La MaMa presents the World Premiere of The Hess Collective’s NO RESERVATI
Michelle Tabnick
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La MaMa presents the World Premiere of NO RESERVATION from February 6-23, 2025 at The Downstairs Theatre at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, 66 E. 4th Street, NYC. Performances: Thursday-Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 4pm. Tickets are $30 for adults, $25 for students/seniors, and can be purchased online at https://www.lamama.org/shows/no-reservations-2025, by phone at 646-430-5374, or in person at the La MaMa Box Office. Additionally, the first 10 tickets of each show are $10 (limit of 2 per person). NO RESERVATION is about global goddesses who crash a dinner party celebrating false gods. The goddesses have been underground for centuries and now rise up, sensing the urgency of their presence 'at the table'. This multidisciplinary performance piece moves forward from second wave feminist artists who took on the patriarchy through works like The Dinner Party, by Judy Chicago and the dinner scene in Top Girls by Caryl Churchill. The title refers to multiple meanings of ‘No Reservation,’ including rejection, outspokenness, and the refusal to be confined. The goddesses seek accountability, acknowledgement, and atonement. In the process, they discover commonality and contrast, creating a complex mosaic of global sisterhood. The false gods are never named but are recognizable as revered or feared patriarchal leaders from around the world. In the course of airing gender-based issues of social urgency, they enter into a cross-cultural dialogue about the fate of an unsung girl or woman from their roots. They give voice to unspoken truths regarding bodily autonomy, misogynoir, intersectional feminism and violence against women - recognizing overlapping experiences affecting all womankind, including themselves. They shed the outer layers of their goddess personas as they come to recognize and own their own humanity. Ultimately, the women upend the table and revel in each other’s company as they nourish their bodies and souls by stepping away from ‘an empty plate’ to engage in a fulfilling dance of life. ABOUT THE ARTISTS Akiko Aizawa (performer) is a New York based theater actor and teacher. As a long-time member of the SITI Company she appeared in shows such as; The Bacchae (BAM), The Trojan Women (Getty Villa), Culture of Desire(NYTW), and Radio Macbeth (NYU Skirball Center), all directed by Anne Bogart. As a former member of the Suzuki Company of Toga she appeared in The Trojan Women, Dionysus, and Hatekon, among others. Other credits: Oedipus (dir. Ianthe Demos), Hanjo (dir. Leon Ingulsrud), Suicide Forest (dir. Aya Ogawa), and Sleep (dir. Rachel Dickstein). She is currently a member of One Year Lease Theater Company, SITI Emeritus Artists, and American Physical Theatre Company. Originally from Akita, Japan, she brings a rich cultural background to her work in the arts. Schuylar Johns (performer) is a community-engaged artist from the DMV area. She is a graduate from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Drama and Applied Theatre. She has studied with Leseberg Tanzschule, through the Finest! Performance Troupe in Pinneberg, Germany, with the Experimental Theatre Wing and Atlantic Theater Company in New York City, and with the International Theatre Workshop in Amsterdam, Netherlands. As an artist, she challenges herself to be a part of something that is greater than the individual by engaging in and creating collaborative work that explores a variety of realities and identities. She uses her art to collaborate with communities whose voices are historically disenfranchised and help create a platform for people’s stories to be heard loudly and clearly. She strives to combine activism and art and take theater beyond the stage to see how it can change communities’ daily lives. Ninoshka De Leon Gill (performer) is happy to be making her personal debut with The Hess Collective’s third co-pro with LaMaMa! What a gift to work with such an inspiring cast and crew. Selected Credits include: NYC Stage: Spoiled (Dixon Place), Meshahnye (Polya, Theatre for a New City), Dracula (Lucy Westenra, Morris-Jumel Mansion), Cabaret (Lulu, The Secret Theatre), The Wishing Tree (Ayse, Signature Theatre). Regional: Dracula and the Theatre of Doom! (Van Helsing, Tarrytown Music Hall), Sleepy Hollow Meets the Headless Horseman (Katrina, Pancake Productions), The Music Man (Maud Dunlop, Sharon Playhouse). NYC Labs: The Wave (Ars Nova), Counting Sheep (3LD Art and Technology Center), Amelie (Lyric Theatre). Film/TV: SPOILED: The Film Project (La Mama online platform), Foreign Nationals (Cristina, Foreign Entertainment, LLC), Love My Roomie (Leslie, Yhá Wright