Our latest version spotlights theatre employees within the Houston space. If you want to advocate a theatre artist (from anyplace) for a future Function Name, fill out our open Google Type right here.

Afsaneh Aayani (she/her)

Occupation: Multidisciplinary artist
Hometown: Tehran, Iran
Present house: Houston
Identified for: Aayani has designed units/costumes and created puppets for nearly all the main theatre corporations in Houston and created two incredible full-length productions: an autobiographical dance theatre piece, Innominate, and an adaptation of The Flip of the Screw (co-created by Adam J. Thompson and Bradley Michalakis) for Catastrophic Theatre. No matter what she works on, her fashion is distinctly whimsical and surreal, a product of an Iranian tradition stuffed with fairy tales, fables, and scary tales. These tales formed her design aesthetic, steering her in direction of what she calls the “enjoyable designs” of horror and different surreal worlds.
What’s subsequent: With Aayani the query is extra like, what isn’t subsequent? This in-demand artist has a busy schedule in Houston when she isn’t additionally working with regional corporations round the US. Subsequent she’s designing Dracula for Classical Theatre Firm (arising in October), engaged on costume designs for 2 different exhibits, and creating puppets for an upcoming Theater Underneath the Stars manufacturing.
What makes her particular: “Afsaneh Aayani is an over-flowing fountain of creativity,” raved Catastrophic producing creative director Tamarie Cooper. “She brings her wonderful puppet abilities to our metropolis, which has not been precisely a ‘puppetry haven.’ However Afsaneh is a lot greater than a puppet artist. She is a superb director, set designer, costume designer, props designer, collaborator, and visionary. Her Iranian heritage is a particular affect in her work, whether or not via music, storytelling, or in her strategy to creating theatre. Afsaneh sees issues in additional colours than the remainder of us people. Everybody now needs to work together with her, as they need to.”
Puppet proliferation: After years of making an attempt to persuade Houston theatres that puppets aren’t only for kids, issues are lastly paying off for this facet of Aayani’s expertise. However she want to see extra. “You are able to do a lot in a manufacturing with puppets,” mentioned Aayani, who hopes corporations will take a look at the artwork type as one thing everybody can take pleasure in and take the danger. Her recommendation for budding puppeteers: It’s “a really tough artwork, and it requires immense sources, persistence, time, and cash. You actually have to like doing it.”

Crystal Rae (she/her)

Occupation: Playwright, producer, puppeteer, performer
Hometown: Chicago
Present house: Houston
Identified for: Rae’s expertise as an actor makes her a must-see, even when the present is one thing she wasn’t imagined to be in, like her latest last-minute stand-in for a sick actor in Dust Canine’s manufacturing of Clybourne Park. Solely partially off-book, Rae held her personal among the many gifted forged and gave certainly one of her greatest performances so far. However with the 2022 premiere of her play Tied at On The Verge Theatre, concerning the 1963 bombing of sixteenth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, the true depth of her multifaceted artistry was revealed. Her writing is easy but full of which means, shock, humor, and poetic drama—a components she calls “the peanut butter and jelly of life.”
What’s subsequent: Whereas Tied travels to different cities, Rae might be in Houston in August, mounting a brand new model of her one-woman present Lions, about Moses’s adopted mom and what it means when your adopted baby doesn’t end up the best way you thought they might. This model will embody a puppet—an outgrowth of Rae’s time throughout Covid, when she discovered herself with tales in her head and nobody to play them out with. Puppets, she realized, had been an important place for all her inventive juices, in a fashion she describes as a mixture of Tyler Perry and Shari Lewis.
What makes her particular: Actor LaKeisha Randle highlighted Rae’s “dedication to the humanities and her neighborhood,” citing the puppeteering workshops she led for incarcerated youth via Houston’s Courageous Little Firm, and her producing the documentary Making Elijah, concerning the grief and therapeutic journey after shedding a toddler. Mentioned Randle, “These endeavors spotlight her compassionate spirit and her drive to make use of her artistry for social good, making her a cherished determine within the theatre neighborhood and past.”
Cease ready: “I actually imagine in readings and having folks are available in and inform me what’s not working, and never arguing with them or explaining,” mentioned Rae. “All I would like is to get sensible folks in my lounge to take heed to my play and inform me the place they received misplaced, the place they received bored, and many others. It’s made mediocre storytelling magical, as a result of different folks get to smear their brilliance on my work.”

Marissa Castillo (she/her)

Occupation: Producer/organizer
Hometown: Lubbock, Texas
Present house: Houston
Identified for: Because the co-founder of TEATRX, an organization established to advance Latinx efficiency arts, Castillo has helped produce 5 brief play/movie festivals which so far have informed 103 tales of the varied diaspora of Latinidad. She is often known as the Angi’s Checklist of Latinx theatre in Houston: With so many connections and collaborations in the neighborhood, Castillo is the go-to individual for serving to different corporations discover and rent Latinx artists for his or her productions.
What’s subsequent: Castillo is presently engaged on the sixth La Vida Es Cortos competition in October, and is busy curating this yr’s brief play and movie lineup with one concept in thoughts: to attach the Latinx neighborhood to individuals who appear like them and tales they’ve by no means seen or heard earlier than.
What makes her particular: “Marissa Castillo’s generosity has a gravitational pull,” mentioned Houston playwright Elizabeth Keel. “Her work with TEATRX and their large La Vida Es Cortos competition, and her efforts from the director’s chair and in the neighborhood, engenders folks to not solely step ahead as keen volunteers however to deliver associates alongside of their wake. She is certainly one of Houston’s strongest theatre magicians.”
Growth and elevation: “We’re greater than 44 p.c of the Houston inhabitants, and it’s not mirrored on Houston levels,” famous Castillo, who added that the neighborhood can’t be outlined by wrestle alone. “I wish to see pleasure; I wish to see households having fun with life,” she mentioned. “The Latinx neighborhood is just not outlined by a border. Our tales shouldn’t be outlined by that.”

