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All the things we'll remember from 2021

12/23/2021

Dear friends,

Can you believe this year is nearly over? As we count down the final days of 2021, we asked our community to look back at all the things that brightened the year. What was unforgettable? What are we grateful for? On our blog we recently posted crowd-sourced lists of performances, books, music, and films we loved this year. And below here, find a list of moments we’ll never forget from 2021, as well as aspirations for 2022.

However you are spending these final few days of 2021, we hope you’ll take a moment to reflect on this wild year, and spend some time dreaming into the new year.

Have a happy new year, and we’ll see you in ‘22!

Peace, power, and love to you,
Paul, Katie, and Kathryn
Theater in Asylum

Ps. Theater in Asylum is raising money for our dreams in 2022! Help us achieve them!

The team of The Debates 2021, just after we wrapped filming for the "City on the Fritz" music video

Moments we’ll never forget from 2021

Getting vaccinated! **this was on many people’s submissions**
Going to live theater again! **this was on many people’s submissions**
First time dancing with a group of people in over a year
The entire process of directing Orlando.
Seeing my mom after over a year
Getting to do live theater again
The discovery of Boursin cheese and Costco tuna
Being in a large Covid-pod with Bread and Puppet, and creating a new show with lots of people, even during lockdown
Falling in Love, Streaming, New Job!
The first big dinner at an amazing Chinese restaurant after all my friends were vaccinated!
45 leaving office!
Being in rehearsal and laughing at an improvisation - in real time and space!
Writing grant applications that resulted in $125,000 for the not-for-profit I run
The many Cold Readings and play discussions, especially with so many new friends!
Kamala Harris becoming the first woman and first person of color vice president!
Occupy Prescott!!!!!
January 6th (not a highlight, but a moment I’ll never forget)
Took a vacation for the first time in a long time with no agenda or stuff to do
Gathering again with family! And returning to NYC - with the low COVID rates and lots of travel points. I spent 1 week each month at my timeshare between April and November!
When I saw all my co-workers at once in-person first time after the lockdown
The Colored Museum & Sweat Readings
Writing Scenes for The Debates 2021 with my cast mates
Filming my Music Videos
Bernie and his mittens. Highlight of 2021 fashion.
The TIA holiday party and meeting people in person whom I’ve worked with online for months.

A toast during TIA's 2021 Holiday Party (all guests were vaxxed and tested negative before attending)

Aspirations for 2022

A safe end to the pandemic **this was on many people’s lists**
Live.
I'd very much love to work with more students. It's been inspiring learning from the younger generation.
Be Happy
Continued happiness and travel!
Expand my Etsy Store, Work on More Productions, Stream More!
Build community and resistance through music !
To make space and time for my priorities, especially supporting people
Stay alive, keep writing, "keep hoping machine running" W. Guthrie
Get a new, more sustainable, job
Getting a mortgage/moving for the last time for the foreseeable future
Restart an exercise habit
Focus on reading again. Reactivate our feminist book club. Read through the 2019 Kilroy list of plays.
to get more unmasked and unmuted (as long as public health guidelines allow of course)
Finish my album
Travel the world again if safe
Be more present and less regretful
Spend more time on what matters and less time (stressing) on what doesn't matter.
Help the Democrats hold on to their majorities in Congress
Convince Kathy Hochul to sign the New York Health Act!
More theater! **this was on many people’s lists**

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Film and Television we loved in 2021

12/22/2021

Each year Theater in Asylum gathers lists of things we loved throughout the year. Below, find a list of films and television shows we loved in 2021, crowd-sourced from our community. And a big shout out to our friends at The Boxcutter Collective!

Films

The 40-Year-Old Version
Boxcutter Collective’s Dimension Zero
Encanto
The Green Knight
In the Heights
Judas and the Black Messiah
Nomadland
Norma Rae
Promising Young Woman
Spiderman: No Way Home
tick, tick... BOOM!
West Side Story

Television Series

Crash Landing on You
Diary of a Future President
Last Week with John Oliver
Loki
LORE
Schitt's Creek
Sex Education
The Morning Show
The Sopranos
Succession
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Ted Lasso
WandaVision
“I watch lots of trashy TV. I'm great on a trivia team. Ask me about the Real Housewives or the Kardashian Klan.”

