During my time at The Orchard Project I leaned into what it means to lead/direct in today’s 2023 environment and what that entails beyond just say theoretical directing.

By removing oneself from day-to-day life and attending what I would call  a camp for uniquely talented theatre artists, the mind and spirit have the space and support to explore new ideas and riff on those ideas with others without judgment, review, or deadline – Almost like a theatrical salon of ideas. Being surrounded by artists who create different forms of theatre than I have, and from all over the country and world, there becomes a pureness of spirit, excited by each other’s varied stories, experiences, and talents. 

We finally had the time to get away from the show business of theatre and focus on the work of the theatre without deadline.

I’ve been fortunate to develop two separate theatre pieces at The Orchard Project.

One being as a member of Lightning Rod Special, with whom I developed our musical The Appointment at the Orchard Project in the summer of 2018, and the other being my musical Penelope, which I developed in the summers on 2021 and 2022 (the latter as the inaugural Founders’ Residency).

Both of these musicals have been formative and transformational works for me as an artist, and incredible opportunities for me as professional. The Appointment had sold-out runs off broadway in 2019 and 2023, garnering Critics’ Pick reviews in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vulture, and Timeout NY.  And Penelope is poised to receive two major productions at regional theaters this year, hot off the heels of our workshops at The Orchard Project. It is impossible to imagine the lives of these two pieces without the incubation periods that The Orchard Project provided with such care and dedication.

“The opportunity to develop my work with The Orchard Project came at exactly the right time—just when I needed uninterrupted space and time with my collaborator to synthesize the years of research and writing to take the performance to the next level. When I was invited to join the program this summer, I was thrilled to get this gift of resources.

What I hadn’t anticipated was the people. The other artists I met during my residency profoundly shaped my work with their creative insights, their interest and enthusiasm, and their unbelievably generous spirits. I learned so much just from watching them work, and from their thoughtful feedback. This translated to a full week of artistic development—in the rehearsal room, in the dorm room, over ice cream at Stewart’s, in the dining hall. I really feel like I found a whole new community of collaborators from around the country who will be in my life from now on. I’m excited about how my project has changed, and I’m really excited to see how their work continues to make its way into the world. I feel so privileged to have been invited to be part of this incredible group of diverse artists.”

Orchard Project really cares about supporting artists. My collaborator Nelson and I have felt truly supported from day one by every single staff member of the Orchard Project. Ari and Lana’s support for ONCE UPON A TRA has really pushed our project forward and we are so grateful for the support they gave us to make things happen. We are so grateful for the care that is given and the nurturing of our art.

Over the years, I have been a participant in almost all of the major summer developmental labs, retreats, or workshops in the United States and The Orchard Project’s Performance Lab remains my favorite, in part because they treat me like an adult. There is no “one size fits all” program at OP, instead they ask one simple question of each attending artist or company, ‘What do you need?’ From there, they try as best they can to make those required resources available and then they stay out of the way. In return, they ask only two things of you: that you attend the daily lunch and dinner provided so you can interact with the other artists in the community, and that you consider giving a single Master Class to their highly-lauded intern program, the Core Company. This can be as simple as a Q&A with this always smart, highly motivated group of young artists. That’s it. If you want to make a community-wide presentation at some point during your residency you can. Or not.

Of course, one often does present and invariably one always attends the presentations of others because frankly the groups and individual artists working at OP are extraordinary and what results from such informal contacts is a sharing of process and the inspiration of new ideas.

In just ten years, the Lab has become *the* place where performers and creators from around the world come to create their next show. The co-founder, Ari Edelson, describes the program as an “Artistic Accelerator” and I think that’s accurate. You get an enormous amount of work done here in a very small amount of time (residencies are one to two weeks) and weirdly feel exhilarated about it instead of exhausted. Past residents have taken advantage of everything from simply a quiet desk and space to think, to a public cabaret setting in which to develop and share a nearly-finished new musical. Beyond being surrounded by other leading voices and ensembles from around the world making their own great work, artists-in-residence often also work closely with the talented and diverse Core Company to devise movement, read drafts of new plays, design puppets and more to support their acceleration.

The Orchard Project also endeavors to make itself an industry leader in critical issues important to artists. To that end, in 2017, OP began to make childcare available to all professional resident artists in the Performance Lab. While children have always been welcome at the Orchard Project, providing daytime care and support for parents is a huge priority as OP aims to have the program not only be a leading accelerator for new work, but also serve a model for other theaters around the country. 

Artistic freedom. Innovation. Inspiration. Meaningful and continuously evolving institutional support. The Orchard Project is a great place to work.

Founded in 1995 as an interdisciplinary ensemble, Pig Iron Theatre Company is dedicated to the creation of new and exuberant performance works that defy easy categorization. The mission of Pig Iron Theatre Company is to expand what is possible in performance by creating rigorous and unusual ensemble-devised works; by training the next generation of daring, innovative theatre artists; and by consistently asking the hardest questions, both in our art and in its relation to the world around us. Over the course of its lifespan, Pig Iron has created over 30 original works and has toured to festivals and theatres around the world.

Creating ensemble-based work that pushes the limits of theatrical form requires time, space, and community, and we have been lucky to find that in our relationship with the Orchard Project. From our first residency with the Orchard Project back in 2007 (a collaboration with Stockholm’s Teater Slava) to our recent participation in their 2020 pandemic popup Liveness Lab, the Orchard Project has provided Pig Iron with critical support: time and space to dream and experiment; encounters with potential new collaborators; a rich and supportive critical environment to exchange ideas and methodologies. Shows and projects we have developed at the OP include: Sweet By-and-By (with Teater Slava, 2007); I Promised Myself to Live Faster (2015); Gentlemen Volunteers (2016); Fire Burns Hot! (2018).

The OP provides a space for excitement and generosity that seeds new projects and the formation of new artistic teams. We have watched the OP grow from a small, well-curated residency program in the Catskills into a national leader in interdisciplinary arts incubation. Several details make the OP’s programming like the Performance Lab unique:

• Form fitting support – the OP staff reject a one-size-fits-all, “efficient” model. The OP staff give time and care to all of us as artists, with a focus on how the exchange of ideas and building of networks can grow our projects;
• Lack of presentation demands and a flexibility to meet us where we are in our process, allowing us to work on projects of varying size and at varying places in their gestative process;
• An expansive notion of success: the OP is genuinely willing to incubate artists as they explore creative vision that is unique to each creator, without insisting that each project meet specific industry or commercial requirements;
• A focus on fostering community among artists that lasts beyond our residencies.

As our company continues to explore new forms, we are doing so in communication with the Orchard Project. We want to continue to expand the network of artists we call collaborators and instigators, and we hope to participate in Orchard Project residencies and programs in the years to come.