Co-MISSION Works-In-Progress

Spring 2024

Our Spring 2024 Co-MISSION Fellows offer a split bill Works-In-Progress showing featuring Najee-Zaid Searcy and Lani T. Montreal.

Searcy and Montreal present to audiences the projects they have investigated and rehearsed while incubating in the white box studio since January.

A Note From Aaliyah Christina, Artist Programs Manager & Associate Curator:

"Our Fellows this Spring have been investigating and getting deeply personal. Ancestral voices come through with vigor, grit, and force. While they unleash their growing connections and work through new findings, our only job is to witness. As I hear their scripts adjust & calibrate in real time and their musicianship fine-tunes to find the perfect hooks, I am reminded about all the ways witnesses must be curious, open, and receptive. This only makes me more anticipatory for the greatness that will continue in June."

ARTISTS’ NOTES

NAJEE-ZAID SEARCY | Emersion

Emersion releases that which must be shed. Allowing that which must become through movement, space, scent, and form. Emersion seeks to allow for personal and collective transformation by offering meditations and wellness services when possible. We are conduits reactivating the bodymind, and participating with the energies present. 

Collaborators: Alejandro Salazar (Musician), Paige Brown (Musician), and Viktor Le-Givens (Movement and Installation)

Music/Sound: Composed by Najee-Zaid 

Special Thanks: Given to my ancestors, family, friends, those who have supported me, and the Links Hall team.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

LANI T. MONTREAL | Anak ni Tapia: Leaving Mother

“Anak ni Tapia: Leaving Mother" is a story about what it's like for someone to grow up in the shadow of a celebrity mother with a dark past in a patriarchal and deeply religious society. 

Collaborators: Daisy Castro (Director) and Nejla Yatkin (Movement Coach)

Music/Sound: Demetrio Cardona-Maguigad & Michael Querubin

Special Thanks: Evanthia Georges, Joanah Torre, Alexa Bermudez, Ava Bermudez, Christina Luis Bermudez, Cameron Barrett Bermudez, Melanya Liwanag Aguila, and the Links Hall Team

PRODUCTION TEAM

Dylan Roth, House Manager

Katie Collins, Box Office Manager

Alé Favila, Lighting

Giau Truong, Technical Director

ABOUT CO-MISSION AT LINKS HALL

The Co-MISSION Residency is awarded to 3-4 performance artists to engage in the development & research of new or existing work, from mid-September to mid-December. Links Hall provides artists with a 12-week studio residency with up to eight hours of studio time each week), a monthly stipend, support of the Art of Rehearsal Workshop series, works-in-progress opportunities, and shared-bill performances at Links Hall’s Co-MISSION Festival of New Works. 

The Co-MISSION Fellowship is awarded to 2 performance artists to undergo an intense rehearsal process from January to May. These selected artists are veteran performance makers already past the initial research phase of the development of their new works. These individuals will be awarded: five months of studio time to complete the creation of their new projects, a monthly stipend, personalized mentoring with Art of Rehearsal coaches, a works-in-progress showing, and evening-length presentations of their new work as part of the Co-MISSION Festival of New Works.

Witness the creations of this evening artists and the spring Fellows at the Spring 2024 Co-MISSION Festival of New Works.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Najee-Zaid Searcy is a Chicago born interdisciplinary artist with a focus on performance and identity. Najee-Zaid uses their background in music, facilitation, and informal arts learning to explore the intersection of space and identity within the context of healing modalities through his new body of work “Immersion” which received its debut at Elastic Arts late 2022. Najee-Zaid’s latest works combine elemental and plant ancestries with the human experience while hybridizing his performance acoustically, electronically, and spatially with a range of accessible sensory activations. Learn more at najeezaidsearcy.com.

​​Lani T. Montreal is a queer feminist Filipina writer, educator, and performer based in Chicago. Her plays have been read and produced in the U.S., Canada, and the Philippines, mostly by CIRCA-Pintig Filipino-American Theatre Group. Likewise, her essays and poetry have been published in journals and anthologies, among them LitBop Magazine, Rattle, MiPoesias, Riksha and others. Lani writes to create her home in the diaspora. She is currently a Chicago Dramatist Network Playwright, was a Resident Artist at Free Street Theater (2017), two-time recipient of 3Arts Residency Awards (2016 and 2009),  and a 2017 alumni of VONA Writers of Color Workshop.

