Waverly Performance Studio
Launched last year as part of a five-year plan to center transformative development at the heart of its mission, Waverly Performance Studio (WPS) is designed for projects that extend beyond traditional script-based workshops, supporting work that demands more expansive, process-driven exploration.
This year’s WPS programming includes two major projects announced below, all in different stages of exploration, and one to be announced later this year:
sadie river’s drag ball on the lawn
By Basil Kreimendahl
Co-directed by Will Davis and nicHi douglas
Cast: Esco Jouléy, Kevin Smith Kirkwood, Erin Markey and Preston Martin
Location: The Wild Project, 195 E. 3rd Street
Presentation Dates:
Thursday, October 23 at 7:00 PM Friday
October 24 at 7:00 PM Saturday
October 25 at 2:00 PM
The first WPS workshop will be sadie river’s drag ball on the lawn by Basil Kreimendahl. Over a two-week period, co-directors nicHi douglas and Will Davis will delve into the play’s surreal, theatrical drag vocabulary. The workshop will culminate in three distinct showings of performance, with no two showings the same.
sadie river’s drag ball on the lawn follows a drag family training in “realness” on the wrong side of the floodwall in Butchertown, KY, under the guidance of their fabulous House Mother, Sadie River. With a cast of four, the play juxtaposes two worlds - the hyper-realistic world of Sadie’s front porch and the expressionistic realm of her imagined drag ball - to explore the intersections of hope, family, class, and performance.
ABOUT BASIL KREIMENDAHL
Basil Kreimendahl is a working-class, transgender artist whose work often explores the intersection of language, class, gender, and sexuality. He is currently in development with FX and A24. His plays have won numerous awards, including the Rella Lossy Playwright Award and a National Science Award from the Kennedy Center. Basil has been commissioned by Yale
Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s American Revolutions Program, and Actors Theatre of Louisville. We’re Gonna Be Okay premiered at the 2017 Humana Festival. Orange Julius was developed at the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and had its New York premiere at Rattlestick Theater in a co-production with P73. His plays have been produced or developed at New York Theatre Workshop, American Theater Company, Victory Gardens Theater, Ryder Farm, The Lark, La Jolla Playhouse, and Labyrinth Theater Company, among others. He has been a McKnight Fellow, a Jerome Fellow, and received an Art Meets Activism Grant for work with the trans community in Kentucky. Basil’s work has been published by Dramatic Publishing and HowlRound. He received his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa in 2013.
ABOUT nicHi douglas
nicHi douglas is an OBIE Award-winning Brooklyn-based experimental theater and dance maker who is interested in leading community care-centered creative processes. you can refer to her/them/ him/us using any pronouns said with Respect. nicHi is currently a resident artist at HERE Arts Center in NYC where we are creating a new dance theater piece. nicHi's work has been developed and/or produced at MacDowell, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, The Shed, and The National Black Theater, among others. they are an Assistant Arts Professor at NYU/Tisch where they teach dance and movement methodologies. Additional awards include Lucille Lortel Awards for Best Director and Best Musical, the Callaway Award for Choreography, an AUDELCO Award for Choreography, and a Princess Grace Award for theater making. Currently: SPUNK at Yale Rep Upcoming: ReCONSTRUCTING at BAM www.mynameisnichi.com
ABOUT WILL DAVIS
WILL DAVIS: As a director and choreographer, his work has been seen Off-Broadway at Signature Theatre, City Center, Roundabout Theatre, MTC, MCC, Playwrights Horizons, Clubbed Thumb, and Soho Rep. Regionally, his work has been seen at Williamstown Theatre Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, Shakespeare Theater Company, Long Wharf Theatre, and ATC in Chicago where Davis previously served as Artistic Director. He received a Helen Hayes award for best direction for his work on Colossal at the Olney Theatre Center, was nominated for a Lucille Lortel award for his direction of Men on Boats at Playwrights Horizons, and is the recipient of a Princeton Arts Fellowship. Davis is the Artistic Director of Rattlestick Theater.
The Call
Co-produced with Story Bridge and Chesray Dolpha
Written by Paul Castles and Mkhululi Mabija
Directed by Qondiswa James
Music Direction by Nonku Phiri
February 2026
The Call is a bold, new, queer African musical that places joy, artistry, and survival at the center of its storytelling. Rooted in Shakespeare’s The Tempest yet reimagined through South African history and queer lived experience, it uses African drag as a dramaturgical engine — a way of shaping narrative, conjuring spectacle, and celebrating the brilliance of marginalized communities. Rather than focusing solely on harm or exile, The Call foregrounds the color, creativity, and resilience of queer life on the African continent, offering audiences a story that is both deeply specific and globally resonant.