Productions). Voiceover: Too Hot to Handle Germany (Laura, Netflix & IDC NY) Ithaca College B.S. Environmental Science, Dance Elizabeth Hess (writer/director/performer) is the Artistic Director of The Hess Collective (THC), whose work has been produced at La MaMa, Dixon Place, Theaterlab. She has developed multidisciplinary projects with The O’Neill Theater Center, NYU, The New Group and The Lark. Her book, ACTING & BEING: Explorations in Embodied Performance (Macmillan) is based on her approach to global performance practices honed over 20 years as an Arts educator primarily at NYU and international workshops. Ms. Hess’ acclaimed solo work has been performed around the globe, in New York: Off-Broadway; the UN Conference on Gender Violence. Other acting credits include work with The New Group, Women’s Project, Irish Rep, MTC and NYTW in New York, as well as extensive regional theaters. TV credits: Clarissa Explains It All; Law & Order; All My Children and Another World. Film credits: Handsome Harry; Italian Lessons; Buddy & Grace and Soldier’s Heart. Miriam Grill (THC managing director / associate director) is a Brooklyn-based theater maker with many hats. She is currently the Community and Educational Coordinator at La Mama and the Operations Manager for Dances for a Variable Population (a multi-generational NYC dance company). She has a commercial background assisting on Broadway (Motown, Annie, Bring It On, etc.) and worked as a movement consultant for Cirque du Soleil in Macau (House of Dancing Waters). She was the founder and director of a university theater department in Guangzhou China specializing in educating the next generation of female directors, produced and directed a bilingual female theater company in Taiwan, and led youth and arts therapy programs in refugee camps on the Myanmar border. As a producer, she works on emerging technology that promotes social access and equity, such as Sundance's first AI piece, Frankenstein AI and iForest at World Economic Forum in Davos 2026. She holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia University. Vivian Farahani (THC producing associate/stage manager) is a German-Iranian theatremaker and director based in New York. A family story characterized by migration leads her to ask questions concerning the relationship between culture and behavior, examining how our history and belief systems impact our perspectives on global events and our personal relationships. In 2023, Vivian was the Directing Intern on Simon McBurney's Wozzeck at the 2023 Festival D'Aix-en-Provence. Other recent projects include Lucy Prebble's Enron on the UNCSA Mainstage, productions of Lucy Prebble's The Effect and Mike Bartlett's An Intervention in the UNCSA Keys Season, and Anne Carson's translation of Sophocles' Antigone. She holds a B.F.A in Directing from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. THE HESS COLLECTIVE (THC) is a multidisciplinary ensemble of diverse affiliate artists. The company’s inaugural work, LOVE TRADE, premiered at La MaMa during their Tony Award-winning 2018 season. SPOILED, the second co-production with La MaMa in 2020, pivoted online during the pandemic and also appeared at Women Playwrights International (WPI). NO RESERVATION is the third co-production with THC and La MaMa. www.thehesscollective.com LA MAMA EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE CLUB is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. La MaMa's 63rd Season, the “La MaMa Beyond Season,” expands efforts to develop creative methods and tools for greater access to the arts. Pop-up performances and installations will be held in parks, neighborhood community centers, and online. By going beyond La MaMa’s physical campus, new audiences and artists from different contexts are welcomed into the creative process. La MaMa has been honored with 30+ Obie Awards, dozens of Drama Desk, Bessie Awards, Villager Awards, the 2018 Regional Theatre Tony Award, and most recently, a 2023 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Special Citation. We are a creative home to artists and resident companies from around the world, many of whom have made lasting contributions to the arts, including Blue Man Group, Bette Midler, Ping Chong, Jackie Curtis, Robert De Niro, André De Shields, Adrienne Kennedy, Cole Escola, Bridget Everett, Harvey Fierstein, Diane Lane, Charles Ludlam, Tom Eyen, Spiderwoman Theater, Tadeusz Kantor, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Meredith Monk, David and Amy Sedaris, Stephanie Hsu, Julie Taymor, Kazuo Ohno, Tom O’Horgan, Andrei Serban, Liz Swados, and Andy Warhol. La MaMa’s vision of nurturing new artists and new work from all nations, cultures, races, and identities remains as strong today as it was when Ellen Stewart first opened the doors in 1961.