Fund your arts career throught grants! Learn the ins and outs of the application process from those well-versed in the process: Hillary Plate & Rita Cohen.

Time to care for yourself! As artists we are especially vulnerable and need to carve out time for our emotional and mental well being. Join us as Lynn Gilbert, creator of Sounds of Evensong, an immersive sound and vibration healing practice, leads a healing vibration session for us to experience together. Then learn about the programs and resources supporting mental health available through NAMI Coastal Virginia (National Alliance on Mental Illness).

Join accomplished actress, published playwright and ODU Assistant Theater Professor, Brittney Harris, as she shares her insights and expertise about Devised Theater and all the ways it can help us talk about the important issues of our time. Devised Theater: A method of theater-making in which the script originates from collaborative, often improvisatory work by a performing ensemble.

ABOUT THE MASTERCLASS LEADER:

Brittney S. Harris is an Assistant Professor of Theatre in the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts at Old Dominion University. Her areas of expertise are in Race and Performance, Performance as Activism, and Community-Engaged Devised Theatre. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Acting with an emphasis in Cultural Enrichment from the University of Georgia. As an artist and educator, her approach to creativity centers on providing a sacred space for discovery, exploration, and individuality.

Brittney’s works survey the adverse effects of vicarious trauma from social media on the personal psyche and how narrative-based storytelling is used as a vessel for social resilience and redemption. Specific topics explored, but not limited to, are Racial Injustice, Mental Health Awareness, Gender Equality, and Domestic Violence Awareness. Her works have been featured at several national interdisciplinary conferences and fringe festivals, including the Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference (ATHE), National Women’s Theatre Festival, and Black Theatre Network.

Most recent featured directed performances/programming include Silhouettes: Cut to Black, The Kara Walker Project (ROUGE Productions and VA MOCA); Exodus: Homecoming VA (The InHEIRitance Project); The Hidden History of the Banjo (Zeiders American Dream Theater); Intimate Apparel (ODURep Theatre) and created/devised TAG! You’re It!, Symptomatic: IRL and Echoes: Transcending Through Story for the ODURep Theatre Mainstage season. Currently, she is workshopping and touring her three solo performance projects, Pedigree, The Intersection: The Sandra Bland Project and Being B.A.D.; each project assessing how narratives of resilience are archived, shared, remembered, and incite a dialogue in promoting social reform and change.

Free with Z artist membership; $10 suggested donation for non-members

JOIN THE Z ARTIST MEMBERSHIP

The performance scheduled for Thurs, March 9 has been cancelled. Please call the box office at for ticket exchanges and more information. 

Taking Measure fuses the world and characters of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure into a young woman’s struggle through contemporary academia to explore today’s Me Too movement and Cancel Culture in a surprisingly nuanced way.

DESIGN TEAM
Sarah Norris……………………………………………….Director
Chris Hanna………………………………………….Playwright
Rachel Elder………………………………..Stage Manager
Dasia Gregg………………………………………………Scenic & Projections Designer
Akin Ritchie…………………………… Lighting Designer
Meredith Magoun…………….. Costume Designer
Kara McCormick……… Asst. Costume Designer
Steven Allegretto …………………….Sound Designer
Suzanne Finnerty……………Asst. Stage Manager

CAST
Felicia Fields…………………………………………………….Kim
Julian Stetkevych*…………………………………………….Gil
Ann Heywood…………………………………….. Miss Dash
Peyton Creasey ……………………………………………..Nick
Mahala Lepsch………………………………………………Ashe
Andrew Bryce*…………………. Ensemble / Angelo
Destiny Deater………………… Ensemble / Isabella
Ash O’Leary………………………….. Ensemble / Diana
Dai Poole……………………. Ensemble / Dramaturg
Wain Richardson……………. Ensemble / Claudio
Ashlee Rey………………….Ensemble / Kia / Title XI

Recording Yourself at Home: From starting your own podcast to recording your own music, learn the art of recording and editing professional audio from home with this new workshop from Theatre Sound Designer and Mixing/Mastering Engineer, Steven Allegretto.

About the Artist: Steven Allegretto

Steven Allegretto wears many hats when it comes to dealing with sound and audio production. He began his career producing music at home, which led to him being formally trained in the art of recording at Full Sail University. After graduating school, Steven became a Recording, Mixing, and Mastering Engineer at a local recording studio. He was then introduced to the world of the performing arts where he developed several skills including micing a wide array of instruments, creating sound effects, and mixing sound for live concerts and events. This led to Steven eventually becoming a Theatre Sound Designer for large-scale musicals and stage plays. Throughout all of this, he has had a passion for teaching, and sharing his knowledge with all who will receive it. Having developed and taught courses with the Governor’s School for the Arts and the College of William & Mary, Steven’s plan is to make his classes more accessible to the world by doing workshops, and developing an online curriculum focusing on theatre sound.

Steven greatly appreciates you for being in attendance at the Recording at Home workshop, and he hopes it will benefit you in your quest of achieving your own sound. Steven would also like to especially thank Zeiders American Dream Theater for giving him the platform and opportunity to be here with you all.

Free with Z artist membership; $10 suggested donation for non-members

Artist Member Events: The Z Artists and local art-lovers are invited to this series of interactive workshops, Master Classes, and social hours aimed at cultivating creativity and community! Your creative spark starts here! BECOME A Z ARTIST HERE

by Jennie Brown
Directed by Patrick Mullins, Asst. Director: Leila Stephanie

Can truth prevail in the teaching of history to school children? Sixty-five years apart, two Select Committees of the Virginia Textbook Commission face this question. In 1955, a committee member challenges misinformation in a proposed Virginia history manuscript for elementary students. Fellow members are reluctant to stir up unrest in communities of color, and with the state commission. In a 2020 meeting, one member protests the racial equity embraced in a new manuscript of a middle-school text. The chair tries to protect the committee’s work while grappling with intimations of unrest and potential violence.
——-
The Proteus New Plays Festival showcases community-driven staged readings of 4 scripts that have been developed in the Z Playwrights Lab or by Z Artist Members. The staged readings give the playwrights an opportunity to work with a director and a volunteer cast to see their script “on its feet” for the first time, and add the most crucial element to developing a play, The Audience!

Each reading is presented twice during the 2 weeks of Proteus Festival. Audiences are given the opportunity to rate the plays via a survey focused on the elements writing an engaging script and story. Ratings are averaged to select the PNPF Audience Favorite. The Audience Favorite receives a workshop production 2-week run in November, as the second Curtain Up! New Plays Series play of the 23-24 season.