Digital Program Bark of Millions

Taylor Mac is the first American to receive the International Ibsen Award, is a MacArthur Fellow, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, a Tony nominee for Best Play, and the recipient of the Kennedy Prize (with Matt Ray), the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Guggenheim, the Herb Alpert Award, a Drama League Award, the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, the Booth, two Helpmann Awards, a NY Drama Critics Circle Award, two Obie’s, two Bessies, and an Ethyl Eichelberger. An alumnus of New Dramatists, judy is the author of The Hang (with composer Matt Ray); Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus; A 24-Decade History of Popular Music; Prosperous Fools; The Fre; Hir; The Walk Across America for Mother Earth; The Lily’s Revenge; The Young Ladies Of; Red Tide Blooming; The Be(A)st of Taylor Mac; and the revues Comparison is Violence; Holiday Sauce; and The Last Two People on Earth: an Apocalyptic Vaudeville (created with Mandy Patinkin and Susan Stroman).

Matt Ray is an Obie Award-winning theater-maker, composer, pianist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and music director. His arrangements have been called “wizardly” (Time Out NY) and “ingenious” (NY Times), and his piano playing referred to as “classic, well-oiled swing” (NY Times) and “to cry for” (Ebony). For his work on Taylor Mac’s show A 24-Decade History of Popular Music he and Mac shared the 2017 Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired By American History. He and Mac’s jazz-based theater piece The Hang opened to rave reviews in January of 2022 and won Matt a 2023 Obie Award for Music Direction and Composition. The show also received four Drama Desk and two Drama League nominations including a Drama Desk nomination for Matt Ray for Best Music. His show Matt Ray Plays Hoagy Carmichael featuring Kat Edmonson premiered at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series in 2018. He has performed worldwide, including as a US Department of State Jazz Ambassador.

A seasoned electric and upright bassist Ari seamlessly flows between pop, rock, avant, jazz and world music circles. His collaborations have included Grammy award-winning guitarist Stephane Wrembel, The Adnata Ensemble bass quartet, The Harlem Gospel Travelers and avant punk mambo group Gato Loco. His solo projects navigate the improvisational and textural world of pedals and looping devices, crafting composition and open improvisation into lush trance inducing soundscapes.

Bernice Brooks is a drummer, producer, and teaching artist. A versatile female drummer who performs locally, nationally, and internationally, she has honed her skills from performing across a variety of genres, including blues, rock, gospel, and jazz groups, with tap dancers, for commercials and theater, as well as on many recordings. She has performed with Elvis Costello, Taylor Mac, Sheila E., Gregory Hines, and many more. She is proud to have had the honour of performing with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and to have received a “Cultural Community Leadership Citation” from the New York City Council.

Chris Giarmo is an artist based in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was recently seen performing in David Byrne's American Utopia on a world tour (2018), Broadway (2019-2022), and in the filmed version directed by Spike Lee. He's worked with artists including Annie-B Parson/Big Dance Theater, Tina Satter/Half Straddle, Sibyl Kempson/7 Daughters of Eve Theater & Performance Co, Taylor Mac, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Faye Driscoll, and Jess Barbagallo as a performer, composer and/or sound designer. He is the creator of anti-consumerist drag queen/beauty guru Kimberly Clark on YouTube, and is currently developing a concert version of the debut album from his queer electro-pop solo music project Boys Don't Fight.

Dana Lyn (violin) is a violinist/fiddler, pianist, and composer; collaborators include Stew and Heidi Rodewald, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, avant-cellist Hank Roberts, D’Angelo, and poet Louis de Paor. She has received commissions from Brooklyn Rider, A Far Cry, Palaver Strings, and the Apple Hill String Quartet. Her projects include the sextet Mother Octopus, a collaboration with D'Onofrio called Slim Bone Head Volt, and a duo with guitarist Kyle Sanna. She was an artist-in-residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2017, an awardee of the 2018 ACF Create Commission, a recipient of the 2020 NYFA Women’s Fund Award, and a 2021 Sundance Composer Lab Fellow. Also a visual artist, Dana has made stop-motion animations for Taylor Mac and jazz musician Ben Goldberg, as well as for her own projects. In 2022, she released her eighth album, “A Point on a Slow Curve”, via In-a-Circle Records. Dana is also a well-versed fiddle player in the Irish tradition.

