FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: KST Freshworks Artist Andraya Rand-Mathis Reflects Healing Journeys in Diving Within, A New Performance in Process
EAST LIBERTY, PA — Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s Freshworks: New Performance In Process artist-in-residence, Andraya Rand-Mathis, is set to bring her original performance Diving Within to the stage on Friday and Saturday, December 1 and 2, for the first time. This 30-minute showing commences at 7:30pm at KST’s Alloy Studios, followed by an engaging Q&A session with the audience.
As a proud Black trans woman, Rand-Mathis draws inspiration from her personal recovery process after her gender transition, as well as the painful yet beautiful healing journeys of other people of color. Through dance, music, drag, performative storytelling, and audio from first-person interviews, Rand-Mathis breathes life into her impactful performance, Diving Within, and reflects on self-discovery and recovery from negative experiences.
Rand-Mathis is a choreographer, dancer, and educator born and raised in Pittsburgh. When she began her gender transition, she decided to let go of social expectations. Her transition goes beyond her physicality, breaking through gender stereotypes cast on her free spirit. She uses dance as a powerful expression to convey her resistance.
“As a transgender woman still early in her process, I find myself questioning and reflecting on life on a daily basis, trying to understand the roots of my actions, habits, and perspective of life. I’ve spent years conforming and showing up in the ways that others expected me and told me to, but now I’m reclaiming my authentic self,” said Rand-Mathis.
Her past internal conflicts have informed her compassionate worldview and provided the origin point for Rand-Mathis’ latest work, Diving Within. The performance in progress revolves around a symbolic character’s life struggle, delving into their deep interiority and unveiling their innermost doubts, fears, anxieties, and pain.
Rand-Mathis further expands the narrative by incorporating the voices of her interviews with five open-minded and forthright people of color sharing their lived experiences. These individuals share their burdens — healing from substance abuse, parental loss, misaligned gender identities, and single parenthood. Diving Within uses these interviews as a foundation, explores universal healing experiences, and embraces inclusivity that goes beyond her personal gender transition.
According to Rand-Mathis, “Hopefully their stories [in the performance] can encourage a warm, welcoming space free of judgment and open to vulnerability.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Andraya Rand-Mathis is a choreographer, dancer, and educator who was born and raised in the city of Pittsburgh. She has choreographed several musical productions, which have won Gene Kelly Awards for Best Choreography. Even though Andraya started their dance training at a late age, she is a force to be reckoned with for her generation and future generations to come. Since hitting the dance scene a little over 8 years ago, Draya has had the opportunity to work with some amazing artists such as Greer Reed, Staycee Pearl, Kontara Morphis, and Anthony Williams.
ABOUT FRESHWORKS: NEW PERFORMANCE IN PROCESS
Freshworks is KST’s creative residency for artists and collaborators based in the greater Pittsburgh region. Freshworks made its debut in 2013 and supports playful exploration in performance through interdisciplinary work in contemporary dance, theater, music, and multimedia.The program provides artists with planning support and guidance, studio space, production staff, lighting and sound design and encouragement for creative risk taking. Artists are invited to apply either as an individual or as a collaborative group.
Freshworks artists are provided a $1,000 honorarium and $1,500 resource budget during the residency. This is to help offset the costs of creating new work. Each residency will take place over a two-month period. During these two months, artists will develop a 30-minute live showing that is a first draft of an original artistic project. The first month is intended for planning; this includes what form the project will take, securing collaborators, and brainstorming design. During this time, artists will meet weekly with KST Programming and Production Staff to chart out production and scheduling needs as well as utilize their outside perspectives. The intention is that KST Staff is present to pose questions that can help the artist think through various aspects of ideas.