ABOUT THE COLLABORATORS

Collaborators for Najee-Zaid Searcy’s “Emersion”:

Alejandro Salazar emphasizes love, peace, and unity to audiences through unique performances, education, and the cultural study of Afro-Cuban and Black-American Music. Chicago’s own rising star, Alejandro Salazar, is deeply rooted in the tradition, yet he likes to explore new ways to help people groove and dance more to his infectious swing feel. Alejandro has had the pleasure of playing at clubs, venues, and festivals all over Chicago and the world like The Chicago Jazz Festival, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Jazz a la Villette (Paris), Primavera Sound Barcelona, Munch Museum (Oslo), Bourse de Commerce (Paris), Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, The Jazz Showcase, Andy’s Jazz Club, DuSable Museum, The Green Mill, Constellation, and Dorian's to name a few.

A vocalist, pianist and composer, Paige Brown still sometimes lovingly refers to herself as "arts-adjacent" while establishing herself as an artist in her own right. As a Performing Arts Residency Coordinator and as a fan/friend of many in the robust Chicago arts ecosystem, she constantly finds herself in awe of the talent and adventurousness of the creatives she is privileged to witness and support. While she more frequently positions herself contently in the audiences of performances and exhibitions, she is currently navigating a journey of strengthening the inner mechanisms and communal connections to deepen and externalize her own practice more fully. She currently finds joy/peace by communing with plants and other beings, and catalyzing/witnessing the growth of artists and others. She currently finds challenge in her quest to improve at the art of taking things slow, and in reacquainting herself with the simple, playful practices that attracted her to Music, her first love.

Viktor Le-Givens is a found object installation performance artist whose practice centers around the gathering and arrangement of ancestral objects to activate spaces for site specific public rituals. By connecting the material culture of his ancestors with pre and post modern spiritual theologies, le. Givens hopes to extend and reimagine the folk customs of his family . His material archive is comprised of the forgotten and discarded household items found during excavations of East Texas, Louisiana, Havana Cuba and Mexico City. . Through the accumulation of these rich cultural artifacts , le. Givens. seeks to create spaces that inspire the activation of cultural and spiritual memory.

Collaborators for Lani T. Montreal’s “Anak ni Tapia: Leaving Mother":

Daisy Castro has been involved in Chicago theatre for 25+ years both on and off stage as a dancer, performer, tech hand, administrator, producer and director. She was part of the second generation of Stir-Friday Night! as writer, actor and development coordinator. In 1991, she was cast as the love interest of Carlos Bulosan in Pintig Theatre group's maiden production, America's in the Heart. This started her long, complicated, and fulfilling relationship with the organization. What a privilege to witness its evolution from concept to the present incarnation.

Demetrio P. Maguigad is a multidisciplinary experience designer and strategist. He is a longtime music producer and sound designer to CIRCA Pintig theatrical and musical productions including Mr & Mrs Laquesta Go Dancing, Sister Outlaw, Game of Trolls, and most recently Daryo's All American Diner. He was the Principal and Director of Design Strategy at LimeRed, and now founder and owner of Polyrhythmic Design & Co. 

Michael Querubin is a musician who has collaborated on a few productions with the community theatre group, Circa-Pintig. He is also a member of the Bagwis Collective, a Chicago based progressive Filipino fusion band.

ABOUT THE ART OF REHEARSAL COACHES

Meida Teresa McNeal is Artistic and Managing Director of Honey Pot Performance. She received her PhD in Performance Studies (Northwestern) and her MFA in Choreography & Dance History (Ohio State). Awards include an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in New Performance Forms, Field Foundation’s Leaders for a New Chicago, 3Arts Award in Dance, Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist, and the Links’ Hall Co-Missions Fellowship. An Independent Artist and Scholar at the intersection of performance studies, dance, and critical ethnography, Meida also teaches at University of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago. Meida also works with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events' Executive Administration team as the Senior Manager of Arts & Community Impact Investments building and implementing artist recovery programs and creative placemaking grantmaking initiatives. Prior to this role, Meida worked with the Chicago Park District as Arts & Culture Manager supporting community arts partnerships, youth arts, cultural stewardship, and civic engagement initiatives.

