| GAF 2023 | Student Leadership Team | Artists | Events | Installation Views |
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Of Monsters and Queers is a devised theatre piece focusing on queer POC community, who are often excluded from the mainstream queer narrative. Queer POC experience always involves hegemonic expectations, and we want to invite you into this (dark) fairy tale as a confrontation. By the monstrosity within, let’s crawl out of the sheet that we’re supposed to be hiding under.
COLLABORATORS: Anjun Jia, Divya Sarma, Sofi Lopez and Moon Warner
BIO:
Deijing Eloise Wang 王得静 (they/them) is a junior at NYU Gallatin. Besides theatre, they are interested in the philosophy of science—from linguistics to quantum physics. Dejing wants to explore the intersection between science and theatre with their Gallatin concentration, Translating Science Onstage. Recent credits include Penumbra (stage manager, PHTS), Stereotype Susceptibility (playwright/director, 2022 Gallatin Arts Festival), Like Treason? (coplaywright/codirector, 2021 Gallatin Arts Festival), Gaggle雁鸣 (actor, Real Stories/Real Voices: A Verbatim Play Cycle).
Anjun Jia (any pronouns) is a writer, director, and artist born and raised in Toronto, Canada. Previous theatre credits include: So Far Away by Jaden Tyler-Urso (codirector, NYU Broke People Play Festival), The Hat Trick Theory by Ariya Mamun (director, NYU Broke People Play Festival), and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale (assistant director, NYU Pop-Up Players). You can find their published poetry in Depth Cues Magazine, Ethel Zine, and Los Angeles Press. Anjun would like to thank Sofi, Eloise, Divya, and Moon for collaborating on this piece in such an enriching rehearsal process as well as the audience for watching!
Divya Sarma (she/he/they) is a third-year drama student and dramaturg at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, also double majoring in Psychology. In addition to acting, Divya is a budding exponent of Carnatic vocal music and South Asian classical and folk dance. Divya loves working on projects that revolve around queerness, race, disability, and complex interpersonal dynamics. Past projects include Collective Rage (Betty 5), Almost a Love Story (Jamie), The Hat Trick Theory (dramaturg), The Gospel of Joan Crawford (Death, dramaturg), Penumbra (Engstrom/Officer), and Mo and Bee at the Chain Theater One Act Play Festival (Bee). Outside of work, he enjoys singing and dancing nonstop, making ridiculously detailed backstories for D&D characters, and wondering how they will decorate their room, but never actually getting it done.
Sofi Lopez Arredondo (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Sofi is a third-year student at NYU Gallatin, studying theatre, decolonization, and the queer archive. Sofi has previously directed The Gospel of Joan (Crawford), Amor Perfeito, and Before Existence Came to Kill Us, and will direct the upcoming House of Jake. They are passionate about harm reduction in theatre, exciting narratives centering marginalized experiences, and working toward a liberated theatre practice. Sofi is excited to be a part of GAF and extends their gratitude to the Student Leadership Team, production team, and their cocollaborators on this project.
Moon (they/them) is a 21-year-old multidisciplinary creative and healer. They are a person but also a stone. They are a stone but also the Moon. They believe in love and integrity and use these values to ground their artistic/spiritual practice and work. They have spent their time at NYU Gallatin learning how to design performances intended to help people get in touch and work through their emotions. Beyond this, Moon is a lover of floating in the wind and seeing where it takes them; they love skipping, laughing, living, and feeling joy. They also have an obsession with orcas and recommend everyone watch the documentary Blackfish.
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