Loading Events

About this Event

Commissioned by the 2026 Whitney Biennial 

Conceived By: Julio Torres & Martine Gutierrez 

Written and Directer By: Julio Torres

In this world premiere by Julio Torres and Martine Gutierrez, audiences are invited under the sea. Martine stars as Marina, a New York City seawench on a journey of romance and self-discovery. Along with production design by Griffin Stoddard, score by Lia Ouyand Rusli, and choreography by Ryan McNamara, Torres and Gutierrez’s comic collaboration blends their surreal humor and sublime artistry into something altogether unique. 

Run time: 60 minutes

The Cast

Martine Gutierrez

Conceiver/Marina

River L. Ramirez

Mound

Spike Einbinder

Detective

Scully James

Nano

Brandon Flynn

Dino/Jared/Construction Worker

Brandon Washington

Tide 1

Evan Fisk

Tide 2

Tim Bendernagel

Tide 3

Creative Credits

Julio Torres

Conceiver, Writer, and Director

Julio Torres is an award-winning Brooklyn-based writer, director, and comedian from El Salvador. His work on Saturday Night Live earned four Emmy® nominations and received wide acclaim. His first solo hour, My Favorite Shapes by Julio Torres, received rave reviews and was released as an HBO comedy special in 2019. Torres co-created and starred in HBO’s Peabody Award–winning series Los Espookys alongside Fred Armisen and Ana Fabrega, and created, wrote, directed, and starred in HBO’s Fantasmas. Most recently, his one-man show Color Theories was filmed during its sold-out Off-Broadway run and will be released as an HBO comedy special this spring. Torres made his feature directorial debut with A24’s Problemista, which he wrote and starred in alongside Tilda Swinton. His first book, I Want to Be a Vase, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2023.

Martine Gutierrez

Conceiver/Marina

Martine Gutierrez is an artist and muse.

Ryan McNamara

Choreographer
Default Headshot

Bio to come.

Lia Ouyand Rusli 

Composer
Default Headshot

Bio to come.

Griffin Stoddard 

Production Designer
Default Headshot

Bio to come.

Erik Bergrin

Costume Designer

Erik Bergrin is an interdisciplinary artist and textile specialist working across sculpture, fiber, costume, film, and material-based research. This work has been featured in galleries and museums such as Marlborough Contemporary, (NYC) Sotheby’s Gallery and auction,(NYC) The State Historical Museum (Moscow), The Morris Museum (NJ), The Jacques Marchais Museum (NYC), The Bakrushian Museum (Moscow), The Society of Arts and Crafts (Boston), Shelter Gallery (NYC), Fierman Gallery (NYC), and more.
His art videos have been featured on the big screens in Times Sq, NYShorts Film Festival (NYC), Bergen Kunsthall (Norway), A Shaded View on Fashion Film Festival, Billboards in Rio as part of ArtRio, USITT Prague Biannual, Here Arts Center, and won the best in film award at FashionClash Festival in the Netherlands.
He has designed costumes for shows and movies such as, “A Wounded Fawn,” on Shudder, “Namaka,”, “A Life to Come,” and has designed costumes for John Cameron Mitchell’s,”Origin of Love tour, Queen Bitch JCM does Bowie, and Cassette Roullette, as well as “Goodbar,” at the Public Theater and more . He has also worked as a costume textile artist on film and tv productions such as Black Adam, American Horror Story, A Quiet Place 3, Goosebumps, The Equalizer, Finch, Boardwalk Empire, Your Friends and Neighbors, The 4 Seasons, and many more. Alongside his artistic practice, Erik runs Spirit Body, an independent clothing line. His creations have been in publications such as Dazed and Confused, Laboratory Arts Collective, NYTimes, ODDA, Iris Covet Book, L’Official, Schon, Dust, NY Mag, King Kong, and more. His artwork can be seen at www.ErikBergrin.com

Yuki Nakase Link

Lighting Designer

Yuki Nakase Link is an accomplished lighting designer for the performing arts, with a career spanning opera, theater, dance, art, and fashion. Over the past two decades, she has focused on innovative lighting design in collaboration with notable directors such as Matthew Ozawa, Yuval Sharon, Zack Winokur, Raja Feather Kelly, R.B. Schlather, and Mary Birnbaum. She has and continues to design lighting for notable companies, including: Pittsburgh Opera, San Francisco Opera, Detroit Opera, Canadian Opera Company, New World Symphony, Opera Philadelphia, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Baruch Performing Arts Center / Prototype Festival, Atlantic Theater Company, Steppenwolf Theater, and Alley Theatre. For more information about Yuki’s designs, please visit: https://yukinlink.com/.

