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Herstory in the House

  • Immersive Audio
A dead, would-be President seeps into our consciousness in an audio exploration through New York City’s only fully intact 19th-century family home, the Merchant’s House.
  • Donya K. Washington
  • Florencia Lozano
  • Cecil Baldwin
  • Jocelyn Kuritsky
The playtest of this early stage work, Herstory in the House, presented as part of Quills Fest 2022, invites participants into an in-progress installation event. This event entails a journey (a pseudo “walking tour”), beginning on the streets of NYC, wending through The Merchant’s House on East 4th Street in NYC — in conjunction with audio from Season 1 (about Victoria Woodhull) of the podcast series A Simple Herstory (a deviant exploration of the 100-plus women who have run for President of the United States). This in-person immersive experience is created in collaboration with Donya K. Washington (Oregon Shakespeare Festival / A Simple Herstory), Jocelyn Kuritsky (Woodshed Collective / A Simple Herstory), and Cecil Baldwin (Welcome to Night Vale).

This is an open studio visit of an unfinished work. Audiences will be split up into smaller groups, and they will be given headsets with various audio experience options to navigate the preserved 1800s house. Ultimately, the presentation will smash live theatricality together with new media experimentation. Audiences will have the freedom to explore the space with audio of their choosing: empowering curiosity and investigation, stimulating creative exploration within the mind’s eye, ensconced in the only fully intact nineteenth-century family home in New York City.

Presented by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Quills Fest, in partnership with The Tank, The Merchant’s House Museum, The Muse Project, and A Simple Herstory, LLC

based on Original podcast A Simple Herstory by

Victoria Woodhull

created by
Jocelyn Kuritsky

story by
Jonathan A. Goldberg and Jocelyn Kuritsky

written by
Jonathan A. Goldberg

directed by
Donya K. Washington

original music by
David Poe

sound mastering by
Joshua Horvath

starring Florencia Lozano as Victoria Woodhull, and Kara Young as the Host, along with Jacqueline Antaramian, Rebecca Atkinson-Lord, Kate Burton, Erin Cherry, Veanne Cox, Rachel Crowl, Maria Dizzia, Danielle Ferland, Yetta Gottesman, Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Jennifer Ikeda, Jocelyn Kuritsky, Kyra Miller, Zainab Musa, Tonya Pinkins, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Socorro Santiago, Dale Soules, Carmelita Tropicana, Ching Valdes-Aran, and Louise Lasser

executive produced by Jocelyn Kuritsky, Jonathan A. Goldberg, Jenny Turner Hall, Donya K. Washington, and Jane Shaw

Social Media handles

Instagram: @jocelynkuritsky Facebook

Instagram/Twitter: @cecilbaldwiniii Facebook

Instagram/Twitter: @starpeaceac Facebook

Instagram/Twitter: @jennyturnerhall Facebook

Instagram: @jonfeldthejonfeld Facebook

Instagram: @florencia_lozano Facbook

Instagram: @janeshaw6747 Facebook

Instagram: @asimpleherstory Facebook

Instagram: @themuseprojectnyc

Instagram: @merchantshouse Facebook

Instagram/Twitter: @thetanknyc Facebook

Project Images

Artists

Donya K. Washington

Donya K. Washington (she/her): Shutter Sisters by Mansa Ra (The Old Globe); Hometown Boy by Keiko Green (reading at Actor’s Express); You Will Get Sick by Noah Diaz (reading at Seven Devils New Play Foundry), The Way North by Tira Palmquist (readings at Seven Devils and Amphibian Theatre). Atlanta: Downstairs by Theresa Rebeck (Actor’s Express); An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Actor’s Express); Beautiful Blackbird (Alliance Theatre, Theatre for the Very Young); Come Back to Me and Manikato (Shakespeare in Paradise, Bahamas). Spunk (Penobscot Theatre, Bangor, Maine); NYC: Eve’s Song (workshop, The Playwrights Realm); God, Man and Devil (Target Margin Theatre); Pete the Girl (Rising Circle/Culture Project Women’s Center Stage); Little Louise (Fire This Time Festival); Now the Cats with Jeweled Claws (Target Margin Theatre); Jump Jim Crow (Subjective Theater Company); Cold Keener (Target Margin Theatre). 2008/2010 Women’s Project Lab. Van Lier Directing Fellow 2009, Second Stage Theatre. MFA, Directing – Brown University/Trinity Rep; BFA, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. Festival Producer, Oregon Shakespeare Festival; formerly BOLD Associate Producer and Off Site Season Producer, Alliance Theatre.

