Back in New Jersey and making moves! I am currently (Sept 13-Oct 6) appearing in Music Mountain Theatre's 2024 production of Beauty and the Beast. I play the flower seller in the village and the sugar bowl in the castle. I even have a solo line! Directed by Patrick Lavery, this show has some of the best production quality of any of ever had the pleasure of performing in, which is a testament to his vision, Music Mountain Theatre's artistic standards, and the incredible talents of the cast and crew. [I have it on good authority that our in person mix sounds much more better than this edit, btw].

Be our Guest as you step into the enchanted world of Beauty and the Beast, the first of Disney’s stage adaptations. The classic story tells of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, and the Beast, who is really a vein young prince trapped under the spell of an enchantress who left him with only one way to reverse the curse - fall in love with another and earn her love in return. Belle encounters the Beast when she arrives at his castle to plead for her father’s freedom, ultimately trading her own for his. As tension over her imprisonment escalates in the town, spurred by Gaston, the selfish lover who seeks Belle’s hand in marriage, the relationship between Belle and the Beast grows, leading to an emotional, and transformative, conflict.
This "tale as old as time" is filled with spectacular and familiar songs and characters from the Academy Award-winning animated film.

musicmountaintheatre.org

I walked in NYFW on September 8th, 2024. The room at Kaleidoscope Brooklyn was packed, but if you weren't there, luckily, you can now watch the show on Youtube!

JRAT’s SS25 collection, HOMESICK, emerges out of fond memories of miserable moments—staying home sick from school—under the loving care of mid-90s daytime television (talk shows, games shows, informercials, and all).
HOMESICK is a comforting mirage to snuggle up with, when facing the intolerably bleak nature of the future before us.

In the same way that memories are an amalgamation of recollections, the garments of HOMESICK replicate the slashing and splicing of the memories in one’s mind, but in textile form. Pillowy silhouettes contrast with these shredded surfaces to swallow the body in a safe, protected embrace.

In no way haphazard, the hodge-podge of materials, textures, and colors that comprise HOMESICK are intentionally and personally curated from found, reclaimed, and deadstock materials by the artist behind JRAT, Janelle Abbott.

HOMESICK finds solace in the blissful self-deception that nostalgia manifests.

CREW
Venue: Kaleidoscope Studios @kaleidoscope.bk
Music: Keyes Wiley (DJ Dark Wiley) @dark_wiley
Hair Design: Kam Korderz @kamkorderz
Hair Assistants: @00shus000 @jordanmfpaige @cybershawty @olivia.lusala @rosevenommm
Lead Stylist: Yetunde Sapp @yaytuneday
Assistant Stylist: Massai @imoneysai
Photography: Zach Thomas @sustainablequeer
Assistant Photography: Lu Testa @107_luvt
Videography: Nina Bowers @ninabowers
Assistant: Zoe Waechter @zoewaechter

MODELS (in order of appearance)
Midiya @midee_ya_1
Madison @____homesick____4
Jalyn @jalynpostadan
Angel @angelravenhall
Laila @lyr0u
Cristina @pmoyacristina
Ellen @thanksalotellen
Bryan @bryantesta18
Haley @haleymorganmiller
David @davidrosslawn
Valentina @vacavache
Neve @nevethoh
India @_innnkid
Sarah @sarahhhhhart
Sophie @atomheartmommy
Dylan @dm.con
Sideara @sideara
Flora @abundant_commodities
Sarah @sarahsyanrose
Veronica @veroocampos

August 10, 2023, Video by Devin Muñoz

Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation (SFDI)

Velocity Dance Center, 12th Avenue Arts

Seattle SFDI Innovator's Showcase

"Naya Rivera, Brown Women Don't Die." is an experimental, contemporary terpsichorean work processing the artist's relationship to the life and death of Glee star and queer icon Naya Rivera, who drowned in Lake Piru in July 2020. This piece is a grief ritual, a tapestry of love songs of jubilant, cautionary, triumphant, and haunting natures, as well as a spiritual call to action to question who we remember, how we remember them, and why. Interspersed in between the reconstituted, collaged lyrics of songs Naya Rivera performed on Glee, NEVE brings in original lyrics that tell a speculative fiction of Naya's final days and the days that followed, channeling and dancing devotional to deities Lasirenn, Yemanja, Mami Wata, Erzulie Freda, and LaBalenn. A tribute to Naya Rivera, to the naturalness of Black and Indigenous people breathing in nature, to escaping bondage at any cost.

I am a regular contributor to the South Seattle Emerald in the realms of arts coverage, cultural analysis, opinion, fiction, and poetry. I attempted to see the Barbie movie to review it for the Emerald, but something else happened instead.

October 7, 2023

"As I roamed the neighborhood, I noticed beautiful and vibrant women and femmes, as I always do, but now, more of them were noticing me. We were all looking at each other in the sunshine, us femmes, admiring one another’s dresses, skirts, jewelry, makeup, pizzazz, panache, and shining eyes without a hint of competition. That tight-lipped smile, so common in Seattle that even those of us who find it unnatural have adopted it, deepened and curled into a toothy grin. I can’t remember the last time I received such knowing and appreciative looks from femme strangers when I wasn’t at a gay party. It was heartening and inspiring. I wondered, could this be because of Barbie? I couldn’t wait to see the film and write about it for the Emerald." - NEVE

Read the entire story here

Now part of the repertory of AXIS Dance Company!

My new work, "Flora hereafter: how flowers survive" is an alt waltz of the flowers, a contemporary hip hop punk Nubian ballet that shows the story of six very different flower creatures who find one another in the forest on a planet at the brink of extinction, and lift one another's survival up with each of their own.

Costumes: Rashad Pridgen, Jamielyn Duggan, NEVE

Music: NEVE, Erik Debono, Bonfire Madigan, Jen Wood, Tattle Tale

debuted in a triple bill October 22-23rd at Z Space, San Francisco with

"Roots Above Ground", Marc Brew, and "Hold Fast", Sonsherée Giles

photo of DeMarco, Yuko, and JanPi performing seated fouettés with a driving flair

by Doug Kaye and Marnie Walters