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Music we loved in 2021

12/22/2021

Each year, Theater in Asylum polls its community to compile a list (and a playlist!) of our favorite songs, albums, and musical artists. Below, see our list of musical acts we loved in 2020. And see here for last year's list!

Emily Johnson-Erday playing at Occupy Prescott; photo by Shubhra Mishra, 2021

TIA's 2021 Spotify Playlist

Musicians & Bands

TIA’s musicians! Emily Johnson-Erday! Ama Encore! Ali Dineen!
Arooj Aftab
The Books
Doja Cat
Dua Lipa
Ella Fitzgerald, she’s a goddess
David Malloy
Greta Van Fleet
The Kaiser Quartett
Truly the entire portfolio of Manchester Orchestra.
Olivia Rodrigo
Willow Smith
Stevie Wonder

Albums & Compositions

30 by Adele
The Color Purple, Broadway Cast Recording, both 2005 and 2015
Goldberg Variations by Bach, played by Glenn Gould
digital druglord by blackbear
Planet Her by Doja Cat
Sediments we Move by Charlotte Greve+Wood River+Cantus Domus
i become birds by Home Is Where
Let Me Do One More by Illuminati Hotties
An Overview of Phenomenal Nature by Cassandra Jenkins
The Rich are Only Defeated When Running for Their Lives by Anthony Joseph
Another Side by Leo Nocentelli
Queens of the Summer Hotel by Aimee Mann
Promises by Floating Points and Pharaoh Sanders with the London Symphony Orchestra
Heaux Tales by Jazmine Sullivan
Urban Driftwood by Yasmin Williams

Songs

“If I Had a Hammer”, written by Pete Seeger, performed by many, including the cast of Occupy Prescott
Emily Johnson-Erday’s rendition of “This Land is Your Land”
“Don’t Shut Me Down” by Abba (a new song!)
“Say Neighbor” by Burrell
“Shelter Island” by Xavier Dubois Foley
“Liberated” by DeJ Loaf and Leon Bridges
“Industry Baby” by Lil Nas X & Jack Harlow
“Rumors” by Lizzo and Cardi B
“The Feeling” by Sammy Rae and the Friends
“Bad Friend” by Rina Sawayama
“Prayer in Passing” by Ayanna Witter-Johnson with Anoushka Shankar

TIA's 2021 Spotify Playlist

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Memorable Books we read in 2021

12/21/2021

Each year, Theater in Asylum releases a list of books we read that were impactful, stuck out, and memorable. Below find a list, crowd-sourced from our community, of the books we loved in 2021. And check this post out to see the books we loved last year, in 2020.

Ariella Axelbank reading Susan Quinn's Furious Improvisation!

Fiction

A String of Silver Beads by Melissa Addey
Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar
Oh Pray My Wings are Gonna Fit Me Well by Maya Angelou
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
Just Above my Head by James Baldwin
Milkman by Anna Burns
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
All the Ted Chiang short stories
When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cold
You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria
Babel-17 by Samuel Delany
Master of the Revel by Nicole Garland
The Midnight Library by Matt Heig
Long Live the Post Horn! by Vigdis Hjorth
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
Green River Valley by Robert Lashley
The City and the City by China Mieville
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
On Love and Other Difficulties by R. M. Rilke
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell
We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
The Invisible Life of Adie LaRue by V.E.Schwab
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
The Cold Millions by Jess Walter
The Tensorate Series by Neon Yang
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Non-Fiction

Re-Enchanting the World by Sylvia Federici
Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher
Decoding Greatness by Ron Friedman
Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks
Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes du Mex
I Overcame my Autism and All I Got was this Lousy Anxiety Disorder by Sarah Kurchak
My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem
Van Gogh: The Asylum Year by Edwin Mullins
Cruising Utopia by José Esteban Muñoz
The Dead are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les and Tamara Payne
Furious Improvisation by Susan Quinn
Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT Up by Sarah Schulman
The Gentrification of the Mind by Sarah Schulman
Conflict is not Abuse by Sarah Schulman
Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman
Energy at the End of the World by Laura Watts
Caste: The Origin of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

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Theater in Asylum (TIA) is a New York-based theater company founded in 2010 to challenge and empower our community. TIA joyfully pursues a rigorous research and an ensemble-driven approach to theater-making. We create performances to investigate our past, interpret our present, and imagine our future. We prize space to process, space to question—asylum—for ourselves and our community.

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Film and Television we loved in 2021

Music we loved in 2021

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