PRESS ROOM

October 10, 2024

[LEE, Massachusetts – October 10, 2024] – The Barn at Lee is thrilled to announce Ankita Sharma as the next resident of their fall 2024 residency program. Ankita is a performance artist whose work is invested in world-making where content dictates genre and defies expectations. Their creations unpack systems and symptoms of power through a queer, punk solidarity-based lens, rehearsing freedom in both body and mind. Known for their grungy, confrontational, and cheeky aesthetic—a blend of dance-horror and contemporary dance-theater with South Asian and African diasporic forms—Ankita's work has been showcased at notable venues across the U.S., including the Denver Art Museum, Dixon Place, JACK, and Abrons Arts Center.

During their residency at The Barn, Ankita will be developing a new project. Their time at The Barn will allow them to experiment and push the limits of their art form in a space that prioritizes creative freedom.

The Barn at Lee’s Residency, established in 2021, is a fluid program designed to support artists like Ankita by providing time, space, a stipend, and educational resources. The core of the program is a ten-day residency, currently held twice a year, for emerging theater artists experimenting with disciplines such as dance, stand-up comedy, music, and playwriting. Residents receive all meals, lodging, and uninterrupted time to ideate and experiment without the pressure of producing a specific outcome. The program provides residencies at no cost to the artists, recognizing that young, emerging creators often face significant financial challenges. By replacing lost wages, The Barn enables artists to develop their work without economic limitations. Artists are housed in a two-bedroom cottage on the property, along with their collaborators, and a portion of the residency is open to the public to foster a meaningful exchange between the artists and the community.

Since its inception, The Barn has supported 15 talented residents. Each artist has reaffirmed the value of the uninterrupted days devoted to the creative process.

Spring 2023 resident Gus Laughlin reflected on his experience, saying:
"One of the most rejuvenating, inspiring experiences that I’ve had. [It] reminded me how important, albeit rare, it is to find the time and space to make work I’m actually excited about. I was allowed to fully set the conditions of what I needed in order to create that work and you guys were the first people to offer me that freedom."

Ankita Sharma is a performance artist invested in world-making where content dictates genre and betrays expectation. Their creations unpack systems and symptoms of power from a queer, punk solidarity-based lens that rehearses freedom in body and mind. In aesthetic, their work is grungy, confrontational, and cheeky, a dance-horror, with physicality rooted in contemporary dance-theater and South Asian and African diasporic forms. Ankita's work has been shown at venues across the US, including Denver Art Museum, Dixon Place, JACK, Abrons Arts Center, Ormao, The Basement, The Tank, University Settlement, and LaGuardia Performing Arts. They hold a Bachelor's in Dance and Anthropology, and are a past resident with BASE and GALLIM, MNE ECS Recipient, Performance Project Fellow, Crown Goodman Resident, and LEIMAY Incubator.

Website: ankitacreates.space

IG: @nki.creates

September 5, 2024

Lee — In 2021, a group of young artists founded an educational nonprofit to create programs for emerging artists. The group uses a space in Lee, a barn, to develop its programs and experimental theater art, including a residency program to allow for the development of theater art. Three years after its founding, the organization, known as The Barn at Lee, will be holding its first season at its location on 345 Spring Street. The organization was founded by Misha Brooks, Zach Donovan, Shoshana Levy, and Julianna Azevedo Mitchell.

“This season is the first time we’ve had public programming,” Brooks, who is the Director of Programs for the organization, told The Berkshire Edge. “Our organization has had a big ramping up to get to this point, which includes renovating the barn that we are using as a theater.”

Read the entire article here.

August 21, 2024

The Barn at Lee Announces Season of Performances and Unveils New Theater

[LEE, Massachusetts – August 21, 2024] – The Barn at Lee, an artist development space and residency program nestled in the Berkshires town of Lee, Massachusetts, will unveil its newly renovated theater with an exhilarating lineup of performances set to debut on consecutive weekends, from Friday, September 13th through Saturday, September 28th.

The season, titled New Works, will showcase the organization’s commitment to experimental theater and supporting emerging artists working in the fringes of the medium. Kicking off New Works is a brand new adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone (September 13 & 14, 7:30pm), that reimagines the timeless tragedy as an exploration of “pop-theater” - a dramaturgical movement pioneered by Zach Donovan and Misha Brooks that places live performance within the canon of contemporary mainstream media. This classic will be followed by a soon to be announced piece by multi-disciplinary artist and inaugural Barn at Lee Resident, Nazareth Hassan (September 20 & 21, 7:30pm) whose recent work has explored shame, surveillance, and the limits of traditional theater. The season culminates with My Own Private Final Destination, a captivating one-woman show by Alexandra McVicker (September 27 & 28, 7:30pm), where an actress makes the difficult decision to return to her hometown of Louisville to portray herself in a play she wrote about her own life.

