HOTEL NEW WORK
THIS MOTHERLESS EARTH
a new work by Kate Vozella
directed by Colm Summers
An artistic respite, where new works are given space to breathe, grow, and engage with outside eyes at an early stage.
Theaterlab provides a place where artists of various disciplines can unpack their bags, display their ideas, and share the room keys with engaged spectators.
HOTEL NEW WORK provides collaboratively-driven companies in the midst of creating ambitious new work with 40 hours of rehearsal time and one work-in-progress showing with feedback.
Theaterlab is happy to provide room keys Kate Vozella and Colm Summers as they develop This Motherless Earth
This Motherless Earth is set in a small desert town, in a future where women can no longer carry children and parenthood is regulated through state-issued synthetic infants. When an Auditor arrives to observe a couple’s eligibility to receive one of these children, the present fractures with memories of a childhood shaped by a mass illness. The development process will center on the play’s atmospheric weather events—sudden heatwaves, storms, flash flooding, and drastic temperature shifts—using projection and visual design to create recurring environmental motifs that reflect the story’s emotional and political climate.
We invite you to join them in the room to witness and respond to this brand new work.
They’ll share up to 45 mins of what they’ve been working on, followed by an opportunity for you to respond and provide thoughts and insight. Your feedback is welcomed and essential to the next phase of artistic development.
RESIDENCY
Theaterlab is excited to welcome Kate Vozella and Colm Summers to Hotel New Work.
This Motherless Earth will be in residence from Monday, July 6th through Sunday, July 12th.
They will present a 45 minute work-in-progress showing on Sunday, July 12th at 5:00pm, followed by a feedback session.
WORK-IN-PROGRESS SHOWING & FEEDBACK
Sunday, July 12th, 2026 at 5:00pm
Approx. total time : 90 minutes
Those interested in attending the work-in-progress showing and feedback session may RSVP below.
Attendance is FREE.
If you are able to financially support Hotel New Work, or any of our programs supporting NYC’s most daring artists, click here to give a tax-deductible gift of any amount.
MEET THE ARTISTS
KATE VOZELLA (CREATOR)
Kate Vozella (she/her) is an Australian playwright based in New York City. Her work spans theatre, film, and movement, and has been presented at venues including the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, the Seymour Centre in Sydney, and on platforms such as Google Arts & Culture and Marquee TV.
Her play Burning Falling Rising Monster—shortlisted by Platform Presents and adapted into a 2021 short film starring Kyle Soller and Phoebe Fox—was further developed with Arterial Projects in 2023. Her short film MIA, featuring Jason Butler Harner, won Best Original Story at the Cannes World Film Festival. In 2023, her movement film A Series of Incomplete Gestures was exhibited at Wild Geese Gallery in New York.
Most recently, her play This Motherless Earth was shortlisted for the 2024 Australian New Play Award and will be developed at Theaterlab NYC in 2026. Her upcoming play Machine Learning, which explores the tension between performance and intimacy within experimental systems, will premiere in New York City in Fall 2026 with Little Engine Theater.
COLM SUMMERS (DIRECTOR)
Colm Summers (he/him) is a director and writer from Waterford, Ireland, based in New York and Dublin.
Selected credits include: Every Brilliant Thing (Geffen Playhouse, Best Theater of 2023, Theaterly), We Met on a Dance Floor (Abbey Theatre), La Clemenza di Tito (Grand Théatre de Geneve).
Colm was a Resident Director at the Abbey, National Theater of Ireland, and the first ever Director-in-Residence at The Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles.
He is a winner of the Next Generation Award, from the Irish Arts Council. He was a Resident Performing Artist at BRIClab, Brooklyn. He is a Berkeley Rep Ground Floor alum, Dublin Fringe Radical Spirit Award Nominee, Dublin Theatre Festival Next Stage alum, and Pan Pan International Mentorship mentee.
He is the Artistic Director of Working Theater in New York City. His direction of Every Brilliant Thing was featured in Theaterly’s Best of 2023. He is a Tyrone Guthrie Center Resident and Garter Lane, Waterford, Resident in 2024. His short film, We Met on a Dance Floor, by Inua Ellams, was commissioned by and screened at the Abbey, National Theater of Ireland.
He has written two plays, The Messages (supported by BRIClab), and Falls (supported by Fishamble, Irish Arts Council, and Garter Lane).
RACHAEL BALCANOFF (DRAMATURG/ THE AUDITOR)
Rachael Balcanoff is a proud member of AEA. She has performed at Playwright’s Horizons, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Berkshire Theatre Group, CATF, and as a Dolphin for the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Play Fest. Her plays “LookatAllThisS P A C E,” and a collaborative piece “Atomic City” were both performed at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Her play “I D O N ‘ T K N O W W H A T I’ M D O I N G” was an ESPA Drills Finalist. rachaelbalcanoff.com
SOFIE DIVALL (WOMAN)
Sofie Divall is an Australian-American actor caught between NYC and Sydney, AU. She most recently appeared in The Flea @ Sydney’s New Theatre and Murray Hill @ The Flea Theater in Tribeca. Fleas are a recurring theme.
JULIAN GUERRIERI (MAN)
Julian Guerrieri is a Brooklyn-born actor and singer. He recently appeared in the feature film Something You Should Know About Me, which premiered at the 2026 Tribeca Festival.
LIAM BELLMAN-SHARPE (SOUND DESIGNER)
Liam Bellman-Sharpe is a US-based Australian composer, sound designer and engineer, writer, and multi-instrumentalist working in theatre, music, film, dance, installation, and hybrid forms.
Recent theatrical credits include The Smuggler and The Beacon (Irish Repertory Theatre), SUMO! (The Public Theatre), The Matchmaker and Octet (Hudson Valley Shakespeare), Song of Rome (The Spoleto Festival), The Age of Innocence (Arena Stage Company), Babbit (Shakespeare Theatre Company), and Escaped Alone (Yale Repertory Theatre). Recent film credits include the score for Mothers and Lovers(dir. Danica Selem, 2025) and music and lyrics for Parallel (dir. Alexandre Prod’homme), which won first place in the 2024 Sci-Fi London 48 Hour Film Festival.
Liam holds a Master of Fine Arts in Sound Design from the Yale School of Drama, and a Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (University of Melbourne).
COVID-19 policy: In guidance with the city and state COVID-19 policies, we will no longer be requiring masks, but strongly recommend them.