El Beh (all pronouns ONLY in rotation – if just using one: they/them) is a genderqueer, chinese-american theatre artist, performer, actor, musician, singer, composer, mover, shaker, educator, forever student and glowing unty to many a nibling. His cello playing has been heard with such folks as Taylor Mac, The Bengsons, and the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony, and she was named one of KQED’s Bay Brilliant Artists to Watch. Growing edges and digging deep are their fuel along with shared experiences, community making, alternative mutual aid solutions and constantly trying to fuck up the systems that need fucking. He feels big, laughs loud, likes to feel her bare feet in the grass and skinny dip in the ocean. During the pandemic they joyfully made music with families via the internets, developed his 2-hour morning routine that consists of 2 things, and ate more bread than she ever has in their entire life combined. Blessedly they emerged into the queer haven of Matt Ray and Taylor Mac's The Hang and are more than grateful to be jumpin' aboard this queer train to Queersville too. QUEER!

Greg Glassman is a NYC-based trumpeter, composer, and educator. A protégé of jazz greats Marcus Belgrave and Clark Terry, Greg is a staple of the NYC jazz scene as a trumpet soloist, improviser, and bandleader, featured regularly at the clubs. He has recently been invited to perform with groups led by David Schnitter, Lakecia Benjamin, Saul Rubin, Javon Jackson, Willie Jones III, and many others. His band’s multi-decade NYC residency is documented in the recording Greg Glassman/Stacy Dillard Quintet: LIVE AT FAT CAT. He has toured with a diverse array of artists including Burning Spear, Oscar Perez, Roswell Rudd, The Skatalites, Oliver Lake, and Taylor Mac. He holds degrees in Jazz and African-American Music from Oberlin College and Queens College, and has been a faculty member at Bard College since 2011. Recently, he arranged the music for octogenarian gospel queen Rene Bailey’s “Good Old Songs”. His composition for solo piano, “Partita for Elena”, was at the heart of 2020 Tribeca Film Festival Official Selection Outside Story. He loves cooking, games, lakes, and residing with his family in Brooklyn, NY.

Jack Fuller is an artist born and raised in Harlem NYC's Sugar Hill. They studied at Harlem School of the Arts and LaGuardia High School as a vocalist, instrumentalist, actor, arranger, and songwriter. As a queer child in Harlem, adversity was no stranger. Always misunderstood, always different, they reach for communication through their work—to understand their art is to understand them. The two spirited/two headed creative force has two albums out, the latest of which is “The Build”. They look forward to releasing their current work "The Treatment" in 2025.

Born and raised in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He began his musical studies at the age of 6 at the Escuela Libre de Música Juan Morell Campos in Ponce. He continued his music studies until completing an MA at the Aaron Copland School of Music in NYC. His musical range has led him to play live and record with international artists from many musical genres, including Bad Bunny, Taylor Mac, Papo Vázquez, Miguel Zenón, Andy González, Tego Calderón, Luigi Texidor, Grupo Manía, Vico C, William Cepeda, Buscabulla, and Paoli Mejías among others. He has played in numerous music festivals around the world, and at landmark music venues like NYC’s Carnegie Hall and Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall. Joel currently lives in New York City, where he works in music production, composes, records, and plays and tours with many different artists and groups.

Jules Skloot is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher working and living in Cummington, MA, and New York, NY. Jules has been a collaborator and performer in Jennifer Miller's Circus Amok, and in the work of Tatyana Tenenbaum, devynn emory/beastproductions, and Hadar Ahuvia.  Jules was a founding collaborator and choreographer of The Ballez. Jules’ own performance works are research into projection and queer embodiment, and have been presented in NY at Dixon Place, BAX, the University Settlement, BkSD, AUNTS, and in MA at the School for Contemporary Dance and Thought (SDCT). Jules teaches dance classes and workshops to people of all ages, health classes to kids, and is committed to increasing joy and collective liberation in all these endeavours.

