UPCOMING PROJECTS

SALOMANIA

Citizen Arts is excited to be co-producing this exciting project next spring. Written and directed by Meg Araneo, Salomania takes as its starting point the archetype of Salome who from her first appearance in the the Books of Mark and Matthew in the New Testament took on a dynamic secular life in the visual, literary, and performing arts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The decadents loved her! The moralists condemned her! Inspired by this turn of the 20th century mania over the dancing girl, Salomania is our own twenty-first-century exploration of the archetype of the dancing girl. What can she show us about ourselves, our desires, and our fears of what is to come.

Past Projects

CABARET ECHO

The Nest hosted its second event—an artistic cabaret for emerging artists. Spoken-word poets, puppet makers, sculptors, actors, musicians, playwrights and more gathered together to share their work. Lots of bodies in one room celebrating the work of a community.

SMOKE BREAK

Citizen Arts launched The Nest, its new young artists program, with a reading of Smoke Break, a play by Kristofer Wilson. Directed by Ares Harper and featuring a cast of talented young, New York based performers, the play explores how freedom and redemption dance together in a small town restaurant on the brink of closing. Live music by Alfredo Colon and Steve Williams.

The Salome Project

The Salome Project is a theatrical performance piece born out of Meg Araneo’s scholarly research into late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century cultural infatuations with the archetype of the biblical dancing girl. A devised work, the Salome Project considers the figure of the dancing girl as a cultural location where social and political ideas of a specific historical context can be actively explored through text, music, and dance. 

INTERRUPTION!

INTERRUPTION! a cross-genre performance project that meditates on some of the key issues facing the United States today, including voting rights, economic inequality, and racial injustice. Co-created by Rob Reddy, Oliver Lake, and Meg Araneo, INTERRUPTION! was inspired by a July 2015 sermon by the esteemed Rev. William Barber II, President of the NC NAACP and co-organizer of the North Carolina Moral Mondays Mvt. INTERRUPTION! directly engages Barber's powerful ideas through its dramaturgical integration of Rob Reddy's original compositions with libretto by Oliver Lake.

Ubu Roi : An Inauguration Eve Radio Play Performance was presented on January 19, 2017 at The Cell Theatre in New York, NY. The project was a collective response to the ideologies and tactics of the incoming administration. This production of Ubu Roi addressed the volatile contemporary discourse of hatred, misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and sexual violence. The performance was followed by a discussion about the current political climate and what can be done to ensure the core values of our democracy remain in tact