The second month is focused on in-studio rehearsal and creation of a 30-minute draft of their project. Weekly meetings with KST Staff continue and shift focus towards actualizing production needs.The goal of the residency is for the artist to experiment and explore early iterations of ideas and share a draft of these concepts in front of an audience. At the end of the process, they will have valuable insight into further developing their project.
taylor knight and anna thompson are co-founding artistic directors of the Pittsburgh-based multidisciplinary performance entity slowdanger. Founded in 2013, slowdanger uses movement, integrative technology, found material, electronic instrumentation, vocalization, physiological centering, and ontological examination to produce their performance work. The more they engage in this collaborative work, the more they recognize the manifestation of their work as a non-binary entity that is one body amassed of multiple bodies in space. Each work seeks a deeper understanding through the practice of making. This ever evolving process is akin to the construction zone where inspiration was drawn for the name, slowdanger. anna and taylor have worked with Sidra Bell, Francesca Harper, Roderick George, Bill Shannon, MICHIYAYA Dance, Nile Harris, Jasmine Hearn, Maree Remalia|merrygogo, CorningWorks, Mark C. Thompson, The Pillow Project |Pearlann Porter, Jil Stifel, Shantelle Courvoisier Jackson and more.
COMMUNITY
DANCE | COMMUNITY
DANCE | COMMUNITY
DANCE | COMMUNITY
FUNDRAISER | COMMUNITY
DANCE
DANCE
EAST LIBERTY, PA — Kelly Strayhorn Theater is pleased to announce Or Forever Hold Your Peace, a 75 minute theater experience from Big Storm Performance Company. Based on the real-life experiences of the creators, this show explores the B plots, uncomfortable interactions, and opportunities for personal discovery that occur at weddings.
E Forney (she/they) works in higher education administration, organizes with leftists, and dabbles in many other things. When she is not at rehearsal, Forney is recording with her podcast co-hosts for One More Thing, coordinating events for Puzzled Pint, playing video games, or dabbling in some new hobby (right now it’s rug tufting). Forney has worked as support or tech for multiple Big Storm productions (“Quest”, “Portals on Penn”, “Say That to My Face”, “Dance Show: A Dance Show”) and looks forward to more!
Phillip Fry (he/him) graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2017 with a BS in Mathematics and a Minor in Theater Performance. When not rehearsing, Phil enjoys playing video games, reading, discovering new breweries in the area, and visiting with his family. His previous works include, Stage: Portals on Penn, Say That to My Face (Big Storm PC); Film: Tributaries (Crazy Pants Productions); Voice Over: No Exit, Cave of the Green Light (Play on Words Podcast). Phil would like to thank his fiancée, mom, dad, brother, and sister for pushing him to keep doing theater and to his cats that keep them company during the down time.
Yang Zhen Lee (They/Them) is a comics and tattoo artist who likes to dabble in many things. Zhen was in Teresa Martuccio’s Pink Potatoes, and in some City of Play events such as “Emotional Landscapes,” “Intimate Subjects,” and “Fantastic Adventure: Greenfield Bridge.” When not rehearsing, Zhen likes playing games, moving through the world in new ways, petting animals, and seeing what art peeps have been making. Zhen says “Thank you to the fun and warmhearted folks of Big Storm for being absolute sweeties. Thank you Forrest for helping me go through lines many many times.”
Jess Malandro (she/her) currently works at the University of Pittsburgh’s Big Idea Center as manager for student programs. When she isn’t working at Pitt, Stick City Brewing Company, or rehearsing with Big Storm, you can find her reading and/or furiously snuggling her two cats (Dae and Bucky). Over the past few years, Jess has performed with Big Storm in productions such as Say That To My Face and Portals on Penn. She would like to thank her fiancé, Phil Fry, for getting her to rehearsals on time and being a major support system over the past couple of months. Lastly, she would like to thank José and Taylor for being so awesome throughout this process (and every other time, really).
José Pérez IV (he/him) Julio/Dance Core, Dance Captain, Choreography, Playwright – is a fight choreographer and theater maker. Artistic Director of Big Storm Performance Company. MFA in Performance Pedagogy from the University of Pittsburgh, BFA in Drama from NYU’s Experimental Theatre Wing. When not making new theater, he likes to read in cafes and wave at dogs. José’s original work has been seen in New York City venues, on the hills of the Smoky Mountains, and in a moving car.