Christopher Darbassie

Sound Designer

Off-Boadway (select): The Antiquities, Amusements (Playwrights Horizons),The Counter (Roundabout), Caroline, Table 17 (MCC), Six Characters (LCT3), Grangeville, A Bright New Boise, A Case For The Existence Of God (Signature NYC), The Apiary, Camp Siegfried, Patience (2ST), I’m Almost There (BAM) /(Audible @ Minetta Lane/Francesca Moody Productions @ Edinburgh Fringe), This Beautiful Future (Cherry Lane), the UNCLE VANYA in a loft, Heaux Church, PS, Heaux Church (Ars Nova), Black Exhibition, Demons (Bushwick Starr), Color Theories (PS NY), and work at Petzel Gallery, Indiana Rep, The Goodman Theater, The Alliance Theater, Philadelphia Theater Company, Indiana Repertory Theater, Playmakers Rep, The Brooklyn Museum, The Studio Museum and more.

André Azevedo Sweet

Video Designer

André Azevedo Sweet (video & projection designer) is a designer and technologist based in Brooklyn & the Catskills, who blends art with engineering to create immersive visual experiences. With a background in projection design, A/V engineering, and programming, Andre has created experiences for projects like Succession, Past Lives, MIX Festival, Problemista, Color Theories and numerous more. Building everything from large-scale media installations to detailed motion graphics and video systems for film, TV, theater, museums and galleries and live events.

Nina Carelli

Make Up Designer

Nina Carelli is a New York City based makeup and SFX artist, specializing in beauty and transformative custom prosthetics. With a focus in story telling, she creates characters between the entertainment, fashion, and art industries.

Lindsay Jones

Production Stage Manager

LINDSAY JONES (Production Stage Manager) is a New York–based stage manager. She previously stage-managed Julio Torres’ Color Theories (PSNY) Kate Berlant’s eponymous one-woman show, KATE, in New York and London (The Connelly Theater; Soho Theatre) and produced its Pasadena Playhouse run in Los Angeles. Other credits include Fiddler on the Roof (Stage 42), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Manhattan Concert Productions, Lincoln Center), and Is Anyone Alive Out There? (Audible Original, Minetta Lane). Lindsay also works as a commercial producer, with credits including spots for The Last of Us, LinkBuds S x Olivia Rodrigo, and the Sony podcast Creator to Creator.

Anna Lieberman

Assistant Stage Manager

After many years of working in television, most notably working on The Kelly Clarkson Show and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Anna is thrilled to come back to what brought her to NYC in the first place! She is honored to be the Assistant Stage Manager to such an incredible cast and crew. She wouldn’t be the woman she is today without the love poured into her from her family and her girls! Look, Mom, I’m using my degree!

Seth Mazlin

Assistant Scenic Designer and Props

Seth Mazlin is a Brooklyn based scenic and props designer for theatre. Recent work includes healing from a herniated disc and scenic painting for KENREX at the Lucille Lortel. Upcoming work includes… something. Hire me.

Caroline Englander

Venue Coordinator

Broadway: King Lear with Glenda Jackson. Off Broadway/Regional: Hamlet (National Theater London at BAM); The Seat of Our Pants, Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp, The Vagrant Trilogy, The Outer Space, The Great Immensity, The Apple Family Plays (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); runboyrun, In Old Age (NYTW); The Courtroom (Waterwell). BA: Barnard College.

The 2026 Whitney Biennial

Whitney Biennial 2026 is the 82nd edition of the Museum’s landmark exhibition series and the longest-running survey of American art. Featuring 56 artists, duos, and collectives across most of the Museum’s galleries, the Biennial is accompanied by a robust schedule of performance and public programs at the Museum and online. Co-organized by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, the exhibition brings together artists working across media and disciplines, reflecting evolving notions of American art.

Whitney Biennial 2026 offers a vivid, atmospheric survey shaped by a moment of profound complexity. The work on view examines varied forms of relationality, from interspecies and familial kinships to geopolitical entanglements, technological affinities, shared mythologies, and the infrastructures that support and constrain contemporary life. Rather than offering a definitive answer to life today, the exhibition foregrounds mood and texture, inviting visitors into environments that evoke tension, tenderness, humor, and unease, while proposing imaginative, unruly, and unexpected forms of coexistence.

Whitney Biennial 2026 is organized by Marcela Guerrero, DeMartini Family Curator, and Drew Sawyer, Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography, with Beatriz Cifuentes, Biennial Curatorial Assistant, and Carina Martinez, Rubio Butterfield Family Fellow.

After The Show

After MARINA, stay for a nightcap. Cocktails, local wines, beer, non-alcoholic drinks, and snacks are available in The Play Ground, Little Island’s open-air plaza, and can be enjoyed throughout the park every night until 12AM.

 

On August 28, Brooklyn’s favorite nightlife stars PAPI JUICE take over The Play Ground until 1 AM with a free party featuring DJs Coyado, x3butterfy and SoFTT.