Collaborations

Ongoing Professional

Theater Delta -- Interactive theater for conflict transformation, facilitator, actor in professional Forum Theater ensemble focused on social and health justice education, touring nationally to universities, hospital systems, nonprofit collaborators with 50+ projects in AL, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, MA, MI, NC, ND, NM, NY, PA; research-based, interactive scenes on topics like sexual assault/alcohol, racism and ethnocentrism, sexism and heterosexism, classism and ableism, graduate and professional research ethics, graduate mental health; performed for audiences of 50-750, dir. Dr. Ben Saypol, dir. Lyn Dickinson, M.Ed., 2008-ongoing

Chuck Davis African American Dance Ensemble -- apprentice dancer, dir. Dr. "Baba" Chuck Davis, 2013-ongoing

InterPlay Arts + Social Change -- trainings in Oakland, CA, Washington, DC, Triangle, NC (leader certification, dir. Cynthia Winton Henry, Phil Porter, Soyinka Rahim, Agnotti Cowie, Natalie Abdou, Ginny Going, Tom Henderson, Ade Anifowase, Ken Miller, Massankho Banda), Workshop Facilitator and Co-facilitator in CA, LA, PA, MD, NC in the US, Lilongwe and Salima regions, Malawi; 2014-ongoing

Projects and Debuts

Bureau of Personal Belonging (rotating bureau member), ArtPrize 9 jury-winner, artist, dir. Stacey L. Kirby, a LGBTQ and Civil Rights visual and performance installation at NC General Assembly for Forward Together Moral Movement HB2 sit-in, and others, 2016-ongoing

Studio 6 Performances -- dir. by Joseph Megel, MFA,  "Trojan Barbie" (actor/dancer "Polly X") on women in war, 2015; "A Simple Gift" by T. Cat Ford (actor/dancer "Eva Ann") on Shaker communities and escaping family abuse, 2013-2014; "You are Dead. You are Here." by Dr. Christine Evans (actor "Zaynab"), on PTSD among US veterans and Iraqi civilians, 2011; "Vertigo" adapted by Lucius Robinson (actor/dancer "Madeline/Judy") 2010; "About Time" 15-min short film by E. Corley-Megel, MFA (actor "Lucia") 2008, 2010; "Virtual Performance Factory" (actor/dancer "Zaynab") 2010; Chapel Hill, NC, 2010-ongoing

The Process Series, UNC Chapel Hill Institute for Arts and Humanities, dir. Joseph Megel, "Downrange: Stories from Military Families" by Mike Wiley (ensemble actor) 2016, "Dolly Wilde's Picture Show" by Dr. Rebeca Nesvit (actor "Dolly Wilde") 2014, "Santos y Santos" by Octavio Solis (actor) 2012, "Trojan Barbie" by Christine Evans (actor "Polly X") 2009, "It is In You: Health Justice Performance in Tanzania" (actor/dancer/researcher) 2008; Chapel Hill, NC, 2010-ongoing

Liz Magic Laser's commission "From North Carolina to South Korea," (dancer, co-researcher), live dance performance and film on how our bodies take in global political news media, Carolina Performing Arts Season, 2014

Urban Garden, "Joan of Arc" (actor/dancer "Joan") for First Friday Gallery Commission; and "Death Becomes Her" (actor/dancer), performance installation hosting space for grief, dir. PJ Maske, MFA (with Bruce Benedict, MDiv, Gabe Duggan, MFA); commission for Raleigh Contemporary Art Museum/SparkCon Festival, 2013

"What Every Girl Should Know" with Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern, world premiere by Monica Byrne (actor, dancer "Teresa/of Avila"), piece commissioned on women's health justice, dir. by Lucius Robinson, MFA, (IndyArts Best Production, Best Ensemble Performance of Year), 2012 

Vincent Mantsoe, MFA, "Sundusa/Shift" (quartet dancer), South African Choreographer in residence, Duke Medical and Duke Dance/Theater International Symposium "Across the Threshold: Creativity, Being Healing", 2009

