/pipeline

Written by: Dominique Morisseau
Directon: Brandon Dirden
PSM: Dana Seach
Set : Josh Barilla
Costumes: Amanda Roberge
Lighting: Kristen Paige
Sound: Justin Proper
Props: Ellie Bye

Performed by: Devin Kessler, J’Laney Allen, Zia Lawrence, Duane Shabazz, Olivia Scicolone, Marcus Fitzpatrick.

Performance dates
Atlas Theater; New York, NY
September 21th-26th, 2022

︎ Ella Bromblin

A mother’s hopes for her son clash with an educational system rigged against him in PIPELINE, the riveting new play by Dominique Morisseau (Skeleton Crew).

Nya, an inner-city public high school teacher, is committed to her students but desperate to give her only son Omari opportunities they’ll never have. When a controversial incident at his upstate private school threatens to get him expelled, Nya must confront his rage and her own choices as a parent. But will she be able to reach him before a world beyond her control pulls him away?

With profound compassion and lyricism, PIPELINE brings an urgent conversation powerfully to the fore. Don’t miss this deeply moving story of a mother’s fight to give her son a future — without turning her back on the community that made him who he is.

/urinetown

Music: Mark Hollmann
Book: Greg Kotis
Direction: Liz Peterson
PSM: Ally MacLean
Set : Josh Barilla
Costumes: Karen Boyer
Lighting: Nic Vincent
Sound: Caroline Eng
Props: Maggie McFarland

Performed by: Scotty Hindy
Chloe Griffault, Grant Venable, Tamar Mint, Frances Ronning, Kaden Geier
Foster Dowd, Garrett Collins
Lily Mikita, Gabriel Medina
Rose Maskati, Olivia Dower
Ethan Malpica-Santiag, Honora Bohanno, Sophia Barbatsuly, Elena Haus, Henry Weld.

Performance dates
Bard Fisher Center; Annandale-On-Hudson
April 12th-14th, 2024

︎ Chris Kayden

/titanic

Story + Book: Peter Stone          
Music + Lyrics: Maury YestonDirection: Ted SperlingMusic Direction: Dr Justin John Moniz
PSM: Ally MacLean
Set : Josh Barilla
Costumes: Karen Boyer
Lighting: Nic Vincent
Sound: Caroline Eng
Props: Maggie McFarland

Performed by: Scotty Hindy
Chloe Griffault, Grant Venable, Tamar Mint, Frances Ronning, Kaden Geier
Foster Dowd, Garrett Collins
Lily Mikita, Gabriel Medina
Rose Maskati, Olivia Dower
Ethan Malpica-Santiag, Honora Bohanno, Sophia Barbatsuly, Elena Haus, Henry Weld.

Performance dates
Bard Fisher Center; Annandale-On-Hudson
April 12th-14th, 2024

︎ Chris Kayden

/the dream

Adapted by: Dezi Tibbs and Jorge Schultz
Direction: Jorge Schultz
PSM: Ally MacLean
Set : Josh Barilla
Costumes: Valérie Bart
Lighting: Josh Martinez-Davis
Sound: Max Silverman
Props: Maggie McFarland

Performed by: Millie Altopp,
Arin Andrews, William Axelrod, Sophia Barbatsuly, Chloe Belle Boococ, Aidan Kennedy, Silas Lloyd, Andy McEnroe, Ruby Miller, Elliot Becker Peeler, Lauren Ryan-Holt.

Performance dates
Bard Fisher Center; Annandale-On-Hudson
October 25th–27th, 2024

︎ Chris Kayden

/other people’s dead dads

Written by: Jacob Wasson
Direction: Rory Pelsue
Set : Josh Barilla
Costumes: Cole McCarty
Lighting: Nicole E. Lang
Sound: Kathy Ruvuna

Performed by: Cole Doman, Zoe Mann, Jessica Litwak, Jess Darrow, Julian Sanchez, Patric Madden

Performance dates:
Dixon Place
New York, NY
August 1st-10th, 2024

︎ Zach Landes 

Press:
^{Paper Magazine}

/hir

Written by: Taylor Mac
Set design: Josh Barilla

Discharged from the Marines under suspicious circumstances, Isaac comes home from the wars, only to find the life he remembers upended. Isaac’s father, who once ruled the family with an iron fist, has had a debilitating stroke; his younger sister, Maxine, is now his brother, Max; and their mother, Paige, is committed to revolution at any cost. Determined to be free of any responsibility toward her formerly abusive husband—or the home he created—Paige fervently believes she can lead the way to a "new world order." Hir, Taylor Mac’s subversive comedy, leaves many of our so-called normative and progressive ideas about gender, families, the middle class—and cleaning—in hilarious and ultimately tragic disarray.

