Prints Unedited

Marcia and April celebrate weirdness with songwriter and producer, Jeremiah Fristoe.

A conversation with Chicago-based artist, comedian, and educator, Miguel Angel Rodriguez.

In this episode, April and Jaina return with a new and improved Prints Unedited, and introduce some of the new team members for our Collab24 Devised Theatre Festival.

Joining our host, Jaina Alexander, and her special co-host Vic Melkonyan, are the Founders of BLKLST, the BIPOC created and led mechanism of accountability through transparency and community oversight in the Los Angeles Theatre Community. The three founders, Celia Mandela Rivera, A'raelle Flynn-Bolden, and Tiana Randall-Quant, are all long-time and active members of the LA theatre community. BLKLST's mission is to provide Safety and Equity for all BIPOC creatives and of the intersections we inhabit, in the Los Angeles theatre community by providing agency for L.A. based BIPOC theatremakers so that they can make informed decisions on what predominantly White American Theatres (WAT) they work with.

This episode is part two of our conversation around pushing for Equity and Accountability in LA Theatre through the Lens of Anti-Racism.

This episode was produced on the unceded ancestral territory of the Kiikaapoi, Peoria, Bodéwadmiakiwen, and Miami. This episode was edited by Sephra Kolker, with original intro and outro music by Marc Young.

Joining our host, Jaina Alexander, and her special co-host Vic Melkonyan, are the Founders of BLKLST, the BIPOC created and led mechanism of accountability through transparency and community oversight in the Los Angeles Theatre Community. The three founders, Celia Mandela Rivera, A'raelle Flynn-Bolden, and Tiana Randall-Quant, are all long-time and active members of the LA theatre community. BLKLST's mission is to provide Safety and Equity for all BIPOC creatives and of the intersections we inhabit, in the Los Angeles theatre community by providing agency for L.A. based BIPOC theatremakers so that they can make informed decisions on what predominantly White American Theatres (WAT) they work with.

This episode is part one of our conversation around pushing for Equity and Accountability in LA Theatre through the Lens of Anti-Racism.

This episode was produced on the unceded ancestral territory of the Kiikaapoi, Peoria, Bodéwadmiakiwen, and Miami. This episode was edited by Sephra Kolker, with original intro and outro music by Marc Young.

It is almost the end of 2021, and the Thumbprint Team decided to have a roundtable reflection on the past year: what we loved, what we missed, and what we're looking forward to! This week, April and Jaina sat down with Victoria Melkonyan (Director of Outreach and Education), Emery Lade (Administrative and Education Programming Mentee), Sephra Kolker (Social Media Mentee), and Lauren Heyboer (ProductionAssistant Mentee). Join our conversation and hear about all the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of the past year, and what we're excited for in the new one!

Victoria Melkonyan is a West Asian artist based in California. Through the lens of actor, director, and writer, Victoria actively pursues, uplifts, and creates stories for and by People of the Global Majority. They are an alumnus of California State University, Long Beach with a BA in Theatre Performance and have studied with the SITI Company. Through both their art and activism, they hope to increase visibility for SWANA (MENA) and all who are absent from the mainstream in various performance/storytelling mediums. From the very beginning of their artistic career and education, Victoria has made it a point to face systemic issues head on and embraced the art of calling in and calling to action in everything that they do. They are very excited by the awakenings happening currently between the masses and hope to aid in bringing a sense of revolution and radicalization to the spaces they occupy.

Emery Lade (they/them) is a theatre artist and writer based in the midwest. They've done everything from acting to lighting design to producing, and they are a proud multi-hyphenate creator. Their most recent play, Henry and Mae Kill a Cat, was produced in April by their alma mater, Western Illinois University. You can also read their poetry in Touchstone Literary Magazine.

Sephra Kolker (she/her/hers) Currently located in the Southern Plains, Sephra is a multi-hyphenate human being, whose most recent credit includes the role of Laura in Amelia, Once More. Her theatrical interests lie in exploring South-Asian American theatre. Outside of theatre, she enjoys cooking, watching classic television shows, writing in her planner, and podcasting. She recently graduated from the University of Oklahoma with degrees in Public/Nonprofit Administration and Environmental Design. Sephra is excited to be working with Thumbprint Studios, and is eager to learn more about digital content creation, while utilizing her skills to create content that is meaningful and impactful.

