About Us
The Shalimar is committed to making collaborative new plays that are vital and relevant to a young generation and strives to strengthen the theatrical community by:
• Presenting work that explores cultural phenomenon in America.
• Creating relationships and collaborating with a constantly growing base of diverse artists.
• Keeping our shows and programs affordable to the general public.
• Initiating education programs to engage students in experimental theater making.
• Creating work that tells a dynamic story, draws from the influences of present-day trends, and above all entertains.
Since 2004 The Shalimar has produced new plays, short play festivals, and numerous readings. Their contemporary musical adaptation of Phaedra - LA FEMME EST MORTE or Why I Should Not F!%# My Son - played to sold out houses at the 2006 New York Fringe Festival and won The Stage Award for Best Ensemble at the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Their original play stirring - devised from online personal ads - played all over New York, and at the Smirnoff Underbelly as part of the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Other productions include: A Thousand Words: Short Plays on Photography featuring new plays by seven writers loosely based on Susan Sontag's book On Photography, and You People (Short Plays About Those People) featuring plays and songs dealing with stereotype in America. World premiers include Bad Girls Good Writers by Sibyl Kempson at The Brick’s $ellout Festival, Clarisse and Larimon and The Rich Silk of It by Deb Margolin, tostitos and over-exposed by Michael John Garces, Skirt by Katie Douglas and Les Carabiniers by Kirk Lynn.
Awards, Grants, and Special Mentions
• The Stage Award for Best Ensemble for LA FEMME EST MORTE or Why I Should Not F%!# My Son at the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
• Manhattan Community Arts Fund Grant from The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council for The Immigration Play.
• Swing Space awarded from The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council for The Immigration Play.
• Inaugural space grant from LaGuardia Performing Arts Center for The Immigration Play.
• Space Residency at Snug Harbor Cultural Center on Staten Island for The Immigration Play.
• Two chashama AREA Performing Arts Studio Awards for development of stirring and for our entire 2006 season.
• "Postcards From New York", a five-page fashion/art piece in The Glasgow Herald Style Section, August 2005.
Company Members
Matt Bridges
NEW YORK: Pozzo in Waiting for Godot (Gene Frankel Underground), The man in Les Carabiniers by Kirk Lynn for A Thousand Words: 7 Short Plays on Photography (Interart Annex), Gringley in Bad Girls, Good Writers (The Brick Theater: Sell-Out Festival), Auctioneer in Other Peoples Junk (2006 Samuel French Festival), Peekar in Dog Lovers with MC2 (Gene Frankel Underground, E.A.T.), James in stirring (One Arm Red, NYC Fringe Festival, 59E59), Martin in Weed War (Summer Shorts at Casa) and Sam in For Abigail, Who drowns Men (Youngblood Festival, EST). SCOTLAND: James in stirring (Smirnoff Underbelly at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival). REGIONAL: 2 Tours with The Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Biff in Death of a Salesman (Cider Mill Playhouse), Eddy in Fool For Love, Snapshot in the 26th Humana Festival of New American Plays, and I Am a Cloud in Pants(collaboration with Chicago Neo-Futurists), all at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Matt Received his B.F.A. in Theatre from U.S.M. and was an Apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville.
Shoshona Currier
Shoshona Currier is a New York based theater artist. She is the Artistic Director of The Shalimar. Selected directing credits: Les Carabiniers by Kirk Lynn, off season by Michael John Garcés, Skirt by Katie Douglas, The Rich Silk of It by Deb Margolin, A Stroll in the Air as part of the city-wide Ionesco Festival, Lysistrata at Kings County Shakespeare Company, Jelly Love and Peanut Butter by Saviana Stanescu, Waiting for Godot at the Gene Frankel, FED: or Domestic Claims of Passion and Devouring at the Culture Project, stirring at One Arm Red, The New York International Fringe Festival, 59e59, and the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival where it played to sold-out audiences, and LA FEMME EST MORTE or Why I Should Not F%!# My Son at the New York International Fringe Festival. Shoshona has produced work by Deb Margolin, Adam Rapp, Elizabeth Wong, and Cheryl Davis. She has been fortunate enough to perform with the Living Theatre under the direction of Judith Malina. She has assisted Richard Maxwell on End of Reality (The Kitchen) and Marc Masterson on Limonade Tous Les Jours by Chuck Mee (Humana Fest, ATL). She is also a co-producer of the acclaimed Estrogenius Festival and is an artistic associate with Kings Country Shakespeare Company. She is the previous literary associate at New York Theatre Workshop and co-artistic directors of Black Cat Group’s Political Play Reading Series. She is on the reading committee for the Young Playwrights National Playwriting Competition and has also been an adjudication reader for the Estrogenius Festival and the Van Lier Fellowship. Shoshona is the recipient of the Joan Kersner Memorial Fellowship for Theatre Artists and she is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab.
