MALLORY CATLETT

DIRECTOR/dramaturg


About

Sep .09

Artist Statement

Artist Statement

I make theater.

I direct and am a dramaturg. I also adapt text – poetry, science, plays, letters, theory. I work across disciplines with ensemble theatre companies, composers, musicians, choreographers, visual artists, technicians, designers and writers – the living and the dead. In theaters and out of them. These practices reflect an interest in expanding what the theater can contain.

My work is often intensely collaborative. On each project, the people, the subject matter, the objects in the room and the words spoken determine the look and feel of the work and its terms of engagement with the audience. I hold out for the notion that the work can change me. Does change me.

In general, I:

  • Find fiction a faster path to experience than truth.
  • Am more interested in communication than representation.
  • Am preoccupied with the intangible – the precarious, the almost lost – that drives me to actualize.
| Comments (0)
Aug .09

Foundations/Support

Foundation Support

  • Nancy Quinn Fund, a program of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T/New York), 2018
  • Creative Opportunity Fund, 2017
  • Creative Capital, 2016
  • Graham Foundation, 2016
  • MAP Fund, 2014
  • Emergency Grant, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, 2013
  • New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant, 2011
  • NEFA, 2011
  • MAP Fund, 2010
  • Jerome, 2010
  • Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, 2009
  • New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant, 2009
  • Tobin Foundation for Theatre Arts, 2009
  • Greenwall Foundation Grant, 2009
  • Experimental Television Center, 2009
  • David Bohnett Foundation, 2009
  • Norman Bel Geddes Foundation, 2008
  • Tobin Foundation for Theatre Arts, 2008
  • MAP Fund, 2008
  • Greenwall Foundation Grant, 2008
  • MCAF (LMCC) Grant, 2008
  • Mary Duke Biddle Fund, 2008
  • Strickland Family Foundation, 2008
  • New York State Music Fund, 2007
  • Puffin Foundation, 2005
  • Canada Council for the Arts, 2004
  • BC Arts Council, 2004
  • Canada Council for the Arts, 2003
  • NYSCA Technical Assistance, 2002
  • NY State Council for the Humanities, 2002
  • Arts Fact, 2000
  • Hamber Foundation, 2000

Institutional/Residency Support

  • Mount Tremper Arts
  • CultureHub/LaMama
  • Barishnykov Arts Center
  • MacDowell Colony
  • Gibney Dance
  • The Performing Garage
  • Yaddo
  • Mabou Mines
  • The Collapsable Hole
  • HERE Arts Center
  • Abrons Arts Center
  • Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
  • Ontological-Hysteric Theatre Incubator
  • Chashama
  • Chocolate Factory
  • Digital Performance Institute, Gertrude Stein Rep
  • British Studies Fellowship, Harry Ransom Research Center

Awards

  • Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, 2015 Grants to Artists Award
  • Obie Award for This Was the End
  • Bessie award (for best Visual Design w/ additional nominations for Sound and Best Production) for This Was the End
  • David Hewes Design Award for Visual Effects for This Was the End
  • Herald Angel Award for Beowulf
  • Elliot Hayes Award for Dramaturgy for the First 100 Years: The Professional Female Playwright
  • Best Production for The Sewers Dublin Fringe
  • Best Ensemble Production for The Sewers SF Fringe
  • Best Play for The Young War SF Fringe
  • CD Nelson Graduate Fellowship
| Comments (0)
Aug .09

Biography

Biography

Mallory Catlett is an Obie award winning director, dramaturg and creator of performance across disciplines; from CITY COUNCIL MEETING – a regional experiment in participatory democracy created with Aaron Landsman and Jim Findlay that the audience performs, to the internationally touring BEOWULF – Banana Bag & Bodice’s musical bar room brawl, to Dread Scott’s performance installation – DREAD SCOTT: DECISION at BAM’s Next Wave Festival.

She received a 2014 Special Citation Obie Award for THIS WAS THE END, her remix of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya presented at The Chocolate Factory with Restless NYC, the production company she started in 2004 designed excavate the theatrical and literary record and to expand her own authorship. The design for THIS WAS THE END was also recognized with a Bessie and the Henry Hewes award. Prior productions include 2 site-specific reconstructions of Shakespeare – AS YOU LIKE IT: RESTLESS IN ARDEN and Rii; and the upcoming M/F FUTURE, a pair of pieces that explore gender and the prophetic imagination.

