Sky of Darkness | June 2-12, 2022

Siting Yang (Playwright) is a playwright, director, and aspiring scholar from Beijing, based in NYC. She seeks to explore radical aesthetical expressions of individual discontent, resistance, and digression with factual and historical materials. Her select credits include Ward No. 6 (Schapiro Theater, New York); V.A.B.E.L (Brecht Festival, Berlin and Augsburg), TTD (University of Toronto), and Marat/Sade (TheaterNine, Beijing). She received her BA in German Literature and World History from Peking University, MFA in dramaturgy from Columbia University, and is continuing her studies towards a Ph.D. in German Literature at Harvard University.

Rakesh Palisetty (Director) is a theater, film, and opera director from New Delhi, India. Most recently, he was a Directing Fellow with the Lucille Lortel Award-winning musical Kimberly Akimbo at the Atlantic Theater. His shows have been toured extensively across India. Select credits include Much Ado About Nothing at Two River Theater, Hedda Gabler at Lenfest Center for the Arts, Thirty-Six Questions at Columbia Stages, and Bedtime Plays at The Tank.  He is currently in the MFA in Directing at Columbia University.

Zhe Pan (Co-Producer, Dramaturg) is a bilingual, cross-disciplinary theatre artist. Select dramaturgy credits include Made By God (Irish Rep); Awakening Youth (Shanghai, ET Space); Juggernaut, Thirty-Six Questions, and Hedda Gabler (Columbia Stage); The Box Cutter and In the Woods Where the Man Works ( New York Winterfest, Ensemble). He has also served as a language and culture translator in a variety of Chinese-American theatrical collaborations, including a recent position at Broadway Asia. Zhe is currently a Dramaturgy MFA candidate at Columbia University School of Arts 

Yizhou Zhang (Dramaturg) is a theatre artist and scholar from Manchuria based in Toronto and Beijing. Yizhou’s theatre and research focus on topics of economic, racialized, and gendered displacement, alienation, and exploitation in history and everyday life. Her recent theatre credits Marat/Sade (Beijing, 2018), To Somewhere Higher (Toronto, 2019), War Eagle (Beijng, 2020), TTD (Toronto, 2021), V.A.B.E.L. (Augsburg, 2022), and Benevolence (Toronto, 2022) have explored tensions between the post-socialist present and the history of revolution, art and the division of labor, minoritarian experiences and the surveillance state, and immigrant histories and cosmopolitan imaginations. Currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Toronto, Yizhou came from a background in Classical Studies and Comparative Literature at King’s College London, UK.

HanJie Chow (Performer, Ma Luo) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist. Credits include Boxes (Creating Apart ’21, London), The Last Gasp, Bike America, The Richard Project, Lady Lucy, and Virtual Love in Lockdown (Fentress Films). HanJie is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Collaborates behind-the-scenes in costuming and as a photographer: POTUS (Broadway), KPOP (Ars Nova), Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova), Sing Street (NYTW) hanjiechow.com

Malcolm Opoku (Performer, The Ghost of Chinua Achebe) is a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse School of The Theatre (NY). Recent credits include: Marat/Sade (Lenfest Center for the Arts), As You Like It (Lenfest Center for the Arts), Black Hollow (Alchemical Studios), A Stitch Here Or There (The Playwright’s Loft), and Ruined (Heights Players). 

Diana Fathi (Associate Director, Costume and Scenic design) is a multidisciplinary theater practitioner from Tehran, Iran based in New York City. She has directed Third Person Singular (Columbia University), Ahali-e-Hava (Tehran City Theater), and Foggy Season (Collaboration between Iran and Georgia). Her recent dramaturgical work includes Glimpse (Rattlestick Theater), Hedda Gabler (Columbia University), Twelfth Night directed by Kelly O’Donnell (Columbia University), and Loneliness by Greg T. Nanni (Columbia University). Diana received her MFA (Dramaturgy) from Columbia University, her M.A. (Philosophy of Art) B.A. (Dramatic Literature) from Tehran University of Art.

Sanskar Agarwal (Performer, Pakistani Pilot) is a South-Asian actor and a graduate of the NYU Tisch School for the Arts. Credits: Exit Strategy (Atlantic Theatre), Halal Brothers (Columbia), Jyoti’s Bridge (Columbia), A Thousand Suns (La MaMa).

Devin Ray Ramirez (Co-Producer) is currently attending the MFA in Theatre Management and Producing program at Columbia University. Prior to Columbia, Devin attended UT Austin (2020) where a highlight of his studies included working on the development of new plays as part of the University of Texas New Theatre (UTNT) program. Recent producing credits include Zeit Heist (Columbia), and America, Home, Heart (Columbia).  

Andrew Freeburg (Projection Designer)  is a second-year MFA Directing candidate at Columbia. He directs theatre, film, and installations; he also designed video, scenery, and props for the Dmitry Krymov Laboratory and productions in Europe and the United States. His projection designs were featured in Darling Grenadine (Roundabout Theatre Company), The View, and The Trojan Women (both at Columbia). Recently, Andrew directed Victory over the Sun at the Moscow Historical Museum.

Sophia Shen and Lemon Guo (Sound Designers) are female composers and sound artists who work in the interstices of multiple genres and are active in the United States, Japan, and China. They have been collaborating since 2013. Their debut album 42 Days (2021) has been featured on BBC Radio 3, BBC Sound, NTS Radio, Montez Press Radio, Framework Radio, International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF), Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), Broadway World, Tone Glow, and New York Music Daily, amongst others.

Daniel Cho (Cinematographer) is a director of photography based in New York and is currently pursuing a degree in Film/TV Program as a Dean’s Scholar at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. 

Beatrice Mai (Production Designer, Film), is a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker and art director based in New York City and China. She is currently pursuing a degree in film and television at NYU Tisch School Of The Arts, with a minor in food studies. 

Artwork by Yichan Wang.