacon Foundation
Harrison and Leslie Bains
Agnieszka & Withold Balaban
Mercedes Bass
The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation
Amanda M. Burden
Sergey G Butkevich
Tim Cameron
Ania Coffey
Betsy and Edward Cohen
Con Edison
Antoinette Delruelle and Joshua L. Steiner
Luis y Cora Delgado
William F. Draper
Andrew and Theresa Fenster
Sarah Jane and Trevor Gibbons
Harkness Foundation for Dance
Lawrence and Sharon Hite
Claire King
Leon Levy Foundation
James Marlas and Marie NugentHead Marlas
Danny and Audrey Meyer
John and Lisa Miller
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Lily O’Boyle
O’Donnell-Green Music And Dance Foundation
Michael Peterson
Joan and Joel I. Picket
Kathryn Ploss
Anne and Skip Pratt
Fiona and Eric Rudin
May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc.
Mrs. William H. Sandholm
Stephen and Christine Schwarzman
Cynthia and Tom Sculco
Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation
Jean and Gene Stark
Michael and Veronica Stubbs
The Polonsky Foundation
Merryl and James Tisch
Andrew and Purva Tsai
Susan Unterberg
Deborah C. van Eck
Saundra Whitney
Maria Wirth
Anonymous (5)
$5,000 to $9,999
Amy and David Abrams
Donald Allison and Sumiko Ito
Fabrizio and Enrica Arengi
Bentivoglio
Gina Argento
Nicholas Brawer
Catherine and Robert Brawer
Dr. Joyce F. Brown and Mr. H. Carl McCall
David Bruson
Trevor Buchanan
Mary and Brad Burnham
Arthur and Linda Carter
Orla Coleman and Rikki Tahta
Irene Danilovich
David L. Klein, Jr. Foundation
David Schwartz Foundation, Inc.
Jennie L. and Richard K. DeScherer
Jeanne Donovan Fisher
Dr. Nancy Eppler-Wolff and Mr. John Wolff
The Felicia Fund
Ella M. Foshay and Michael B. Rothfeld
Gwen and Austin Fragomen
Jill and Michael J. Franco
Amandine Freidheim
Mary Ann Fribourg
Bart Friedman and Wendy A. Stein
Buzzy Geduld
The Georgetown Company
Great Performances
George and Patty Grunebaum
Ann Kaplan
Adrienne Katz
The David L. Klein, Jr. Foundation
Meghan Klopp
Jill and Peter Kraus
Sheila and Bill Lambert
Gail and Alan Levenstein
David and Simone Levinson
The Honorable and Mrs. Earle I Mack
Joanie Martinez-Rudkovsky
Helen Nash
James and Margo Nederlander
Jesse and Stéphanie Newhouse
Elyse and Michael Newhouse
Anna Nikolayevsky
David Orentreich, MD / Orentreich Family Foundation
Susan Porter
Preserve New York, a grant program
of Preservation League of New York
Richenthal Foundation
Laura and Gerald Rosberg
Ida and William Rosenthal Foundation
Valerie Rubsamen and Cedomir Crnkovic
Jane Fearer Safer
Susan Savitsky
Philip Schmerbeck/Herzog & de Meuron USA
Nicholas and Shelley Schorsch
Sara Lee and Axel Schupf
David Schwartz Foundation Inc.
PBDW Architects
Denise Simon and Paulo Vieira da Cunha
Lea Simonds
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Daisy M. Soros
Patricia Brown Specter
Beatrice Stern
Melissa Stewart
L.F. Turner
Alyssa Varadhan
Bob Vila and Diana Barrett
Anastasia Vournas and J. William Uhrig
George Wang
Mr. and Mrs. Stanford Warshawsky
Isak and Rose Weinman
Foundation, Inc.
Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg
Michael Weinstein
Gary and Nina Wexler
Cynthia Young and George Eberstadt
Toni Young
Elham Yousefi
Samiah Zafar and Minhaj Patel
Zubatkin Owner Representation, LLC
Anonymous (2)
$2,500 to $4,999
Allen Adler and Frances Beatty
Ksenia Anisimova
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
Ate Atema
BDO United States
Tony Bechara
Catherine Behrend
Jason Berger
Marjaleena and Jonathan Berger
Stephanie Bernheim
Katherine and Marco Birch
Allison M. Blinken
Clemence Boissonnas
Barbara Brandt
Jordan and Blythe Brock
Stacey Bronfman
James Buresh
Hugh Burns and Molly Duffy
Michael Carlisle and Sally Peterson
Alexandre and Lori Chemla
Sana Clegg
Betsy Cohn
Margaret Conklin
Connelly McLaughlin & Woloz
Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany New York
Ellie and Edgar Cullman
Joshua Dachs / Fisher Dachs
Associates
John Charles and Nathalie
Danilovich
Joan K. Davidson* (The J.M. Kaplan Fund)
Peter Droste
Susan Dunn and Rob Cunjak
Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz
Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Foundation
Deborah and Ronald Eisenberg Foundation
Megan Flanigan
Eleanor Friedman and Jonathan J.
Cohen
Sayuri Ganepola and Jeff Kaczynski
Rosalind and Eugene Glaser
Robert S. Gregory
Phillip Gulley
Kathleen D. Hale
Andrea Hirsch
Barbara Hoffman
Johanna Hudgens and Matthew Wilson
Phyllis Hyde
Shujaat Islam and Fay Sardjono
Judith Jadow
Anu Jayanti
Jim and Leslie Johnson
Jeanne Kanders
Jennie A. Kassanoff and Daniel H.
Schulman
James and Stephanie Kearney
Lee Kern
Timothy and Jessica Kisling
Jana and Gerold Klauer
Kameron Kordestani
Douglas and Judith Krupp
Lizbeth & George Krupp
Vinnie Kaur Kumar
Theodore and Adeline Kurz
Kate Lauprete
Lazarus Charitable Trust
Chad A. Leat
Julia Ledda and Hassan Taher
Harrison LeFrak
Kim Lovejoy
Stephen Ludwig
Lili Lynton and Michael Ryan
Gina Giumarra MacArthur
Charles and Georgette Mallory
Bonnie Maslin
Nina B. Matis
Peter and Leni May
Claudia and Eduardo Mazzi
Mr. and Mrs. Matthew McLennan
Ryan McNaughton and Anastasia
Antoniev
Constance and H. Roemer McPhee
Israel Meir & Steve Rivera
Joyce F. Menschel
Saleem and Jane Muqaddam
Leslie and Curt Myers
Susan and Peter* Nitze
Gwendolyn Adams Norton and Peter Norton
Stephen Novick
Susan Numeroff
Kathleen O’Grady
Arlena Olsten
Patsy Orlofsky
Peter and Beverly Orthwein
Robert Ouimette and Lee Hirsch
Ji Park Kwak
Lee and Lori Parks
The Pass Family
Sanjay and Leslie Patel
Dennis Paul
Louis and Barbara Perlmutter
Richard and Rose Petrocelli
Marnie Pillsbury
Natalya and Nicolas Poniatowski
Phyllis Posnick and Paul Cohen
Rajika and Anupam Puri
Jennifer Reardon
Diana and Charles Revson
Marjorie P. Rosenthal
Whitney Rouse
Deborah and Chuck Royce
Susan Rudin
Kevin and Pascaline Ryan
Leslie Rylee
Sana H. Sabbagh
Alexander and Sarah Saint-Amand
Andres and Lauren Santo Domingo
Susan and Charles Sawyers
Stacy Schiff and Marc de La
Bruyère
Benjamin Schor & Isabel
Wilkinson Schor
Shelley Sonenberg
Stephen and Constance Spahn
Andre Spears and Anne Rosen
Squadron A Foundation
Michael and Marjorie Stern
Leila Maw Straus