Kim Gainer
Kim played Phaedra in LA FEMME EST MORTE or Why I Should Not F%#! My Son in the New York International Fringe Festival and was part of the cast of stirring in the New York International Fringe Festival and the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. New York work includes (Gone With) Miss Julie at the Midtown International Fringe Festival, New Day at Theatre for the New City, and Verona Wall with Yolo Theatre Company. She has been seen Off-Broadway in productions such as The Tongues Reading Series at the Cherry Lane Theatre, Before Death Comes for the Archbishop at Women’s Project and Productions, and Indent at New York Theater Workshop. Regional credits include the Play by Plays at Stageworks on the Hudson and From the Mississippi Delta at Stamford Theatre Works (she received a Connecticut Critics’ Circle award for her ensemble work in the production). Kim originated the role of Eurydice in Polaroid Stories (dir. Jon Jory) in its premiere in the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Her one-woman piece, Urban Planning also debuted there. Other regional work includes Miss Julie with the SITI Company, directed by Anne Bogart. Kim is currently developing a one-woman show based on the childhood misadventures of her mother and her mother’s eight siblings. She studied theatre at the University of Michigan.
Jen Taher
Prior to moving to New York she completed an apprenticeship at the prestigious Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL). While at ATL she was cast in the Humana Festival in the SITI Company’s production of Charles Mee’s bobrauschenbergamerica, directed by Anne Bogart. She went on to tour bobrauschenbergamerica with the SITI Company all over the United States and the world. She recently performed at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Theater Biennale in Bonn, Germany and at the Festival International de Bobigny in Paris, France. Recently Jen performed in New York at Manhattan Theatre Source
at their annual Estrogenius Festival. She was in LA FEMME EST MORTE or Why I Should Not F%!# My Son, and stirring at One Arm Red, the New York International Fringe Festival, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival all with The Shalimar. She has appeared in two short films, both directed by Joshua Grennal and distributed by Backlash Productions. Both films were seen at numerous film festivals, including the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and the Chicago Underground Film Festival.
Joey Williamson
Joey began his journey toward The Shalimar in Jacksonville FL, as a harp player studying music at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. After completing his Bachelors of Music at the University of Miami, he went on to an apprenticeship at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where he met his Shalimar cohorts. NYC: LA FEMME EST MORTE or Why I Should Not F%!# My Son, (New York International Fringe Festival); stirring (59E59); off season by Michael John Garcés (West End Theatre) and World Aids Day Concerts of The Secret Garden and Rags. International: stirring (Smirnoff Underbelly, Edinburgh Scotland). Regional: Wit, Amadeus (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Daughter of the Regiment (Kentucky Opera); Gypsy (Stages St. Louis) Damn Yankees, Sweet Charity, H.M.S. Pinafore, Street Scene (Seaside Music Theatre) as well as premieres of Quake, by Melanie Marnich, F.E.T.C.H., Alice Tuan’s installment of Virtual Hypertext Theatre, Mac Wellman’s Description Beggared or The Allegory of WHITENESS, and Heaven and Hell (on Earth): A Divine Comedy (all Humana Festival of New American Plays). Joey also spent a year performing while traveling throughout Europe, Africa, South America, and Antarctica with Paramount Productions. He plans on conquering the other 2 continents before he turns 30. (Which is no time soon, by the way.)
