Created by Meg Araneo

Featuring Tony Torn, David Skeist, Michael Mullen, and Meg Araneo

Dramaturgy by Jess Applebaum

Edison Hong - Company Manager

Chance Kester - Production Assistant

This work-in-progress presentation of Salomania is the culmination of material developed during our residency at The Catwalk Institute. It takes as its starting point the story of Salome, a dancing girl who in exchange for a dance before a lustful king asks for and receives the head of a prophet. A simple story that has twisted and turned over centuries. The production is a carnivalesque exploration of the precarity of this life and the “cruel optimism” we cling to in our bid to survive it.

Presented with support from The Catwalk Institute and The Thomas Cole National Historical Site.

CREATIVE TEAM

Jess Applebaum
Dramaturg

Michael Mullen
Jester

David Skeist
Baptist

Tony Torn
Herod

JESS APPLEBAUM (she/her) [Dramaturg] is a dramaturg, community engagement coordinator, and public scholar whose 20-plus years of practice is rooted at the intersections of contemporary performance and social action. With Nic Benacerraf Jess is a founding partner of Edge Effect Media Group, and she’s an almost founding member of One Year Lease Theater Company. As a dramaturg, Jess works collaboratively with performance makers, academics, and activists to develop and facilitate creative processes. She believes that bodies perform knowledge, that process activates collective power, and that, together, they can inspire new pedagogical and civic practices. Beyond the two above-mentioned companies, her artistic relationships include working with Panoply Performance Lab, composer/ performance team Nathan Davis and Sylvia Milo, Kyoung’s Pacific Beat (KPB), directors Ashley Tata, Anna Brenner, and Simón Hanukai and choreographer Jody Oberfelder. Service to the community includes The Off-Off Community Dish, The Brooklyn Commune, VP of Advocacy for LMDA, and conference committee member for CARPA8: Dramaturgies of Artistic Research at Uniarts Helsinki, which took place in 2023. Jess holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University, a MA in Performance Studies from NYU and is a PhD Candidate at CUNY Graduate Center where she is working on completing her dissertation Scenographic-Dramaturgy and the Experiential Dramaturg. Her scholarship on dramaturgy has been published in The Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy and presented at the Prague Quadrenille’s special convening Devising Dramaturgy and the conference Alternative Dramaturgies held in Tangiers, Morocco. 

MEG ARANEO (she/her) [Salome / Playwright] is a Brooklyn-based theatre maker who embraces interdisciplinary work that places practice in conversation with histories and theories of performance. She has worked collaboratively with performing artists from across the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. Meg recently collaborated with jazz musician, poet, and visual artist Oliver Lake and composer Rob Reddy on the multi-disciplinary performance piece Interruption! that was presented at BRIC Arts Media in Brooklyn. In spring 2024, she was awarded an artist residency at the Catwalk Institute in Catskill, NY. Her upcoming original play Salomania will premiere in spring 2025. Currently, Meg is an Instructor of Drama at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Associate Director of Programming at the Martin E. Segal Center. In 2016, she co-founded with Rob Reddy Citizen Arts and Education. Meg holds a BA from Johns Hopkins, an MFA from Carnegie Mellon, and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

MICHAEL MULLEN (ze/zir) [Jester] is an actor, director, filmmaker, and educator who has worked in a variety of creative spaces. Their work foregrounds the body and draws upon physical approaches to p e r f o rma n c e t h a t i n c l u d e Me y e r h o l d ’s Biomechanics, Grotowski’s Plastiques, commedia dell’arte, Lecoq mask technique, as well as Anne Bogart’s Viewpoints and Suzuki actor training. Michael has performed on stages across NYC, including at Classic Stage Company, the New Ohio Theater, INTAR, and the Pregones Theater. Michael is currently Head of Acting at Nassau Community College in New York. He holds a BA from California State University at Northridge and an MFA from Columbia University.

DAVID SKEIST (he/they) [Baptist] is an actor and multidisciplinary theatre artist based in Brooklyn. He has appeared, often repeatedly, in works by Javier Antonio González, Richard Foreman, David Gordon, Elizabeth Swados, and Doris Mirescu at venues including The Public, Skirball, Joyce Soho, and Peak Performances. David is producing director of Caborca and acts in most of the company’s works including Zoetrope and Distant Star (both at Abrons Arts Center). He recently performed in the US premiere of Romina Paula’s Fauna (Torn Page) and the first English reading of Josep Maria Miró’s The Nicest Body Ever Seen in These Parts (Segal Center / PlayCo). They previously directed Susan Hyon’s solo performance Soo Jin Pretty Nail (Luna Stage, Baltimore Theatre Project) and were assistant to André Gregory during his work on The Master Builder with Wallace Shawn. David is also a composer currently collaborating with Caborca, M-34, and x.sud art/site. They hold an MFA from Columbia University and teach Acting at Barnard. 

TONY TORN (he/him) [Herod] is an actor and director based in New York. His more than 100 stage and screen credits include "Ubu" in Ubu Sings Ubu (also adapted and co-directed), “Paul Swan’ in Paul Swan Is Dead and Gone at Torn Page, "Cyclops/Mother" in Suzan-Lori Parks' Venus at The Signature Theater, "Rusty Trawler" in Breakfast at Tiffany's on Broadway, “Falstaff,” “Panderus” and “Caliban” in Oregon Shakespeare Company’s Play On! series of translated Shakespeare plays at Classic Stage Company. He has performed in multiple shows with legendary experimental theater artists Richard Foreman and Reza Abdoh. He recently appeared as “The Toymaster” on NBC’s hit series The Blacklist, “Sister Jim” in the Netflix comedy series Teenage Bounty Hunters, and Larry Hughes in Law and Order SVU. He was a founding director of Reverend Billy and The Church of Stop Shopping. He manages Torn Page, a salon space and classroom in Chelsea dedicated to the artistic legacy of his parents, Rip Torn and Geraldine Page.

Special thanks to our company manager Edison Hong and our production assistant Chance Kester. We couldn’t do this without you.