P45 New Works Commission
with Traverse City Dance Project
Directed and Choreographed by Jakevis Thomason
We are proud to announce the upcoming premiere of Except, created by choreographer Jakevis Thomason, commissioned & presented in partnership with Traverse City Dance Project.
Jakevis Thomason is from Greenville, South Carolina, and began his training at Dianne’s School of Dance. A 2020 graduate of the University of Southern California's prestigious Kaufman School of Dance, he trained closely with renowned faculty across a spectrum of forms from concert to commercial, and began carving out a uniquely hybrid path. Jakevis is a prolific maker with a passion for teaching. Despite his youth, he is quickly gaining recognition & acclaim as both a choreographer and creative director for screen and stage. His goal is to bring his unique style and ideas to the commercial, concert, Broadway, and studio scenes of dance.
Jakevis has received commissions to debut work in Cabo San Jose, Mexico, Santa Barbara, California, and Traverse City, Michigan. Since 2018, he has assisted and worked closely with choreographer Frank Gatson, creative director for recording artists such as Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna, and Beyoncé. Through Gatson's mentorship, Jakevis has earned the opportunity to work with and choreograph for artists such as Jussie Smollett and Brandy. He looks forward to a long career of performing and teaching, and eventually hopes to have his own company to showcase his works.
About the Artists
Jakevis Thomason is from Greenville, South Carolina, and began his training at Dianne’s School of Dance. A 2020 graduate of the University of Southern California's prestigious Kaufman School of Dance, he trained closely with renowned faculty across a spectrum of forms from concert to commercial, and began carving out a uniquely hybrid path. Jakevis is a prolific maker with a passion for teaching. Despite his youth, he is quickly gaining recognition & acclaim as both a choreographer and creative director for screen and stage. His goal is to bring his unique style and ideas to the commercial, concert, Broadway, and studio scenes of dance.Jakevis has received commissions to debut work in Cabo San Jose, Mexico, Santa Barbara, California, and Traverse City, Michigan. Since 2018, he has assisted and worked closely with choreographer Frank Gatson, creative director for recording artists such as Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna, and Beyoncé. Through Gatson's mentorship, Jakevis has earned the opportunity to work with and choreograph for artists such as Jussie Smollett and Brandy. He looks forward to a long career of performing and teaching, and eventually hopes to have his own company to showcase his works.
Maya Lagerstam is so excited to be back with Parallel 45! She is a proud Interlochen Arts Academy graduate '16, member of the Doghouse Theatre Ensemble, and University of Minnesota/Guthrie BFA Actor Training Program ‘20 alum. Some of her most recent roles include Belle in A Christmas Carol (Guthrie Theatre), Ronny in Hair and the Blue Fairy in Little Bunny Foo Foo (P45), Olivia in Twelfth Night and Chrysothemis in Electra (UMN/Guthrie BFA), Katherine in Henry V (Globe Education in London), and Dorothy in the Wiz (Hope Summer Repertory Theatre). She would like to thank her teachers at Guthrie and Interlochen for supporting her! She would also like to thank her mom, Eric, her kitties, and her Guthrie Gang for being there for me through this wild journey! IG: @imonlyhalf
Amaria Stern is a native of Dallas, Texas, Amaria Stern and a recent graduate of the USC Glorya Kaufman
School of Dance. An aspiring educator with an interest in ethnographic research, she aims to create spaces for artists to explore the intersections of art, culture, and spirituality. In addition to performing the work of renowned choreographers like William Forsythe, d. Sabela Grimes, and Dwight Rhoden, she has worked on film projects with both up-and-coming and established
artists including Solange Knowles. As her work deals especially with the movement traditions of
the African diaspora, she recently developed a virtual discussion series to explore the spectrum
of black dance called The Diaspora in Motion. Through her passion for collaboration, she
intends to facilitate environments that emphasize the importance of community and cultural exchange.
INSIGNIFICANT
Conceived and Facilitated by Michael Burditt Norton
In July 2018, Parallel 45 invited 4 career theatre artists to conceive, write, and perform a piece of theatre that would showcase the deep talent of our artists and the perspective-broadening possibilities of theatre generated in residency. Exploring the experience of previously insignificant characters in well-known stories, Insignificant was developed during a one-week residency, then performed for 600+ individuals, followed by audience talk-backs and guided tours through the generative process.
We recorded an audio performance of these plays and will be airing that podcast on our website July 13 at 7pm. Sit back and enjoy as Michael Norton, Katharine Mangold, Alex Coggin and Mary Holland take you on a short ride through the classics.
