WELCOME

Thank you for gathering with us here tonight. Red Eye’s space is located on unceded Dakota land in Mni Sota Makoce, where 11 sovereign nations and many other Native peoples continue to live, despite genocidal efforts and forced removal by the State of Minnesota and the United States Government. As leaders of Red Eye, we all have unique and multifaceted relationships to this place and how we came to be here, but we are connected in our deep gratitude to those who have come before us and have cared for and sustained this land. As we deepen our individual and collective relationships to the ongoing processes of land acknowledgment, land-belonging, and land back initiatives, we are continually learning from artists, culture bearers, activists, and other community leaders at the forefront of this work here in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis and across the Twin Cities. We invite you to join us in reflection and action, in particular by getting to know and supporting the work of our Indigenous and Native neighbors as well as colleagues throughout the metro area, including Rosy Simas Dance, New Native Theatre, Little Earth and Native Youth Arts Collective, Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI) and All My Relations Gallery, Indigenous Roots, MIGIZI, and Native Governance Center.

Red Eye is a now a living, breathing, evolving organization of artists who work to integrate justice, care, transformation, reciprocity, and love as we walk with our community. In this stream of systemic evolution, one of the ways we practice this is through the work of this festival, where we emphasize the voices of these fellow artists and sing with them on their journey. The work that you are experiencing tonight grows out of Works-in-Progress, a program that has been nurturing the Twin Cities performance-making community since Red Eye was formed in 1983. Works-in-Progress annually invites early career artists to come together for six months of deep artistic inquiry and critical dialogue as they develop a short performance piece or a bite-sized portion of a larger work. Artists are selected through an open call and Artistic Director-led panel process; each year, we look for artists who are pursuing projects that reflect our core tenets of collaboration, experimentation, and critical discourse (expansively defined) and, collectively, embody a balance of varied artistic disciplines and practices, personal identities, and lived experiences. Throughout the winter and spring, artists are encouraged to take risks in a supportive environment; they have 24-hour access to this theater, reaping the benefits of developing their work in the same space where it is ultimately shared with audiences; and they have access to Red Eye’s equipment, as well as technical support, marketing support, and modest stipend. We are thrilled to share the fruits of this labor with you tonight, and invite you to share your thoughts with the artists after the performance.

Works-in-Progress is just the beginning of New Works 4 Weeks! Please be sure to come back and join us for full premieres of new interdisciplinary projects by Zola Dee, Emily Michaels King, D. Allen, Alys Ayumi Ogura, and Ricardo Beaird, which form the Isolated Acts program. Details and full schedule can be found at redeyetheater.org/calendar. We also invite you to join us for a festival closing party on Saturday, June 17, following Ricardo’s final performance!

Thank you for bringing your presence, attention, and reflection to this place, and to the work of the incredible artists in this year’s festival. 

Theo, Valerie, Rachel, and Emily
Red Eye Co-Artistic Directors

Atim Opoka

Bloom when you outta bloom: The roots

I believe art is a holistic experience that requires the full body, mentally, physically, and spiritually. That art and storytelling is a birthright. It doesn't judge but asks for your time and space, modeling and shaping all of our experiences to get us where we are right now. I am growing, and I will continue to grow and change. I will not only feed my garden, but I will add and water those who let me, and one day I will bloom when I oughta bloom.

Special thanks to this cohort of WIP and Red Eye staff, my partner, my therapist, the artist community, friends, and family. Thank you to Atlese Robinson for inspiring the idea bloom when I oughta bloom. I dedicate this piece to my sister Maggie and my cousin GuGu. 

Atim Opoka is a Ugandan-American songwriter, vocalist, composer, producer and teaching artist who fuses afro-pop and alternative beats while embracing the power of transformative storytelling. She is most recently a 2023 Jerome Hill Fellow, a 2021 recipient of a Waters Grant, as well as an Our Space is Spoken For Fellowship from the Twin Cities Media Alliance. Opoka has performed original works at the Stone Arch Bridge Festival and Powderhorn Park Festival. She has a BA in Vocal Performance from McNally Smith College of Music. www.atimopoka.com

Rebecca Nichloson

SUBMERGED Pt. 1

Libretto, vocal arrangement, performer: Rebecca Nichloson

Cello composition: C.B. James

I believe theatre has the power to inspire individual and collective transformation; and that the allure of the magical, mythological and otherworldly are prompts for envisioning new ways of living and loving. This story is the humble beginning of a grief meditation using the materials of death, haunted beauty, goth, operatic sound, and the complexity of a Black body in liminal space to ponder a possible afterlife — a possible world where the spirit lingers long after the flesh is gone.

Special thanks: I’d like to thank Eva Adderley, who designed the crow puppet in this piece; Kat Purcell for witnessing the first iteration of this work, and the entire Red Eye team and WIP cohort for helping make this show possible through encouragement, feedback, and space holding. 

Rebecca Nichloson is a playwright, creative writer, and singer/songwriter. She is the author of numerous creative works, including Dear America (libretto & vocals), Mara, Queen of the World (an acapella musical), and The Wild, Bold Enlightenment of Velvet the Mistress, among others. She holds a MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University and an MA in English Literature. She was also the recipient of a 2019 Commission from the Cedar Cultural Center for which she created Multicolored Musings: Jewels of Love, Loss, & Triumph (a three-part collection of songs exploring her Black heritage and passion for genre-eclectic music) and received a 2020 honorable mention from the McKnight Foundation (Spoken Word). In addition, she is the recipient of the Liberace Award, the Howard Stein Fellowship, The Matthew’s Fellowship, an America-in-Play Fellowship and a Many Voices Fellowship from the Minneapolis Playwrights Center (2008-2009). She is also artistic director of Cleveland-Harris Theatre Company. Learn more at www.rebeccanichloson.com.

