MIRROR/FIRE
CURRENT WORK
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ORCHID receipt Service
ABOUT
A true story told by the subconscious. Chronicling two years' worth of dreams-really-dreamt, Orchid Receipt Service follows the relationship of Monte and Davey--two transmasculine people in their late twenties--as they drift into and beyond a breakup. In documenting the playwright's dream-attempts to make a parting real, the play offers a record of the stages and symbols that a psyche moves through as it learns to let go of another.
ATTEND
Directed by Rad Pereira, and produced by Asia Kate Dillon and John Del Gaudio, Orchid Receipt Service will have performances in October 2019 at MITU580. MITU580 is a multi-use arts space in Gowanus, Brooklyn created and operated by Theater Mitu, a permanant collective of artists committed to expanding the definition of theater. The company has retrofitted this former glass recycling facility into 2,400 square feet of flexible space intended to intersect the fields of performance, installation art, new-media, and design. MITU580 is at once a studio space and performance venue to house all of Theater Mitu’s programming, as well as a resource for local artists in and around Brooklyn to host all types of innovative performances and events. This building is a unique gathering place where interdisciplinary arts practice is interrogated, incubated, and produced.
US
About
Curated and directed by Asia Kate Dillon, US puts a magnifying glass to racism in the United States in an attempt to uncover the ideological system that continues to purposefully oppress and separate us from our humanity. US uses original text as well as found text, audio and video footage to drive the #BlackLivesMatter conversation forward.
ATTEND
The next performance of US is currently in development.
ABOUT
MIRROR/FIRe
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change... We need not wait to see what others do.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
MIRROR/FIRE productions was founded by Asia Kate Dillon and Christopher Hirsh in the fall of 2016. Fueled by a passion for connection, this collaborative venture is focused on creating socially relevant, reflective art.
MIRROR/FIRE productions' goal in everything it produces is to support and uplift historically marginalized and historically disenfranchised people. MIRROR/FIRE productions eagerly answers the call to create work that challenges audiences, and performers alike, to be inquisitive and passionate in their pursuit of truth.
Asia Kate Dillon
{ they / them }
Asia Kate Dillon is a performer, writer and director residing in New York City. Asia respectfully acknowledges that the land on which they live and work is the unceded territory of the Lenape people. Asia asks you to join them in acknowledging the Lenape community, their elders both past and present, as well as future generations. This acknowledgment recognizes the Indigenous peoples who have been dispossessed from their homelands and territories, and demonstrates a commitment to the process of working to dismantle the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism.
Playing the role of Taylor, a non-binary gender identifying character in Showtime's Billions, Dillon is the first non-binary gender identifying actor to ever be cast in a major television series. In addition to Billions, they* can be seen playing Brandy Epps in the Netfilx series Orange Is the New Black.
Born and raised in Ithaca, New York, Dillon studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in New York City, graduating from the Studio Program. They then returned to Ithaca to complete the Meisner training program at The Actor's Workshop of Ithaca (Dillon began during their junior year of high school at age sixteen, the youngest student ever admitted to the class). As an active alum, Dillon acted with the theatre company and served as a teaching assistant and stage manager.
In 2007 Dillon took the titular role of Rachel Corrie in My Name is Rachel Corrie. This role required Dillon to memorize over thirty monologues and play over seven alternate characters over the course of the one person show, which received rave reviews calling Dillon "absolutely magnetic."
Dillon returned to New York City and was chosen from nearly one thousand actors to participate in a Workshop at The Flea Theatre in Manhattan of fifty new plays by Tony and Academy award nominated and winning playwrights. This was followed by a featured lead role as Lucifer in The Mysteries. Following, The Mysteries, Dillon traveled to Washington, D.C. to perform in The Tempest at The Shakespeare Theatre Company.
These strong performances led to television roles in Orange Is the New Black, Master of None, Younger, and Billions. Dillon played the role of Albert Cashier in Good Men Wanted at Dixon Place.
Christopher Hirsh
{ he / they }
Christopher Hirsh is an actor, director, writer and physical theatre artist. Christopher grew up in Oregon, arguably this nation’s first racist state, an area purposefully homogenized and deeply entrenched with a passive liberal privilege where there is a great call for change and social education. In March of 2018 he packed his bags and left the east coast to develop MIRROR/FIRE production's new bi-costal presence developing community workshops around race and systemic violence, educating artists on how to bring a social justice mindset to their chosen professions, and envisioning new projects inspired by the history of oppression and cultural violence in the region.
No stranger to regional theater, television and film, Hirsh has worked at Barrington Stage Company, Hartford Stage Company, Two River Theater and Long Wharf Theater as well as at the Great River Shakespeare Festival and the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Hirsh played Fozzie in ‘God of Love’ which won the Academy Award for Best Short Film (live action) in 2011.
As a director, Hirsh received rave reviews for a sold-out run of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ which was performed in a raw warehouse space in Gowanus, Brooklyn in summer 2015. As this Theatre Is Easy review put it, “The marriage of music and theater is no new conception, but this particular manifestation (by Hirsh) makes the idea feel novel, conflating performance mediums to make for a hip and welcoming event. One can only hope the summer lives up to such a lively ringing in.”