Lauren Heyboer is a theatre maker currently based in Michigan. With degrees in theatre, English literature, and writing, she has worked at several theatres in her area as an actor, dramaturg, and ASM. Passionate about vitality and theatre for social change, she is currently working on The Water Project, an original collaborative piece about local water crises and community engagement. Lauren works as a proofreader of scripts and audiobooks and plans to pursue a graduate degree in dramaturgy.

This episode was produced on the unceded ancestral territory of the Kiikaapoi, Peoria, Bodéwadmiakiwen, and Miami. This episode was edited by Emery Ann, with original intro and outro music by Marc Young.

This week, we sat down with Lee Nishri-Howitt to talk about the return to in-person classes in higher education, and what it means for students and faculty alike. Lee is an Assistant Professor of voice, speech, and accents at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, as well as a public speaking instructor at Harvard University. He also teaches voice and accents at Emerson College and Boston University. Lee has served as a voice, accent, and text coach all over Boston, in theaters such as The American Repertory Theater, Huntington Stage Company, New Repertory Theater, SpeakEasy Stage Company, and others. Originally from Israel, Lee is a graduate of the masters program in vocal pedagogy at the American Repertory Theater Institute at Harvard, and is also a certified teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork.

This episode was produced on the unceded ancestral territory of the Kiikaapoi, Peoria, Bodéwadmiakiwen, and Miami. This episode was edited by Emery Ann, with original intro and outro music by Marc Young.

Myra Su is a storyteller, puppeteer, and puppet maker based in Chicago. Her primary medium is shadow puppetry but her work also includes experimentations with crankies, video, and a brief stint with taxidermy. Most recently, she was a recipient of a Handmade Puppet Dreams 2020 Quarantine Film Micro-Commission grant. Her short puppet film, Goodnight Shadow, debuted in February 2021 and was made under lockdown conditions. She is currently teaching puppetry workshops online as well as designing puppets for an upcoming music video. In addition to her independent work, she is a touring performer with Manual Cinema, with performances worldwide. She is also a co-curator for a quarterly puppet slam, "Nasty, Brutish & Short."

This episode was produced on the unceded ancestral territory of the Kiikaapoi, Peoria, Bodéwadmiakiwen, and Miami. This episode was edited by Emery Ann, with original intro and outro music by Marc Young.

Alec Lichtenberg is an embodied storyteller, educator, and youth advocate based in New York City (Lenapehoking). He comes from German Jewish and Irish Catholic ancestry and aims to forward racial equity and social justice through his work. Growing in a loving home, Alec was medicated against his will for ADHD as a child. Later, he found tools of self-connection and repair by studying dance/storytelling, particularly forms of the African Diaspora, with master teachers Chris Walker, Dohee Lee, Anna Halprin, and Reverend Nafisa Sharriff.

This episode was produced on the unceded ancestral territory of the Kiikaapoi, Peoria, Bodéwadmiakiwen, and Miami. This episode was edited by Emery Ann, with original intro and outro music by Marc Young.

We are so excited to bring you our conversation with Emma Goldman-Sherman today! Emma Goldman-Sherman is a neurodivergent, genderqueer writer who believes in the power of theatre to confer healing and agency on audiences. Her plays have been produced on four continents and include Counting in Sha’ab, produced by Golden Thread and as a podcast at Playing On Air, and Abraham’s Daughters. Her plays have finalized at BAPF, Bridge Initiative, Campfire, Cutting Ball, Henley Rose, and Unicorn. Emma earned an MFA from the University of Iowa, where she received three Norman Felton awards and the Richard Maibaum award for plays addressing social justice. Perfect Women, published and licensed by Next Stage Press, received the Jane Chambers Award. Emma has been a resident of the Millay Colony, Ragdale, and twice at WordBridge, where she also worked as a dramaturg. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Honor Roll, LPTW, and LMDA. Emma runs the Brave New Workshop for new play development through Brave Space.

More resources:

Emma's Work on New Play Exchange

Emma's Twitter

Brave Space

Counting in Sha'ab at Playing on Air

This episode was produced on the unceded ancestral territory of the Kiikaapoi, Peoria, Bodéwadmiakiwen, and Miami. This episode was edited by Emery Lade, with original intro and outro music by Marc Young.