Hir is an exploration of family disfunction, identity, reparation; expressed through the medium of a living room play. 

The audience enters the space and are met with two postcards of Stockton California.  The billboard scale displays the ideal of this town as a product to sell.  The images cut away to reveal the reality behind it; the Conners family home. 

The house is a symbol of past trauma and a container for memories.  The patriarch of the household, Arnold, built this starter home cheaply by hand.  As Arnold lost grip of his job, family trust, and mental capacity, the home was turned over to his wife Paige.

Paige is slowly transforming her house of haunted memories into a biodegradable garbage pit filled with reminisce of radical consumerism.  She doesn't cook, only takeout, she doesn't clean, and only leaves the home to go to her committee meetings and cultural outings.  We see her coffee addiction has taken hold of the kitchen space with the only dishes being coffee cups and the only stocked consumable being nespresso pods. 

The walls and floors are heavily decorated with home delivery cardboard boxes and food takeout containers.  The home is turning into a cardboard box itself as Paige transforms every old component of the home into cardboard, disgusting the past memories associated with them. 

We see her decor curation scattered throughout the house where she adorns walls with her absurd translation of luxury goods.  These items help Paige claim the space as her own, opposed to when Arnold reigned the household.  As she drains the families limited resources on her selfish acts of reinvention she drives her family deeper and deeper into obscurity. 

/sweeney todd: the demon barber of fleet street

Music and Lyrics:
Stephen Sondheim

Book: Hugh Wheeler

Adapted from a play by: 
Christopher Bond

Set design: Josh Barilla 


Designing Sweeney Todd came out of my curiosity in examining the dynamics between people in power and those who are vulnerable.  These powers trickle down into everyday life in various forms.  From governments taking advantage of underprivileged communities, to corporations misleading consumers and undervaluing their employees. 

With thesis in mind, I walked into a McDonald’s last year listening to “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” in my headphones.  I bought a happy meal and started to imagine what kind of production could come out of these two ingredients.  The stem of a corporate fast food giant mixed with the music of Sondheim and the story of a wronged barber who bakes his victims into meat pies.  This story has been told and retold again.  At this point, the fable of Sweeney Todd has become one of mythology and I was interested in seeing what other contexts can be applied to this base tale.

In this production, I’ll be exploring the disillusion that is present in consumer behavior.  Everything is not as it seems.  As consumers we tend not to think about where things come from.  The devices we buy are perfectly disguised in attractively designed packaging.  The food we eat is far removed from the process in which we see it made.  Additionally, this production highlights how corporate greed and power easily seduce one into abusing such power against their ethics, sometimes even without their knowing it. 

We start the play in present day London examining the multilevel facade of a corporate structure.  Outside this structure we watch as businesspeople swing in and out of the revolving door, mixing with others on the street.  This serves as the container for the story to unfold. 

As we work through the tale of Sweeney Todd we see the space break down from its formal structure to an abstract expression of Mrs. Lovett’s struggling small business. By the end, the pie shop has rapidly evolved into a fast food giant and meat pie factory, a far cry from its humble beginnings.

Judge Turpin is the CEO figure of power in this world sitting at the top of the corporate structure.  As we journey through the piece we see Todd and Lovett turn from disenfranchised vulnerable commoners to using the very tactics of the corporate powers, like Turpin, that they’ve been targeting.

/in the red and brown water

Written by:
Tarell Alvin McCraney

Set design: Josh Barilla

In the sweltering heat of Louisiana, Oya dreams of competing alongside star athletes. She never feels  as when she's burning up the track. As a girl, she must choose between her dream and caring for her mother. As a woman, she's torn between the man she lives with and the man she can't live without.

/acis and galatea

Composed by: 
George Frideric Handel

Set Concept: Josh Barilla