Prolific outside of the company, Catlett’s original works also include OH WHAT WAR, inspired by Joan Littlewood’s Oh What a Lovely War (HERE); THE GREENHOUR, an adaptation of Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell (Chapel Arts, Vancouver); CELEBRITY, devised from student-generated material and the writings of Andy Warhol (SUNY Purchase); THE WOMAN REBEL, compiled from the writings of Margaret Sanger with Amanda Quaid (Women Center Stage at The Culture Project) and THIS ROOM IS MOVING, a two-act combination of Harold Pinter’s The Dwarfs and a companion piece, BEAT, created from the writings of Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs (Video In, Vancouver; nominated for 5 Jessie Awards).

She co-created and directed two Latitude 14 multimedia music pieces RED FLY/BLUE BOTTLE (co-produced by HERE) and TINDER and with ensemble Banana Bag & Bodice (company member) BEOWULF, SPACE//SPACE, THE FALL & RISE OF THE RISING FALLEN, THE SEWERS, PANEL.ANIMAL and THE YOUNG WAR.

Beyond her generative work, Catlett also directs new opera – the upcoming ECHO DRIFT (HERE/Beth Morrison PROTOTYPE 2017), THE SCARLET IBIS (HERE/Beth Morrison PROTOTYPE 2015), BROTHER, BROTHER (Experiments in Opera), THE WANTON SUBLIME (American Opera Projects/Roulette) and recently began on her first libretto of RAINBIRD now in development (Experiments in Opera).

She is a longtime collaborator with playwright by Aaron Landsman (PATIENT BOY, and RUNNING AWAY FROM THE ONE WITH THE KNIFE at The Chocolate Factory) and has also worked on plays by – Sergi Belbel, Thomas Bradshaw, Normand Chaurette, Guillem Clua, Xiemena Escalante, Christina Masciotti, Jason Craig and Naomi Wallace.

Her works have premiered in New York at 3LD, HERE, the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, PS122, Abrons Arts Center, The Chocolate Factory, The Collapsable Hole and the Ohio Theatre, and have been featured at the Ice Factory, CultureMart, COIL, Prelude and BAM’s Next Wave Festival. Regionally, her work has been seen at American Repertory Theater (Cambridge), ASU Gammage (Tempe), DiverseWorks (Houston), Z Space (San Francisco) & Redfern Center (Keene, NH). International touring includes Les Escales improbables (Montreal), Kilkenny Arts Festival (Ireland), Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Scotland), Dublin Fringe, (Ireland) Exit Festival (Créteil, France), Noorderzon Festival (Groningen, Netherlands), Adelaide Festival (Australia), Brighton Festival and Bristol’s Mayfest (UK) and the PuSh Festival (Canada).

Catlett was a member of the 2006 Soho Rep. Writer/Director Lab, and she has been a resident artist at the Mount Tremper Arts, Barishnykov Arts Center, CultureHub, MacDowell, Gibney Dance, Performing Garage, the Ontological’s Incubator, Abrons Arts Center, HERE’s HARP Program, Mabou Mines, Yaddo, Chashama, Digital Performance Institute, The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts and a British Studies Fellow at the Harry Ransom Research Center at UT-Austin. Her work has been funded by the Jerome Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York Council for the Humanities, Graham Foundation, New York State Music Fund, NPN, NYSCA, LMCC (MCAF and Swing Space grants), Puffin Foundation, NYSCA (2 individual artist commissions), Edith Lutyens & Norman Bel Geddes Fund, Tobin Theatre Arts Fund, Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, Strickland Family Foundation, Greenwall Foundation, MAP Fund, NEFA, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. She the recipient of the Foundation for the Contemporary Arts 2015 Grants to Artists Award and is a 2016 Creative Capital Grantee. She is a resident artist at Collapsable Hole, Westbeth Arts Center, where she develops her own work and supports the work of others.

She received her high school diploma from the North Carolina School for the Arts, where she studied classical ballet, a BA from Bard College in Drama and Dance and an Interdisciplinary MFA from The School for Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, where she continues to work and collaborate. In Vancouver she has created, directed and dramaturged 10 works for theater, opera and dance. Her work has received 6 Jessie Award nominations and been funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, Hamber Foundation and ArtsFACT.

