Sophia Cleary: One & Only

 

In Residence: September 20–October 2, 2021
Workshop Showings: October 1–2, 2021
To learn more about Cleary’s residency, click
here.


Created and performed by Sophia Cleary
Directed by Sara Lyons
Lighting Design by Madeline Best
Organized by Matthew Lyons, Curator

Sophia Cleary: One & Only is made possible with commissioning support from NYSCA Restart NY: Rapid Live Performance Grant program; a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant; annual grants from Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation; Howard Gilman Foundation, and The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; and in part by public funds from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

Special Thanks

Lindsay Adams, Anne Alexander, Leo Baker, Abby Banks, Carolina Barlow, Mary Beck, Katja Blichfield, Seth Bogart, Ray Busmann, Jibz Cameron, Taja Cheek, Casey Jane Ellison, Erin Gray, Dana Halpern, Ryen Heart, Sandy Honig, Heather Jewett, Justine Suzanne Jones, Rachel Karp, David Kirshoff, Katie Lindsay, Adil Mansoor, ​​Neal Medlyn, Beaux Mendes, Paul Outlaw, Julie Pearson, Nori Reed, Kate Rhoades, Jonathan Snipes, Anna Stein, Sarah Sterling, Alex Tatarsky, Gillian Walsh, Noa Weiss, Gina Young, and Madeline Zappala.

Bios

Sophia Cleary (Creator/Performer) is a queer interdisciplinary artist, actor, writer, and comedian working with jokes, video, dance, music, mime, and more. Self-identified as "genreless," Cleary draws upon her life experience as a birth doula, waiter, and analyst for a private investigator in order to explore the nature of relationships, vulnerability, and the space between performer and audience. Cleary has presented her work in New York City at the Center for Performance Research, Danspace Project, The Chocolate Factory, Dixon Place, The Kitchen, and e-flux and in Los Angeles at the Hammer Museum and Human Resources Gallery. She is the founder and coordinator of the works-in-progress series REHEARSAL and formerly served as the co-editor for Ugly Duckling Presse's performance annual Emergency INDEX. She is one-half of feminist punk band Penis, a collaboration with Samara Davis.

 

Sara Lyons (Director) is a Los Angeles-based director working frequently in adaptation, social practice, and new media as well as theater. Their work has been presented nationally and internationally by REDCAT, Los Angeles Performance Practice, The Wattis Institute, OUTsider, SFX Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, HERE Arts Center, LaMaMa, Edinburgh Fringe, and more, in addition to colleges and universities. Lyons has received residencies from Ucross Foundation, Thymele Arts, PAM Residencies, and Los Angeles Performance Practice/Automata LA. Sara holds an MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University and is an alum of the Hemispheric Institute's EMERGENYC program for artists working at the intersection of performance and politics at NYU. Lyons currently teaches at UCLA and Sarah Lawrence College. Their critical writing has been published by ContemporaryPerformance.com and Riting.org. www.sara-lyons.com 

 

Madeline Best (Lighting Designer) designs dances, installations, lighting, and video, and works freelance as a Production Manager, Stage Manager, Technical Director, and Lighting Supervisor. Best graduated from Bennington College, grew up in Durham, North Caroline and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. She has designed lights for Luciana Achugar PURO DESEO, Milka Djordjevick/Chris Peck and Len Jenkin. Performance experience includes work on The Chocolate Factory Theater’s 2010 Resident Project, Selective Memory, with Brian Rogers, as well as work with Choreographer Juliana May/MayDance. Other Production and Technical Management experience includes Doug Elkins and Friends’s Fräulein Maria, The American Dance Festival, David Ferri, Eiko and Koma, Nick Brooke/The Cabinet, Parsons Dance, Big Art Group, and more.