Created & Performed by Stuart B Meyers
Producer: FLAMINGGG
Dramaturgy: Maxwell McCarthy w/ additional support from Rachel Mckinstry
Lighting Design: Connor Sale
Production Stage Manager: Anna Wotring

Inspired by the Talmud, the Zohar, the Torah & "The Dybbuk" by S. Ansky

Music by: Danity Kane + davOmakesbeats, The Barry Sisters, Luden, Cassie, Mazzy Star, Gwen Stefani, pearl + Tazzy, Leonard Bernstein + The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Pan Sonic + Keiji Heino, Arne Deforce + Mika Vaino, Vitamin String Quartet, Modest Mussorgsky + NY Philharmonic, Steve Silk Hurley + CeCe Peniston, Bach + Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto + Ryogi Ikedaxx

“THE DYBBUK PART 2, or Still Between Two Worlds” is a performance in which Jewish history, iconography, and mysticism collide with queer culture, drag, and dance. An imagined sequel to S. Ansky’s classic Yiddish play “The Dybbuk,” this new work resides in the feeling of being forever possessed, reframing what it might mean to live between two worlds. The original play tells the story of a young bride in a 19th century Chasidic-Russian village who dies in the process of being possessed by the demonic spirit (or “dybbuk”) of her former lover. In this new second installment, time collapses when her soul possesses a modern queer body locked into its own cycle of cosmic tragedy. “The Dybbuk Part Two, or Still Between Two Worlds” is about how it is to be endlessly possessed by insatiable desire, how desire itself is a dybbuk.

About the Artists

Stuart B Meyers is an artist who creates dance, theatre, ritual, and nightlife. Stuart worked alongside Colette Sadler, Nick Cave, Ann Liv Young, Robert Wilson, Christopher Williams, Tino Sehgal & Mina Nishimura. Stuart received funding from Berlin’s Senate, the BK Arts Council and the NEA, is a 2019-2021 NYLA Fresh Tracks Artist & CPR AIR and was a danceWeb Scholar. Stuart’s international works include “*The Shabbos Queen*, a Queer Jewish Shabbat Dinner Extravaganza,” KOPFINO, WITCH DANCE, and the installations PRIDE INSIDE and TAP DANCING IN THE OUTFIELD. Stuart organizes NY's queer Jewish party FLAMINGGG, kabbalistically reads Tarot + Dreams and DJs as Party Girl. @stuartbmeyers, @flamingggnyc

Connor Sale is a New York based lighting designer. Recent design credits include “Earth Temple” (in collaboration with Nocturnal Medicine at SMUSH Gallery); Summation Dance/Sikora+Dance Double Bill (Gibney Dance); “This is How We Remember” (Triskelion Arts); “Queen of the Night” (Victory Gardens); and “Sea Change” (Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago). He has worked as an Assistant Lighting Designer with the Juilliard School of Drama, The Feath3r Theory, Pig Iron, Urban Bush Women, McCarter Theater Center, JACK, and many more. Additionally, he has been touring with Sadler’s Wells’ production of Pina Bausch’s “The Rite of Spring”. Connor’s interested in the organic way that light moves, especially by the way light affects movement and the way movement affects light.  www.connorsale.com || @connorsalelight 

Maxwell McCarthy (Dramaturg) (he/him) is a dramaturg for contemporary dance based in Berlin. Since graduating with a BA in Contemporary Performance Practice from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2008, Maxwell has worked as a dancer and dance-maker, and has focused his work on production dramaturgy since 2019. He has been a part of the creation of over 30 new works, collaborating with choreographers, theater makers, and visual artists including: Colette Sadler, Anna Konjetzky, Stephan Herwig, Alfredo Zinola, Ronald Berger, Miet Warlop, Aernout Mik, and Tino Sehgal. Maxwell is also a member of Tools for Friction, a new Berlin-based network of dance dramaturges and producers.

FLAMINGGG is a Brooklyn-based project which celebrates the magnificence of queer Jewish diaspora(s) through nightlife performance, ritual, and on the dancefloor. Since 2021, they have hosted 6 community-driven gatherings merging the sacredness of Jewish time with the infinite potential of queer culture. This is their first foray into theatrical production. NEXT UP: Hannukah! Dec 9th @ 3 Dollar Bill

Anna Wotring (Director of Production), a 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

A NOTE ON PROCESS
When I was struck by the idea that has become "The Dybbuk Part 2," I had no idea what I was going to make. All I knew was that I was into Jewish demonology and that I would look good with Leah's long black hair; however, its creation process has been nothing short of mystifying. In creating the piece, in which I've used "The Dybbuk" quite liberally, I found a container for a decade of Jewish, dance & theatrical research and a lifetime, if not an eternity, of existential processings. During its making, life offered me unfavorable moments, especially around gender and relationships, but I continued to find that my complex sifting became source material through dance, drag and performance. This work, which resides in a feeling of cosmic loneliness I'm quite familiar with, has been a healing mechanism for that sensation. Committing to its becoming has enabled a soft exorcism, leading to new feelings of resolve. I mention all of this because the piece is about getting unstuck, and I would say that the act of creation, despite Leah's (and my) question of its usefulness, is ultimately a worthy pursuit.

THANK YOUS
A BIG thank you to Trisk – Anna Wotring, Miriam Rose, and RACHEL MCKINSTRY – for their overflowing support of me & this dream. Thank you Connor Sale for diving in and then some with dramaturgical lighting. Additional love to Anna Nowiicka, Sarah Chandler, Meredith Glisson, Emma Rose Brown (the rock & the book!), Alex Rosenberg , Kemal Yilmaz & my forever sis Hannah Hildreth for supporting various stages of the process. Thank you to the Center for Performance Research for loaning us their chairs. To Catherine Shainberg, Bonnie Buckner and all of my former Jewish educators who taught me how deep Jewish culture can be. To Noa Etegdi, my FLAMINGGG king! Thanks, Mom & Dad, always. S. Ansky, thanks for preserving Yiddish culture through "The Dybbuk" and inspiring artists for generations to come. Friends & fam, deep gratitude for holding space for my madness. And to my dear friend, mentor, and chosen dad Maxwell McCarthy, who shepherded this piece, and me, from start to wherever we are now. For Simmie, my Yiddishe family <3