Hirsh holds a B.A. in Theater Arts from the University of Oregon and an M.F.A. in Acting from the University of Connecticut.
For up to the minute information on Hirsh please follow him on social media @thisishirsh on Twitter and @christopher_hirsh on Instagram.
Collaborators
Rad Pereira
{ they / them }
Rad Pereira is a proud immigrant from Brazil, based in Lenape land (Brooklyn). Rad is a transdisciplinary artist/ healer/ New World builder/ activist/ educator. Their work has been supported by over 50 cultural institutions around the World including National Black Theatre, The Public Theater, La Mama etc., Shakespeare Theatre in DC, A Blade of Grass, Abrons Arts Center, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, NYTW, Abrons Arts Center, The Bushwick Starr, Target Margin, Ars Nova, New Ohio, Clubbed Thumb, Theatre 167. Rad has spoken at the United Nations, Queens Museum, Working Woman of Color Conference, Dance/NYC symposium, Culture/Shift, Rio de Janeiro Museum and has been featured in Art in America Magazine. Rad is an EmergeNYC fellow with Hemispheric Institute; 2017 NYC Public Artist in Residence; Director of Engagement with You Are Here.
www.RadPlanet.org @______rad___
Amanda Stephen
{ she / her }
Amanda Stephen is an actress, writer and producer originally from Montreal, Canada. As a proud member of SAG-AFTRA & Actors Equity, she has worked on national and regional commercials, industrials, regional and Off-Broadway theatre. Her most recent credit is playing the role of "Alison Abdullah" in the Netflix Original Series, Orange is the New Black. As a producer for "US," Amanda hopes to bring awareness, empathy and action for change towards racial injustice and police brutality within the black community in the U.S.
Miriam Morales
{ she / her }
Miriam Morales is an alumnus of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Fordham University at Lincoln Center. A well trained and experienced theatre and film actor, she is constantly studying and focused on further refining her craft. Some credits include Law & Order: SVU (NBC), Unfaithful: Stories of Betrayal (OWN Network), and indie feature films True Story, To Be King and An Ornament of Faith. She can be seen as Ramon ‘Pidge’ Contreras on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black.
Aden Hakimi
{ he / him }
Aden Hakimi wears a few hats. As a director and editor his roster includes Google, MTV, Logo, TBWA\Chiat\Day, MLB.com, TEDx, Harmonix, Housing Works, and more. As an actor, he has worked with artists like Shirin Neshat, Saheem Ali, Casey Llewllyn, Adam Henry Garcia, and Jess Barbagallo. Aside from on-screen work, he has performed on stage at The Lescher Center for the Arts, Cedar Lake, Dixon Place, and BAX. He is the founder of Silver Crown, a Brooklyn-based production/creative agency.
Che Broadnax
{ he / him }
Che Broadnax is a Brooklyn-based filmmaking multi-tool.
He has been found behind the lens of indie features, in the edit suite for major networks, and in the vocal booth spitting fire. Recently he photographed IFP Films’ sci-fi/horror/comedy WELCOME TO WILLITS, singer/songwriter Aria Jay’s GROWTH, and MTV’s CLIMATE CHANGE CHRISTMAS. His directorial debut CIVIL WARRIORS won Best Narrative Feature at the 2016 Long Beach Indie International Film Festival.
Corinne Donly
{ they / them }
Corinne Donly’s plays include Wood Calls Out to Wood (World Premiere, The Tank; 2017 Weasel Festival, the Public Theater; upcoming publication with 53rd State Press); Orchid Receipt Service (2018 Reading Series, the Bushwick Starr); Because of the Mud (2017 B-Side Fest, the Wild Project); Wild Whore Says: Couldn't Drag Me Away (Brooklyn Arts Exchange); and The Brutes (Toronto Theatre Center). Their work has received developmental support through the Trans Lab (hosted by the Public Theater and WP), New Georges’s Audrey Residency, SPACE on Ryder Farm’s Creative Residency, BAX’s Space Grant, Target Margin’s Lab Series, and the Queerness is Actively Built Residency in Montreal, Quebec. Donly teaches writing to undergraduates at Brooklyn College and play-making to high school students in Canarsie (through the organization Opening Act). They hold an MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College, an MA in Integral Ecology, and a BFA in acting from NYU’S Experimental Theatre Wing.
John Del Gaudio
{ he / him }
John Del Gaudio is the Producing Director and a Reading Series Co-Curator at The Bushwick Starr. As a freelance producer he has worked with an amazing roster of artists including William Burke, Jessica Almasy, Sherrine Azab, Clare Barron, Kate Benson, Lee Sunday Evans, Jake Hooker, Julia Jarcho, Kristine Haruna Lee, Carolyn Mraz, Daaimah Mubashshir, Aya Ogawa, Maggie Robinson Katz, and Sarah Cameron Sunde. Proud company member of Target Margin Theater (Brooklyn) and A Host of People (Detroit).
PRESS
MAY 9, 2018
Asia Kate Dillon on Defining Non-Binary
"Billions" actor Asia Kate Dillon speaks at the inaugural Bloomberg Business of Equality Summit about what identifying as non-binary means and the keys to creating more inclusive and understanding communities. (Source: Bloomberg)