Rattlestick is thrilled to partner with Story Bridge Productions to bring this project to New York audiences, testing how the story resonantes across different contexts, and furthering its musical elements for a two week workshop in February 2026.
Past Waverly Performance Studio Porgrams:
Fatherhood: continuum
by Arturo Luíz Soria
Directed by Danilo Gambini
January 2025
Sin Padre thrusts us into the heat of the kitchen where Turo drunkenly fumbles to make his Nonno's famous tomato sauce for his niece. Following the sudden death of his brother, he’s left to pick through the pieces of his life as he grapples with what it means to be a queer man thrust into a father figure role.
Arturo Luíz Soria is an Obie Award winning actor and writer. His solo show, Ni Mi Madre, premiered at Rattlestick Theater and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award, Outer Circle Critics Award, a Drama League Award, and won the Obie Award for Best Performance. Ni Mi Madre will be playing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer at The Pleasance Theatre. Arturo received a NYSCA Grant and commission from Rattlestick Theatre to write his follow-up solo show, Sin Padre. And, recently received another commission from The Alcove New Play Development Program at the Lucille Lortel Theatre to work on a new play called a La Kasa Mita’echo. As an actor, Arturo made his Broadway acting debut in The Inheritance (Tony Award for Best Play) and was also seen Off-Broadway in Wet Brain (Playwrights Horizons) and Hit the Wall (Barrow Street Theatre). He can be seen on television in “Insatiable”, “The Blacklist”, “East New York", and “Found”. He holds an MFA from David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and a BFA from The Theatre School at DePaul University. www.arturoluizsoria.com
Danilo Gambini is a director, writer, and producer, originally from São Paulo, Brazil. He is currently the Associate Artistic Director at Studio Theatre. Recent directing credits include the world premieres of Ni Mi Madre (Rattlestick/ OBIE Award Winner, Drama Desk Nom., NYT Critics Pick), and the musical Sabina (Portland Stage Maine, co-directed with Daniella Topol), as well as Stravinsky’s opera The Rake’s Progress at Yale Opera. His production of Agreste at Spooky Action Theater in DC has recently received six Helen Hayes Awards nominations, including Outstanding Director. Upcoming productions include WIPEOUT by Aurora Real de Asua, at Studio Theatre. Other credits include Fun Home, The Tempest, Rock Egg Spoon (Yale School of Drama), Agreste (Drylands), Bakkhai, The Swallow and the Tomcat, Truck (Yale Cabaret). Opera: Don Giovanni, Ariadne Auf Naxos, Eugene Onegin (Theatro São Pedro). Before Studio Theatre, he was the Associate Artistic Director at Rattlestick Theater, Co-Artistic Director at Yale Summer Cabaret, and a member of Roundabout Director’s Group. He has developed work at The Public Theater, Joe’s Pub, The Old Globe, NYTW, Ars Nova, Milwaukee Rep, Chautauqua Opera, Yale Opera, Gulfshore Playhouse, among others. Danilo holds an MFA in Directing from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, a BFA in Film and Television (Curso Superior do Audiovisual) and an artist diploma as an actor from the School of Dramatic Art (Escola de Arte Dramática – EAD) both from the University of São Paulo. www.danilogambini.com
Ballet Bar
Directed and Choreographed by Will Davis
Spring 2025
Artistic Director Will Davis will begin work with his collaborators on a brand new dance-theater piece about… the rise and fall of a lesbian bar.
Will Davis: As a director and choreographer, his work has been seen Off-Broadway at Signature Theatre, City Center, Roundabout Theatre Company, MTC, MCC, Playwrights Horizons, Clubbed Thumb, and Soho Rep. Regionally, his work has been seen at La Jolla Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, Shakespeare Theater Company, Long Wharf Theatre and ATC in Chicago where Davis previously served as Artistic Director. He received a Helen Hayes award for best direction for his work on Colossal at the Olney Theatre Center, was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for his direction of Men on Boats at Playwrights Horizons, and is the recipient of a Princeton Arts Fellowship. Davis is the Artistic Director of Rattlestick Theater.