BOY FRIDAY
You Always Do This to Me
SEPTEMBER 29 - OCTOBER 1, 2022
Estimated Runtime:
75 min including intermission
Directed by Evik Abbott-Main
Performers
Evik Abbott-Main
Julia Antinozzi
Alexandra Doyle
Akane Little
Kelsey Rondeau
Suzie Rzecznik
Costumes
Quinn Dixon
Costume Sewing
Hannah Thomas
Dramaturgy and Sound
Cameron Barnett
Lighting Designer
Matt Morris
Associate Lighting Designer
Anna Wotring
Boy Friday is a New York–based company creating surreal performance experiences charged with social commentary. Situated at the intersection of movement, visual art, and storytelling, our work bends the myth of "normal" into a mirage of queer utopia full of futurity and potentiality. Boy Friday’s theatrical events feel distant yet familiar, inviting audiences to come close and make decisions about the kind of experience they want to have. The common and mundane are ornamented to draw attention to the strange beauty of everyday life, and identity pervades the work with subtle urgency.
Boy Friday’s recent accomplishments include residencies at Kaatsbaan, Brighton Dance Festival, and CUNY Dance Initiative; and in 2022, Boy Friday was a NYSCA award recipient. The evening-length COWBOY (2019) enjoyed two sold-out performances at Prime Produce as toy ponies, herds of dancers, sad clowns, and drag queens presented an ecosystem in conflict. A series of duets—High Two (2019), M||W (2021), and E||E (2022)—were presented across performances at Arts on Site and Chez Bushwick, with each duet confronting the utilitarian density, drive, and emotional residue generated by the previous.
Evik Abbott-Main, director of Boy Friday, is a performer, educator, and dance-theater artist with interests converging choreography, improvisation, mixed media and installation performances, collaborations with other artists, and lots more. Their creative work embeds interdisciplinary inquiry within a movement praxis, bringing queer voices & experiences to the foreground. Evik has held teaching positions at Indiana University, Ohio State University, Eastern Michigan University, American College Dance Festival, Brighton Dance Festival, and more. As a performer, Evik has a longtime presence in Punchdrunk’s NYC production of Sleep No More, appearing also with Third Rail Projects, Adam Barruch, Stefanie Nelson, and Bebe Miller.
Julia Antinozzi is a dance artist, gemini, and optimist. Julia currently performs with Phoebe Berglund, ChristinaNoel and The Creature, and is excited for her Boy Friday debut. Previous performance credits include works by Bebe Miller, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, and Juli Brandano. Julia’s choreographic work has been presented at Triskelion Arts, Jack Crystal Theater, and New Dance Alliance in NYC, nationally in Seattle and SLC, and internationally in Copenhagen. Julia was an Artist-in-Residence at the Floor on Atlantic, and is a 2022 Satellite Artist at NDA. Julia graduated cum laude from Smith College with a BA in Dance and Astronomy.
Alexandra Doyle is a dance artist and teacher originally from deep in the boot of Louisiana. She has lived and grown in New York since 2015 and has appeared in work dancing with/for Emily Schoen, Doug Gillespie, Bryan Strimpel, Julia Antinozzi, ChristinaNoel Reaves, and Kelly Ashton Todd. Alexandra’s own work has been presented through the Louisiana Arts Council, Oregon Fringe Festival, and Chez Bushwick. She holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Arizona. This is Alexandra’s first show with Boy Friday. When not dancing, she is attempting to do too many things all at once, but lives for the mayhem.
Akane Little (they/them) is a contemporary dance artist exploring performance as an interdimensional portal into the personal and collective unconscious. They began as a competition dancer in Starkville, MS and went on to study contemporary dance under Alysia Ramos at Oberlin College. They have performed in Cleveland with artists including Catherine Meredith, Megan Young, Rebecca Burcher, and Pam Tanowitz among others; and in Brooklyn with Kinesis Project under the direction of Melissa Riker, and Hivewild under the direction of Katherine Maxwell, among others. They are excited to be working on their first production with Boy Friday.
Kelsey Rondeau (they/them/theirs) is an independent dancer, choreographer, filmmaker and drag performer currently based in Brooklyn. Raised in Northern California, they received their BFA in Dance from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014 and have lived in Brooklyn since 2016. They have performed with Johannes Wieland, Third Rail Projects, Springboard Danse Montreal and the House of Yes and many more. With their company, Hard/Femme Dances, they are a Fall 2022 BAX space grantee. You can follow them on IG @hardfemmedances and @avalanche_of_beauty for updates and previews of their works-in-progress.
Suzie Rzecznik is based between Boston and NYC. After some time off from performing, Suzie is thrilled to rejoin Boy Friday! In a past life, Suzie performed with Phish, Panorama Music Festival, BARE Dance Company, The Kuperman Brothers, Tyler Gilstrap, Eleana Vazintaris, Jackie Nowicki, Kelly Ashton-Todd, and Boy Friday. Suzie's work has been presented by BOMB Magazine, DIY Dancer Magazine, Marie Claire Mexico, Triskelion Arts, HiArtist, The Craft, Maine International Film Festival, Mobius Gallery, Create Art/The Ace Hotel and Keshet Arts. Suzie is currently serving as movement director for a play, "The Secret in the Wings,'' at Emerson College.
Dramaturgy & Sound
Cameron Barnett is a multi-faceted artist with interests in choreography, direction, dramatic writing, sound design, and performance. He frequently designs sound for his own dance-theater work, and has previously done sound for Boy Friday (PLUSH, 2022), Selene Carter (“Indiana Puts her Trust in Thought,” 2020; “Flags in the Middle of Nowhere,” 2020), and others. Cameron is delighted to be involved in bringing You Always Do This to Me to life.
Lighting Designer
Matt Morris is a NYC based lighting designer with a wide array of lighting design experience including theater, music events, comedy, and broadcast. But he has a special love for dance and movement, and the collaboration with creative and inventive artists and choreographers. He is grateful for the opportunities like this to support the new work of these artists.
Associate Lighting Designer & Technical and Production Manager
Anna Wotring , Pittsburgh native, is a community minded dance artist, designer and production stage manager committed to the practice of collaborative leadership. She currently works with Annie Heath, Lauren Horn, Jennifer Nugent and slowdanger as a technical design consultant, dancer, and production stage manager. Wotring obtained her BFA in Dance, at the Five College Dance Department in Western Massachusetts. She has had the privilege of working with a multitude of dance organizations, including Alvin Ailey Studios, Attack Theater, Ballet Des Ameriques, BalletNext, Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Company, the Dance Conservatory of Pittsburgh, Dance Place, H2O Contemporary Dance, Monica Bill Barnes and Company, New York Live Arts, the Pillow Project, Prayers of the People, RoseAnne Spradlin, Scapegoat Garden, Time Lapse Dance, and many others. Wotring is beyond excited to begin working and imagining with the Trisk team. @annaissupercool
Additional movement contributions by:
Madeline Irmen
Lindsay Harwell
Tim Bendernagel
Thryn Saxon
David Parker
Will Noling
Special Thanks:
Jessica Bonn
James Cavanaugh
Linda Coss
Chris Frost
Christina Garafola
Lawrence Keigwin
Kathy King
Virginia Logan
Kathleen Main
Ricky Morant Jr.
Rashana Smith
Chad Townsend
You Always Do This to Me is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Trisk Presents is brought to you in part by:
We respectfully acknowledge that the work of Triskelion Arts is situated on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape peoples. We pay our respects to their land, water, and ancestors, past, present, and future. This acknowledgment demonstrates a commitment to the process of working to dismantle the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism and to learning to be better stewards of this land.