The Artists in Residence Program is an individually tailored, development-based residency for early career performing artists of all disciplines to explore a project in house at Ars Nova over the course of a season. The residency is a unique opportunity for artists who develop work in non-traditional ways to make use of Ars Nova’s customized, flexible support to discover new things about their project and process, and to build community and peer relationships with artists across genres in the residency cohort.
Jason Aguirre is a queer, Mexican-American director, book writer, and choreographer based in New York. He has developed and presented work at Ars Nova, HERE Arts, Vineyard Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Roundabout Theatre Company, EST, Musical Theatre Factory, Underbelly, Judson Arts, The Tank, Pete’s Candy Store, and the Maker’s Ensemble. He is a Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) Fellow mentored by Susan Stroman, an alumnus of the Directors Group at Roundabout Theatre Company, a Future Faculty Fellow and graduate of the George and Joy Abbott MFA in Musical Theatre Collaboration at Temple University, a member of the BMI Workshop, and the recipient of the Boris Sagal Fellowship at Williamstown Theatre Festival. As an associate and assistant director, Jason has worked alongside Anne Kauffman, Rachel Chavkin, Walter Bobbie, and Darko Tresnjak. He is the Founding Co-Artistic Director of UNTITLED Musical Project, a not-for-profit dedicated to creating space for marginalized musical theatre writers of BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and their intersecting identities. Recent directing credits include THIRD SEX: 1930s TRANSVESTITE LIEDER at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest and SONG SOCIETY presented through Underbelly at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Mack Brown is a Brooklyn based butch. They build precise new musicals and theatre about miracles happening to misfits. Recent: WATCHDOG (ANTFest 2025), Lisa Stephen Friday’s TRANS AM (Joe’s Pub). Associate: THE BIG GAY JAMBOREE (Off-Broadway), PICTURES FROM HOME (Broadway), I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE (Classic Stage). Mack is an NYU Tisch Drama Gender Expansive Mentor, an NYCLU Artist Ambassador, and works at Convergence Magazine with grassroots organizers and activists to produce media that sharpens our collective practice. Proud SDC member. mack-brown.com
Aneesa Folds is the creator and star of Why Am I Here?, a one-woman psychedelic musical comedy. She can be heard as Cleon on The Warriors Album by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis, and her stage credits include Broadway’s Freestyle Love Supreme, Ginger Twinsies, Trading Places, and Co-Founders. On screen, her work spans tick, tick…BOOM!, Vivo, Alma’s Way, Disney Channel, Sesame Street, and Rolling Stone. A multi-hyphenate performer, writer, and comedian, Aneesa blends music, storytelling, and improvisation to create work that is as playful as it is powerful.
abigail jean-baptiste is a theater maker born and based in New York City with roots in Haiti and the American South. guided by questions around blackness, gender expectations, and kinship, their work uses fragmented language, repeatable gestures, and found objects in a search to build nonsensical ways of being. most often a director and generative artist, some recent credits include: CHIAROSCURO by Aishah Rahman (NBT & The Flea), OLIO by Janice Lowe and Tyehimba Jess (Creative Capital), in search of (black) comfort (JACK Radical Acts). Proud Soho Rep Project Number One Artist. www.abigailjeanbaptiste.org @abigailrosejb
AriDy Nox is a multi-disciplinary black femme storyteller with a variety of forward-thinking creative works under their belt including the historical reimagining of the life of Sally Hemmings BLACK GIRL IN PARIS (2020), the ancestral reckoning play A WALLESS CHURCH (2019), the cross-generational magical realism FRESHWATER PLAY (2020) series and many others. Their tales are offerings intended to function as small parts of an ancient, expansive, awe-inspiring tradition of world-shaping created by black femmes and with black femmes at the center. They have been inordinately privileged to share the workings of their imagination in collaboration with a vast array of inspiring and supportive artists of various radical backgrounds throughout the country.
Adam J. Rineer (they/xe/he) is a composer, writer, and music director focused on interdisciplinary performance. Adam’s musicals include THIRD SEX: 1930S TRANSVESTITE LIEDER (Ars Nova, HERE Arts Center, Musical Theatre Factory, Pete’s Candy Store, The Parkside Lounge, The Maker’s Ensemble), A TRIP TO THE MOON (HERE Arts Center, PRISM Festival at Judson Memorial Church, The Parkside Lounge, The Maas Building, Temple University, CAP21), OBSCENE, LEWD, LASCIVIOUS, AND FILTHY! (NAMT 15-minute Musical Contest Winner, The Latest Draft Podcast), and SICK MOVES! (OR THE DANCING PLAGUE OF 1518) (Temple University workshop production), They’ve music directed for institutions like Goodspeed Musicals, MCC Theatre, NAMT, and TheatreWorks Hartford, and have performed at venues including Joe’s Pub and 54 Below. Adam is a co-founder of the UNTITLED Musical Project, holds an M.F.A. from Temple University, and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Pace University’s Sands College of Performing Arts. @adamjrineer
Emerson Mae Smith is a writer and performer kept in the great borough of Brooklyn. She created the musicals, WATCHDOG, RADIO, and ELEKTRIC with her twin sister. Her horror dramedy WHO PUT BELLA IN THE WYCH ELM? will make its NYC premiere this November at Theater for the New City. She knows the future and if you ask nice, she’ll tell you.
Murphy Taylor Smith is an actress and songwriter who still believes in musical theatre. She originated roles in A TRANSPARENT MUSICAL (Centre Theatre Group), BILLIE JEAN (Chicago Shakespeare Theater) and DOLL/GIRL (Joe’s Pub). With her twin sister, she wrote the musicals WATCHDOG, a doppelgänger psychothriller; ELEKTRIC, a trans woman-centered Oresteia; and RADIO: A MUSICAL GHOST STORY, a lesbian horror film. The RADIO original soundtrack and her latest single Monster are available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music.
Since its founding in 2002, Ars Nova has hosted a variety of developmental programs for artists. For information on those programs and the participating artists, please check out our Artistic Development Programs Archive page.
Alumni of our muti-disciplinary development programs include Annie Baker; Michael Breslin & Patrick Foley; Shayok Misha Chowdhury; John Early; Michael R. Jackson; Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins; raja feather kelly; Carly Mensch; Elizabeth Meriwether; Lin-Manuel Miranda; Isaac Oliver; Celine Song; Shaina Taub; Whitney White, and many more exciting folks lighting up stages and screens around the globe.
The open application period for the Artists in Residence Program is currently closed. Check back in spring 2026 for details on how to apply to the next cohort.
This residency can accommodate individuals, duos, or trios collaborating on a project.
This residency is open to early career generative artists of all types in the performing arts. This could include—but is not limited to—playwrights, composers, devisers, curators, comedians, clowns, choreographers, and directors. Are you a generative artist who doesn’t yet have a name for what you do? We’d love to meet you!
Projects that are either new or in early stages of development will benefit most from the resources offered in this residency.
You should explore this program! This year, we are putting our energy into a program that connects artists working in all mediums rather than siloing them into separate programs. The Artists in Residence Program will support all the same genres of art-making that Play Group, CAMP, Vision Residency, and Maker’s Lab supported. And ideally, its flexible nature will make room for artists who might not have found a home in any of those programs!
We’re always looking for partners to support our development programs! Learn more by reaching out to Ben Lasser, Development Director, at blasser@arsnovanyc.com.
