the cell

Zachariah Ezer (Playwright) is a playwright and an Assistant Professor of Performing Arts at Washington University in St. Louis whose work animates theoretical quandaries through theatrical forms. His plays include The Freedom Industry (Playwrights Horizons’ New Works Lab, The Playwrights Center, New York Stage & Film), Address the Body! (The University of Texas at Austin’s UTNT Festival, Kitchen Dog Theater’s New Works Festival, Echo Theater Company’s National Young Playwrights in Residence), The Single Raindrop (The Civilians’ Findings Series, Rorschach Theatre’s Magic in Rough Spaces, The Fade to Black Arts Festival’s Ensemble Theatre Reading Series), Legitime (Fault Line Theatre’s Irons in the Fire), and Black Women in Tech (The Fire This Time Festival, PBS), among others. He is currently a Dramatists Guild Foundation Catalyst Fellow and a member of The St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s Confluence Writers Project. He has received commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club/The Sloan Foundation, Theater J, and American Conservatory Theatre. He has attended residencies at The New Harmony Project, Ryder Farm, and Aunt Karen’s Farm. His work has been published by Concord Theatricals/Samuel French, Smith & Kraus, American Blues Theater, and New World Theatre. He is an alumnus of The University of Texas’ James A. Michener Fellowship, The Civilians’ R&D Group, The Playwrights Center’s Core Apprenticeship, The Liberation Theatre Company’s Writing Residency, Hi-ARTS’ Critical Breaks Residency, Echo Theater Company’s National Young Playwrights in Residence, Town Stages’ Sokoloff Arts Creative Fellowship, BUFU’s EYEDREAM Residency, and Wesleyan University’s Olin Fellowship. Zachariah is also a dramaturg (who has worked with The National Black Theatre, Breaking the Binary, WP Theater, Keen Company, The Workshop Theater, Merde, and foolsFURY), an essayist (published by the University of Texas’ E3W, Gizmodo/io9, HuffPost, and elsewhere), and a performer (in alternative rock band Harper’s Landing). MFA: The University of Texas at Austin. BA: Wesleyan University.

Dominique Rider (Director) is a Brooklyn-based director and curator whose work seeks to answer the question: “What is a world unmade by slavery?” while analyzing the layers of anti-blackness that maintain our world. Deploying theatre and performance as tools of Afropessimism, Dominique has developed and staged work with Portland Center Stage, Portland Stage, The Bushwick Starr, The New Group, The Park Avenue Armory, and more. Past fellowships/residencies include The Civilians R&D, The Atlantic, Hi-Arts, The National Black Theatre, TheaterWorks Hartford, NYSAF, BRIC Arts, Roundabout, and NAMT. Dominique is a Vision Resident at Ars Nova, a producer with CLASSIX, and an artist in residence at Duke University.

Alexandra Palocz (Creator) is a multidisciplinary storyteller, experience designer, and creative technologist. She recently finished a masters degree at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU Tisch, where she studied interactive narrative, collaborative creativity, and learning through play. She likes speculative fiction, tangible metaphors, and thinking about new storytelling forms.