Co-MISSION Works-In-Progress Spring 2024
Our Spring 2024 Co-MISSION Fellows offer a split bill Works-In-Progress showing featuring Najee-Zaid Searcy and Lani T. Montreal.
Searcy and Montreal present to audiences the projects they have investigated and rehearsed while incubating in the white box studio since January.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Najee-Zaid Searcy is a Chicago born interdisciplinary artist with a focus on performance and identity. Najee-Zaid uses their background in music, facilitation, and informal arts learning to explore the intersection of space and identity within the context of healing modalities through his new body of work “Immersion” which received its debut at Elastic Arts late 2022. Najee-Zaid’s latest works combine elemental and plant ancestries with the human experience while hybridizing his performance acoustically, electronically, and spatially with a range of accessible sensory activations. Learn more at najeezaidsearcy.com.
Lani T. Montreal is a queer feminist Filipina writer, educator, and performer based in Chicago. Her plays have been read and produced in the U.S., Canada, and the Philippines, mostly by CIRCA-Pintig Filipino-American Theatre Group. Likewise, her essays and poetry have been published in journals and anthologies, among them LitBop Magazine, Rattle, MiPoesias, Riksha and others. Lani writes to create her home in the diaspora. She is currently a Chicago Dramatist Network Playwright, was a Resident Artist at Free Street Theater (2017), two-time recipient of 3Arts Residency Awards (2016 and 2009), and a 2017 alumni of VONA Writers of Color Workshop.
ART OF REHEARSAL WORKSHOP SERIES COACHES
L to R: McNeal, Brown
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Meida Teresa McNeal is Artistic and Managing Director of Honey Pot Performance. She received her PhD in Performance Studies (Northwestern) and her MFA in Choreography & Dance History (Ohio State). Awards include an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in New Performance Forms, Field Foundation’s Leaders for a New Chicago, 3Arts Award in Dance, Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist, and the Links’ Hall Co-Missions Fellowship. An Independent Artist and Scholar at the intersection of performance studies, dance, and critical ethnography, Meida also teaches at University of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago. Meida also works with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events' Executive Administration team as the Senior Manager of Arts & Community Impact Investments building and implementing artist recovery programs and creative placemaking grantmaking initiatives. Prior to this role, Meida worked with the Chicago Park District as Arts & Culture Manager supporting community arts partnerships, youth arts, cultural stewardship, and civic engagement initiatives.
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La Mar Brown is thrilled to be a Co-Mission Artist Coach for the second year with Links Hall, and to co-lead the Art of Rehearsal process this year. He is an arts manager, producer, dancer, and singer. He currently serves as the Operations Manager for Chicago Dancemakers Forum, where he manages functions to support administrative, fundraising, and programming activities. After relocating to Chicago from Dallas, TX, he completed his Master of Arts Management at Columbia College Chicago in 2016. He also is a 2022 Leadership Institute cohort member of YNPN Chicago. La Mar’s other administrative credits include Project Coordinator, The Ruth Page Center for the Arts; Box Office Supervisor, Writers Theatre; Company Manager, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago; and Associate Patron Services Manager, the AT&T Performing Arts Center (Dallas, TX). His performance credits include Dallas Black Dance Theatre, The Ruth Page Civic Ballet, Porchlight Music Theatre, Dallas Metropolitan Ballet, Uptown Players, Garland Summer Musicals, and The Dallas Opera.