By Jackie Rivera, The Project [theatre]

To the naked-eye it may appear that we’ve been a bit dormant for the past couple of months, but amidst our Rip Van Winkling has surfaced a plethora of changes. And as a company insistent on committing to the evolution of theater and community should have realized our own personal potential for evolution within.

HERE WE GO:

to quote Goldie Hawn in the cinematic masterpiece, The First Wives Club “It’s the 90’s, Bill. DOWNSIZE!” It is clearly not the 90s…but downsize we have. Former Managing Director, Ashley Olberding, will be stepping down from her post to pursue her own personal artistic evolution which we hope does not keep her too far away from us, as she is still a founding member, valued collaborator, and noted BFF.

And then there were three…Jackie and Elayne are holding steady in their artistic evolutions as well, still in residing in NYC, one could argue America’s Theater Headquarters…Jackie has been pursuing a Director’s turn and was honored and educated by the Stage Director and Choreographer’s Foundation when invited to their Symposium on directing Musicals. It was an all day event in which a roomful of 65 directors and choreographers of varying professional levels had the chance to listen in on exclusive interviews with the industries leading professional producers, directors, and choreographers.

Similarly, Elayne is riding that cutting edge of theatrical technology when she attended a workshop on the advancements of LED lighting equipment. She’s also hard at work teaching herself the art and intricacies of web animation to take our website and online profile to the next level and supply our current and future fans with the surprises and the “that’s so cool”s The Project is associated with and aspiring to bring to the miami community and beyond.

…and the cherry on this evolutionary cake is our Executive Artistic Director, David Hemphill, will be relocating back to Miami from Los Angeles once his potentially TWICE extended show at The Blank Theater closes at the end of June. Our fearless leader is coming home. After all, it’s heinously unfair to keep you all hanging on for months between our big shows…so in this regard we have started a collaboration with Miami Theater Center’s Stephen Kaiser on a Gallery experience that asks the age old question “what is art? and who says?” This project is especially exciting for a myriad of reasons, a few being…yay, a new piece! and the opportunity to collaborate with other Knight Arts backed and local Miami artists AND to smuggle ourselves into the epic visual art scene here in Miami. Get ready Wynwood…you’re about to be Project-ed!