The Open Space Residency is designed for emerging and mid-career artists seeking a nurturing environment to explore and experiment with their new work. It serves as a dedicated space where artists can physically engage and test their creative endeavors. Shaking the Tree provides artists with an open platform to share the fruits of their labor and showcase the work they have produced.
The 2025 Live Performance Residency Application is now closed
The deadline for applications was November 30th 2024
If you have any questions about the application process please email us HERE
2024 Live Performance Residents
spur(s)
November 14th-16th
Thursday, Friday, Saturday 7:30pm
Featuring the work of Elsa Dougherty, Isabel Strongheart McTighe, Rose Proctor, Sofia Leonila Marks
November 14th-16th
Thursday, Friday, Saturday 7:30pm
Featuring the work of Elsa Dougherty, Isabel Strongheart McTighe, Rose Proctor, Sofia Leonila Marks
Part summoning, part slumber party, spur(s) is unrelenting in its hunger and playful in its contradictions. Facilitated by Elsa Dougherty, performers Sofia Marks, Isabel McTighe and Rose Proctor weave sweaty, over-the-top confessionals with uninhibited dance explosions. A ferocious ode to girlhood, genderful myth, and all that lies just beyond the horizon. Admit the truth. Profess your bitterness. Indulge in your (obvious) personal shortcomings.
Veronica, In Bed
December 6th-7th
Friday 7:30, Saturday 2:00pm & 7:30pm
Directed by Štěpán Šimek
Written by Briana Ratterman Trevithick
Featuring the work of Musica Universalis (Laura Kuhlman, Esther Saulle, Paul Martin Beck, and Jeffrey Reynolds), Joellen Sweeney and Duffy Epstein
December 6th-7th
Friday 7:30, Saturday 2:00pm & 7:30pm
Directed by Štěpán Šimek
Written by Briana Ratterman Trevithick
Featuring the work of Musica Universalis (Laura Kuhlman, Esther Saulle, Paul Martin Beck, and Jeffrey Reynolds), Joellen Sweeney and Duffy Epstein
Join us for Veronica, In Bed, a dynamic work-in-progress showing that merges Briana Ratterman Trevithick's fresh script with historical texts by Veronica Franco herself. This production digs into the tangled relationships between sexuality, power, and survival through the life of Veronica Franco, a 16th-century poet courtesan, and in some ways an early Renaissance "influencer." At its core, it is an exploration of our timeless need for connection, examining how our methods and means of connecting evolve, yet the underlying human drive remains constant.
Featuring key staged selections guided by director Štěpán Šimek, the performance combines Renaissance music and opera, the captivating vocals of Joellen Sweeney, puppetry, and cutting-edge media elements by Trevor Sargent, including live video feeds, projections, social media, and AI manipulation. Audiences will be transported between eras as they explore the tools of power and survival, as well as the persistent desire for influence.
We invite the audience to stay after the show for a brief discussion to share their thoughts.
Featuring key staged selections guided by director Štěpán Šimek, the performance combines Renaissance music and opera, the captivating vocals of Joellen Sweeney, puppetry, and cutting-edge media elements by Trevor Sargent, including live video feeds, projections, social media, and AI manipulation. Audiences will be transported between eras as they explore the tools of power and survival, as well as the persistent desire for influence.
We invite the audience to stay after the show for a brief discussion to share their thoughts.
horseplay
December 12th-14th
Thursday, Friday, Saturday 7:30pm
Featuring the work of Kai Hynes & Annabel Cantor
Directed by Tim Wagoner
December 12th-14th
Thursday, Friday, Saturday 7:30pm
Featuring the work of Kai Hynes & Annabel Cantor
Directed by Tim Wagoner
horseplay is a reframing of Peter Shaffer's 1973 play Equus that imagines a tilt in power away from the logical and patriarchal, toward the emotional and utopic. It is an interconnected world in which the barriers between the sacred, mundane, and profane are thin. It is a misty field at night in which a horse can also be a god, a teacher, a friend, and even a lover.