Michael Burditt Norton (Director/Performance Artist/Curator) is an American theater maker and performer based in Berlin, Germany. He is currently earning his masters in curation and performance at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. In Europe, his solo work and collaborative performances with CALVIN KLEIN have been shown at The Sophiensæle, Tanztage Berlin, 100Grad Festival, Creature Feature, TRAFO and several gallery spaces in Berlin and Poland. Previous directorial works include immersive adaptations of Peter Pan and Joan of Arc. As a performer, he has worked with Liz Magic Laser and Sanya Kantarovsky (Badisher Kunstverein and KW institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin), Ana Wald (Das Arts, Amsterdam), Max Pitego and Calla Henkel (New Theater Berlin), Orion Maxted (Beursschouwburg, Brussels), Dafna Maimon (Künstlerhaus Bethanien), and Melanie Jame Wolf. Previous Parallel 45 performances include Hedwig and the Angry Inch, 30 Neo-futurist Plays from “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” (30 Plays in 60 Minutes) and Our Town, as well as The Terrible Tragedy of Peter Pan, which he directed.
Mary Holland (Comedian/Comedy Writer/TV & Film Actress) is an actor, writer, and improviser currently living in Los Angeles. She performs regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in LA, and has appeared in various television shows and films, including Homecoming, Veep, Curb Your Enthusiasm, New Girl, Blunt Talk, Robbie, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Golden Arm, and Happiest Season. She is thrilled to be a part of the P45 family!
Katharine Mangold (Actress/Writer) attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She performed at the Sam Wanamaker Festival at The Globe Theatre in London, won the John Wills Memorial Prize, the Third Year Acting Prize and the Phillip and Christine Carne Prize for Acting. She regularly works as a voice over artist and as narrator of audiobooks. Recently she has been studying improv and performing at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles and the Free Association Theatre in London. She has been seen last on Parallel 45’s stage in Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play and A Christmas Carol in Prose. She resides in London.
Alexander Coggin (Artist/Designer/Writer) is an American photographer living in London. He has shot for The New York Times, Sleek Magazine, The Gourmand, Zeit Magazin, SOFA Magazine, The Financial Times, AnOther Magazine, VICE, Neon Magazine, Capital Magazine, Port Magazine, Berlin Art Link, de Volkskrant, It’s Nice That, Ordinary Magazine, Spike Art Quarterly, WeltKunst, and others. Alexander is a Magenta Flash Forward Winner for 2017. Last summer, he covered the National Cherry Festival for The New York Times and he recently covered the royal wedding.
July 13, 2020
ON P45'S YOU TUBE CHANNEL
P45 New Works Commission
with THE MITTEN LAB
NEW PLAY BY JACQUELINE GOLDFINGER
DIRECTED BY KATHERINE M. CARTER
Parallel 45 Theatre and The MITTEN Lab (Katherine M. Carter and Rachel Sussman, Co-Founding Artistic Directors) are proud to expand their partnership this summer by hosting P45's inaugural commissioned playwright and MITTEN Lab alumna, Jacqueline Goldfinger, in residency at the Lab from July 10 - 19, 2020 to develop a new play with director Katherine M. Carter.
Follow the Mitten Lab on Instagram for fireside chats with Goldfinger starting July 14.
Join us for a reading of Goldfinger's new play on July 18 @ 7pm on P45's Facebook Live
JULY 18, 2020
DEJA ZOOM: The Virtual Alphabet Experience LIVE!
Online Event
Conceived and Designed by Brittany Merenda
If you enjoyed The Alphabet Experience last season, you will LOVE the Covid-19 edition, DEJA ZOOM! This year's challenge: how to complete the entire alphabet in under an hour AND stay socially distanced? Stay tuned my friends! It's not your typical Zoom play!
SEPTEMBER 24, 2020
The Thanksgiving Play
By Larissa Fasthorse
Directed by Shelby Lewis
A Parallel 45 virtual staged reading, followed by a National Writers Series interview with playwright, Larissa FastHorse.
This contemporary satire explores our beloved national holiday and asks, “how does one celebrate Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Month at the same time?” In Larissa FastHorse’s 2015 biting satire, this is the question facing three “woke” white thespians tasked with devising an elementary school pageant about the first Thanksgiving while avoiding any culturally appropriative missteps. The play is hilarious, but also delivers thought-provoking dialogue around race and equity.
Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Lakota Nation) is an award-winning writer and co- founder of Indigenous Direction. Her satirical comedy The Thanksgiving Play was one of the top ten most produced plays in America last season. She is the first Native American playwright in the history of American theater on that list. Her list of nationally produced plays is long and include What Would Crazy Horse Do?, Landless and Cow Pie Bingo, and Average Family.
“The familiar, whitewashed story of Pilgrims and Native Americans chowing down together gets a delicious roasting from expert farceurs.”
~ Jesse Green, The New York Times
Parallel 45 Theatre is grateful for the generous support of:
