New Victory LabWorks Artists

Devisor
Andrea Ang (she/her): Andrea is a NYC-based Singaporean theatre-maker and teaching artist. Her artistic practice includes devising and performing original theater, movement and puppetry. In New York, she has worked with companies like New Victory Theater, Flying Leap, Khunum Productions, Spellbound Theatre, SITI Company, Soledad Ensemble and AchesonWalsh Studios.

Director, Devisor
Susanna Brock (she/her): Susanna is a disabled, Swedish, New York-based theater-maker, performer, director, arts administrator and educator who specializes in multi-sensory, multilingual and interactive theater experiences. She has worked in Stockholm, Paris, Kampala, Nairobi and New York where she has facilitated and performed in school and community-based programs. She is part of the shared leadership group at the award-winning company Spellbound Theatre and has been a teaching artist and lecturer with places like ArtsConnection, The Children’s Museum of Manhattan, Brooklyn College and NYU.

Performer, Devisor
Ana Cantorán Viramontes (she/her): Ana is a NYC-based, Mexican theater artist whose practice merges movement, voice and visual poetry. She has collaborated and performed in award-winning devised and performance art works across five continents, selected by the Guggenheim, Singapore Fringe, New Victory LabWorks, TYA/USA, ASSITEJ congresses in Cuba and Germany and more. A passionate collaborator and educator, Ana holds an MFA in Contemporary Performance from Naropa University and a BFA in Dramatic Art from BUAP, Mexico.

Dramaturg, Devisor, Lead Producer
Jess Kaufman (she/her): Jess is a dramaturg, producer and researcher making thoughtful, playful, ambitious theater for families. Her work invites young people and families to cross boundaries, in theaters and site-specific performance spaces. As a queer, Jewish artist, she is particularly interested in the intersection of social justice and identity. Jess was a 2019-20 New Victory LabWorks Artist, a 2020 NYFA “Emerging Arts Leader” and a 2021 New York City Artist Corps grant recipient. She recently served as the Acting Executive Director of TYA/USA.

Musician
Betty Kean (she/her): Betty is a woodwind multi-instrumentalist specializing in evoking feelings in her listeners. She holds degrees in jazz saxophone and arranging, and she now finds her niche within the folk/indie scene of Brooklyn, as well as the jazz and theater world. In The Garden, Betty puts her improvisation skills to good use on clarinet, flute and percussion while flowing along with dance and nature, completing the mindfulness and sensory-based experience of the show.

Nature Education Consultant, Devisor
Lisa Kitchens (she/her): Lisa Kitchens is a multidisciplinary artist, nature-based educator and founder of Earth Stories Initiative, which uses storytelling to connect children with the natural world. Her work explores the connections we have to the more-than-human world as well as the interconnectedness of communities around the world. She was a 2022 Arctic Circle Artist in Residence and a 2018 Voices of the Wilderness Artist in Residence with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska.

Producer
Logan gabrielle Schulman (they/them): Logan gabrielle is a Brooklyn-based, multi-hyphenate theatermaker. Select directing credits include: National Queer Theater, The Public/Theatre of the Oppressed NY, Guggenheim Museum, Governors Island Trust, Chautauqua Institution, The Brick, TheaterWorksUSA, Theaterlab, Hangar Theatre, Sarasota Orchestra, Orlando Rep and Greensboro Contemporary Jewish Museum. They are a Swedish Cottage company puppeteer, Playwrights Horizons/NYU Directing Mentor, Drama League Directors Project alum, co-founder of Mirage Auto Depot in residence at Rattlestick Theater, and under commission with Baltimore Center Stage and Breaking the Binary Theater.

Composer
Martín Vejarano (he/him): Martín Vejarano is a Colombian multi-instrumentalist, folklorist, composer and educator based in New York City. Raised in Bogotá by artist parents, he developed a deep connection to Colombian traditional music, complementing it with degrees in Jazz and Music Theory. He is a teaching artist on staff at the Third Street Music School, Flushing Town Hall and CTMD. Leading ensembles like La Cumbiamba NY, Vejarano’s work bridges folkloric and contemporary expressions, projecting Colombia’s rich cultural syncretism onto the diverse musical landscape of NYC and beyond.

Ishita Mili (she/they) is a Bengali-American director, choreographer and iconoclast disrupting bharatanatyam, hip-hop, Mayurbhanj chhau and contemporary dance. Ishita founded IMGE (“image”) as a performance company based in dance, film and music that unravels cultural roots to thread together global stories with artists of diverse backgrounds. IMGE’s holistic movement vocabulary encompasses dynamic imagery, mudra storytelling and percussive footwork to confront social and cultural constructs. Over the last six years, Ishita’s work has reached inter/national stages (New Victory Theater, Lincoln Center, Kala Ghoda Arts Festival), commercial campaigns (NBCuniversal, IndoWarehouse) and theater (Broadway Bares, Asolo Rep’s Hair). Ishita was awarded Artist of Exceptional Merit by the Asian American Arts Alliance, received a Folks Arts Apprentice grant under the NJ State Council of the Arts and was a guest choreographer at Princeton University. IMGE was featured in Vogue and Vanity Fair and amassed a global fan base.

Salwa Meghjee (she/her) is a playwright from Orlando, Florida. Her work tries to illuminate and soothe the big, unnameable feelings we all experience and can’t otherwise explain. Her plays include U-Haul Mesbians (2023 O’Neill National Musical Theater Conference Semi-Finalist), Ender’s Gay (2024 Fault Line Theater’s Irons in the Fire Finalist), The Conference of the Birds (Mudlark Theater’s That’s How We Grew the World Festival), Word Play (The Once and Future Festival), Obligate Carnivores (Trove Trinket Series) and, written with her twin sister Samah, The Mysterious Mystery of the Lost Letters (Brooklyn Publishers). She co-founded the feminist theater company The Golden and served as its Artistic Director for three years. She holds a BA in English from UC Berkeley and an MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage from Northwestern University.

Utkarsh Rajawat (they/them) is a writer/performer. You can learn more about them through the bio ↗ on their website.

Zonia Tsang (she/her) is a New York-based playwright and musical theater composer from Hong Kong. Her works have been performed in the U.S., U.K., Taiwan and Hong Kong. She and her collaborator Erin J. Reifler were chosen as the Merit Award Winners for New Musical Inc. in collaboration with Disney Imagineering’s New Voices Project. Other theater works include AFO Solo shorts—Up Here to Breathe (Drama League 2021 Nominee), Eye of the Beholder (Semi-finalist of Eugene O’Neill National Playwright’s Conference), The Blue-and-White Porcelain (Finalist of World Sinophone Drama Competition) and Shadow on the Wall (American Opera Project).

Divya Mangwani ↗ (she/her) is the lead artist on The Ice Cream Dream. A theater artist from Pune, she creates reimaginings that question our perception of narrative truths and shared mythologies. Divya was the founder and Artistic Director of Moonbeam Factory Theatre and wrote, directed and produced plays in India, Singapore and the U.K. In New York, she has developed work with UNICEF, Soho Rep, NYTW, Bushwick Starr, The Civilians, Rattlestick, Mabou Mines, The Flea, among others. The 2024-25 LabWorks Launch project, The Ice Cream Dream, is a story about three unlikely friends—a snake, a mouse and a human—who go on a journey to bring humans and snakes together. Set in India, the story incorporates Indian classical dance, music, puppetry and explores themes of xenophobia, questioning learned prejudices and perceptions, and the ways we can rewrite history together.

Mahayla Laurence (they/she) is queer, biracial, multidisciplinary artist engaging in work that generates personal inquiry around mental and spiritual health, joy, humor, and stewardship of community and self. They are the producer and director of Lack History alongside writer & performer Sam Kebede. Lack History first premiered in 2022 at Ars Nova as a part of the Comedy Artist Makers’ Program (CAMP). Mahayla also co-founded and currently facilitates CAMP, which is a nine-month residency for emerging comedians and storytellers pursuing long-form comedic theater. Mahayla is a teaching artist with Chautauqua Institution, Broadway Bound Kids and Story Pirates. They have also written, directed and performed in Story Pirates programming for their live shows, PBS-sponsored television program and award-winning podcast. Mahayla graduated from NYU where they received their BFA in Drama and was awarded the Beth Turner Award for Scholarship in the African Diaspora. Additionally, they are a certified breathwork practitioner and are finishing up an herbalism apprenticeship with Master Herbalist Empress Karen Rose at the Sacred Vibes Apothecary.

Divya Mangwani ↗ (she/her) is a theater artist from Pune. She creates reimaginings that question our perception of narrative truths and shared mythologies. Divya was the founder and Artistic Director of Moonbeam Factory Theater and wrote, directed and produced plays in India, Singapore and the U.K. In New York, she has developed work with UNICEF, Soho Rep, NYTW, Bushwick Starr, The Civilians, Rattlestick, Mabou Mines, The Flea, among others. Divya is a member of the New Georges Jam and The Civilians R&D Group and was a fellow of Soho Rep’s Writer/Director Lab, Gingold Speakers Corner, NYTW 2050 Fellowship, Hypokrit Theater’s Tamasha, Project Y Writers’ Group and Pipeline Theatre’s Playlab. As a journalist, Divya has worked with ESPN, The Times of India, and Daily News & Analysis. As an arts educator, she has developed youth theater programs sponsored by organizations like The Pune International Literary Festival and the U.S. Department of State.

Melle Phillips (she/her) is an actor, dancer, singer and educator with Guyanese roots, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BA in Creative Writing from Florida State University and her MA from New York University’s Educational Theatre program as a 21st Century Scholar. Her training continued with the Atlantic Theater Company’s conservatory program and finished at Oxford University, completing a certificate in Shakespearean work with the British American Drama Academy. She is an accomplished dancer, having studied under Eleo Pomare and John Micheal Goring. As a dancer, she’s performed with Bombazo Dance Company, Casa Brazilia and KaNu Dance Theater at venues including Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Museum, Queens Theatre and El Museo Del Barrio. As a singer and actress, she has worked with brands such as Wegmans, Delta and others. Most recently, Melle wrapped filming with ABC Mouse and worked with Phil Johnston (Zootopia, Wreck-It Ralph) as a script consultant on The Empathy Project with NYU Langone. Melle is also a member of the New Victory Teaching Artist ensemble where she is currently working on curriculum for Speak Up, Act Out (in collaboration with the Lorraine Hansberry project and The Lillys).

Tidtaya Sinutoke ↗ (ฑิตยา สินุธก) (she/her) is a Jonathan Larson Grant, Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award, Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, and Fred Ebb Award-winning musical theatre composer, writer and musician. Composition credits: HALF THE SKY (The 5th Avenue Theatre’s First Draft Commission & 20/21 Digital Season), Sunwatcher (The Civilians R&D Group) and Little Dugong and Her Seagrass Song (American Opera Project). Writing credits: Dear Mr. C (Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative Award), Kham (Dramatic Question Theatre’s American Woman Fellowship) and Siamese Cycle (NYU Steinhardt’s New Play for Young Audiences). Her works have been developed and supported by the Composer-Librettists Studio at New Dramatists, Yale Institute for Music Theatre, Johnny Mercer Foundation, NYFA IAM Mentoring Program, Robert Rauschenberg Residency, Kurt Weill Foundation, Drama League, Tofte Lake Center, Loghaven Artist Residency and Rhinebeck Writers Retreat. A proud member of ASCAP, Dramatists Guild, Maestra, MUSE and Thai Theatre Foundation. BM: Berklee College of Music, MFA: NYU.

Nehprii Amenii ↗ is a director, playwright, puppeteer and educator. She’s worked with Bread and Puppet Theater, Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, La Mama, The New York Philharmonic and more. Nehprii is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, the Stage Directors and Choreographer’s Society, an invited U.S. delegate of the Women’s Playwright International Conference and is a recipient of the Lipkin Prize for Playwriting. She’s been awarded by the International Rotary Club, Puffin Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Jim Henson Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Nehprii is Artistic Director of Khunum Productions, a platform for creative anthropology.