Talvin Wilks, Nile Harris, Sara Zatz, and Jane Jung.
NEW YORK CITY: Ping Chong and Company has appointed artists Nile Harris and Talvin Wilks to affix managing director Jane Jung and affiliate director Sara Zatz on the inventive management staff as of Feb. 1. The staff will steward the corporate by way of a three-year transition following the latest retirements of founder and inventive director Ping Chong and his longtime skilled companion, government director Bruce Allardice. Under this new collaborative management mannequin, the inventive management staff will work collectively to develop and understand a imaginative and prescient for the way forward for the group that helps a brand new era of interdisciplinary artists.
“I don’t know what exactly the future will bring,” stated Zatz in an announcement, “but I know we will continue to build and foster a holistic organization that is a truly welcoming home for artists—one that creates room for growth, risk, learning, and evolution. Talvin, Nile, Jane, and I will challenge and balance each other while asking, together, what stories need to be told, and imagining how we will make space for those stories in innovative new ways that evoke and honor Ping’s legacy while forging new paths forward. I feel grateful, hopeful, and honored to be part of this group, and to have Bruce and Ping’s blessing as we move, with thought, care, and intention, in new and unknown directions.”
This new mannequin offers two artists who’ve deep connections to the corporate with integral roles to innovate alongside current firm management. Talvin Wilks has been a longtime collaborator of Ping Chong and Company since 1994. Wilks is a playwright, director, and dramaturg primarily based in Minneapolis and New York City. He has served as a co-writer/co-director/dramaturg for Ping Chong and Company’s ongoing Undesirable Elements sequence and 4 productions of Collidescope: Adventures in Pre- and Post-Racial America. In 2022, Wilks directed the world premiere productions of Parks by Harrison David Rivers, Cannabis: A Viper Vaudeville by Baba Israel, Grace Galu, and Soul Unscribed, and the three-play saga The Till Trilogy by Ifa Bayeza. He additionally served as dramaturg for Camille A. Brown’s Broadway Revival of for coloured ladies who’ve thought-about suicide/when the rainbow is enuf and for the world premiere of Dreaming Zenzile by Somi at New York Theatre Workshop/National Black Theatre. Wilks is an Associate Professor within the Theatre Arts and Dance Department, University of Minnesota/Twin Cities and is a 2020 McKnight Theater Artist Fellow and 2022 McKnight Presidential Fellow.
“Ping Chong and Company has been a place for discovery, mentoring, and expanded artistry for me since 1994, when I first worked with Ping on Undesirable Elements: Seattle,” stated Wilks in an announcement. “I have grown and evolved and become a better artist—more visionary and more expansive—because of the opportunities provided by the company. Over a 50-year history, Ping and his many collaborators have built an incredible legacy that I’m excited to advance for future generations.”
Nile Harris was the recipient of a 2022 PCC Creative Fellowship, by way of which he was in residence with the corporate, participating with the PCC archive and creating new work. Harris levels meditated confrontations between performer and viewers that collage varied modes of communication: choreography, reappropriated and scripted textual content, improvisation, spatial design, and clowning. His work has been introduced on the Palais de Tokyo, the Watermill Center, New York Live Arts, Volksbühne Berlin, Prelude Festival, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Otion Front Studio, Grace Exhibition Space, and Movement Research at Judson Church. As a performer, Harris has originated roles in works by Crackhead Barney, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Tina Satter, Robert Wilson, Young Boy Dancing Group, Nia Witherspoon, slowdanger, Lilleth Glimcher, Malcolm-x Betts, and Miles Greenberg. He is at present in rehearsals for the world premiere of Agnes Borinsky’s The Trees.
“When I look back on Ping’s singular 50-year career and Ping Chong and Company’s vast history,” stated Harris in an announcement, “I marvel at the depth of collaboration they have sustained among artists and cultural institutions worldwide. As we all navigate our way out of a treacherous past few years, the company is uniquely positioned to meet the moment by modeling new methods and systems that prioritize interdependence among artists and cultural institutions alike. Collaboration, which has always been a central tenet of this organization’s work, is essential to a sustainable future for the downtown New York creative community.”
Jane Jung and Sara Zatz will retain their present managerial, administrative, and inventive roles, along with taking over new tasks. Christina Bixland will proceed to guide the corporate’s education schemes.
Ping Chong and Company pays public tribute to its outgoing leaders with All Islands Connect Underwater: a Celebration of Ping Chong and Bruce Allardice, hosted by playwright, writer, and efficiency artist Jessica Hagedorn, and taking the type of a celebration punctuated by transient performances, on Wednesday, Jan. 25, from 6 to 9 p.m., at Chelsea Factory.
Founded in 1975, Ping Chong and Company is a New York-based performing arts group composed of multigenerational interdisciplinary artists. PCC goals to heart innovation, collaboration, and group engagement in efficiency whereas amplifying underrepresented voices. The firm has now created over 110 authentic theatre productions, starting from intimate interview-based works to large-scale multidisciplinary tasks that includes puppets, performers, and full sound and projection scores. As of 2020, Ping Chong and Company had an approximate price range of $1 million.
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