As a freelance dramaturg, she has worked on projects for the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, Ma-Yi, The Culture Project, Labyrinth, ExP Girl, Freefall Dance and Urban Stages. She received the Elliot Hayes Award for Dramaturgy for her co-direction of Juggernaut’s THE FIRST 100 YEARS: The Professional Female Playwright. Her writing has been published in Theater Magazine (essay on and script of CITY COUNCIL MEETING), Canadian Theatre Review (on THIS ROOM IS MOVING) and her work has been covered in American Theater, HowlRound, Hyperallergic and Brazil’s Questao de Critica. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Theater Arts at SUNY Stony Brook.

Download a CV, Directing Resume, Dramaturg Resume and Headshot.

Mallory Catlett on Vimeo.

| Comments (0)
Jun .09

Press

Press

 

Memory and image, literary ghosts and an actual possession all phase together in Mallory Catlett’s sublime This Was the End, a postmodern séance for, among other things, downtown New York. — Time Out NY

Credit goes to the director, Mallory Catlett, for fusing a multitude of elements into an integrated whole – a portrait of a fractured mind that, somehow, holds together. — New York Times

From elliptical imagery and approximate rhyme, director Mallory Catlett has conjured a complete, unique universe — Village Voice

Mallory Catlett’s directing is as comprehensive and nuanced as ever, completely creating a hermetic dreamscape world. — Culturebot

Catlett is certainly capable of dazzle . . . hauntingly beautiful, unsettlingly somber. — Vancouver’s The Courier

2011 Profile by Director Oliver Butler

Download Press Quotes

| Comments (0)
Jun .09

Bibliography

Bibliography

 

GENERAL

THIS WAS THE END

CITY COUNCIL MEETING

SCARLET IBIS

RED FLY/BLUE BOTTLE

BEOWULF

OH WHAT WAR

SPACE//SPACE

RISING FALLEN

FIRST 100 YEARS

THIS ROOM IS MOVING

| Comments (0)
May .09

Restless NYC

RESTLESS NYC

was created to excavate theatrical and literary cannon as a source of contemporary performance. To engage the past in a dialogue about its life in the present.

An urgent imperative for language is sought through contemporary circumstance and modes of performance that push the productions beyond interpretation. The dismantling and re-purposing of stories that have already been told is a practice in transformation; an attempt to create openings, to find a way out, and forward.

The work seeks to bring together opposite ends of the audience spectrum – the enthusiast who brings prior knowledge to the performance and the novice who might question its relevance. In this way, Restless productions strive to challenge the expert and include the newcomer.

 

IN-PROCESS:

M/F Future a diptych of performance installations about how we imagine what we will become.

Decoder 2017. Burroughs

Dead Time of Plenty. Lessing

 

COMPLETE:

This Was The End 2014. Chehkov & Proust

R ii 2010. Shakespeare

As You Like It: restless in arden 2004. Shakespeare

 

HORIZON:

RAINBIRD: Chamber Opera Adaptations of a Janet Frame novel co-produced with Experiments in Opera. Composer Aaron Siegel with singers Gelsey Bell and Justin Hicks.

LITTLE CRIMES: 2 Chamber Opera Adaptations of Chekhov Short Stories – Sleepyhead & Little Apples. Developed in Vancouver & NYC in conjunctions with Restless Productions Vancouver: Composer James B. Maxwell, Librettist Alex Ferguson, Choreographer Claire French, Installation Artists Hadley + Maxwell.

 

 

 

 

DONATE to support the development of this work:

 

Restless NYC is a project sponsored by Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of Restless NYC may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Institutional Support: Gibney Dance, MacDowell, Performing Garage, Barishnykov Arts Center, Chashama, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Mabou Mines/SUITE, Jerome Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, Yaddo & NYSCA.

