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Stephanie Acosta

  • Now
  • Select Works
  • Installation
    • GOOD DAY GOD DAMN | Exhibition
    • Palm
    • Aquí y Allá
    • Unintended Structures
  • Performance + Live Art
    • GOOD DAY GOD DAMN | Performance
    • No One Likes An Ugly Revolutionary | Mette Looulou von Kohl
    • This Bridge Called My Ass | Miguel Gutierrez
    • This Concerns All of Us | Miguel Gutierrez
    • Palm_performance
    • collagecollide
    • Process Progress
    • Falling Things
    • Ashleigh
    • A line connecting, a line dividing, a line defining
    • Every Horizon Looks Like Cuba To Me
    • Waterline
  • Moving Image
    • You Need Me
    • GOOD DAY GOD DAMN | Video
    • Ladies Almanack
    • Antonym
    • Deep Descent
    • Aquí y Allá_video
    • Palm_video
    • Fleeting Components
    • collagecollide_video
    • BABY! LOVE YOUR BODY! - Ep. 1
  • ARCHIVIST
    • AUNTS Archive
  • Dramaturgy
  • Apocalypse Talks
  • Sunday Service
  • About + Contact
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image credit: Laurie Berg

FOMO : DIPTYCH at Chocolate Factory Theatre | May 19, 20, 21

May 19, 2022

Thrilled to have joined this wild bunch as dramaturg and hope you will go check out the way it is DONE! This work is sincerely dreamy, deeply absurd, and necessary for all. GO GO GO!


Notes on the show BELOW

Performances will take place at The Chocolate Factory Theater, 38-33 24th Street, Long Island City.

View the show program.

The chameleon’s eyes move independently of one another, offering an almost 360 view of its surroundings. Even when both eyes focus on the same object, they do so independently, making the chameleon’s vision a naturally occurring diptych. This remarkable ocular duet is the basis for Berg’s new work FOMO:DIPTYCH. A densely layered performance installation to study the diptych: as a form, a way of viewing, listening, feeling, and consuming. A place where missing something is guaranteed (and ok).

FOMO:DIPTYCH asks if performance – as an inherently ephemeral experience – can help us recognize our capacity to hold multiple perspectives at once, and when considered collectively, reveals the cacophonous jumble of inputs we piece together to make meaning. Our eyes move independently of the eyes of our neighbor, each of our brains collecting only the objects we choose to let in. And where we sit affects what we encounter.

FOMO:DIPTYCH invites the audience to observe the performance from two distinct vantage points: a white box art gallery (with bubbles and conceptual canapes) or a seat at the sports bar (with cheap beer and celebrity bartenders) both within the Chocolate Factory Theater’s new raw space.

created by Laurie Berg in collaboration with Matt Romein (technical design); Madison Krekel and Omar Zubair (sound); Jodi Bender, Ayano Elson, Marion Spencer, Laurie Berg and more (performance); Charlie Welch (sports bar); jess pretty (creative consultant); Shana Crawford (lighting); Shomit Barua (technical associate); and Myssi Robinson (trainview designer).

Tags Performance Art, Performance, Dance, chocolate factory, Laurie Berg
Image Credit : Amira Karaoud

Image Credit : Amira Karaoud

No One Likes An Ugly Revolutionary | World Premiere | NY

March 1, 2020

It’s a TWO WORLD PREMIERE kind of month this March! Thrilled to have directed this gorgeous work with the deeply talented Mette Loulou von Kohl. Catch us at Abrons Art Center for 3 SHOWS ONLY!

March 5-7 | Buy Tickets HERE

Opening night reception co-hosted with Arab.AMP

An interdisciplinary solo performance created and performed by Mette Loulou von Kohl, No one likes an ugly revolutionary explores the artist’s relationship with the Palestinian resistance fighter Leila Khaled and the connections that shape armed resistance, terrorism, fetish, reverence, internalized orientalism, and diasporic longing.

