Welcome New TIA Team Members

Dear Friends,

Can you believe we’re nearly halfway through March?! We surely can’t, but we’ve got some exciting things up our sleeves this spring that we just can’t wait to share with you!

Meet the New Members of the TIA Team!
We are THRILLED to announce four new members of the Theater in Asylum year-round team who will be helping the company grow and deepen its artistic work in the coming months. You may recognize some of these faces from past TIA projects as they have been active members of our community. Keep reading to learn more about these fabulous humans!

Brea Clemons, Cold Readings Curation Team
A Midwesterner at heart, Brea has lived in 12 states and now calls New York City home. With a BFA in stage management and a minor in nonprofit administration from the University of Oklahoma, she spent 7 years stage managing regionally for companies such as The Coterie, The Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Music Theater Kansas City, and The Beijing Normal Experimental Dance Company. Brea relocated to New York City in 2019 and began a career in Operations and has worked at Abramson Brothers Inc, IndieSpace, and Williamstown Theatre Festival. Brea continues to work in NYC as the Programs Manager for the Indie Theater Fund; facilitating anti-racism trainings through The Big Learn; developing a new artist focused mental health initiative; and overseeing subsidized rehearsal space programming. Additionally, she can be found event planning in the Las Vegas area in collaboration with Till Death Do Us Party and Spiegelworld. When she’s not working you can find her redecorating her apartment, walking her dog along Riverside Drive, or sipping a Negroni at her favorite neighborhood cocktail bar.

---

Melissa Mowry, Cold Readings Curation Team
Melissa (she/her) is a Virginia-based director. Originally from Virginia Beach, she is currently active in New York City and Richmond, VA. Melissa has a BA in Music Industry and Drama from Randolph-Macon College, and her MFA in Directing from The Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University. In 2018, Melissa was accepted into the Stage Director and Choreographer Foundation's Observership Program, where she assisted Patricia McGregor on her Production of Lights Out: Nat King Cole at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. She has also worked with The Lower Eastside Shakespeare Company, The WP Theatre, The Tank, Women of Color Productions, The Secret Theatre, The Ume Group, New York Fringe Festival, and The New Group in New York; Virginia Repertory Theatre and Cadence Theatre Company in Virginia; Summit Performance Indianapolis in Indiana; and the Kattaikkuttu Sangam and Gurukulam in Tamil Nadu, India.

---

Al Parker, Cold Readings Curation Team
Al Parker (they/them) is a creative producer and dramaturg based in New York City. They are the Associate Artistic Director of The Parsnip Ship and Producing Assistant at Page 73 Productions. They are a proud member of National Queer Theater’s Artistic Collective, and an alum of the 2020-21 Ars Nova Emerging Leaders Group. Recently, they have collaborated with Playwrights Horizons, Ars Nova, Signature Theatre Company, MCC, the Civilians, and Colt Coeur. Originally from South Dakota, they completed their studies in Dramatic Literature and Creative Writing at New York University. When they’re not buzzing around a theater, Al enjoys working as a freelance editor and reading everything from gothic fiction to queer theory to fandom discourse.

---

Charlotte Dow, PR & Marketing Manager
Charlotte Dow (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based writer, publicist, and communications professional. She hails from Philadelphia and is a recent graduate of the M.S. in Public Relations and Corporate Communication program at NYU's School of Professional Studies. Throughout her career, Charlotte has worked with several companies in the entertainment world such as Focus Features, Cinetic Marketing, Dramatists Play Service, and WME. As a freelance writer, her work has appeared in The Financial Diet, Elite Daily, Hello Giggles, and more. Outside of work, Charlotte is a proud member of Sirens of Gotham, New York's premiere SSAA a capella chorus.

---

Join the Queens Pride Parade Book Club

And now, a message from TIA Community Member Danica Stompor:

With the support of the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives at LaGuardia Community College, I am developing an interactive digital map that charts the history of the Queens Pride Parade, interrogates the motives behind its formation, and examines what it means to publicly define an LGBTQ community.

I could use your help! As a part of this project, I’ll be asking artists to create pieces that respond to a series of readings about the parade and the history of queer life in Jackson Heights. We will meet as a book club in a series of 3-4 sessions over April to June 2022, working together to generate questions and ideas about the parade, as well as a few devising exercises to generate ideas.

By the end of the book club in June, everyone will present a piece that they’ve made in response to what we’ve discussed. This could be a song, a poem, a food dish — the sky is the limit!

If you live or have lived in Queens, it would be especially lovely to have you create with us. A small stipend of $50 will be provided to artists who contribute to the installation.
Questions?

Want to join? Email me at [email protected]!