New Live Works with Inversions Modern Dance Co. on gender + psychology, internal displacement after US natural disasters; and with Enloe choreographers Tiffany Rhynard and Jodi Staub Obeid on bystanders' effect and social violence, patients' Alzheimers disease experiences (IndyArts Dance Award), 2001-2008

"Paperdoll Psychology" devised ensemble piece on gendered violence + self-determination, written/dir. by Michael Quattlebaum (Mykki Blanco), PICET: Paint In Consciousness Experimental Theater (IndyArts Production Award), with Youth Voice Raleigh, 2001-2002

Photo Credits:

Chuck Davis African American Dance Ensemble (News & Observer, Andrew Synowiez, fellow dancers/personal); Theater Delta (fellow actors/personal, dir. Dr. Ben Saypol); InterPlay (fellow facilitators); The Lilies Project (Rev. Leslie Bray Brewer, Stokes News, Winston-Salem Journal, personal/community); Various Performance Projects / Debuts (Andrew Synowiez, Alex Maness, Jeremy Lange/IndyWeek, Carolina Performing Arts, fellow actors/dancers)

Film: I’m Not Done

Synopsis: Set to Fever Ray's "I'm Not Done", this film and dance project is a visual translation of ongoing performance research about life-threatening illness. The project stems from curiosity about the ways disease and distress actually shift at the cellular level through instrumental and emotional social support for persons facing illness; in this case, cancer and severe depression are in focus. 

In developmental workshops and a public filming/performance event, persons experiencing life-threatening cancer, depression, and those who care for them--including artists in dance, theater, and visual mediums as well as community members--joined to explore patient advocacy, experimenting at the nexus of invitational performance and cultural and generational memory.

"I'm Not Done" is a collaboration between community participants (patients, family caregivers, healthcare professionals, and artists), It Is In You (PhD candidate Marie Garlock), and Hueism Pictures (Director/DP Andrew Synowiez).

Background: Research is promising about the science behind persons doing better (clinically) as they contribute to and support one another (socially); as they face the unknown with hope for healing; and as patients and families and friends reject the dual monsters of denial (false hope) and false hopelessness. When we challenge the "medicalized" or "corporatized" status quo of cancer response, when we re-frame cultures of memory and collaborative possibility surrounding otherwise isolating experiences with illness and depression, where do we end up instead?

Directors:

Director/DP: Andrew Synowiez
Producer/AD: Marie Garlock
Gaffers: Alex Maness, Maria Brubeck
Editors: Rachel Cotterman, Andrew Synowiez
Art Direction: Mona Xiao, Leah Wilks, Stacey Kirby
Still Photographers: Jon Gardiner, Maria Brubeck, Kim Walker

Dancers: Rachel Ash, Rachel Cotterman, Annie Dwyer, Marie Garlock, Kaitlin Houlditch-Fair, Cornelia Kip Lee, Doris Ann Price, Graciela Seila, Dani Strauss, Dorinda Thomas, Leah Wilks

Participants: Barbara Garlock, Deo Garlock, Thaddeus Allen Edwards, Maria Brubeck, Graciela Seila, Dorinda Thomas (all featured); and Mike Anderson, Yvonne Boston, John Cotterman, Danny Cowan, Renee Alexander Craft, Lisa Decker, Beth Dehghan, Hunter Garlock, Sanyu Gichie, Rev. Stacy Grove, Rev. Gloria Winston Holloway, Dr. Jules Odendahl-James, Carolyn Lane, John Lane, Jenny Maness, Olufunke Moses, Dr. Alphonse Mutima, Cang Nguyen, Pearl Nguyen, Alphonse Nicholson, Paul Salem, Paulina Seila, Rob Stephens, Jesse Wilder, Hope Wilder, Vaji Yegani, Shin-Yiing Yeung, PT (all in circle)

Partners: Duke University Performing Science, UNC-CH Communication, St. Francis UMC, Cancer Centers of North Carolina