Le Gateau Chocolat’s work spans drag, cabaret, opera, musical theatre, children’s theatre, and live art. His previous works include Le Gateau Chocolat (2011), I Chocolat (2012), In Drag (2013 Royal Festival Hall commission) and BLACK (2014 Homotopia commission), which toured with music ensemble Psappha in 2017. His children’s show Duckie was included in the Guardian’s ‘6 of the Best Shows for Children’ of the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His production ICONS toured to Sydney Festival, Wales Millennium Centre, Soho Theatre, and Underbelly Southbank, and was presented with accompaniment from the Little Coco Orchestra (an ensemble formed entirely of women of colour). THEATRE: Rufus Norris’s Threepenny Opera (National Theatre); Feste in Emma Rice’s Twelfth Night at The Globe (2017); The Gate Theatre and ENO’s Effigies of Wickedness (2018); Daddy Brubeck, Sweet Charity (Donmar Warehouse, 2019); Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music: The First Act (London’s Barbican Theatre, 2019); featured cast member of cabaret and circus La Clique and La Soiree.OPERA: with Julian Phillips (Varjak Paw, Royal Opera House & tour); Jocelyn Pook (‘Anxiety Fanfare’, Wigmore Hall & tour); Orlando Gough (Imago, Glyndebourne); Porgy & Bess, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. He appeared in Wagner’s Tannhauser, at the Bayreuth Festival in 2019, attracting global headlines for the reaction to his participation as a black drag artist.

An Australian who has been based in NY since the mid-90’s, alto and baritone saxophonist Lisa Parrott has worked with a range of prominent jazz artists and groups including Dave Brubeck, Nancy Wilson, Johnny Mandel, Cindy Blackman, Jane Ira Bloom, Gunther Schuller, Marty Ehrlich’s Large Ensemble, the Artie Shaw Orchestra, Jimmy Heath’s Big Band and the Diva Jazz Orchestra. In 2020, Lisa was chosen to receive a Chamber Music America grant for her jazz septet project ‘We Love Ornette’. In 2022, Lisa was honored to perform in Taylor Mac and Matt Ray’s ‘The Hang’ at HERE Arts Center. She has been consistently recognized in the DownBeat Critics Polls and won the 2016 ‘Rising Star’ category for baritone saxophone. She has received Australian Arts Council grants to study with Steve Coleman (1993) and Lee Konitz (1997). Her recording ‘Round Tripper’ received 4 stars in Downbeat, JazzTimes and a 4.5-star review on allaboutjazz. She has toured and played in all 50 states of the US and all over Europe, and has been featured on over 40 albums. She cites her biggest musical influences as being Bernie McGann (Australia) and Ornette Coleman (USA).

Beloved downtown bon vivant and all-around creative provocateur Machine Dazzle has been dazzling stages via costumes, sets, and performance since his arrival in New York in 1994. He designs intricate, unconventional wearable art pieces and bespoke installations. As a stage designer, Machine has collaborated with Julie Atlas Muz, Big Art Group, Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, Taylor Mac, Basil Twist, Godfrey Reggio, Jennifer Miller, The Dazzle Dancers, Big Art Group, Mike Albo, Stanley Love, Soomi Kim, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Opera Philadelphia, the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, the Curran Theatre, and Spiegelworld; and has created bespoke looks for fashion icons including designer Diane von Furstenberg and model Cara Delevingne for the 2019 Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala. Recent collaborations include Bassline Fabulous with the Catalyst Quartet (Metropolitan Museum of Art); Treasure, a rock-and-roll cabaret of original songs + accompanying fashion show; and the historic premiere of the never-before-seen Rameau comedic opéra-ballet, Io (Opera Lafayette). Dazzle was a co-recipient the 2017 Bessie Award for Outstanding Visual Design, the winner of a 2017 Henry Hewes Design Award, and a 2022 United States Artists Fellow. He delivered a TED Talk at TED Vancouver in 2023. Machine Dazzle has had solo exhibitions at NYC’s Museum of Arts and Design (Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle) and Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre (Machine Dazzle: Art And Intention).

Mama Alto is a jazz singer, cabaret artiste & gender transcendent diva. She is a transgender & queer person of colour, living with disability, who works with the radical potential of storytelling, strength in softness and power in vulnerability. Her solo performances are critically acclaimed & programmed at venues & festivals including Melbourne Recital Centre (VIC), Adelaide Cabaret Festival (SA), Festival of Voices (TAS) & more. She has collaborated with legendary figures including Finucane & Smith, Declan Greene, Brook Andrew, and Taylor Mac, and she is the co-creator of highly acclaimed variety cabaret “Gender Euphoria,” Australia’s largest ever entirely trans & gender diverse main stage production. Additionally, she has worked as a writer, playwright, diversity & inclusion specialist, and advocate, and received multiple arts and community awards including from the Australia Council, Creative Victoria and more.

