Else Went (they/she) is a Brooklyn based playwright and sound designer. They are a member of the 2021-2023 Emerging Writer’s Group at The Public Theater. Former fellow at MacDowell Colony, Playwrights Realm, Trans Theatre Lab @ WP & The Public, and Living Room Theatre. Commissions include the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation via MTC (An Oxford Man), Weston Playhouse (Mirror Game; short), and Parity Productions (Boxcar). Else has received residencies from Stillwright and Barn Arts Collective. Semifinalist for ASC’s Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries (Courage! To the Field!) and the O’Neill Conference (Initiative). Finalist for ASC New Contemporaries (Whate’er). Her work has been previously developed with The Tank, International Shakespeare Center, Florida Studio Theatre, and The Brick, among others. Else is the co-founder and playwright of The Renovationists, an artistic collective dedicated to queering traditional modes of theater.
Emma Rosa Went is a New York based freelance theatre director who makes new and classic-text plays. Recent work includes: Romeo and Juliet (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Spring Tour ’23;) An Oxford Man (Ted Snowdon Reading Series, MTC;) Kit Marlowe (Revelation Reading, Red Bull @ TFANA;) Much Ado About Nothing (Opera House Arts;) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Connecticut Shakespeare Festival, 2021 Regional Broadway World Award for Best Direction of a Play;) and readings or workshops with NYTW, Mercury Store, Red Bull, Hunter College, and other venues. Also upcoming with Else: Initiative, in the Spotlight Series at the Public, May 8th & 9th. Emma is currently under commission from HVSF, working on The Two Noble Kinsmen. Drama League Classical Directing Fellow 2020, Drama League First Stage Residency 2019. SDC Associate Member. More at www.emmawent.com
Designed to foreground Ars Nova’s values through the creation of more equitable and power-sharing curatorial practices, the Vision Residency was launched in 2020 with the goal of expanding Ars Nova’s artistic vision by inviting artist-curators to program our stages and digital platform with their own work as well as work by artists they champion and admire. Each Resident will be given broad support from Ars Nova’s full staff in their curation, which will result in events and performances in-person at Ars Nova and online on Ars Nova Supra.
Each will be paid for their curation and administrative work, as well as a program budget to allocate towards the creation, development and presentation of work during their curated month. Vision Residents are encouraged to invite other artists they feel inspired by, want to collaborate with or simply wish to amplify, to make and share work using the budget and resources of the residency during their month of programming.
The Vision Residency program at Ars Nova is made possible by the generous support of the Miranda Family, Diana DiMenna and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