Sophia Watt (she/her)

Occupation: Director
Hometown: Seattle
Present house: Houston
Identified for: Watt, who serves as affiliate creative director at Rec Room Arts, has change into the go-to director for cool, alternatively staged new performs, together with Dance Nation, The Wolves, The Oldest Boy, What the Structure Means to Me, and Heroes of the Fourth Turning. Pondering via tips on how to form the house to serve a play with a particular viewers, Watt is exactly tuned into the fashion every present wants.
What’s subsequent: Watt’s manufacturing Betrayal just lately ran at Rec Room Arts; she’ll subsequent work on the corporate’s New Play Workshop. One other thrilling upcoming manufacturing: her first child, due in July.
What makes her particular: “I’m constantly amazed by Sophia’s potential to show strict theatrical limitations into a bonus, making them the core of a manufacturing’s best moments,” mentioned Matt Hune, Rec Room Arts creative director. “She has an actual knack for nurturing a safe surroundings that permits others to enterprise into creatively dangerous work. Her manufacturing of Rec Room’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning managed to be each light and gut-wrenching on the identical time. That’s typical of her work, and precisely the type of theatre I search.”
Simply do it: Watt’s recommendation to younger administrators simply beginning out is to self-generate. “The extra you may create alternatives for your self, the higher it really works out, even when it feels insane on the time,” mentioned Watt, who began off producing her personal exhibits in Central Park when she lived in New York Metropolis. “I received permits for exhibits within the park and was like, ‘That is loopy, 4 individuals are going to return to this, why am I placing in a lot work?’” It was value it, although, as a result of, as she put it, “I’ve a résumé that individuals are going to have a look at and is now actual. I put a present on.”

Timothy Eric (he/him)

Occupation: Actor, author, director
Hometown and present house: Houston
Identified for: Related most with the Ensemble Theatre, Eric is an knowledgeable at bringing vigor to the sturdy roles he takes on. Whether or not the lead, as he just lately was within the premiere of Thomas Meloncon’s Stagolee and the Funeral of a Harmful Phrase at Important Avenue Theater, or a part of the ensemble, as when he performed Levee in August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Backside at Ensemble, Eric explodes off the stage with depth. Recently, he’s proven a extra playful facet with terrific turns in Clyde’s and The Piano Lesson, each at Ensemble. However even when he’s humorous, there’s a tautness to his humor that by no means lets go of the stress he so skillfully articulates. Eric is a real “can’t take your eyes off him” performer.
What’s subsequent: Audiences will get to see one other facet of Eric’s skills when he joins Rec Room Artwork’s intimate manufacturing of Spring Awakening in September. He’d written off musicals after school, acknowledging that his voice isn’t an enormous one, however he stepped again right into a musical position a couple of years in the past in The Lawsons at Ensemble Theatre and is impressed to present it one other go.
What makes him particular: “Timothy Eric brings a kinetic presence to each character,” mentioned Rachel Dickson, director of operations at Ensemble Theatre. “His performances are grounded in ardour that rises from his toes and pulls everybody in.” Dickson has been onstage with him and might testify that he “requires a presence from his fellow actors that’s quick, and he’s great at requiring these round him to behave and react continuously.  His deal with and particulars pulled from the textual content makes his performances wealthy and textured.” 
Inevitability: Eric believes that the work of an actor is all about being open to the expertise. “Know that the position is looking for you, and it’ll so long as you’re searching for,” he mentioned. However then the work turns into discovering out, “Why did this position want me? What particular a part of me (or my life scenario) attracted it? Getting ready for the position turns into extra about discovering that connection, accepting it, and residing inside it. You’re invested now—your coronary heart is open.”

Trevor Boffone (he/him)

Occupation: Social media supervisor at Enjoyable Love Media
Hometown: New Orleans
Present house: Houston
Identified for: An educator and viral content material creator himself (and an occasional contributor to American Theatre), Boffone brings all of the influencer instruments to bear on social media methods for theatres. His extremely entertaining short-form movies seize the the power of the theatre, the vibe of the present, and the enjoyable of coming to see a manufacturing.
What’s subsequent: What’s thrilling about his job, Boffone says, is that each new present is a contemporary playground. Most just lately he created and posted content material on Levels’ manufacturing of The Case for the Existence of God.
What makes him particular: “As a result of Trevor genuinely understands the ins and outs of each theatre and social media, he’s capable of seamlessly do what is perhaps fairly difficult for another person,” mentioned Britney Crosson, proprietor of Enjoyable Love Media. “His enthusiasm and creativity are precisely what theatres want. And his concepts are so inventive! I don’t understand how his lovely mind works, however I respect it.”
Growth: “What I might like to do is figure with extra Houston theatres,” Boffone mentioned. “I wish to create methods for theatres, give them a plan for the month and a blueprint on tips on how to execute it.” Quick-form video by way of social media remains to be a comparatively new type of advertising, and plenty of theatres really feel overwhelmed by it. Nevertheless it’s the wave of the longer term, he mentioned: Older folks should still Google to seek out information about issues to do, however “the under-25 crowd, they go to TikTok to determine that out. Theatres have to get on board for future progress.”

Jessica Goldman (she/her) is a theatre critic for Houston Press. Previous to transferring to Houston 9 years in the past, she was the theatre critic for The Eyeopener on CBC Radio in Calgary.

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