Marika Hughes is a native New Yorker, a cellist, a singer, a songwriter and has been a storyteller on The Moth Radio Hour. From a musical family, Marika’s grandfather was the great cellist Emanuel Feuermann and her parents owned a jazz club, Burgundy in their NYC neighbourhood. Marika has a double degree from Barnard College and the Juilliard School, graduating with BAs in political science and cello performance, respectively. Marika has worked with Whitney Houston, Lou Reed, Anthony Braxton, David Byrne, Adele, D’Angelo, Idina Menzel, Nels Cline and Henry Threadgill among others. Marika has self-released three albums: The Simplest Thing (2011), Afterlife Music Radio (2011) and New York Nostalgia (2016). She is the founder of Looking Glass Arts, an artist-led, artist residency retreat and recording studio in upstate New York, committed to prioritising BIPOC artists and a sliding scale fee structure, democratising access to the space, time, and natural beauty critical to artistic growth.

Sean Donovan is an actor, singer, dancer, writer, and choreographer. Recent original works include Cabin (The Bushwick Starr, NYC), The Reception (HERE Arts, NYC), and 18 1/2 Minutes (JACK, NYC). His work has also been presented in The Under the Radar Festival (NYC), CUNY’s Prelude Festival (NYC), FAE Festival in Panama, Stanford University (CA), New York University (NYC), and others. Beyond his own work he has choreographed works for acclaimed theater companies, The Talking Band and The Civilians. As a performer, Sean won a 2022 Lortel Award for his performance in Heather Christian’s Oratorio for Living Things at Ars Nova. He’s worked with Taylor Mac, Lee Sunday Evans, Tina Satter, Heather Christian, Faye Driscoll, Miguel Gutierrez, Jane Comfort, The Builders Association, Witness Relocation, and many others. Recent theater and dance credits: The Trees (Playwrights Horizons), Elements of OZ (Skirball Center), Thank You for Coming (BAM and World Tour). Television and Film: Law & Order: Organized Crime, Feast of the Epiphany. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Theater department at NYU: Tisch School of the Arts.

With an electrifying blend of grit and sensuality, singer, songwriter, and performer Steffanie Christi’an commands the stage. Distinguished by seamless versatility and an eclectic stable of influences, from Sam Cooke to Kurt Cobain, Steffanie’s high-energy performances leave audiences feeling flushed and fed. She has performed and collaborated with a variety of artists including MacArthur award winner Taylor Mac, hip-hop legend Talib Kweli, actor and producer Idris Elba, released four independent EP’s, and has traveled the world rocking stages from Detroit to Croatia. She released her highly anticipated first full-length album “It’s Complicated” March 2019 to rave reviews. In addition to her solo career, Steffanie is the vocalist for the iconic house/techno group Inner City. Their latest album was released in July 2020 on Armada Records. She recently joined forces with poet Jessica Care Moore to create a fiery new music project that blends rock & roll with poetry under the moniker We Are Scorpio, which will be released late 2023.

Stephen Quinn (all pronouns) is a theatre and performance maker, based between Dublin, Ireland, and New York City. His work encompasses a kaleidoscope of music theatre; drag; burlesque, physical theatre, and alternative cabaret. Recent credits include "Crying At The Orgy" (HOT! Festival at Dixon Place, 2023); "Shame // Less" (Galway Film Fleadh, 2022; GAZE International LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2021); Anu Productions "Faultline" (Dublin Theatre Festival/Gate Theatre, 2019); "OVERFIRED" (winner of the Outburst Queer Fringe Award at Dublin Fringe, 2018), Taylor Mac's "A 24 Decade History of Popular Music: The First Act" (London International Festival of Theatre 2018, Barbican Theatre) and Zoe Ni Riordan’s "Recovery" at Project Arts Centre, Dublin (2016/17; winner of the Romilly Masters Performance Award from the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, 2017). Stephen is also the co-creative director/host of the celebrated, Dublin-based queer performance event SPICEBAG, where he performs as his alter ego: Stefan Fae.

International singer, songwriter, recording artist, and SAG/AFTRA member Thornetta Davis was the winner of the 2023 Blues Foundation Blues Music Award for “Best Soul/Blues Artist – Female” and the Detroit Blues Society’s “Living Lifetime Achievement Award”. She was awarded a star on the Canada South Blues Museum “Walk of Fame”. In 2015, Thornetta was crowned “Detroit’s Queen of the Blues!” in a ceremony by the Detroit Blues Society featuring proclamations from the City of Detroit, County of Wayne, and the State of Michigan. Her labor of love CD entitled Honest Woman was nominated by the Blues Foundation for two 2017 Blues Music Awards – Best Song (“I gotta sang the blues”) and Emerging Artist CD. Thornetta has won over 30 Detroit Music Awards, including eight in 2017 (including Outstanding Record Producer, Outstanding Blues Recording, Outstanding Blues Vocalist, and Outstanding Live Performance). The winner of the 2017 Blues Blast Magazine Music Awards for “Best Soul/Blues Album” and Big City Rhythm & Blues Magazine’s “Coolest Blues Song”, Thornetta has garnered international attention by winning the prestigious French 2018 La Academie du Jazz Award for Best Blues Album.

