B´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·

FOREVER

Written and performed by Dael Orlandersmith

“Dael Orlandersmith delivers an elegy with a knife-sharp edge in her solo show, Forever.” From The New York Times

On January 23, celebrated playwright and performer Dael Orlandersmith headlines the B´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·’s snap festival Workshop with an uplifting autobiographical exploration of the family we are born into and the family we choose. Forever draws from Orlandersmith’s own pilgrimage to the famed Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris — the final resting place of legendary artists such as Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison. At the graveside of these timeless artists, Orlandersmith finds unexpected grace in a gripping tale of the legacy a daughter inherits from her mother.

Amanda Glynn Card (she/they) is a Bushwick-based interdisciplinary artist and puppeteer whose work blends memory, disappearance, and handmade visual storytelling. Using shadow puppetry, toy theater, and live-feed video, Amanda builds intimate performances that explore legacy, care, and the unseen. They are the creator of Boy Crazy, a solo autobiographical puppet musical presented at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest, and the playwright of The Lil Amanda Show, which premiered with Verge Theater Company and Kindling Arts Festival. Performance credits include Boy Crazy (Ars Nova), Our Bodies Like Dams (Mabou Mines), 9000 Paper Balloons (Japan Society), Daydream Tutorial (La MaMa), Small Acts of Daring Invention (Drama Desk Nominee – HERE), The Greedy Peasant’s All Saints’ Day Celebration, and Yuliya Tsukerman’s The Luminous Crow. Amanda received the 2021 Lipkin Prize for Playwriting and holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.

Aster Drewe (She/ Her) is a writer and artist dedicated to the creation of honest work that stems from the true diaspora of human experience. Drewe aims to develop work in a space that is both safe and challenging. In her work she holds herself to letting go of urgency - instead the room and the page will be a place for growth, healing, and patience. The product is no longer the goal, rather the process and development of human voice and story is, in a space that is gracious, open, and receptive. Her directing work has been exhibited recently at Yale University, NYU Tisch Graduate School of Drama, and Columbia University. Her passion for developing new stories has brought her onto the teams of Taryn Marie (Writer/ Director), Bliss (Associate Director), A Walk on the Moon (Associate Director), Most Happy, I and You, and Warm. On Broadway Drewe has worked on Hamilton, Freestyle Love Supreme, and Passover.  | @asterdrewe

Catherine Ashley is a Brooklyn-based multimedia designer and performance artist whose work spans sound, installation, performance, and moving image. With a background in film, projection, theatre, and object-making, she creates layered environments that explore gesture, memory, and systems of transformation, emphasizing visual and auditory experiences shaped by time and presence.  | @inoaplace 

Nancy Ma is a first-generation performer, playwright, and filmmaker from Chinatown New York. She is a 2025-208 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. Her solo show, Home, premiered with The Latino Theater Company in Los Angeles, and has been performed at schools and festivals around the country. She has worked with Pan Asian Repertory Theater, Ojai Playwrights, and UTR/The Public, and been awarded residencies with The National Arts Club, The New Harmony Project, The Museum of Chinese in America, and FreshGround pepper. Most recently, her short documentary ÓÐÒ»ÌìÄã²»ÔÚ One Day You are Not Here, wrapped the festival circuit. Nancy is also the co-founder of Max2 Film Festival, a two-minute film festival focused on experimentation and community. She has taught with The Brooklyn Arts Council, Young Storytellers and Built4Collapse, and currently facilitates storytelling workshops with The Moth.

Reynaldo Piniella is an actor, writer, director and educator from East New York, Brooklyn. In 2021, he was in the acting company of two Broadway shows at the same time: Thoughts of a Colored Man and Trouble in Mind. As a playwright, his work includes Black Doves (Thomas Barbour award), Let us Sit Upon the Ground (Vanderbilt University Eco-Grief Commission), Real Life RPG (commissioned by Baltimore Center Stage, produced by San Diego Rep, Shakesqueer Theater Company and Pioneer Theater Guild), No Shade (produced by the Lee Strasberg Institute at NYU Tisch), I’m Old School (produced by Single Carrot Theater), No History (Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor) and Black and Blue (Ars Nova’s ANT Fest.) His co-created bilingual Spanish-English Hamlet has been developed at Folger Theatre, The Public Theater, the Classical Theatre of Harlem, and the Acting Company. He is an alum of New Victory Theater’s LabWorks, All for One Theater’s Solo Collective, the Civilians’ R&D Group, and a former Artist-in-Residence at Hi-ARTS, the cell theatre, Abingdon Theatre Company, HB Studio, and Culture Lab LIC. Off-Broadway credits include work at Signature Theatre Company, The Public Theater, the Working Theater, Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA), and Rattlestick Theater, regionally with Baltimore Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Cleveland Play House, NY Stage and Film, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, and Actors Theatre of Louisville, and internationally with the Sundance Theatre Lab and NEAP Fest in Rio de Janeiro. @ReynaldoRey. 

Storytelling Masterclass

1. with teaching artist Susanne Schmidt

2. January 24 & 25

Are you interested in advancing your storytelling skills? Join us for this weekend intensive and explore new ways to craft, edit, and perform your true, first-person narrative. The workshop includes direct instruction, individualized story feedback, and the opportunity to perform in the Sunday evening *Snap* StorySlam. All levels of students are welcome, and prior experience in live non-fiction performance might. Participants are encouraged to prepare a story idea prior to the workshop.

TEACHING ARTIST SUSANNE SCHMIDT

 is a comedic storyteller, producer, and national speaker. As a storyteller, Susanne’s work has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, Home Box Office’s (HBO) Inspiration Room, National Public Radio (NPR), and WGBH Stories from the Stage. She is a 2021 recipient of a Webby Award for her story House on Fire and was named the Best of Valley Voices Storyteller by New England Public Media (NEPM) in 2016 and 2022. Susanne is a producer and workshop facilitator for The Moth and a story consultant dedicated to helping mission-driven organizations use the power of stories for good.

In addition to her storytelling work, Susanne is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and a faculty member at the University of Vermont and Vermont State University’s graduate programs in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Susanne is the mother of two amazing young men who LOVE that she often talks about them on stage!
For more information visit: Susanneschmidtstories.com 

Caterpillar Soup

One-Night-Only Premiere Performance 

Written and Performed by 

Gina Stevensen

In Caterpillar Soup, Vermonter Gina Stevensen dives into a pool of green Jell-O and emerges with a heart-pounding, soul-stirring story about transformation, queerness, and love. Blending humor, tenderness, and raw honesty, Stevensen wrestles—literally and metaphorically—with identity, family, and becoming who we are meant to be. Equal parts hilarious backyard spectacle and deeply moving memoir, Caterpillar Soup celebrates the courage it takes to imagine yourself anew. 

This was work was commissioned by the B´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ· and developed as part of snap 2025 – see it here for the first time.

Join us for a free open-mic storytelling event as part of the third *snap* First Person Arts Festival. This event features stories told by the participants from the *snap* Storytelling Masterclass workshop led by Susanne Schmidt, held on January 24 & 25. Once the masterclass storytellers have performed, we'll open up the mic for to anyone with a five-minute story to share (note: available performance slots are limited and will be determined on the night of the event). Come tell your story, or just enjoy the show!