Photos by Kitoko Chargois

Hatch Arts Collective and Casey Droege Cultural Productions Present 

with ourselves, with each other
An in-progress showing
created and performed by Maree ReMalia 

with ourselves, with each other explores how grief can be a collective experience. Using a karaoke mic and movement as her primary performance vehicle, choreographer and performer Maree ReMalia explores how a solo can be more than a solo and become a gathering, a chorus, and a communal remembrance.

While living through the wake of her father’s death and the pandemic, ReMalia ties our individual lives to the ever burgeoning global and political strife.  This performance aims to be a balm for the heart and a container for grief. It is an opening for joy, all while  welcoming desire, acknowledging rage, and insisting on love.

As we hold our persistence and tenacity along with our weariness and imperfections, ReMalia asks: what stories do we want to voice? What words feel meaningful? Where do we feel grief in our bodies and how does it want to move?

The audience is invited to participate or witness as we all live alongside one another in confusion, sorrow, laughter, and care.

DEVELOPMENT PROCESS 

Early experiments for with ourselves, with each other have been supported by residencies with Hatch Arts Collective, Lawrence University, University of Vermont and artistic advisors Joseph Hall, Jenny Johnson, Paul Kruse, Adil Mansoor, Michael J. Morris, Nicole Shero, Rashana Smith, and Catharine Wright. In-progress excerpts of the solo have been performed in MorrisonDance 25th anniversary showcase during Cleveland Public Theatre's DanceWorks, News and New Dances, and Texas Dance Improvisation Festival.

SUPPORT

Principal support for the project has been provided by The Heinz Endowments; Opportunity Fund; Workhorse Collaborative; and Dreams of Hope.

SPECIAL THANKS 

Jackie Baker, Anya and Mitsuko Clarke-Verdery, Michele de la Reza, Joseph Hall, Jennifer Jourdan, Taylor Knight, Luke Niebler, Nicole Shero, Jil Stifel, Anna Thompson, Inter-, City Theatre, and Pittsburgh Playhouse.

CASEY DROEGE CULTURAL PRODUCTIONS (CDCP) AND HATCH STAFF 

• Hatch Artistic Director: Adil Mansoor 

• CDCP Connections Coordinator: Eriko Hattori

• CDCP Assistant Director: Hannah Turpin

Artist Team

Artist Bios

Maree ReMalia (Creator and Performer) is a dance artist and certified Gaga instructor. An adoptee born in South Korea and raised in Ohio, movement supports her in an ongoing process of self-discovery, expression, and liberation. She welcomes folks from across disciplines and identities into these unfolding processes with a focus on care and connection in a wide range of professional, academic, and community-based settings. Her collaborative performance projects have been presented at Cleveland Public Theatre, Dance Place, Gibney DoublePlus Festival, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, Movement Research at the Judson Church, New Hazlett Theater, and Daegu International Dance Festival. She has performed in the work of Gabriel Forestieri, Bebe Miller, Michael J. Morris, Christopher Williams, and Lida Winfield and was previously a member of MegLouise Dance, MorrisonDance, and STAYCEE PEARL dance project. Since earning her MFA at The Ohio State University, she was selected as the Andrew W. Mellon Interdisciplinary Choreographer for Middlebury College Movement Matters Residency and has been a guest artist and faculty member with institutions and organizations such as Bates Dance Festival, Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, Dreams of Hope Queer Youth Arts, Fayetteville Movement Festival, Point Park University, University of Florida, University of Oklahoma, and University of Wisconsin.

Adil Mansoor (Directing) is a theatre director centering the stories of queer folks and people of color. His performance “Amm(i)gone” adapts Sophocles’s “Antigone” as an apology to and from his mother. “Amm(i)gone” is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creative and Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Kelly Strayhorn Theater, The Theater Offensive, and NPN.  “Amm(i)gone” will be presented at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in the spring of 2024. Mansoor has developed work with Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Tofte Lake Center, PearlArts Studios, and others. Recent directing projects include “Daddies” by Paul Kruse (Audible), "Gloria" by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Hatch Arts Collective), "Kentucky" by Leah Nanoko Winkler (Pittsburgh Playhouse), and “Once Removed” by Paul Kruse (Tribeca). Mansoor is a founding member of Pittsburgh’s Hatch Arts Collective and the former Artistic Director of Dreams of Hope, an LGBTQA+ youth arts organization. He has been an NYTW 2050 Directing Fellow, a Gerri Kay New Voices Fellow with Quantum Theater, and an Art of Practice Fellow and Community Leader with Sundance. Mansoor received his MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon. https://www.adilmansoor.com/

David Bernabo (Sound Composition) is a musician, artist, dancer, and independent filmmaker. He currently performs with the bands Watererer, How Things Are Made, and Else Collective; works in dance contexts with Maree ReMalia and his own group MODULES; and has been working with Haylee Ebersole to realize letterpress prints. His film work documents western Pennsylvania food systems, climate change, the studio practices of composers and artists, and the histories of iconic arts institutions like the Mattress Factory. He is most noted for "Moundsville," a documentary co-directed with former Wall Street Journal writer John W. Miller, which screened on PBS for three years, and the biographical documentary "Just For The Record" about avant-garde composer “Blue” Gene Tyranny.

Jenny Johnson (Dramaturgy)  is the author of In Full Velvet. Her poems and essays have appeared in American Poetry Review, BOMB Magazine, and The New York Times. Her honors include a Hodder Fellowship, an NEA Fellowship, and a Whiting Award. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at West Virginia University, and she is on the faculty of the Rainier Writing Workshop. She lives in Pittsburgh with her cat named Shrimp.

Sasha Schwartz (Scenic / Lights)  is a theater scenic designer and artist inspired by family and how spaces tell stories. Selected designs: Little Amal 'Imagination is My Playground' (Hatch Arts & CDCP), Dragon Lady (Pittsburgh Public Theatre), What the Constitution Means to Me (City Theatre), Kentucky (Pittsburgh Playhouse), The Devil is A Lie (Quantum Theatre), the dance floor, the hospital room, and the kitchen table (Kelly Strayhorn Theater), Off Peak (59e59), My Cousin Nelu is Not Gay (The Brick), Selling Kabul (Northern Stage), The Thanksgiving Play (Dorset Theatre Festival), Dear Jack, Dear Louise (Virginia Theatre Festival). Recognition: 2023 Prague Quadrennial Featured Emerging Designer, 2023 Chatham University Women's Institute Visiting Scholar, 2022 Theatre Communications Group Rising Leaders of Color Cohort, 2019 Lloyd Weninger Award for Stage Design, 2019 USITT Young Designers Forum, 'Mixed Family Portrait' featured at Pittsburgh MuseumLab, Featured in JADED's Lunar New Year AAPI Art Show. BFA Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama. www.sashaschwartzscenic.com

Rachel Vallozzi (Wardrobe) is a costume designer, wardrobe stylist, and personal stylist who is thrilled to be collaborating with Maree ReMalia again, after working together on “The Ubiquitous Mass of Us”. Rachel first became interested in a career with clothes when she opened vintage boutique Kharisma Vintage Fashions in 2002. She then moved into dressing actors for over a hundred commercials. She has worked with Hatch Arts Collective and Adil Mansoor as a wardrobe stylist on AMM(I)GONE, designed costumes for Quantum Theater, “…on being…”, a Staycee Pearl dance project, and films “ Progression” and “Definition Please" available on Netflix. Rachel has an unstoppable passion for helping private clients find a "visual voice" for their unique style and needs and believes that a functional personalized wardrobe works as a system to energize your day. You can find out more at www.VallozziStyling.com.

Katie Mikula-Wineman (Set Dressing / Props) is thrilled to collaborate with Adil and Sasha on her first project with the Hatch Arts Collective. She is the resident Prop Shop Manager at the Pittsburgh Playhouse and has taught at Point Park University for the past 7 years. Recently she connected a partnership for Point Park to be the host school of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for Region 2. Many of her students went on to receive awards and recognition for various design and technical management categories. Recent favorite productions include Almost Equal To, Cinderella, Kentucky, Dance Nation, and Pippin. Other local credits include Buoyant Sea and My Traveling Song with The Hiawatha Project, The Illustrious Invalid at Kinetic Theatre, Arsenic & Old Lace at Prime Stage Theatre, and A Couple of Blaguards at South Park Theatre. Other theatre credits include Bricolage Theatre Company, Attack Theatre, Ohio Light Opera, Old Town Playhouse, and apprenticed at the Olney Theatre Center outside of Washington D.C. She is a member of S*P*M Society of Props Managers and IATSE Local 3. She hails from her home state of Michigan with her loving husband Isaac, and is the proud pet parent of her kitties, Jiji Louise & Peridot, and her one-eyed wonder dog Zuko. @winekula18 @pghplayhouseprops

Lisa Velten Smith (Vocal Coach) is a voice practitioner, actor, and educator based in the Pittsburgh area.  A Designated Linklater Teacher and certified Lessac Practitioner, she has taught voice and acting at University of California San Diego, Middlebury College and currently is an Assistant Professor in the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University.  As an actor she has performed on Broadway, off Broadway, regionally and can be seen in the upcoming Quantum Theater production of Scenes from an Execution.

Kara Staiger (Vocal Coach) In addition to owning and operating Overture, Kara is an Adjunct Vocal Music Professor. She grew up as a studio dancer at Patti Parrish School of Dance in Sapulpa, OK. Kara was Dance Team (Ping-Ping) Captain and All-State Dance Member. She also served as Choir President and was awarded a scholarship in Music Theory. She earned a BFA in Music Theatre from Oklahoma City University and Master’s Degree in Education from Oral Roberts University. Kara has worked with Orlando Rep, The Wick Theatre, Theatre Tulsa, Tulsa Project Theatre, American Theatre Company, Clark Youth Theatre and Playhouse Tulsa as a performer and director/choreographer. Kara served as masterclass teacher with Tulsa’s ORBIT arts program. Kara is also an accomplished “cabarista”, performing cabarets at The Equality Center’s Rainbow Room, TPAC’s SummerStage and Zarrow’s ongoing cabaret series.