Viva DeConcini plays guitar like a flaming sword, screaming train, ringing bell and a scratching chicken, she sings like if Freddy Mercury had been a woman, and she writes songs eclectically. Viva has played all over the world, from holes in the wall to the Monterey Jazz Fest. She has written and produced 4 full length rock albums, 4 original music videos, a 10-episode podcast and a poetry video for the Guggenheim's Works and Process. She musically directed works at the Guggenheim Theater and The WP. Her work has charted on CMJ, been featured in No Depression Magazine and she is one of the few females to be profiled in Guitar Player Magazine. She is currently working on an original web series queer feminist spaghetti western operetta with sock puppets. “Crushable” – Art Forum, “Virtuosic guitar shredding” – The New York Times, “A beautiful voice” – KUNM

Wesley Olivier graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in May of 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Music, Theatre, and Film. An experimental musical theatre composer and drag performer, Wes gives shows in their gender non-conforming alien clown drag persona Klondyke in Brooklyn. They are currently re-working their first musical, Elsewhere, after the success of their second musical, Scarecrow, which was put up in 2023 at Ars Nova. Their art in all facets is created with the intention of furthering black trans liberation, the acknowledgment of our queer and trans ancestors that were erased or rewritten by white supremacy, and the freedom to have joy. Previous credits include Bark of Millions by Taylor Mac and Matt Ray at the Sydney Opera House (Oct 2023); Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil workshop by Taylor Mac and Jason Robert Brown (May 2023); Scarecrow by Klondyke at Ars Nova (Jan 2023); Takes the Cake Drag King and Thing Competition winner by The Cakeboys at 3DB (Sept 2021).

Niegel Smith is a Bessie Award winning theatre director and performance artist. He is the Executive Artistic Director of NYC’s Obie Award-winning theatre The Flea and a board member of A.R.T./New York. He has helmed the productions of theatrical concerts by Jon Batiste, Taylor Mac, Suzan-Lori Parks, Lady Rizo, and En Vogue; music theatre works including The Hang and The Ritual of Breath Is the Rite to Resist; and he has directed the world premieres of new plays and musicals at The Alley, Goodman Theatre, The Flea, HERE Arts Center, Hip Hop Theatre Festival, Magic Theatre, Mixed Blood, New York Fringe, Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theatre, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Summer Play Festival, and Under the Radar. His participatory walks and performances have been produced by Abrons Arts Center, American Realness, The Brooklyn Museum, Dartmouth College, Elastic City, The Flea, The Invisible Dog, JACK, The New Museum, Prelude Festival, PS 122, the Van Alen Institute and Visual AIDS. He is the recipient of the Black Theatre Alliance Award for Best Direction, a Bessie Award, Van Lier Fellowship, Warner Bentley Award, Tucker Fellowship, Arkowitz Prize, and the Shoenhut Service Award.

Faye Driscoll is a Doris Duke Award-winning performance maker who has been hailed as a “startlingly original talent” by The New York Times and “a postmillenium postmodern wild woman” by The Village Voice. She was the 2021-2022 Randjelovic / Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist at New York Live Arts, and is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, a Bessie award, and the Jacob’s Pillow Artist Award among many others. Her work has been presented at Wexner Center for the Arts, Walker Art Center, ICA/Boston, MCA Chicago, and BAM, and internationally at Tanz im August, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, La Biennale di Venezia, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Melbourne Festival, Belfast International Arts Festival, Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens, Centro de Arte Experimental in Buenos Aires, and Festival Dias da Dança in Porto, Portugal. Her newest multi-sensory performance sculptures Calving (2022) and Weathering (2023) premiered at Theater Bremen (Bremen, Germany) and New York Live Arts (NYC, USA), respectively. In 2020, her first-ever solo exhibition, Come On In, opened at Walker Art Center and then went on to Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, On the Boards, and Esplanade (Singapore). She also choreographs for plays and films, including the Broadway production of Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men, and Josephine Decker’s award-winning feature film Madeline’s Madeline.