Stella Strazdas and Henry Forrest
Studio Institute
A. Alfred Taubman Foundation
The Clarence Westbury Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. David Tomasello
Zachary Kress Turner
Union Square Events
Marisa and Robin van Bokhorst
Mrs. William J. vanden Heuvel
Patrick Verdonck
Robert Warshaw and Debbie Schmidt
Andrew and Sarah Wetenhall
Amy Yenkin and Robert Usdan
Ku-Ling Yurman
Judy Francis Zankel
John Zeiler
Anonymous (6)
$1,000 to $2,499
Diane and Arthur Abbey
Ian Abbott
Carolina Abed Gaona
Marina Abramović
Travis Acquavella
Hilary Adams
Benigno Aguilar and Gerald Erickson
Roger Alcaly and Helen Bodian
Eric Altmann
Dr. Lora Aroyo
Catherine S.G. Atterbury
Rebecca Lynn Bagdonas
Edward and Elizabeth Baker
Laurie G Beckelman
Stefan Beckman
Candace and Rick Beinecke
Dale and Max Berger
Rick Berndt and Marie-Camille
Havard
Elaine S. Bernstein
Peter and Amy Bernstein
Shranutha Bhaskar
Sarah Blais
Bluestem Prairie Foundation
Boehm Family Foundation
Maegan Boger
Jean Bohm
Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz
Polly Shih Brandmeyer
Daniel and Estrellita Brodsky
Spencer Brownstone
Bryan Bruno
Cora Cahan
Alexandra Andrea Cahill
Christina Caldwell
Janel Anderberg Callon
Arielle Camhi
Arian Camilleri and Somphone
Sikhounmoung
Christine Connolly
Dr. and Mrs. Bradley A. Connor
Clifford Cameron Cook
Scott Corbus
Marina Couloucoundis
Sophie Coumantaros
Abby and Andrew Crisses
Mary Margaret Cunney
Sasha Cutter and Aaron Hsu
Richard and Peggy Danziger
Eric de Cholnoky and Lily
Greenwell-Farrell
Chiara de Rege
Evangeline Decima
Anna Denton
David desJardins & Nancy
Blachman
Sofia Drakotos
Christopher Duda
Kate Durling
Eamon Early
Roger and Carol Einiger
Marla Eisbruck
Frederick & Diana Elghanayan
Emily Elliot
Patricia Ellis
Erica Emerson and Eamon Murphy
Allen and Heidi Roberts
Cristina Enriquez-Bocobo
Dasha Epstein
Richard and Florence Fabricant
Darice and Jason Fadeyi
Katy Falco
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas N. Farmakis
Femenella & Associates, Inc.
Conrad Foa and CB Whyte Foa
Frances Fontaine and Anthony
Chedid
Melanie and Robert Forman
Kristin Gamble
Bruce and Alice Geismar
Heather & Andrew Georges
Tracey and Scott Gerber
DeNora Getachew
David and Susan Getz
Jackson Gladden
Beth and Gary Glynn
Mitch Gordon and Julie Appel
Noah and Maria Gottdiener
Diego Gradowczyk and Isabella
Hutchinson
Notoya Green and Fred Mwangaguhunga
Maggie Gresio
Karen and Jeff Groeger
Jan M. Guifarro
Frances and Gerard Guillemot
Sharon Gurwitz
Susan K. Gutfreund
Yen Ha and Richard Tesler
Linda Hackett and Russell Munson
Olympia Hall
Qusai Hammouri and Elizabeth Cho
Kathleen Harrison and Edward Flinn
Nicole Hart
Sheila Heimbinder
Matthew Hemberger
Travis Hennings
Jill Herman
Astrid Hill
William T. Hillman
David and Rochelle Hirsch
Bruce Hoffman
Mr. Joseph C. Hoopes, Jr.
Julie and Dan Horton
Jack and Harriet Huston
Kamila Islam
Carola Jain
Weslie and William Janeway
Linda Janklow
Dimitri Jobert and Frank Bostelmann
Linda E Johnson
Christopher and Hilda Jones
Li Karam
Boriana Karastoyanova
Mahesh and Bhavna Katkar
Sharon H. Kim
Tracy Kimmel
Brigadier General Edward G. Klein, NYNG (Ret.)
