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Arts On Site is a women-run nonprofit arts organization dedicated to providing artists with opportunities to create and perform new works. With a performance space in the East Village and a residency center in upstate NY, AOS is able to provide artists with an expanse of opportunities for artistic development. www.artsonsite.org

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Arts On Site presents:

BALLADS FROM A DISTANT STAR

BY C.S.E COONEY 

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PROGRAM

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Artist: C. S. E. Cooney and Friends

Performers: Amanda Baker, C. S. E. Cooney, Carlos Hernandez, Carla Kissane, Tim Rodriguez

Book by:  C. S. E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez

Lyrics by: C. S. E. Cooney, Amal El-Mohtar, Carlos Hernandez, and Caitlyn Paxson

Melodies by: C. S. E. Cooney, Jeremy Cooney, Amal El-Mohtar, Carlos Hernandez, and Caitlyn Paxson

Harmonies by: Dr. Mary Crowell and performers

Costumes: Ensemble-devised

Director: Ensemble-devised

Choreographer: Miriam Grill

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BIOGRAPHIES 

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Dr. Mary C. Crowell (harmonies composer). Mary Crowell (she/her) is a geeky musician/songwriter/teacher from north Alabama. Her doctorate is in music composition, and she teaches music theory, composition, music appreciation, and piano and sometimes yoga. Mary writes songs about gaming, coffee, beagles, mythology, and zombies. Check her out on Patreon (Drmaryccrowell) and her website: http://marycrowell.com or follow on Twitter @DrMaryCCrowell. Mary has made a new gaming album—I Have missed You at My Table! 

 

Amal El-Mohtar (songwriter). Amal El-Mohtar writes fiction, poetry, and criticism. She is the science fiction and fantasy columnist for the New York Times Book Review and the co-author, with Max Gladstone, of This Is How You Lose the Time War, which has received several honours including the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Aurora Awards and been translated into over ten languages. She lives in Ottawa. You can find more of her work at amalelmohtar.com.

 

Caitlyn Paxson (songwriter). Caitlyn Paxson is a writer, performer, and storyteller. She reviews books for NPR and lives on Prince Edward Island, where she keeps a witch’s garden, works in a haunted museum, and moonlights as a fake spirit medium. Find out more at caitlynpaxson.com.

 

Carlos Hernandez (book, songwriter). Carlos Hernandez is the author of The Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria, Sal and Gabi Break the Universe (for which he won the Pura Belpré award), Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe, several Marvel comics, and numerous short stories, poems, and other speculative works. By day, Carlos is a professor of English at the City University of New York, with appointments at BMCC and the Graduate Center. He is both a game enthusiast and designer, most recently of Negocios Infernales a devilishly ghoulish roleplaying game he co-created with his wife, C. S. E. Cooney. This is Carlos’s second appearance on a New York City stage: the first was in 2019 as Sphinxy the Game Show Host, in Rick Riordan Presents “The Making of a Myth” at Symphony Space.

 

Amanda Baker (performer). Amanda Baker is delighted to find herself back onstage and in such great company. Favorite past roles include Elmire in Tartuffe and Lydia in The Rivals (Centenary Stage, NJ); Petra in A Little Night Music (Barnstormers, NH); Joanne in Company and Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers (Mt Washington Valley Rep, NH). Amanda earned her BA at Middlebury College and coached with Bill Zeffiro, Tina Marie Casamento, and Jeff Buchsbaum. She’s sung in cabarets, concerts and pickup bands and recorded tributes to Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald and other jazz greats. An avid contra-dancer and clumsy home cook, she swears like a well-read sailor and owns too many dresses and just enough knives.

 

Carla Kissane (performer). Carla Kissane is an Australian-born, Brooklyn-based actor, singer, and audiobook narrator. Whether cozy mystery or thrilling romance, she delights in the power of utterance, and is a lover of stories that weave a tapestry of intricate threads. A creator and solo performer of Shakespearean cabaret, you can also view her work at shakespeareancabaret.com. Her recent work in NYC includes ‘The Tiniest Thing’ and ‘Stranded’ for the Australian Theatre Festival, solo show ‘Unbecoming’ and ‘Whores & Weeping Women’ and the title role in ‘Medea’, directed by Miriam Grill. Notable Australian productions include Sondheim's ‘Saturday Night’ (Australian Premiere), six shows with the Australian Shakespeare Company, and ‘Motherhood The Musical’ (National Tour). https://www.carlakissane.com

 

Miriam Grill (choreographer). Miriam Grill is a director/ choreographer based in Brooklyn. She specializes in historical social dance, particularly Swing and Blues. She has choreographed for Classical Theatre of Harlem, Rutgers University, Corkscrew Festival (NY) and Yerba Buena Arts Center in San Francisco. Miriam is a seasoned dancer who has taught and competed in Swing, Blues and Charleston all along the East and West Coast as well as toured Asia. She loves bringing stories to life in vibrant physical forms and is very excited to be part of this amazing team!

 

C. S. E. Cooney (devisor-creator, songwriter, performer). C. S. E. Cooney  (she/her) is a writer, singer, poet, and audiobook narrator. Her books include Saint Death’s Daughter, Dark Breakers, The Twice-Drowned Saint, Desdemona and the Deep, and the World Fantasy Award-winning Bone Swans: Stories. In her guise as a voice actor, Cooney has narrated over 120 audiobooks, as well as short fiction for podcasts such as Uncanny Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Podcastle. As the singer/songwriter Brimstone Rhine, she crowdfunded for two EPs: Alecto! Alecto! and The Headless Bride, and produced one album, Corbeau Blanc, Corbeau Noir. Her plays have been performed in several countries, and her short fiction and poetry can be found in many speculative fiction magazines and anthologies. Forthcoming soon from Outland Entertainment is a table-top roleplaying game co-designed by Cooney and her husband Carlos Hernandez called Negocios Infernales.

 

Tim Rodriguez (guitarist, performer). Tim Rodriguez (he/him) is an award-winning game designer, who is as geeky and queer as he is tall, and solidly identifies as Sailor Jupiter. He is Head of Games and UX at BOOM Integrated, where he oversees the design and development of interactive audio games, fiction podcasts, and also wrangles business operations. Along the way, he’s worked in agribusiness consulting, IT leadership, and with tech startups. He holds a B.S. in Enology and Viticulture from Cornell University, a professional certificate in Industrial and Product Design from NYU, and an MBA from Zicklin School of Business. Tim is also an avid musician, cyclist, and wing tsun kung fu student. He lives in Brooklyn with a spouse, a cat, and a roommate. Learn more at https://timrodriguez.work/

 

Jeremy Cooney (composer). Jeremy Cooney lives in Arizona with his amazingly talented wife, Rhiannon, where they are both Dungeon Masters and players in many TTRPGs. By day, Jeremy works at digitizing old film reels from around the country. By night, he has been a bard for the Society for Creative Anachronism, a session musician for the albums Corbeau Blanc/Corbeau Noir and Headless Bride by Brimstone Rhine, and writes pirate shanties and love songs. Inara, his sassy Siberian husky, keeps him on his toes.

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A special thank you to our tech crew for running lights and sound for tonight's show!