Matthew Buttrey is a New York-based scenic & environmental designer who loves to create worlds for imaginations to explore. Prior to his design career, Matthew was a nationally ranked competitive figure skater who then toured globally as a Principal Performer and touring Performance Director with Disney On Ice for 16 years. Matthew looks forward to combining his global experiences with each collaboration as a unique journey rooted in imaginative storytelling and movement. Devil Wears Prada, Designer: Christine Jones & Brett Banakis (Nederlander Theatre, Chicago); Macbeth, Designer: Christine Jones (Longacre Theatre, NY); MJ, Designer: Derek McLane (Neil Simon Theatre, NY); The Notebook, Designer: Brett Banakis & David Zinn (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Chicago); Milagro, Designer: Neil Patel (Houston Grand Opera, Houston); Penn & Teller, Designer: Daniel Conway (The Rio, Las Vegas). Assistant Art Director Credits: Twenty One Pilots Livestream & Cinema Experience; Search Party Season 5 (HBO Max); Sesame Street 50th Season (Emmy Nominated Art Direction Team); Pretty Little Liars (HBO Max); Almost Family (NBC); The Village (NBC).

Toby trained at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts before joining the Australian Opera Company lighting department, where he worked for 16 years. He has designed shows for Opera Australia, Sydney Symphony, Pacific Opera, Washington Opera Company, Sydney Festival, Melbourne Theatre Company, Melbourne Opera Company, Sydney Dance, Sydney Opera House & Sydney Theatre Companies. His design skills have also been used on major events and festivals including Halo Festival, Rugby League Grand Finals, Fashion Week, David Jones Season Launch, The Gold Dinner, Bulgari Launches in Australia & Italy. Toby has a passion for all forms of music, leading to his working as both designer and programmer with acts like Solange, Patrizio Buanne, Ben Folds, Bat for Lashes, Macy Gray, Cat Power, Ricky Lee Jones, Lee Scratch Perry, and many more. More recently, Toby has broadened his skills as Technical Manager with AGB Events on Parrtjima, Noël, & Elevate Festivals.

Brendan Aanes is a Brooklyn-based sound designer and composer whose work includes design for plays, musicals, and interactive installations, scores for theater and dance, live foley, and design for concert performances. Recent credits include Fire in Dreamland at The Public Theater, Balls with One Year Lease (Drama Desk nomination), {my lingerie play} at Rattlestick, Cowboy Bob at Ars Nova, The Unfortunates, John, The Hard Problem and Chester Bailey at American Conservatory Theater, Curious Incident Of The Dog in the Night-Time at Kansas City Rep, The Glass Menagerie and Othello at California Shakespeare Theater, and The Music Man at Sharon Playhouse. Brendan received his MFA in music from Mills College.

Oscar Escobedo (he/him) Escobedo is a New York City-based creative. Oscar collaborates on storytelling for theater, opera, dance, and immersive events, working under multiple disciples in scenic and properties and always relying on his zeal for craft. Working with Zach.Mo., Sarah Bird, Lindsay Martin, Glenn Marla, Noah Glaister, Lindsay Reshef, and Milan Magana has been a treat to bring so much love and joy to ever growing Bark of Millions. Special projects include Orlando (Will Pomerantz), Used Records (Jack Cummings III), Proud to Present (Nigel Semaj), and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Arin Arbus). MFA: NYU TISCH.

Zach Blumner (zach.mo.) is a visual artist and scenic designer from New York. He specializes in surrealist and experimental art-making across all mediums. He's fascinated by entities that are ephemeral and beings that are reclusive. Zach is a graduate of the University of Southern California (BFA Theatre Design) and NYU Tisch design for stage and film (MFA Set Design). He currently resides in Brooklyn.

Willa has been making plays for 25 years. Sometimes she’s in them, or creates things for them, or collaborates on ideas and shapes them into something tangible, or makes sure everyone stays alive and in good spirits. Willa takes photos, which she treats as theatre in two-dimensional form. Willa has been an Ambassador for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a Dramaturgical Costume Assistant on Showtime/Fox21’s Homeland, and a teaching artist for Writers Without Margins. Since 2016, Willa has worked extensively with Taylor Mac and Matt Ray on the Pulitzer Prize-nominated A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, Holiday Sauce, and as Associate Director of The Hang, traveling to The Melbourne Festival, Barbican Centre, Berliner Festspiele, The Grec Festival,  International Theater Amsterdam, The Curran Theatre San Francisco, Reykjavík Arts Festival, Bergen International Festival, and more. With Pomegranate Arts, Willa worked on projects with artists including Philip Glass and Bassem Youssef. She has collaborated on plays for Under the Radar and The Onassis Festival, among others. Willa is the Co-Director of Looking Glass Arts, an artist-led creative retreat organisation in upstate NY democratising access to the space, time, and natural beauty critical to artistic growth and practice.