Quentin Koffey
Hoda Kotb
Kate Krauss
Kathryn Kremnitzer
Mrs. Geraldine S. Kunstadter
Sophie Laffont
Barbara Landau
Dean and Mara Landis
Tamara Lazic Strugar
Sherry Lee
Ralph Lemon
Linda Lindenbaum
Jenifer Liu
Jane Lombard
Bill Luby
Katherine Lyon
Pinki Mahadevia
Paula Mahoney
Mary Stewart Malone
Jana Markowicz
Jacqueline Martin
Match65
Diane L. Max
Charmee Mayer
Larry and Mary McCaffrey
Stephanie McCormick-Goodhart
Charles McDonald
Andrea Melton
Meryl Meltzer
Bella Meyer and Timothy Simonds
Whitney and Andrew Mogavero
Julia Moody
David and Casey Moore
Larry Morse and Sharon Bowen
Enid Nemy, Dorothy Strelsin Foundation
D. and Roseline Neveling
Stephanie Neville & Alan Beller
Nancy Newcomb and John Hargraves
Charles and Leslie Nicolais
Priyanka Nishar
Kay Nordeman
Lynn Nottage and Tony Gerber
Dr. Catherine Orentreich
Amanda Paret
Gautam Patel
Michael and Nina Patterson
Dan Peck
Harlan Peltz
Marc Alexander Perruzzi
John and Marie Noelle Pierce
Candace Platt
Maya Polsky & Nicolas Bridon
Brette Popper and Paul Spraos
Charmaine and Brian Portis
Anne and Josh Prentice
Robert A Press MD
Prime Parking Systems
David and Leslie Puth
Constanza Quezada
Pierre-Antoine Raberin
Martin and Anna Rabinowitz
Stephanie Reif
Pascale Richard
Joseph Risico
David Ritter
John and Lizzie Robertshaw
Alexandra Robertson
David and Susan Rockefeller
Richard and Elisa Rosen
Chuck and Stacy Rosenzweig
Benjamin Ross
Meg Roth
Jaclyn Rottenstreich
Merle Rubine and Elliot M. Glass
Will W. Sachse and Carolyn M.
Hazard
John and Shelby Saer
Joshua Safran
Kana Sakurai
David and Elizabeth Saltzman
Ximena and Tom Sandell
Herbert A Satzman
Paul H. Scarbrough, Akustiks, LLC.
Diane Schafer
Benjamin and Louise Schliemann
Michael and Dafna Schmerin
Pat Schoenfeld
Victoria Schorsch
Halsey Schroeder
David and Whitney Schwartz
Laura Schwartz and Arthur Jussel
Marshall Sebring and Pepper
Binkley
He Shen & Michelle Mao
Lauryn Siegel
Esther Simon Charitable Trust
Brooke and William Sinclair
Ileene Smith and Howard Sobel
Doug Snyder
James Spindler
Consuelo Pierrepont Spitler
Martha S. Sproule
Zsofia Stadler
Colleen Stenzler
Marianna and Angelos Stergiou
Michael G Stewart
Noreene Storrie and Wesley G.
McCain
Bonnie and Tom Strauss
Danielle Taubman
Juliet Taylor and James Walsh
Jennifer Tipton
Conor and Katherine Tochilin
Jean Troubh
Saul Unter
Debra Valentine
Analia Giorgio
Jennifer Von Post
Kay and Sandy Walker
Patricia Walker
Amber Ward and Nariman Hamed
Lauren and Andrew Weisenfeld
Mindy White
Shelby White
Francis H. Williams and Keris A. Salmon
Elizabeth Wolfe
Eve Yohalem and Nicholas Polsky
Olivia Zacchei
Jillian Zrebiec
Anonymous (9)
List as of January 19, 2024
* Deceased