La Mar Brown is thrilled to be a Co-Mission Artist Coach for the second year with Links Hall, and to co-lead the Art of Rehearsal process this year. He is an arts manager, producer, dancer, and singer. He currently serves as the Operations Manager for Chicago Dancemakers Forum, where he manages functions to support administrative, fundraising, and programming activities. After relocating to Chicago from Dallas, TX, he completed his Master of Arts Management at Columbia College Chicago in 2016. He also is a 2022 Leadership Institute cohort member of YNPN Chicago. La Mar’s other administrative credits include Project Coordinator, The Ruth Page Center for the Arts; Box Office Supervisor, Writers Theatre; Company Manager, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago; and Associate Patron Services Manager, the AT&T Performing Arts Center (Dallas, TX). His performance credits include Dallas Black Dance Theatre, The Ruth Page Civic Ballet, Porchlight Music Theatre, Dallas Metropolitan Ballet, Uptown Players, Garland Summer Musicals, and The Dallas Opera. 

ABOUT LINKS HALL

For 45 years, Links Hall has played a pivotal role in Chicago, encouraging artistic innovation and public engagement by maintaining a facility and providing flexible programming for the research, development, and presentation of new work in the performing arts. Founded in 1978 by experimental choreographers, Bob Eisen, Carol Bobrow, and Charlie Vernon, Links became a National Performance Network partner in 1998 and received a MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions in 2016. Links Hall supports multidisciplinary artists through residencies, festivals, subsidized rentals, and other resources for performers at every stage of their career.

Links Hall programming is made possible by artists, audiences, and support from: Arts Midwest GIG Fund, Association of Performing Arts Professionals, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, Exelon, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Heather B. Henson Fund/Puppet Slam Network, Illinois Arts Council Agency, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, National Performance Network, The Charlie Vernon Performance Fund at the Evanston Community Foundation, The Jentes Family Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, MacArthur Fund for Culture, Equity, and the Arts at Prince, The Martha Struthers Farley & Donald C. Farley, Jr. Family Foundation, The Prince Charitable Trust, Robert R. McCormick Foundation, and The Weasel Fund.

STAFF

Aaliyah Christina, Artist Programs Manager & Associate Curator

Katie Collins, Marketing & Development Manager

SK Kerastas, Executive Director

Mario LaMothe, General Manager

Dana Pepowski, Programs Coordinator

Giau Truong, Production Manager & Associate Curator 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Amy Chavasse - Artistic Director, Chavasse Dance & Performance and Professor of Dance; the University of Michigan

Kim Davis - Founder and Principal, Five/6teen Consulting

Alyssa Gregory - Communications Manager, The University of Chicago and Marketing Associate; Associate Choreographer, The Fly Honey Show

Ross Stanton Jordan - Curatorial Manager, the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum

Trevor Martin -  Executive Director of Exhibitions and Exhibition Studies and Senior Lecturer in the Performance Department, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Dan Nichols - Former Associate Dean for Finance in Social Sciences and Associate Dean for Operations in Humanities, the University of Chicago

Jon Pagac - Executive Director, J.P.Morgan

Tina Post - Assistant Professor of English and Theater and Performance Studies and affiliate of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago

Doreen Sayegh - Producer/General Manager, Pemberley Productions and Board Vice President, the League of Chicago Theatres

Michael Tokoph - Associate Director, Product Strategy at Huge

Tara Aisha Willis, Ph.D. - Curator in Performance & Public Practice, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Patrick Zakem - Creative Producer, Steppenwolf Theatre Company

ADVISORY BOARD

Cheryl Lynn Bruce - Ensemble Member, Teatro Vista

Bob Eisen - Founder of Links Hall 

E. Aaron Greven - Owner, AG Design Works

Tracie D. Hall - Artist, Curator, & Librarian

Maggie Kast - Author, Founder Chicago Contemporary Dance Theatre

Eva Silverman - Project Director, Art Design Chicago 

Blair Thomas - Founder and Artistic Director, Chicago International Puppetry Festival 

Michael Zerang - Musician, Former Links Hall Director