Presented at Theaterlab as a part of Prelude 2023
What a World! What a World!
By Eric Marlin
Directed by Ilana Khanin
Performers: Nia Farrell and Annie Hoeg
Dramaturg: Luke Daniel White
Stage Manager: Hannah Applebaum
Two actors work their way through an old melodrama. It’s not going very well. They can’t figure out what works and what doesn’t. They burrow further and further in. They recreate and destroy. They rehearse again. A new work emerges from the old. But is it any better?
Performance Date:
October 21 @ 3PM
This is a FREE Event, No RSVP Required
Meet the Artists:
Eric Marlin (he/him/his) has been produced and developed by the Public Theater, Theatertreffen Stückemarkt, Ars Nova’s ANT Fest, the Civilians, Dutch Kills Theater Company, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, The Tank, Dixon Place, Samuel French, HOT! Festival, Exquisite Corpse Company, and PTP/NYC. Winner of the Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival. Finalist for SPACE at Ryder Farm, the Jewish Plays Project, FMM Fellowship for Works in Heightened Language, and two-time finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Former member of the Civilians’ R&D Group and resident artist at Montclair’s New Works Initiative. He has worked as a producer and stage manager for the Bushwick Starr, New Georges, WP Theater, Red Bull Theatre, CTown, PTP/NYC, Public Theater, New Ohio Ice Factory Festival, and PRELUDE. MFA: Iowa Playwrights Workshop. BA: Bennington College.
Ilana Khanin (she/her) is a theatre director based between New York and Toronto. Her work has been developed and presented at Ars Nova ANT Fest, HERE, New Ohio’s Ice Factory, Governors Island, Joust Theater Co, The Tank, The Brick, Primary Stages, Theaterlab, Judson, Dixon Place, Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival, Atlantic Stage 2, Center at West Park. She has worked for Lila Neugebauer, Lee Sunday Evans, Annie-B Parson, Meghan Finn and Daniel Fish, at venues including BAM, Old Vic, Deutsches Theater, LaMaMa, Bushwick Starr, and Clubbed Thumb. Upcoming residency at Baryshnikov Arts, supported by theCanada Council. Former Artist-in-Residence at Montclair State University/ New Works Initiative. BFA and MA: NYU; PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, researching intersection of art and crypto technologies, with the support of the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. ilanakhanin.com
Nia Farrell (she/they) is a writer, performer, and Mundane Afrofuturist. On stage and screen, they specialize in ritual-based work that celebrates the dreams of Blk communities and offers paths to actualizing those dreams. Since graduating from NYU (Tisch Drama; ETW), she’s collaborated with and/or presented work at National Black Theatre (“Beauty in the Abyss”), Soho Rep (“A Map to Nowhere things are”), Ars Nova (“Dreams in Blk Major;” “What A World! What A World!”), Theater Mitu, Second Stage Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival, PlayCo, New Ohio Theatre, and more. They also make work alongside Talia Paulette Oliveras as “Ta-Nia” (a theatre-making duo dedicated to creating unapologetically Blk spaces of liberation) and Nine Muses Entertainment (founded by Bryce Dallas Howard) as the Director of Development & Production. Learn more at niafarrell.com
Annie Hoeg is a theater maker living in Brooklyn. Select performance credits include: Marta Nesspek Presents… (23.5°Tilt); three sisters i never had (Healthy Oyster Collective); We Need Your Listening (Ice Factory); Hartwell: Church of God…and I Was Unbecoming Then (ANT Fest); Slow Field (Theaterlab); Ancient Greek Corn (HERE); Science Park; and TheLoon (Abrons/JACK). Film: Ranch Water and K2tog. Wardrobe credits include Atlantic Theater Company, Papermill Playhouse, Playwrights Horizons, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, The Public, Clubbed Thumb, Classic Stage Company and The Transport Group. BFA: NYU
Luke Daniel White is a Brooklyn-based dramaturg with a focus on new work development. He has collaborated on various productions, readings, and workshops seen at Ars Nova, Dutch Kills Theater Company, The Tank, South Coast Repertory, Cleveland Play House, and the FSU/Asolo Rep Conservatory. A reader for Playwrights Realm, New Harmony Project, Jewish Plays Project, and Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Recent M.F.A. graduate in Dramaturgy from the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop. He proudly co-facilitates a monthly virtual playwrights workshop for his fellow recent graduates, cheekily named the Iowa River Rejects. lukedanielwhite.com for more.
Hannah Applebaum (she/her) is a NYC-based writer and actor. She graduated from Bard College where she completed her BA in Creative Writing in 2021 and her Master of Arts in Teaching English/Literature in 2022. She has interned for the Wooster Group and Big Dance Theater.
Funding has been made possible by The Puffin Foundation, Ltd.
COVID-19 policy: In guidance with the city and state COVID-19 policies, we will no longer be requiring masks, but strongly recommend them.