Director: Stephanie Acosta
Video Collaborator: Bleue Liverpool
Sound Collaborators: Ashley Hefnawy and Saint Abdullah
Lighting Designer: Evan Spigleman
Stage Manager: Manny Rivera


FUNDING

No one likes an ugly revolutionary was commissioned by Abrons Arts Center through the Jerome Foundation AIRspace Residency Program, with additional support from AFAC (The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture) الصندوق العربي للثقافة والفنون.

The 2019-2020 Season at Abrons Arts Center is supported, in part, by generous grants from the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the Harkness Foundation for Dance, the Jerome Foundation, the Scherman Foundation, and other generous Henry Street Settlement funders. This program is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and support from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.


Tags No one likes an ugly revolutionary, Performance Art, Performance, theatre, director, Abrons Art Center, Mette Loulou Von Kohl
Image Credit: Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

Image Credit: Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

This Bridge Called My Ass | NY Times + Opening!!! - NY

January 6, 2019

It is unbelievable, that after what feels more like a lifetime than a year, 3 residencies, 2 countries, countless applications, successes, failures, we prepare to open and share what we have created with you. Continuing to collaborate with Miguel Gutierrez and this band of talented creators has come or created a moment of great searching and growth and I’m so very thankful this mad world is resisted in these rooms of mad love.

THIS BRIDGE CALLED MY ASS

Opens Jan 9th as part of American Realness 2019 at the Chocolate Factory

In This Bridge Called My Ass six Latinx performers – Alvaro Gonzalez, John Gutierrez, Miguel Gutierrez, Xandra Ibarra, Nibia Pastrana Santiago, and Evelyn Sanchez Narvaez – map an elusive choreography of obsessive and perverse action within an unstable terrain of bodies, materials and sound. A formal logic binds the group and propels them to create a constantly transforming world where their togetherness retains autonomy to complicate the idea of identity. Clichéd Latin-American songs and the form of the telenovela are exploited to show how familiar structures contain absurdity that reveal and celebrate difference.

Grab tickets HERE! <—-Update we are SOLD OUT but there will be a waitlist nightly beginning at 7:15 so be there early and get in! We have a limited and strict capacity so get on in here early all!

Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

And check us out in the SUNDAY NY TIMES where Gia Kourlas chatted with Miguel Gutierrez and I about our mad process and snuck in to see what we’ve been up to. It is always such a gift to be seen, and properly quoted no less.

Tags dance, miguel gutierrez, Performance Art, Performance, Stephanie Acosta, Xandra Ibarra, Nibia Pastrana Santiago, Evelyn Sanchez Narvaez, Alvaro Gonzalez, John Gutierrez, chocolate factory, american realness, press, show
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More Light! | Comin' at ya Dec 4th Brooklyn

November 6, 2018

Amidst volunteering, community support, personal practices, it's hard to know what you can do to feel whole or see the light. 🕯️ Nessa Norich and her crew of performance beings are putting this evening together, and I am not only THERE for it, I'm also a supporting producer. 🎂 Did I mention it's ON MY BIRTHDAY?!

So come learn about the rebellious Judith who cut off her oppressors head with a FUCKING KNIFE (#goals) or join us for rituals of light and joy, and for the freakin' dancing, because we can need/do that TOO! 🕯️Tickets in the comments! 🕯️ Snag one HERE and see you THERE!

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MORE LIGHT!

A Community Celebration at the Intersection of Art, Activism and Spirituality 

On December 4th, we find one another in the darkness, sharing the weight of our struggle and illuminating the light of our joy. Join community, artists and activists for More Light! A night of Community Celebration and Live Art.

The evening will be electric with live music, ritual, short film premiere, and the premiere work-in-progress of The Judiths of Virtuous Dissent*.

About The Judiths of Virtuous Dissent: 
Theater director, Nessa Norich and her ensemble of interdisciplinary artists channel the fullness of our grief, anger and love into a prismatic vision of a heroine who vanquishes the force of violence with the force of feeling. Judith is a mythological rebel who uses the oppressor’s knife to cut off his head. We parse through the realities of resistance through her story. 