C.B. James is a cellist and teacher from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She plays classical music as well as jazz and popular styles. Her goal is to create accessibility and facilitate intellectual growth and development through musical engagement with players of all ages. It is her firm belief that great musicianship is achieved through thoughtful collaboration and the uplifting of others; it is not what one does on their own but what one gives to another that is most significant. She continues her daily technical practice as part of a regimen of lifelong learning - scales and arpeggios at sunrise, sonatas at sunset.

Sam Aros-Mitchell

Ania Bwia Bwia Toochia

Ania Bwia Bwia Toochia is the continued practice of how I see my world as distinct, yet overlapping, worlds or realms, called aniam. Each of these worlds provides a location for powerful beings or forces. There are as many as nine different aniam within Yoeme cosmologies. 

Ania Bwia Bwia Toochia is the name of this conceptual work, which looks to render the connection between my body to this particular location in Minneapolis by way of fostering relationships, through the process of creation. Ania Bwia Bwia Toochia does not have predetermined artistic objectives, but instead looks for meaning to unfold between me as the artist, between the space at Red Eye Theater, and between the you, the spectator. This work looks to communicate through the work of THIS particular place, its past and present, in simultaneity, to this present moment.

Special thanks to cultural dramaturg Marisa Duarte (Yaqui-enrolled) and to Jim Simas, (Seneca-enrolled) who graciously assisted in crafting the “guello” (guitar-cello).

Sam Aros-Mitchell (he/him/his) is an enrolled member of the Texas Band of Yaqui Indians. As an art-maker, dancer, and scholar, his work spans the disciplines of performance, sound/light/scenic design, choreography, and embodied writing. Since 2017, he has worked with Rosy Simas Danse as a performer, teacher, and community engagement organizer. Aros-Mitchell’s abstract, “José Limón, The Unsung and Yoeme Syncretism” was recently accepted for publication in a book that celebrates Yaqui choreographer José Limón, titled Transcending Americanness. In 2019, Aros-Mitchell founded Aros and Son Publishing, dedicated to publishing the work of Native writers. Aros-Mitchell holds a Ph.D. in Drama and Theater from the joint doctoral program at UC San Diego/UC Irvine, an MFA in Dance Theatre from UC San Diego, and a BFA in Dance from UC Santa Barbara. Currently, Aros-Mitchell is a postdoctoral fellow at Arizona State University, at the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands, where he teaches and develops speaker-series to engage Indigenous artists and community. www.samarosmitchell.com

Margaret Ogas

NIGHTQUAKES (a prelude)

Performers: Libby Herrmann, Ayaka Moriyama, Margaret Ogas

Mask designer and builder: Sofía Padilla

Features music by La Femme, Susobrino, Valentina Magaletti, and Le Tigre.

Nearly three years ago, I started a ritual with my dear friend and then housemate, Veera. In the morning over breakfast, we would discuss our increasingly vivid, sometimes funny, and often disturbing dreams. In the face of anxiety, global unrest, and collective grief, our dreams became a site for untangling the painful absurdities of waking life. Since then, my fascination with dreams has only grown. NIGHTQUAKES seeks to transpose the portals that are opened through the subconscious at night onto the stage.

Special thanks to Luisa Armendariz and Nia Zekan for supporting the audition process for this work and to Taja Will for their mentorship and feedback. Warmest thanks to Rebecca, Atim, Sam, and the Red Eye team for fostering a positive, safe, and supportive environment to create art.

Margaret Ogas is a choreographer, performer, and teaching artist based in the Twin Cities. Using an interdisciplinary approach rooted in dance and informed by Chicana cultural sensibilities, her works tell surreal everyday stories through a collage of movement, text, and sound. Ogas’s choreography has been presented by the Walker Art Center, Candy Box Dance Festival, Center for Performing Arts, FD13, Mizna, Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio, and others. Margaret is a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow (2023-2025). She was a 2021 Naked Stages Fellow at Pillsbury House + Theatre and has received grant support from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. Margaret is currently a core collaborator and performer with the Taja Will Ensemble, a collaborator with Aniccha Arts, and a teaching artist at Young Dance. She holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota. Learn more at margaretogas.com.

Libby Herrmann is a Twin Cities-based dancer and arts administrator. She studied Dance at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. A big fan of skipping, spinning, and the element of surprise, Libby loves dancing to research, squirm, get to know someone, and give herself a hug, among many other things.

Ayaka Moriyama is a movement artist based in the Twin Cities. She earned B.A. in Dance and Physics at Carleton College, where she learned contemporary dance from Jane Shockley and Judith Howard as well as worked with MN-based artists such as D. Jinza Thayer, HIJACK, Mathew Janczewski, BRKFST Dance Company, and Rosy Simas. She had the honor of presenting her solo My Heart, Your Hand, Their Grandma’s Eyebrow at the American College Dance Association North Central Conference in March 2022, which was selected for performance in the conference’s closing Gala Concert.

Sofía Padilla is a Mexican theater artist, director, designer and puppeteer who has participated in over 40 national and international theater productions. For television, she was the First Assistant Director of Sesame Street in Mexico City for the 2016 season Listos a Jugar. Currently, she works as a touring member of Bread and Puppet Theater and as the Artistic Co-Director of Paradox Teatro, which she founded in 2017 with Davey T Steinman. Paradox Teatro has received three grants from The Jim Henson Foundation to develop two different projects: Migraciones / Migrations (2019 Production Grant) and Speechless / Sin Palabras (2021 Workshop Grant and 2023 Production Grant).