Glenn Marla is an artist whose work focuses on themes of body liberation, gender, fat, shifting cycles of trauma, and writing new narratives to replace the ones that are oppressive. It is Glenn's goal that their work amplifies a voice in the world that is most often quieted, dampened, or disregarded. Amplified through performance and puppets, Glenn's is a voice that attempts honesty, humor, and vulnerability. Mx Marla has made puppets for their original plays and performances Scarcity Freezer (IRT Theater) and The Wild Unwanted with St. Ann's Warehouse Puppet Lab. Glenn is always thrilled to collaborate with Taylor Mac! You may have seen him as Poppy Flower in The Lily's Revenge, a Dandy Minion in A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, or Sexual Consent Santa in Holiday Sauce. Glenn Marla is honored to have his Mother Flawless Sabrina puppet as part of Bark of Millions. You're the Boss Applesauce!

Caridad Svich (Playwright) has written over 100 plays and translations, and their work has been produced across the US and abroad. Key plays include 12 Ophelias, Iphigenia Crash Land Falls…, Red Bike, and The House of the Spirits (based on Isabel Allende’s novel). Among her honors and recognitions are the Flora Roberts Award (The Dramatists Guild), Obie for Lifetime
Achievement, American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize, Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, two NNPN Rolling World Premieres, and a Harvard/Radcliffe Institute Fellowship. She has also authored and/or edited several books on theatre, including Toward a Future Theatre (Methuen Drama), Audience Revolution (TCG), and Federico Garcia Lorca: Impossible Theatre (Smith & Kraus). Some of her plays are published by TRW Plays, Broadway Play Publishing, Intellect Books, Seagull Books. She is founder of NoPassport theatre alliance and press, is Drama Editor of Asymptote literary translation journal, is an editor at Contemporary Theatre Review (UK), associate editor at Cambridge University Press’ Elements in Contemporary Performance, and sits on the advisory board of Global Performance Studies. They are also Artistic Director of New Play Development at the Lucille Lortel Theater in New York City.

Jason Kaiser's stage management credits include: Monsoon Wedding (St. Ann's Warehouse); Only An Octave Apart (St. Ann's Warehouse, NY Philharmonic); Kiki and Herb SLEIGH (BAM); Social! the social distance dance club, and Party in the Bardo (both at the Park Avenue Armory); the Tony Award-winning revival of Oklahoma! (Broadway, St. Ann’s Warehouse); A 24-Decade History of Popular Music with Taylor Mac (St. Ann’s Warehouse, tour); Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce; Available Light with Lucinda Childs Dance Company; the opera premieres of Book of Mountains and Seas, Acquanetta, The Source, anatomy theater, and love fail (all produced by Beth Morrison Projects); the world tour of the Olivier Award-winning revival of Einstein on the Beach; Nonesuch Records at BAM with Steve Reich and Philip Glass; three world-premiere plays by Athol Fugard; two European tours of Jesus Christ Superstar; and 13 world premieres with Jennifer Muller/The Works dance company.

Select credits – Stage Management: Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (2017 Pulitzer Prize nominee) and Holiday Sauce, Abandon (La Mama – OBIE award), Anatomy Theater (Beth Morrison World Premiere, L.A.); and Afterwardsness by Bill T. Jones, Social! The Social Distance Dance Club (Best Event of 2021, Time Out NY), and Carrie Mae Weems’ The Shape Of Things (all at Park Avenue Armory). Assistant to Baayork Lee (A Chorus Line – Broadway revival, London, Australia), Associate Director: La Boheme, University of Kentucky-Lexington Opera Theatre; SDCF Directing Assistant (A Christmas Carol – Adaptation: Patrick Barlow, Director: Joe Calarco), Mike Ockrent Fellow for Directing for Half Time (Director: Jerry Mitchell). Assistant Choreographer: The King and I (U.S., China, England, Australia). Cassey holds an undergraduate degree in Linguistics with a minor in Spanish from Macalester College, and a Master’s degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages).

