Vision Residents are artist-curators that are invited to create, develop and present their own work as well as work by artists they are inspired by or wish to amplify in Ars Nova’s season. Vision Residents serve as panelists in all Ars Nova’s open application processes, scout new talent throughout the city, and join the artistic team as they build a years’ worth of programming, intentionally creating a more porous, equitable and power-sharing curatorial practice at Ars Nova.
Chris Murphy is a writer, actor, and comedian living in Brooklyn, NY. Chris is currently a staff writer at Vanity Fair, covering entertainment and popular culture. As an actor, Chris most recently starred as Finch in the world premiere of “Rough Trade” at the Tank. He’s also performed at Atlantic Theater Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Flea Theater, 54 Below, New York City Children’s Theater, and Theater Row. As a comedian, he’s performed all over New York at Ars Nova, Club Cumming, Union Hall, The Bell House, the Netflix Is A Joke Festival in Hollywood, and on The Real Housewives of New York. You can follow him on Twitter/Instagram @christress.
Michelle J. “Micha” Rodriguez (she/her) writes and performs in the worlds of music and theater. Raised in the Pacific Northwest and Kentucky by Puerto Rican parents, Michelle’s work explores kids-of-immigrants stories, divinity, queerness, intuition, joy-as-resistance, healing and spaces in-between. Michelle is the winner of the 2022 Helen Merrill Award for playwriting and received a 2022 grant from NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theater. Musicals in development include PRESENCIA (composer/lyricist/bookwriter/performer), which was most recently developed with a residency at BAM and a concert at Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City, HOMBRES (composer/lyricist) at Portland Center Stage with William Carlos Angulo and Isaac Gómez, RAIMUNDA (composer/lyricist) with Noelle Viñas, which was developed through Ars Nova’s Van Lier Fellowship and Maker’s Lab and at NYSAF, and LIVES IN LIMBO (lyricist) based on the book by Ricardo González. Her music project MICHA became a finalist for NPR’s 2018 Tiny Desk Contest with her song “Nena Nena Nena,” praised for a “bilingual set spanning laid-back southern soul and Latin pop flare” (NPR). Micha lives in Brooklyn, NY and when she isn’t writing music she enjoys surfing, reading and designing objects. BA Williams College.
2022-2023
Mayte Natalio
Untitled Queen
2021-2022
River Ramirez
Machel Ross
LEGACY
2020-2021
S T A R R Busby
nicHi douglas
JJJJJerome Ellis
raja feather kelly
Jenny Koons
David Mendizabal
Rona Siddiqui
Vision residents are selected annually with support from our artist community. Check back later for more on how you can get involved!Â
The Vision Residency program is made possible by the generous support of the Miranda Family, Diana DiMenna and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
