ROO Residency Alumni
ROO Residency Alumni
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2024/25 ROO Resident Nikki Brake-Sillá
(photo by Reginald Cunningham)
Nikki is the founder of DrAW (Dramatists At War) and has been commissioned by EST/Sloan, Elevate Theatre, RECPhilly, Revolution Shakespeare, and Philadelphia Women’s Theater. She has received funding from TheMAP Fund, The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation, RECPhilly, The Puffin Foundation, Jody Falco & Jeffrey Steinman, The Lark Foundation, The Princess Grace Foundation, the Leeway Foundation, and the Regional Center for Women Artists. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the City College of New York, she is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild. Learn more about Nikki at www.ginifilms.com.
Nikki Brake-Silla
Nikki Brake-Silla
24/25 ROO Resident
24/25 ROO Resident
Nikki had eight pages of Invisi(bility) written when she was awarded the ROO. She took advantage of the intensive writing retreats both in Brooklyn and in Germany that the ROO offers. We paired her with director Lori Parquet (SUFFS on B'way and National Tour), who directed both a staged reading of Nikki's Venturous nominated play, REWOMBED, and continued to work with her through the workshop and reading of the first draft of Invisi(bility) at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center. We continue to work with Nikki to further develop this ambitious play.
Invisi(bility) confronts the complex intersection of race and disability in the United States. It centers on Gabriela Johnson, a Black attorney with rheumatoid arthritis, who takes a case before SCOTUS to argue that Blackness should be recognized as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Through Gabriela's fight, the play compels audiences to critically examine the concept of a "post-racial" America and the enduring presence of racial prejudice within the legal and medical systems.
Jeanne Dorsey
Jeanne Dorsey
22/23 ROO Resident
22/23 ROO Resident
Jeanne applied to the ROO Residency with 40 pages of a script. She came to write in our studios daily for months, and used some of her funds to take research trips to Chicago and DC. She also used some of her funds to take a class with Jackson Gay, who then agreed to direct the staged reading of The Kit: Made by Martha, for Ensemble Studio Theatre's 2023 First Light Festival. The reading featured Janice Amaya, Curran Connor, Desi Domo, Katie Fabel, Deborah Hedwall, Lou Liberatore, Arroyo Monfiletto, and Shawn Randall. We continue to support Jeanne on the journey to production for this important play.
While working a crisis hotline for runaway teens in 1972 Chicago, Goddard pondered the question of how rape could be investigated as a real crime rather than a made-up story. At a time when sexual violence in America was rarely prosecuted, her innovative thinking set her on a path to create a powerful scientific procedure that would transform criminal forensics and bring justice to countless victims of sexual assault.
The play begins in 2010, with an aging, alcoholic Martha living in reduced circumstances, and moves back and forth in time. The story weaves Goddard’s obsession with crafting miniatures (like those she saw at the Chicago Art Institute) and her journey through the gritty world of sex crimes, the Chicago PD and a surprising alliance with Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Foundation.
The play uses a framework in which Goddard and Little M, a tiny figure, who inhabits one of Goddard’s miniature rooms, are in dialogue. These dialogues will be highlighted via video projection. While the rape kit becomes a powerful tool in the courtroom, Goddard is erased from its history and her personal narrative darkens due to her own rape which, ironically, she never reports. Her dialogues with Little M give voice to her interior life as well as to survivors of sexual assault who, because of being doubted, are made to feel tiny.
Jeanne Dorsey, 2022/23 ROO Resident
Jeanne is a New York-based writer of plays, screenplays, teleplays, and essays. She was awarded a 2021 Sloan Commission for The Kit: Made by Martha. She wrote, directed, and produced the short film Blood from a Stoner, which screened at the Anthology Film Archives in New York and was an official selection in the 2015 Chain Film Festival, the 2014 Big Apple Film Festival, the 2014 FilmColumbia Festival in Chatham, New York and the 2014 Hoboken International Film Festival. Her plays have been produced at Ensemble Studio Theatre, SoHo Playhouse, Apartment A Theatre, The Play Group, at Gilgamesh Theatre Group, and New Georges. Her essay “Motherhood, Adoption, Ambivalence” is included in No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood, published in April of 2013 by Seal Press. Her monologues have been published by Smith and Krauss, Heinemann Press, and Applause Books. She has received fellowships to Fundación Valparaiso in Spain, Monson Arts, Ragdale, the Santa Fe Art Institute, Ucross, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Dramatists Guild, Honor Role, and is a New Georges Affiliated Artist.
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