Each production promises to challenge conventions and engage audiences in innovative storytelling. The artists presenting work this fall are exploring dissent – questioning the significance and consequence of obligation to the collective and obligation to the self. Each, in their own way, reflects on the formal tension between alienation and immersion, a longstanding tradition in avant-garde theater.

These performances will mark a milestone for The Barn at Lee, christening the organization’s namesake barn, which just completed a yearlong renovation. The newly accessible space is designed to foster community and provide a physical space for boundary-pushing theatrical works in the Berkshires and beyond.

“The season reflects our mission to nurture emerging artists exploring and defining experimental performance” said Misha Brooks, Director of Programs, “New Works not only showcases incredible multidisciplinary talent, bringing fresh theatrical perspective to Lee, but also emphasizes the importance of providing emerging artists with a space to share their innovative and thought-provoking work.”

More on the artists in New Works:

Nazareth Hassan is an interdisciplinary artist working in writing, performance, music, and image making. Their play Vantablack was selected for Theatretreffen Stuckemarkt 2019, and workshopped at the Royal Court Theatre and Emory University. Recipient of the 2017 Dramatist Guild Young Playwright Award. Their choral text performance Untitled (1-5) was commissioned by The Shed in 2021 and published by 3 Hole Press (2022). Their solo performance Memory A was most recently shown at Museo Universario del Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City (2022). Their play Bowl EP was long listed for the Brentwood Prize. Sound design and composition credits include The Trees (Playwrights Horizons) and A Song of Songs (Bushwick Starr). They have released three singles, available on all platforms. Their first book of poetry and photography, Slow Mania, will be published by Futurepoem (2025). They were the dramaturg at the Royal Court in 2022, and are a 2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow.

Alexandra McVicker is a transgender actress from Louisville, Kentucky, and is currently based in NYC. Prior to her transition, Alex's breakthrough role came in 2017 as a recurring character in the second season of HBO’S Vice Principals, directed by David Gordon Green. She played troubled student Robin Shandrell who becomes Neil Gamby’s (Danny McBride) pet project for the semester. Alex also starred in the 2019 Amazon’s half hour pilot from Mehar Sethi, based on the BAFTA award winning UK series People Just Do Nothing. Independent Spirit award winner Christopher Storer directed the pilot. Alex played Brody, an enthusiastic, drug-addled former pro skater with a terrible memory and great hair. Alex can also be seen in Paramount’s Action Point alongside Johnny Knoxville. Directed by BAFTA award winner Tim Kirby, the comedy follows a daredevil played by Knoxville who designed his own theme park with his friends. She can also be seen starring alongside Emmanuelle Chriqui and Sam Trammell in the independent film Hospitality from Academy award nominee Howard Barish.

Zach Donovan is a performance artist working across several mediums including concert performance, editorial publishing, music production, and personal essay. He leads NY-based performance collective Subtle Pride and their online fashion magazine, Waif. His work has been presented in New York most recently at Joe’s Pub and in print by Howlround Theatre Commons, an online theatre journal run by Emerson College. He is currently developing a solo performance for Alexandra McVicker (HBO’s Vice Principals). He holds a BFA in Drama from NYU.

Misha Brooks is an actor originally from Berkeley, California currently based in Brooklyn, NY. He currently serves as the Director of Programs for theater development company The Barn at Lee. He is a co-founder and member of the performance art group Subtle Pride. Most recently he starred in Players on Paramount Plus, and in Michael Weithorn’s upcoming film Connescence alongside Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick. Misha’s performances can also be seen on Netflix (Social Distance), Apple TV+ (Loot), and Amazon Prime (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel). Misha has a BFA in acting and performance in the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU Tisch School of Arts.

About The Barn at Lee: The Barn at Lee is an educational nonprofit that creates programs for emerging artists to have the time and space to explore creative ideas, educate themselves and others, develop and present new work. Founded in 2021 by Misha Brooks, Zach Donovan, Shoshana Levy, and Julianna Azevedo Mitchell, The Barn at Lee was born out of the overwhelming desire expressed by young artists in our community for space and artistic refuge. The motto: we need artists and artists need space.

September 13 & 14, 7:30pm: A new adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone.
September 20 & 21, 7:30pm: A piece by multi-disciplinary artist and inaugural Barn at Lee Resident, Nazareth Hassan.
September 27 & 28, 7:30pm: My Own Private Final Destination, a one-woman show by Alexandra McVicker.

All seating is General Admission. GA tickets start at $40, with a $95 true cost option for patrons with the means to support a fledgling organization. The Barn at Lee is also offering subsidized tickets for audience members with valid EBT/WIC/CC cards ($20 with valid ID). We are dedicated to making theater accessible and inclusive for everyone. To ensure this, we also offer pay-what-you-can tickets with a suggested donation of $10. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

For more information or questions please email info@thebarnatlee.org.