Private Donors: Toni & Pete Peters, Jill Mueller, Charles Weishar, Francis & Ray Fox, Joan Smith, Cynthia Strickland Graham, Elizabeth Shellabarger, Janet & Chuck Williams, Studio Allegro, Susan & Bill Catlett, Toni Catlett, Emily & Steve Plesser, Kristina Musser, Elaine & Richard Ottaway, Sue Joffray, Elizabeth & Bill Bayne, Suzanne & George Harris,Jill & Mick Nightengale, Jubilith Moore, DD Kugler, Geoff Proehl, David Nochimson, Jan Marie Miliani, Lisa Nelson, Anna Rabinowitz, Aaron Landsman, Aaron Siegel, Abby Mueller, Alexandra Rosenberg, Alexis Clements, Alison Fleminger, Amy Jensen, Andrew Mueller, Andrew Weems, Anna Ishida, Anna Kohler, Annie Dorsen, Anonymous, Antje Oegel, April Matthis, artepovera, Ashton Applewhite, Aya Ogawa, Ayn Hanna, Barbara Lee, Ben Williams, Bertie Ferdman, Birgit Huppuch, Boo Froebel, Brad Rothbart, Bruce Allardice & Victoria Abrash, Carissa Adams & Emily Catlett, Carleigh Welsh, Caroline Chavasse, Carrie Schneider, Charles Jarden, Christina Campanella, Christina Hatherly, Christopher Barnett, Claire French/ Restless Productions (YVR), Daniel Brunson, David A. Brown, David Cote, David Herskovits, David Malloy, David Nochimson, David Suehsdorf, Deborah Zlotsky, Denise Kiernan, Diane Borger Zampi, Dina Emerson, Dodds Delzell, Dorrie Williams, Dylan Baker, Ed Hicks, Edward McKeaney, Edward Prunoske, Elizabeth Johnson, Elizabeth Seamans, Eric Cadora, Eric Dyer, Eric Steinberg, Erin Palmer, Francesco DeBaggio, Frank Hentschker, Gary Winter, George Hofheimer, Gioia Fonda, Gordon Wang, Grant Neale, Gwenessa Lam, Heather Hollingsworth, Heather Mourer, Helene Lesterlin, Hillary Gardner, Hunter Canning, Ian Belton, Ilana Brownstein, Jacob Margolin, James Findlay, James Maxwell / Restless Productions (YVR), Janet D Clancy, Janet Williams, Jean Churchill, Jeanette Yew, Jeanne Drennan, Jennifer Gibbs, Jenny Schwartz, Jessie Mueller, Joanna P. Adler, Joe Lo Truglio, Joe Stackell, John Haskell, John Jesurun, John Lutterbie, Jon Lane, Jonathan Dembrow, Joseph Silovsky, Joshua Higgason, Julian Mesri, Julie Archer, June & Gregory Crane, Kate benson, Kate Scelsa, Katie Pearl, Kay Grigar, Kelli Powell, Kevin Laibson, Kim Weild, Kim Whitener, KJ Sanchez, Kristin Marting, Kristina Gitterman, Laryssa Husiak, Laura Quigley, Laura Tietjen, Leah Nanako Winkler, LeeAnne Hutchison, Libby King, Lida Nosrati, Lisa D’Amour, Liv Cummins, Liza Lorwin, Loren Toolajian, Madeleine Oldham, Maedhbh Fiona Mc Cullagh, Marion Holt, Martha and Richard Nochimson, Martha Steketee, Mary Q Archias, Matthew Maguire, Maury Landsman, Michael Barakiva, Mike Perillo, Mirit Tal, Mitchell Riggs, Moira Brennan, Nicholas Senn, Nichole Gantshar, Nick Benacerraf, Oliver Butler, Olivia Keister, Paul Walsh, Paul Zimet, Philippa Wehle, Polly Carl, Rachel Catlett, Rachel Chavkin, Rachelle Plante, Randy Perry, Rebecca Warner, Richard Maxwell, Rina Liddle, Rupert Nesbitt, Sallie Sanders, Sandra Bumgarner, Sarah Caldwell, Sarah Cameron Sunde, Satya Bhabha, Scott Shepherd, Scott Sowers, Scott Sparvero, Shannon Harris, Sixto Wagan, Stephanie Fleischmann, Susan Bernfield, Sylvan Oswald, Tal Yarden, Tanya Marquardt, TaraFawn Marek, Tarik O’Regan, Teddy Nicholas, Teresa Connors, Thomas Crochunis, Thomas Parnell, Timothy Carlson, Tom Shragg, Tony Torn, Trish Mulholland, Vallejo Gantner, Will Bond, William Cusick & Yelena Gluzman.

Apr .09

Contact

Contact

EMAIL: [email protected]

Download a CV, Directing Resume (long) & (short), Dramaturg Resume and Headshots: landscape or portrait

Mallory Catlett on Vimeo.

To receive periodic updates, join the list.
(your info will never be shared)

* = required field
| Comments (0)
Contact | 2009 | About | Comments (0)
contact: [email protected]