PRELUDE 2026: Protection | FUGUE: An Unauthorized Dramatized Eight-Episode Netf | MudMothers: Memory in and of the Wake

Please note the performances begin at 6:00pm and there will be brief changovers in between peices. The artists will perform in the order in which they are listed. We recommend arriving early, as seating is first come, first served and there is limited capacity.

Experience this shared evening as part of Prelude 2026:

PROTECTION by Hanna Novak

A shapeshifting portrait of two former neighbors before and after a tragedy, set in 2022. We'll present some of the "before" parts as a work-in-progress staging.

CREDITS

Written and directed by: Hanna Novak

Performed by: Eleanor Hutchins, Mike Iveson, Linda Mancini, Coco McNeil

Lighting Design: Evan C. Anderson

Special thanks to Clubbed Thumb, Olivia Mermagen, Frank Wood, Hanna Yurfest

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Hanna Novak is a writer, director, and producer. Her plays have been presented at the Performing Garage, the New Ohio, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Studio 17. She is a New Georges-affiliated artist and an alum of EST/Youngblood and Clubbed Thumb’s early-career writers’ group. She works as the Producing Director for the theater company Elevator Repair Service and has collaborated with Tina Satter/Half Straddle, Liz Magic Laser, Alex Tatarsky, Hayley Stahl, and Jordan Baum. She is working towards a full production of Protection with Amanda+James.

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FUGUE: An Unauthorized Dramatized Eight-Episode Netflix Docudrama About How I Murdered David Lynch by raja feather kelly

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Raja Feather Kelly is a choreographer, director, writer, and the Artistic Director of the feath3r theory, a Brooklyn-based dance-theatre-media company he founded in 2009. His work brings dance, theatre, media, and popular culture together to investigate how we make meaning, construct identity, and live alongside one another. His recent works include The Fires at Soho Rep, The Absolute Future at NYU Skirball, and Bunny Bunny at The Invisible Dog. His honors include a 2025 Doris Duke Artist Award, an Obie Award, a Creative Capital Award, and three Princess Grace Awards.

Photo: Kate Enman @kate_shot_me

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(UNTITLED) by Symara Sarai

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE

This work examines the artist's experiences of home and love as they are formed through risk, trust, memory, and cultural inheritance. Drawing from lived encounters and personal histories, the work considers how intimacy can manifest in unconventional, high-stakes, and spiritually resonant forms. Situated at the intersection of dance and live action, the project reflects on love and home as a series of embodied negotiations shaped by vulnerability, autonomy, and relational exchange.

CREDITS

Performance/Direction: Symara Sarai. Sound: Keyanna Hutchinson.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Symara Sarai, a Portland, Oregon native currently residing in Brooklyn, has immersed herself in interdisciplinary and choreographic studies globally with deep recognition. Named Dance Magazine's 2025 “Top 25 to Watch,” a 2023 Bessie Winner for Breakout Choreographer, and a recipient of the Dai Ailian Foundation Scholarship based in Trinidad and Tobago, she is known to be a courageously committed performer and maker. The NYT stated “Sarai is a daring solo improviser, and her uninhibited spirit infuses.”

Photo: Elyse Mertz

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MUDMOTHERS: MEMORY IN AND OF THE WAKE by Ja'Moon

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE

MudMothers: Memory in and of the Wake exists within the haptic, an immersive realm shaped by tactile imagination, texture, and breath. It calls audiences into a living landscape built from sensorial memory, transporting them into a world parallel to our own, intimate and vibrating with elemental life. This excerpt is part of a larger evening-length performance work exploring the body, belonging, lineage, and ritual theater. (WORK-IN-PROGRESS)

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Ja'Moon is a conjurer of movement, channeling ancestral memory through ritual, dance theater, and immersive performance. Their work invites audiences into liminal space, where history, fabulation, and the present moment converge. A graduate of The Juilliard School, their practice draws from African diasporic traditions, physical theater, and collective witnessing. They have performed and presented work internationally, including at Institut Français (Dakar, Senegal), Abrons Arts Center (NYC), Judson Memorial Church (NYC), BAAD! (NYC), and Herbst Theatre (San Francisco, CA).

Photo: Alfredo Torres