Olivia Devorah Tucker (they/them) is a transfemme Jewish demonologist with an affinity for vibrant theater and baking thematically-shaped challah. Professionally, Olivia serves as Program Coordinator for SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva (founders of Queer Talmud Camp), where they study as a teacher-in-training. Olivia Devorah has variously performed, puppeteered, sang, danced, devised, and dramaturged for FOLKLAB’s QUEER (2018), Moriah Ella Mason’s Queer Jewish: Dancing In Diaspora (2019), Teresa Martuccio’s Pink Potatoes (2019) and Gunner LaBuff’s Hatena, A Guinea Pig Play (2019) at the Glitterbox. Olivia sends thanks to friends, family, the Highland Park pool, and the Phantom of the Attic comic book store for getting them through the tough times!
Matt Vitullo (he/him) is thrilled to be in yet another Big Storm production! Matt graduated from the University of Pittsburgh for theater and has been performing in the city ever since. Previous roles include Benvolio in Romeo & Juliet (Pittsburgh Classic Players), a tea shop fighter in Portals on Penn (Big Storm), and a lovesick bard in Quest (Big Storm). When not performing, Matt can be found playing Dungeons & Dragons, gaming, reading, writing, or spending time with friends (as safely as possible, of course). “Thank you to Big Storm, especially José and Taylor, for making so much cool art that I get to participate in, and to my incredible friends who always give me support and lend me an ear while I talk about this show endlessly. Thank you!! :^)
Ariel / (they/them) is an interdisciplinary performance artist dancing onto the scene from underground art spaces in Pittsburgh, New York, Shanghai, the Bay, and Hong Kong. With roots in butoh, martial arts, and street dance, they are thrilled to be performing with Big Storm for their funky and athletic choreography. Notable venues where they have performed and displayed works include SPACE Gallery, The Space Upstairs, GPAC Center, Baryshnikov Dance Center, Alloy Studios, New Hazlett Theatre, and Associated Artists of Pittsburgh. They are concurrently making films as part of the Spring 23′ cohort in the Digital Documentary Filmmaking Fellowship at the Warhol Academy.
Charlie Left is a nonbinary screenwriter, competing slam poet, and performing artist in Pittsburgh, PA. Their work has appeared in Pretty Owl Poetry, Medium, and elsewhere. They’re in the Pittsburgh Prison Book Project’s leadership group, a volunteer non-profit organization based in Pittsburgh that sends reading and educational materials to prisoners across PA. They formerly curated and emceed The Bantha Readings in Pittsburgh, a series dedicated to showcasing local writers. Their work, best described as creative nonfiction with a surrealist twist, focuses on the role of gender and masculinity in our everyday lives. Find them online @charlie_left or charlieleft074@gmail.com
Jade Young (they/she) is a trans/non-binary dancer, singer, actor and writer. They have been training in dance since the age of three years old. They are a dancer in the styles of jazz, tap, hip hop techniques, jazz funk and contemporary dance. They graduated in 2021 from Full Sail University with a certificate in Creative Writing. Most recently Jade has done stand-in/photo double work for actress Andra Day in the Lee Daniels directed film “The Deliverance” and acted in City Theatre’s 2022 Young Playwright’s Festival. When Jade isn’t dancing or performing she is studying piano and voice under the amazing Cathie Crocker, plays their Taylor acoustic guitar and enjoys spending time with their family and orange tabby cat Simba. “Thank you to the cast members and team of Big Storm. It’s been an absolute joy working with all of you. Thank you to my Mom, my brother Mason and best friend Rebekah Davis for your love and support”. Follow them on Instagram @jadenjewel13.
Lucy Jaffar (she/her) is a dancer and arts administrator from San Francisco. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago with a BS in psychology and a BA in dance and has had the opportunity to dance and train with amazing organizations including San Francisco Ballet, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, ODC, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and DancEsteem San Francisco. Lucy can normally be found adventuring in nature, playing guitar, or spending quality time with her family, friends, and two boxer dogs. She would like to thank Dylon for being the best support system to her through everything.
Sarah Hoy (she/they) is a current student at Point Park University studying Theatre Arts with a minor in musical theatre! They are very excited to be doing their first show with Big Storm Performance Company and have loved the process with this amazing group. Previous works include Coping with COPA (flash dancer), Men On Boats (swing/Mr. Asa), and the RLM One Act Festival. She’d like to thank her friends and family and amazing coworkers for supporting her in all the work! @sarahhoyarts
