SPACE on Ryder Farm announces artist residents for 2023 season

SPACE on Ryder Farm, the artist residency program and organic farm located on Ryder Farm in Brewster, announced Thursday the residents for the 2023 season. This year residencies include the Creative Residency, Greenhouse Residency, Institutional Residency, and wrap-up of the 2022 Working Farm. Additionally, SPACE announces the recipients of the Bryan Gallace/Posthumous Prodigy Productions Fellowship.

SPACE has served over 1,550 residents, specializing in a multitude of disciplines, since its founding in 2011. With the 2023 season, SPACE honors existing commitments to a cohort of over 40 artists who applied and were accepted, but whose residencies had to be deferred primarily due to the pandemic. Beginning in the fall of 2024, SPACE will open applications for new residencies. 

“I couldn’t have asked for a more engaging group of residents to share in the communal table for my first year at SPACE,” shared Kelly M. Burdick, Executive Director. “We are grateful for everyone’s patience as we have worked through pandemic deferments and eagerly await their arrival to the Farm.”

2023 RESIDENTS BY PROGRAM

THE WORKING FARM

A cornerstone program at SPACE on Ryder Farm, the Working Farm is SPACE’s resident writers’ group which provides five playwrights, composers, lyricists and/or librettists with a non-consecutive five-week residency to work toward a new piece. SPACE’s current Working Farm Residency was curated by playwright Vichet Chum.

In 2023, as part of fulfilling previous commitments, SPACE will welcome back members of its 2022 Working Farm—Emily Gardner Xu Hall (MEI-DO), Isaac Gómez (La Ruta), Noelle Viñas (Derecho), and Ray Yamanouchi (The Chink-Mart)—to complete their time with 2023 Creative Residencies.

Past members of The Working Farm include Will Arbery, Rob Askins, Jeff Augustin, Clare Barron, Adam Bock, Rachel Bonds, Agnes Borinsky, Sarah Burgess, David Cale, Heather Christian, Vichet Chum, Mia Chung, Cusi Cram, Erin Courtney, Charly Evon Simpson, Emily Feldman, Madeleine George, David Greenspan, Dave Harris, Samuel D. Hunter, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Antoinette Nwandu, Jen Silverman, Shaina Taub, Mfoniso Udofia, and Anne Washburn.

Plays developed through the The Working Farm residency have been subsequently produced by LCT3, New York Theatre Workshop, MTC, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater, and elsewhere.

GREENHOUSE RESIDENCY

This season’s Greenhouse Residency was curated by writer, educator, and cultural worker Nissy Aya and offers a weeklong residency at SPACE to playwrights or theater writers who have not had access to or are working outside of traditional theater institutions. During the residency, participants will have time and space to write as well as to participate in workshops with mentorship from Nissy Aya and other theatre practitioners and community workers. Participants in the 2023 Greenhouse Residency include Deborah Cowell, Nick Martin, storäe michele, Najee Omar, and Emily Preis.

CREATIVE RESIDENCY

The Creative Residency serves artists and activists with a wide range of projects and disciplines with one week residencies. Individual participants in the 2023 Creative Residency program include playwrights Melisa Tien, Sanaz Toossi and Jonathan Spector, writer Jonathan E. Jacobs, playwright/performer Stefani Kuo 郭佳怡, musician Riley Mulherkar, and visual artist Rami George, among others.

Artists participating in 2023 Creative Residencies through Joe’s Pub include Sita Chay, J. Hoard, Olivia K., Latasha N. Nevada Diggs, Roshni Samlal. Theatre/Film director Morgan Green and playwright Abe Koogler will be in residence through Playwrights Horizons. Playwright Aya Geyer and audiovisual artists J and Gabriel Ruiz will be in residency with Audible Theater.

INSTITUTIONAL RESIDENCY
SPACE’s Institutional Residencies offer 501c(3) organizations and incorporated ensembles time and space for artistic commissions, DEIJ goals, strategic planning and retreat opportunities. In 2023, SPACE welcomes groups from Roundabout Theatre Company and Wilma Theatre for artistic planning retreats—and Liberation Theatre Company, a home for creative emerging Black playwrights, with Calley Anderson, Devon Kidd, Malcolm Tariq, and Zakeia Tyson-Cross, in residency this year.

Camille Simone Thomas and UGBA were in residence through their Artivism Fellowship with Broadway Advocacy Coalition working on programming to raise awareness about the Solutions Not Suspensions Bill in New York.

Cave Canem, founded by Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady in 1996 to remedy the underrepresentation and isolation of African-American poets in the literary landscape, will be in residency in 2023.

BRYAN GALLACE/POSTHUMOUS PRODIGY PRODUCTIONS FELLOWSHIP

SPACE announces Jamila Woods and Julian Hornik as the recipients of this year’s Bryan Gallace/Posthumous Prodigy Productions Fellowship, an annual award which offers musicians time and space on Ryder Farm to create new work, as well as transformative financial support to be used for professional growth. Jamila and Julian will each receive $30,000. Jamila will use the funding to create an immersive live performance and concert video. Julian will use the funding to record an album and produce two live shows.

For a full list of the 2023 residents, please visit SPACE's WEBSITE.