Annalisa Dias, Lanxing Fu, Lauren Miller, and Jesse Cameron Alick. (Photo by Maria Baranova)
NEW YORK CITY: The board of directors of HERE, a longtime leader in commissioning, producing, and presenting hybrid performances, has announced the appointment of Jesse Cameron Alick, Annalisa Dias, Lanxing Fu, and Lauren Miller as co-directors of the institution, succeeding founding artistic director Kristin Marting, who steps down this month. The co-directors will collaboratively take on the artistic and executive leadership of the organization, overseeing the various functions of the organization and bringing each of their individual passions, skills, and artistry to nurture the vision of HERE as a whole.
In many ways, the new leadership model isn’t so new but echoes the organization’s founding more than 30 years ago, when Marting joined fellow artists Barbara Busackino, Tim Maner, and Randy Rollison to co-found the space as a creative home for boundary-pushing hybrid artists. The new multi-director leadership model was first announced in February, when Amanda Szeglowski was initially named as the first of three planned co-directors; Szeglowski reportedly departed last month to pursue other opportunities.
Commented HERE’s board chair, Jennifer Suh Whitfield, in a statement, “The dynamic appointment of Jesse, Annalisa, Lanxing, and Lauren as co-directors is the result of a deliberate succession process propelled by HERE’s progressive values. In consultation with Creative Evolutions, this invaluable, year-long undertaking was carried out by HERE’s community of incoming and outgoing leadership, board, staff, artists and partners. Members of the board and I are thrilled to have found four individuals with diverse perspectives and experiences who will propel HERE into its next 30 years and beyond.”
Alick is a dramaturg, producer, poet, playwright, essayist, artistic researcher, and science fiction expert who’s been working in theatre for more than 20 years, starting out as artistic director and producer at Subjective Theater Company, then as the Public Theater’s company dramaturg and most recently as associate artistic director at Vineyard Theater.
Dias is a Goan American transdisciplinary artist, community organizer, and award-winning theatremaker working at the intersection of racial justice and care for the earth. She is a co-founder of Groundwater Arts and recently was director of artistic partnerships and innovation at Baltimore Center Stage (BCS). Prior to joining BCS, Annalisa was acting creative producer and a producing playwright with The Welders, a DC playwrights collective, and a co-founder of the DC Coalition for Theatre & Social Justice.
Fu is a Chinese American multidisciplinary theatre artist rooted in social practice. She is a writer, producer, performer, and educator, and co-director of Superhero Clubhouse, an interdisciplinary collective creating theater for climate justice. Her artistic work has been seen throughout NYC in hotel rooms, parks, townhouses, and spaces such as the Public Theater, LaMaMa ETC, Brick Theater, LaGuardia PAC, and Baryshnikov Arts Center.
And Miller is a theatre director, producer, arts advocate, community organizer, and fundraiser who brings to HERE more than a decade of experience in cultural advancement for the Bushwick Starr, the Irish Repertory Theatre, and TACT/The Actors Company Theatre, as well as her passion for contemporary performance-based work.
HERE is a producer, presenter, and venue for local and global ground-breaking artists. As of 2022, its budget was around $3.7 million.