Flo completed a Master’s in philosophy at Lille 3 University (France) and a second Master’s in art administration & projects management at the Sorbonne University before working with Olivier Dubois Company and later as a Projects Producer at Ballet du Nord – National Choreographic Centre of Roubaix. Flo worked as an arts administrator for Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity and as an admissions manager at The Place, London Contemporary Dance School. With Sadler’s Wells, Flo produced and toured high-profile productions in over twenty countries, collaborating with world-renowned artists William Forsythe, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Pina Bausch Foundation, Sting, and others. In June 2023, Flo relocated to NYC. He continues to work with Sadler’s Wells, and began new collaborations with Pomegranate Arts and Roderick George. On the side, Flo nurtures projects with the Ballroom community and joined the House of Marc Jacobs in 2020. Since May 2020, Flo has been on the board of Raze Collective, a charity dedicated to nurturing & developing innovative queer performance in the UK.

Having spent their formative years in Caracas, Venezuela and the US South, Cori is presently based in Brooklyn, NY. Through working on projects of varying scales and styles over the last ten years, they have ultimately developed a passion for live music, new theatre, and multidisciplinary works. Recent work includes National Sawdust (Associate Producer), BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! (Assistant Stage Manager), and Pomegranate Arts (Intern/PA, Bark of Millions @ MASS MoCA).

Filip Aaby (Abbey) is an American audio engineer, musician, and singer with the goth industrial band Abbey Death. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, Filip currently resides in Tampa, FL with his wife Valerie. Filip (aka Abbey Nex) joined up with Taylor Mac and the Pomegranate Arts team in 2023 as an audio technician for Bark of Millions. Currently, Filip works as the Front of House Engineer for legendary Canadian industrial band Front Line Assembly for the 2023 run of the Cold Wave Festival.

Valerie Aaby (Abbey) is an American audio engineer, musician, and singer with the goth industrial band Abbey Death. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, Valerie currently resides in Tampa, FL with her husband Filip. Valerie connected with Taylor Mac and the Pomegranate Arts team in 2021 as a monitor engineer for the limited run of “Holiday Sauce” at the rock club White Eagle Hall in Jersey City, NY. Since then, Valerie has served as a monitor engineer for Taylor Mac performances all over the world. She is excited to be at the Sydney Opera House for the world premiere of Bark of Millions.

Member of NYC Wardrobe Local 764, Kathe works on Broadway as a Star Dresser. She worked with over 45 Elphabas in the musical Wicked, Bruce Springsteen, Daniel Radcliffe, Gabriel Byrne, and Liam Neeson. Head Elf for Costume Designer Machine Dazzle, she supervised his design for award-winning off B’way jazz opera The Hang with Taylor Mac. Other crafting for Machine includes the Museum of Arts & Design, MET Museum, Metropolitan Opera for the Pride Parade, Joe’s Pub, and Walking with Amal. In addition to her Artisan bags, she designed a summer sport coats line sourced at Materials for the Arts in NYC. Kathe is grateful to Pomegranate Arts and the entire company of this extraordinary production of Bark of Millions. QLH…called the world.

Since 1998, Pomegranate Arts has worked in close collaboration with a small group of contemporary artists and arts institutions to bring bold and ambitious artistic ideas to fruition. Creative and executive producers Linda Brumbach and Alisa E. Regas, along with their committed team at Pomegranate Arts, have produced the Olivier Award-winning revival of Einstein on the Beach; Taylor Mac’s  epic A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, Holiday Sauce, and now – their third collaboration together, along with composer Matt Ray – a rock opera mediation on queerness called Bark of Millions; Available Light by John Adams, Lucinda Childs and Frank Gehry; Robin Frohardt’s The Plastic Bag Store; Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch’s Shockheaded Peter; and the Drama Desk Award-winning production of Charlie Victor Romeo. In recent years, Linda and Alisa have expanded the vision of the company by producing in non-performative mediums, including their first feature documentary film Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music (HBO Original Doc), the film short Taylor Mac’s Whitman in the Woods. (ALL ARTS), and museum installations for Machine Dazzle. Their first book, a special box set edition of Philip Glass Piano Etudes: The Complete Folios 1-20 with Essays by Fellow Artists, will be published by Artisan Books in October 2023. In addition to our own productions, Pomegranate Arts is proud to support North American touring for Batsheva Dance Company and Sankai Juku.