About the night:
This event occurs during the festival of Hanukkah, a celebration of the miraculous continuity of light in times of darkness. In this spirit, we gather community to share an evening of music, art and meaningful connection. We invite you to release fear, and join us to gather energy for the fight for brighter futures.
Information for how to connect with local activist communities will be available as well. More Artist Contributors to be announced soon!

Doors | 7p
Candle Lighting + Work in Progress Performance of The Judiths of Virtuous Dissent* | 7:30p
Celebration + Short Film Screening + Live Art | 9:00p 
++Doors close 7:30p-8:30p for the performance

Where: Mister Rogers | 1409, 231 Rogers Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11225 

Advanced Tickets: $15 | 36 | 50
Tickets are limited, we recommend you reserve in advance! HERE!

$15 - Community Support
$36 - Project Champion 
$50 - Mega Supporter 

All additional support through our Project Champion ($36) and Mega Supporter ($50) ticket sales go towards future development and production of The Judiths of Virtuous Dissent,and we THANK YOU for your support! 
If you can not afford the suggested price, please email wellofwillscommunity@gmail.com to reserve entry! We want you there! 

*The Judiths of Virtuous Dissent is a full-length performance in development. It is part of a year-long, community devising and creation initiative called The Judith Project, which began with a series of workshops in summer 2018. Learn more about our process and follow our journey here: https://wellofwills.squarespace.com

We hope to celebrate with you on the 4th!

With love,
the Well of Wills Collective
insta: @wellofwillscollective
#thejudithproject

Tags Performance Art, ritual, more light!, theatre, judith, more light
Image Credit: Drawing by Étienne Léopold Trouvelot

Image Credit: Drawing by Étienne Léopold Trouvelot

Sunday Service with Janani Balasubramanian | 05.06.2018 (Queens, NY)

April 27, 2018

Balasubramanian brings together artists, astronomers, and artist-astronomers to show and tell stories of transformation. The evening becomes a great deal of magical fun. Featuring JP Ventura, Ellianan Schwab, Sophia Mak + Bex Kwan, Mark Popinchalk and Moiya McTier. A dataset becomes music; a telescope reading becomes Art Deco; dust becomes a system; a shift in planetary motion becomes a folk tale; a rock becomes a family.

Sunday, May 6, 2018 | 7:00pm RSVP on fb HERE 

“We were peering into this darkness, crisscrossed with voices, when the change took place: the only real, great change I’ve ever happened to witness, and compared to it the rest is nothing.”
—Italo Calvino, Cosmicomics

About Sunday Service
Taking place the first Sunday of each month, a guest curator is invited to organize a salon style evening of cross-disciplinary performances and presentations that brings together a multiplicity of views around a singular prompt, such as a question, theme, or formal structure. Sunday Service centers works in progress, interdisciplinary endeavors, and diversity in format showcased in a lo-fi environment to foster the testing of ideas and critical discourse amongst peers.

Sunday Service is programmed by Stephanie Acosta and Alexis Wilkinson, Knockdown Center’s Director of Exhibitions and Live Art. 

Tags Sunday Service Series, Sunday Service, curatorial, Programmer, Knockdown Center, Performance Art, Performance Series, astronomers, poetry, JP Ventura, Ellianan Schwab, Sophia Mak + Bex Kwan, Mark Popinchalk Moiya McTier
Image: From the Ashes, Rena Anakwe. Courtesy of the artist.

Image: From the Ashes, Rena Anakwe. Courtesy of the artist.

Sunday Service with Rena Anakwe | 04.08.2018 (Queens, NY)

April 5, 2018

The third season of Sunday Service returns curated by artist Rena Anakwe!  Tackling her interest in the ways we manifest healing, she brings us Sharon De La Cruz, Johann Diedrick, Delphine Fawundu, GENG, and Pamela Liou!  This Sunday Service offers a glimpse into the ways that five artists evoke their own healing and discovery through various forms of media, storytelling and ritual.

