Jamila Reddy and Lian Walden met serendipitously as 2013 Drama League Directing Fellows. They spent a summer producing one another’s work at the Hangar Theatre, where they each created original, site-specific, ensemble-driven productions. After many hours scheming, dreaming, and philosophizing about theater (on creative retreats at Ithaca’s gorges, under the desert sky in Black Rock City, and on the colorful cobblestones in San Miguel de Allende), they realized their shared desire to translate dramatic narratives into visceral experiences. They have since choreographed artistic and social ventures (from guerilla tea parties for strangers in the park to immersive art parties) that aim to transform not only people’s perspective but also how people engage with one another and the world around them. Their combined skillsets (Jamila, writer/producer extraordinaire; Lian, visual mastermind/idea machine) make them a powerful creative team.
Lian Walden is a Brooklyn-based director and experiential architect seeking to infuse the everyday with spontaneity and play. She is the artistic director of Synapse Productions, whose mission is to cultivate creative connections at critical junctures. Lian ran a community theater for several years in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she also directed an international cast in the world premiere of Benjamin Kunkel’s Intruders. Recent productions include Artichoke Hearts: A Fabulous Destiny (an original adaptation of the film Amélie staged in a tent), Anne Negri’s With Two Wings, and Anton Dudley and Jonatha Brooke’s Death in Venice (reading), all at the Han2gar Theatre as part of her Drama League Directing Fellowship. Previous directing credits include Jose Rivera’s References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (OBT, New Haven), Edwin Sanchez’ Icarus (Yale Repertory Theater), and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (Yale Opera Playhouse), and The Precipice, a dark fairytale narrated through live jazz music, dance and aerial silks, produced by Grateful Dead founder Bob Weir (Z Space). Lian has assistant directed for Lila Neugebauer, Carey Perloff, and Jonathan Silverstein at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, the Yale Repertory Theater, and the American Conservatory Theater. She recently collaborated with the producers of Sleep No More on a new show that will premiere in Las Vegas in 2015. Lian has received grants to investigate street performance in Barcelona, political theater in Bogotá, and contemporary art in Accra. Lian is alumna of Yale University, where she studied theater and political science.
Jamila Reddy is a writer, director, and facilitator of dreams. As a director, she creates multimedia theatrical experiences for diverse audiences; infusing live music, movement, and spoken word poetry into traditional theatre. As a poet, she draws heavily on narrative storytelling, each poem an intimate lens into a moment from her personal and collective history. At the heart of all her artistic work is an insatiable curiosity about the human condition. Currently residing in Washington, D.C., Jamila is a teaching artist for Split This Rock, a non-profit collective of poets, artists, and activists. Her poetry has been featured at La-Ti-Do, the premier musical theatre/spoken word cabaret series in the District, and Busboys and Poets. Recent directing credits include Bodies (an original devised piece that explores the way the Western world regards illness, diagnosis, and flaw) for the Hangar Wedge, James and the Giant Peach for the Hangar KIDSTUFF season, and Greg Keller’s The Family Play (reading), all during her 2013 Drama League Director’s Fellowship. Previous directing credits include Danielle Mohlman’s Stopgap at the Capital Fringe Festival (Field Trip Theatre), Ntoztake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf at the University of North Carolina (Lab!Theatre), and several devised productions with Ebony Readers Onyx Theatre, a spoken word/theatre collective of artists of color at UNC. At the Hangar Theatre, Jamila co-produced the Hangar Wedge season and created curriculum for the Hangar Lab Academy, a training program for emerging theater artists. Jamila is an alumna of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, (BA: Sociology, Theatre).