(the giant sleeps) Between Two Rivers
it is a dang joy to get to work with dear pals & total clowns on ben holbrook’s newest commission for the motor company. inspired by the 400th anniversary of the dutch settlement of new amsterdam, (the giant sleeps) Between Two Rivers goes up in the battery april 26. it’s a playful, poetic look at the aspirations and inner fire that fuel all who've ever landed on new york's shores.
the play follows three ambitious new netherlanders recently arrived on the island; a waterlogged newcomer washed ashore, searching for purpose and footing; and a gaggle of competing city officials each hungry to see their needs met as they navigate the shifting tides of climate change and "urban renewal." Between Two Rivers explores what it means to make your way in this wild city: how do we find belonging? what nourishes us on our journey? how can we build a truly sustainable future together in this city where dreams are made of?
fake it till ya make it
i wuz super nervous to have booked my first-ever fancy commercial, but i spent the whole shoot feeling shockingly at home, despite being coated in makeup & cheesing in front of 20 complete strangers. turns out commercials are a total blast - you get free rein to just be yourself on camera. feeling so grateful for the most welcoming, easygoing team - and so hyped i got to take the dope wardrobe home with me.
buggin' out
voicin’ an obnoxious little know-it-all iFly with my longtime bestie & favorite collaborator ben holbrook, for a digitally animated short based on his original screenplay, Ben/Bot - makin’ the festival rounds now!
THE LIVE ONES
Oh, ya know, just playing at being an NPC in a crowded public space in downtown Brooklyn on weekend afternoons… What do you do in your free time?
dreamstreet's THE GREAT GATSBY
This crew knocked it outta the park on our adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. This was the first time in a while that the DreamStreet company tackled complex characters, a melodramatic plot, and intense themes like adultery, dreams deferred, abuse, and general debauchery, and the actors poured themselves into the work with total commitment. Performed to two sold-out houses at BRIC!
shakespeare with dreamstreet theatre co.
Caitlin adapted & co-directed Hamlet and a collage of stormy scenes from The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar, and Twelfth Night (as well as 10 Things I Hate About You and Shakespeare in Love) with Arielle Yoder, Brigitte Choura, and the DreamStreet Theatre Company crew. They staged shipwrecks in their bathtubs, made figurative (and literal!) wind with their bodies, and tackled Shakespeare’s epic text with typical DreamStreet charm & aplomb. See recordings of the online performances here.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF RED
Patrick Tombs and I are tip-toeing into a devised theater piece about Otherness & identity inspired by Anne Carson’s epic prose poem Autobiography of Red. The story of a monster who is also a boy, who falls in love with the hero he knows will kill him, who wrestles with his self-image as captured in others’ eyes. All about labels & boxes, inclusion & exclusion, definition & agency & denial & freedom.
A conversation with Patrick about the personal resonances in the piece will be published in the first essay collection from the Night School Bar imprint (edited by Lindsey Andrews).
SEQUIN
Caitlin was honored to AD alongside the geniuses at Best of Both Media for her dear one Averi Israel’s debut short film Sequin last fall. Shot at a city bus stop at night, this short features a small cast that straddles all ends of the age and gender spectrums. And it’s kicking ass in the festival circuit!
baby's first music video!
When fav collaborators Best of Both Media came asking for help to produce a series of spec shoots for their brand-new robotic camera arm (fresh from a car factory floor in Germany), I jumped at the chance to get in the room with these beasts (the camera & the crew!). I roped in custom car & motorcycle builders American Metal Custom, fight choreographers New York Combat for Stage & Screen, and musician pal Paul Babe to collaborate on wild shorts that you’ve gotta see to believe. Not only that, Erin & Ryan trusted me to cast, choreograph, perform in, and direct my first music video with this monster set-up! It was a dream come true, and I cannot freakin’ wait to see how it turned out.
MURMURATIONS
Producing / devising / workshopping Kim Black’s 3-part movement piece, centered on migration, our shifting sense of home, what we carry with us, and what we leave behind.
HORROR IN THE HILLS
Caitlin produced an immersive, theatrical Hell-oween spooktacular for Dante High’s album release party. A co-production of Cat’s Cradle and Shakori Hills, this creepy, kooky, and all together ooky shindig brought together over 80 artists to create unnerving pop-up performances, metaverse alien abductions, tarot readings, baby doll hellscapes, gory murder scenes, and then some. Oh, and a bunch of live music from some of North Carolina’s homegrown greats.
KUDZU
A workshop of Jordan Mann’s brutal new play Kudzu alongside Malika Samuels, under the direction of Katherine Wilkinson, and with fun-as-hell fight choreography by Kaitlyn Farley.
city artist corps
Caitlin kinda freaked out after receiving a $5,000 grant from New York Foundation for the Arts for the video/theater piece This Is a Relic. It was the first time the government has ever given her money to make art.
Check out this article about the City Artist Corps on Broadway World.
creative consulting
Caitlin consulted on rapper/teacher/comedian extraordinaire J Rowdy’s original educational kids’ show for PBS, “Classroom Connection,” putting her teaching experience, mindfulness training, and performance career to good use for her homie & their home state.
baby's first commercial!
A sweet quarantine dance party in the 191st Street tunnel for non-alcoholic drank Nessie, directed by Dash Barber (of Little Women and The Queen).
THE REPARATIONS SHOW
Talkin’ about the dangers of white perfectionism with pal Kimberlee Walker on The Reparations Show (curated by Kevin R. Free & Erez Ziv) in response to the age-old question: “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR US LATELY?”
*start at 1:12:20