Presencia
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June 2024
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Presencia » June 2024 »
Book, Music & Lyrics by Michelle J. “Micha” Rodriguez
Directed by Mei Ann Teo
Choreographed by William Carlos Angulo and U.J. Mangune
Produced in association with ¡Oye! Group and The Sol Project
With support from Musical Theatre Factory
Presencia is a tender and comedic millennial music theater piece that reshapes the Moses story for women of color grappling with the hazards and challenges of leadership, told with Bible-fan-fiction vibes, varying degrees of reverence and satire, and a vibrant anthemic musical score rooted in jazz/R&B. When a succulent plant bursts into flames and tells fitness instructor Presencia it's the god of her ancestors, she must decide what to do… Sometimes liberation must be practiced at the smallest scale. Expect miracles, magic, divine feminine energy, and the healing power of presence and intuition in this ultimately joyous new piece of music theater.
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Manny Dunn
Manny Dunn (he/him) is a Tennessee born-native New Yorker and actor, singer, dancer. He is a 2016 graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and has studied with The National Black Theatre. Theater credits include About Love (The Sheen Center), Generation Rise (The New Victory Theater), Aida (Metropolitan Opera), Undesirable Elements: Secret Histories (Ping Chong and Company), The Revival: It Is Our Duty (The Shed), Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Gallery Players), Echoes of Ebola (Playwrights Horizon), A Christmas Carol (Origin Theatre). Television and Film credits include The Shade, Ezra, Night Music, Bad Education, Paterno, Bull, Impossible Monsters, and Dirty which won him awards from SXSW and other film festivals. He is currently performing in both Turandot and Fire Shut Up in My Bones at the Metropolitan Opera.
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Michelle J. “Micha” Rodriguez
Michelle J. “Micha” Rodriguez (she/her) writes and performs in the worlds of music and theater. Raised in the Pacific Northwest and Kentucky by Puerto Rican parents, Michelle’s work explores kids-of-immigrants stories, divinity, queerness, intuition, joy-as-resistance, healing and spaces in-between. Michelle is a 2024-2025 Tow Playwright-in-Residence at the Bushwick Starr, a 2023-2024 Vision Resident at Ars Nova, the winner of the 2022 Helen Merrill Award for playwriting and the recipient of a 2022 grant from NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theater.
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Sushma Saha
Sushma Saha(pronoun inclusive) Broadway: 1776 (Roundabout). Off-Broadway: Interstate (Theatre Row). Off-Off Broadway: 7 Minutes (Waterwell), Girlfriend (The Drama League). Regional: The Wolves (ATL), Little Shop of Horrors (Little Shop of Bools). Sushma Saha (pronoun inclusive) is a queer Indian-American artist based in NYC. They are an actor, singer, dancer, voice actor, model, & songwriter with a BFA in musical theatre from Ithaca College (Class of 2021). Her most recent/notable works include playing Judge James Wilson of Pennsylvania in the Broadway rival of “1776” and winning ‘Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role’ at New York Musical Festival for playing Henry in “Interstate” by Melissa Li & Kit Yan. They are currently working on their first EP “This Isn’t About You” to be released on all music-streaming platforms. IG: @sushmasahahaha
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Tieisha Thomas
Tieisha Thomas(she/her) Black. Fem. Artist and Storyteller hailing from NYC. National Tour: 1776 the Musical (Abigail Adams /Reverend John Witherspoon) ELF the Musical (Jovie), Off-Broadway: Hercules (Melpomene), B-Boy Blues the Play (Michi), Chronicle X (Knowledge), Lost in the Disco (Angelina), Midnight Mugshot (Principal Gordon) Virtual: WILMAR (Ugbad /Hamdi) Getting There (Tanaysha)
Costume Designer Hahnji Jang (they/them), Scenic Designer Tanya Orellana (she/her), Co-Lighting Designers Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (she/her) and Christopher Wong, Props Designer & Scenic Associate Mele Sabú Borges (they/them), Assistant Costume Designer Aidan Griffiths (they/them), Dramaturg Jesse Alick (he/him), Music Supervisor Jason Liebson, Vocal Director Michelle J. “Micha” Rodriguez, Production Stage Manager Sarah Orttung (she/her), Assistant Stage Manager Justin Allen (he/she/they)
Line Produced by Rula A. Muñoz (she/they)
PRESENCIA is made with support from: The NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre by the City of New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment in association with The New York Foundation for the Arts; The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and the Tow Foundation Playwright Residency Program.
PRESENCIA has been previously developed through a special Creative Residency at Williams College, and through residencies at BAM, Hubbard Hall, and a concert at Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City.
Michelle J. Rodriguez is a 2024-2025 Tow Playwright-in-Residence. The Tow Foundation was established in 1988 by Leonard and Claire Tow as a way to give back to the communities that shaped them. Its five primary impact areas are equity and justice, medicine and public health, arts and culture, higher education, and civic engagement. Grounded in its decades of work in Connecticut and New York and based in New Canaan, CT, the foundation supports visionary leaders and nonprofit organizations to find and enact innovative solutions to persistent inequality. It works to ensure people can become full participants in their communities, achieve transformative and lasting progress, and develop approaches that allow everyone to reach their full potential.