Seven Scenes

Bobbi Jene Smith is a director, choreographer and dancer. She has choreographed original work for the Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Danish Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Ballet BC, Los Angeles Dance Project, VAIL Dance Festival, the Batsheva Ensemble, Theater Basel and others. Her dance and theater works have been presented and supported by the American Repertory Theater, PS 122, La Mama, ODC Theater, Stanford Live, Carolina Performing Arts, Kaufman Hall at the 92nd St. Y, Luminato, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Betty Nansen Theater and others. Additionally, she has starred in or choreographed for films including Elvira Lind’s “Bobbi Jene,” Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride!,” Alex Garland’s “Annihilation,” Georgia Parris’ “Mari,” and Boaz Yakin’s “Aviva.” Smith is an alumnus of the Juilliard School, North Carolina School of the Arts and Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. She is a founding member of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC) and a co-founder of The Broken Theater with Or Schraiber. She has been awarded The Harkness Promise Award, The Martha Duffy Resident Artist at Baryshnikov Arts Center and the Wilhelm Foundation Award. Smith has been an Artist in Residence at LA Dance Project and LaMaMa Experimental Theater.

Or Schraiber was born in 1992 in the city of Jerusalem, where he studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. In 2010, Or joined the Batsheva Dance Company, where he danced for seven years. In 2017, Or moved to New York City to study acting at the Stella Adler Studio. In 2018, he co-choreographed and starred in Boaz Yakin’s feature film ‘AVIVA’. In 2019 Or joined ‘The Band’s Visit’ National Tour. Throughout the years, Or has appeared in numerous films, choreographed with his partner, Bobbi Jene Smith, numerous original dance works for some of the world’s finest companies including the Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Ballet BC, Ensemble Batsheva, L.A. Dance Project, to name a few, and directed various award-winning short films and music videos. Or made his off-broadway debut in 2023, choreographing (in collaboration with Bobbi) ‘Danny and the Deep Blue Sea’. Or is a founding member of the American Modern Opera Company.

Ringdown’s music is like calling your first love on a rotary telephone, percussively tearing out the hammers from a 1924 vintage upright, and flinging each of them into space while you wait for every heartache you’ve ever felt to quietly return. Collaborators Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee Parpan—who between the two of them have a Pulitzer Prize, a handful of Grammys, and a “Best Drum Major” Award—describe Ringdown as an electronic cinematic pop duo based in Portland, OR and New York, NY. Others have described Ringdown as the love child of Johannes Brahms and Brandi Carlile—if they were born in the same century and if Brahms was a queer woman. You decide.

Sarina Rivera is a Designer for Theatre and Film in New York.
Credits include Technical Design for My Fair Lady (Broadway, Lincoln Center), M. Butterfly (Broadway, Cort Theatre), Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge (Walt Disney World / Disney Land). Sarina has a background as an IATSE Stagehand and runs Props for Broadway shows including Harry Potter, Moulin Rouge, and &Juliet.

Bio to come.

Barbara Samuels (she/her) is an Obie and Henry Hewes Award winning queer designer, organizer and producer creating design-forward live events that prioritize generosity, equity, and representation. Barbara is thrilled to be returning to Little Island after designing the lighting for The Marriage of Figaro in 2024. Other New York credits include designs at Soho Rep, Signature, Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, National Asian American Theatre Company, Ma-Yi Theater Company, New York Theatre Workshop, Manhattan Class Company (MCC) , Ars Nova, Theater for a New Audience (TFANA), , Playwrights Horizons, , WP Theater, The Bushwick Starr, Monica Bill Barnes & Company, Target Margin, Beth Morrison Projects, New Georges and Clubbed Thumb. Barbara’s designs have been seen regionally at Pig Iron, Bard Summerscape, Woolly Mammoth The Alley, Long Wharf, ACT, Playmakers, Kansas City Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Shakespeare Theater Company, and Trinity Rep. As a proud union member of IATSE, United Scenic Artists 829 Barbara serves as a Member Representative for the Eastern Region Board and Secretary for the Admissions Committee. New Georges Affiliated Artist. 2016 Target Margin Institute. Wingspace Member. WP Producer Lab 2022-24.BA, Fordham; MFA, NYU. www.barbarasamuels.com

Shannon Slaton on Broadway has designed Melissa Etheridge: My Window and The Illusionists as well as being the Associate Designer for The Humans, Blackbird and serval other shows. He has also designed more than fifty national tours including: Shrek, The Producers, Kiss Me Kate, Noise/Funk, The Full Monty, Contact, A Chorus Line, Tap Dogs, Aeros, Sweeney Todd, The Wizard of Oz, The Drowsy Chaperone, and The Wedding Singer. Shows he mixed on Broadway include: Springsteen on Broadway, Cabaret, Annie, and Anything Goes. Man of La Mancha, Bombay Dreams, A Christmas Carol, Sweet Charity, Jersey Boys, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Drowsy Chaperone, Spring Awakening, Fela!, Anything Goes, Annie, Legally Blonde, and Cabaret.

Broadway: King Lear with Glenda Jackson. Off Broadway/Regional: Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp. (NYSF/Public Theater), Grief Camp (Atlantic Theater Company), We Are Your Robots (TFANA), Find Me Here, Deep Blue Sound (Clubbed Thumb), Helen (En Garde Arts), Half-God of Rainfall (ART, NYTW) The Jungle (St.Ann’s Warehouse, STC); Becky Nurse of Salem (LCT); Hamlet & Oresteia (Park Avenue Armory); The Vagrant Trilogy, The Outer Space, The Great Immensity, The Apple Family Plays (NYSF/Public Theater); sandblasted (Vineyard/WP Theater) runboyrun, In Old Age (NYTW) The Courtroom (Waterwell). Many productions with NYU Tisch Graduate Acting. BA: Barnard College.

Bio to come.