Florencia Lozano

Florencia Lozano is an actor, writer, and performance artist. Theatre includes: RINSE, REPEAT (@ Signature), DEVIL OF CHOICE (LAByrinth), AND SHE WOULD STAND LIKE THIS (Movement Theatre Co.), WINNERS (EST), RED DOG HOWLS (NYTW), MACBETH, “Lady Macduff” (Shakespeare in the Park), PLACEBO (Playwrights Horizons), PRIVILEGE (Second Stage), LAST EASTER (MCC), WHERE’S MY MONEY? (MTC/LAB), DIRTY STORY (LAB). TV includes: BREATHE (Netflix, upcoming), THE BAKER AND THE BEAUTY, GOSSIP GIRL, BLUE BLOODS, UGLY BETTY, LAW AND ORDER: SVU & CI, THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA, MADAME SECRETARY, KEVIN CAN WAIT, THE BLACKLIST, and ENEMY WITHIN. She played “Claudia Messina” on Netflix’s NARCOS and “Téa Delgado” on ABC’s ONE LIFE TO LIVE. Films include: LIFE AFTER YOU (which she also co-wrote and produced), AMY MAKES THREE, FAR AWAY EYES, THE MINISTERS, PERFECT STRANGER, and VERONIKA DECIDES TO DIE. Florencia is a member of EST and of the LAByrinth Theater Company where she is LAB’s literary manager. Her play underneathmybed was produced at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre and won HOLA’s (Hispanic Organization of Latino Actors) Best New Play Award in 2010. Her play BUSTED was produced by Rising Phoenix at Cino Nights, and her new play PAPILUCHO is currently in development. Florencia got her MFA at NYU’s Graduate Acting Program and her BA at Brown University where she studied Comparative Literature.

Cecil Baldwin

Cecil Baldwin is the narrator of the hit podcast Welcome To Night Vale and co- host of Random Number Generator Horror Podcast No. 9. Film/TV credits include Braden in The Outs (Vimeo), the voice of Tad Strange in Gravity Falls (Disney XD), Narrator for documentary Scream Queen: My Nightmare On Elm Street, The Fool in Lear (Paul Sorvino), and indie film Billie Joe Bob. Cecil has been featured on podcasts such as Ask Me Another (NPR), Selected Shorts (PRI), Shipwreck, Big Data and Our Fair City. He is an alumnus of the New York Neo-Futurists, performing in their late-night show Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind, as well as Drama Desk-nominated The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill Vol. 2. Cecil has performed at The Shakespeare Theatre DC, Studio Theatre (including the world premier production of Neil Labute’s Autobahn), The Kennedy Center, The National Players, LaMaMa E.T.C., Emerging Artists Theatre, and at the Upright Citizens Brigade. In 2017, Cecil was awarded a grant by the United States Embassy and Consulate in Portugal to raise awareness on HIV/LGBT issues and lead workshops on autobiographical storytelling in the digital age (including #ItGetsBetterPortugal, Casa Sol HIV+ children’s home and the FEST Film Festival). He recently directed the play As Sylvia for the NY Frigid/Queerly Festival.

Jocelyn Kuritsky

Jocelyn Kuritsky is an actor, creator/producer/director, and designer. She is a three-time Princess Grace Award nominated performer, and a founder and the actor-in-residence of the Drama Desk Award nominated & Lucille Lortel Award winning immersive theater company, Woodshed Collective (Broadway’s KPOP). Jocelyn is also the creator of The Muse Project, dedicated to centering and spotlighting women theater actors. Her podcast series, A Simple Herstory, is produced with Muse, and stars a bevy of renowned stage and screen stars. In 2022, the team for A Simple Herstory was honored as The Tank’s Artists of the Year. Onstage, Jocelyn mostly works on new plays and new theatrical forms; and, as a performer, she is a favorite among New York’s downtown theater stalwarts. Papermag calls her an “outstanding actor.” Onscreen, her recent appearances include The Blacklist and Nana Mensah’s Queen of Glory. Her voice work resides in audio fiction, and she will next be heard in a new series for Audible. www.jocelynkuritsky.com.

Partners

The Muse Project
The Tank