Sunday, April 8, 2018 | 7:00pm | RSVP on fb HERE

In order to rise
From its own ashes
A phoenix
First
Must
Burn.

EARTHSEED: THE BOOKS OF THE LIVING, Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower”

About Sunday Service
Taking place the first Sunday of each month, a guest curator is invited to organize a salon style evening of cross-disciplinary performances and presentations that brings together a multiplicity of views around a singular prompt, such as a question, theme, or formal structure. Sunday Service centers works in progress, interdisciplinary endeavors, and diversity in format showcased in a lo-fi environment to foster the testing of ideas and critical discourse amongst peers.

Sunday Service is programmed by Stephanie Acosta and Alexis Wilkinson, Knockdown Center’s Director of Exhibitions and Live Art. 

 

 

 

Tags Sunday Service, Sunday Service Series, curatorial, Programmer, Performance, Performance Art, Sound Art, Sound
Image credit: Scott Shaw

Image credit: Scott Shaw

Sunday Service with Jess Pretty | 03.04.2018 (Queens, NY)

February 20, 2018

To kick off the spring season of Sunday Service, curator Jess Pretty invites artists to respond to the notion of critical desire and the exploration of radical thriving as a methodology for taking up spaces we claim to reside in. Featuring artists Trinity Dawn Bobo, Taylor Crichton, DJ JCLEF, Amanda Krische, and Evelyn Sanchez

Sunday, March 4th, 2018 | 7:00pm | RSVP on fb HERE

Jess Pretty states, “i’m interested in rigorously interrogating pleasure as a way of living past survival, seeking other worlds and times and spaces for art. other possibilities for our delicate bodies to be present in performance. questioning how are we constantly evaluating the stakes involved in our work-making process. the labor of being unapologetic. i desire work rooted in the fantastic that helps formulate how to queer our own possibilities and modes of migration.”

About Sunday Service
Taking place the first Sunday of each month, a guest curator is invited to organize a salon style evening of cross-disciplinary performances and presentations that brings together a multiplicity of views around a singular prompt, such as a question, theme, or formal structure. Sunday Service centers works in progress, interdisciplinary endeavors, and diversity in format showcased in a lo-fi environment to foster the testing of ideas and critical discourse amongst peers.

Sunday Service is programmed by Stephanie Acosta and Alexis Wilkinson, Knockdown Center’s Director of Exhibitions and Live Art. 

 

Tags Sunday Service, Sunday Service Series, Jess Pretty, Dance, Performance, Performance Art, Knockdown Center
SundayService_Flyer_RayFerreira2_Horizonal-1200x927.jpg

Sunday Service Series is BACK - Season 3

February 14, 2018

This killer line up can't be beat!  We are so thrilled to be back with another season of mad creators brining vibes and modes of engagement together for our performance/discourse series. This work is only made possible by the efforts of my Co-Founder/Programmer Alexis Wilkinson and the gang over at Knockdown Center.  See you SUNDAY!!

Taking place the first Sunday of each month, a guest curator is invited to organize a salon style evening of cross-disciplinary performance and presentations that bring together a mulitiplicy of views around a singular prompt, such as a question, theme, or formal structure.  Sunday Service centers works in progress, interdixciplinary endeavors, and diversity in forma showcase in a lo-fi environment to foster the testing of ideas and critical discourse amongst peers. 

Spring Schedule 2018
March 4 | 7pm: Curator Jess Pretty
April 8 | 7pm: Rena Anakwe 
May 6 | 7pm: Curator Janani Balasubramanian
June 3 | Curator Mariana Valencia 

Tags Sunday Service, Sunday Service Series, Performance Series, Performance, Performance Art

Things coming...

Installation, Performance, Moving Image, Programming, Producer, Engager, Maker.