The Unwritten Law Chesney Snow & Rebecca Arends

About This Show

World Famous beatboxer Chesney Snow presents his journey from a legacy of incarceration to fatherhood, homelessness to Harvard University, to ultimately starring in the musical INTRANSIT on Broadway. This workshop performance adeptly weaves Snow’s inspiring story with gifted performances, brilliantly blending words, dance, visual design and live music into an unforgettable evening.

This Dixon Place commission is made possible, in part, with private funds from the Puffin Foundation, and public funds from New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

 

about the artists

 

Chesney Snow is a Drama Desk award-winning Brooklyn based theatre artist and songwriter who recently originated the role of Boxman on Broadway in In Transit. He was a lyricist and composer for Regina Taylor’s Crowns at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre and The Long Wharf Theatre. Considered a pioneering figure in American beatbox culture he founded the American Beatbox Championships and executive produced the documentary American Beatboxer which was placed in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Harvard University Hip Hop archives. He twice headlined Carnegie Hall with DCINY and has collaborated on stage as a beatboxer with many legendary artists including KRS One, Zap Mama, and Nile Rodgers. He has opened for artists such as MC Lyte, Snoop Dogg, and Immortal Technique. He is a member of the a cappella group reVoiced touring internationally with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.  National tour: Vocalosity. Select NY credits: Burn This, Golden Boy, Antigone.

 

Rebecca Arends earned a B.A. in History and Afro-American Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and attended The Ailey School (Oprah Winfrey Foundation Fellowship) under the direction of Denise Jefferson. She collaborated with the Seán Curran Company for nine seasons touring domestically and internationally. Additional notable credits: Anybodys (El Paso Opera’s West Side Story); The Kiss (Tino Sehgal, Guggenheim Museum); Champion (Original Cast, Opera Theatre of St. Louis); Trainor Dance; Ana Isabel Keilson Company; Rosario/Adriane Lee. Arends is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor and the Assistant Director of the Drexel Dance Ensemble at Drexel University, Resident Jazz & Contemporary Instructor for Sparks Dance Company at the University of Pennsylvania, and Ballet and Modern Dance Faculty at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in NYC. She served as Dance Captain in Washington National Opera’s production of Terence Blanchard’s Champion at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Rebecca is the founder of RAREdancework, a non-profit organization, dedicated to the performing arts, and her work has been presented at Dixon Place, Greenspace, Constellation-Chicago and Drexel University. She is also a longstanding member of SAG-AFTRA and continues to work in film and television. Rebeccaarends.com

 

Seán Curran began his dance training in traditional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston, MA. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as a leading dancer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and was an original member of the NYC cast of STOMP, performing in the show for four years. He has performed at venues throughout the USA as well as at Sweden’s Danstation Theatre and France’s EXIT Festival. A graduate and faculty member of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Curran now serves as Chair of the Dance Department. He has over 20 years of teaching experience in modern technique, improvisation, body percussion and composition as a visiting artist at the American Dance Festival, Harvard Summer Dance Center, Bates Dance Festival, Boston’s Conservatory of Music, and over 100 U.S. university dance departments. Curran has created works for The Limon Dance Co, Trinity Irish Dance Co, ABT II, Denmark’s Upper Cut Co, Sweden’s Skänes Dance Theater, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Ririe Woodbury Dance Theater, and Dance Alloy. His international commercial projects include choreography for NYC Opera productions of L’Etoile, Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio and Acis and Galetea; Playwrights Horizons’ production of My Life with Albertine; Shakespeare in the Park’s As You Like It; the Metropolitan Opera production of Romeo and Juliette. and on Broadway in James Joyce’s The Dead at Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center.

 

Laura Dadap Off Broadway: Voca People, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown. International/Nat’l Tour: Voca People, Nickelodeon Presents: Storytime Live! Regional: 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Darling Grenadine. NYC Workshops: Bhangin’ It, Agent 355. Laura is a proud graduate of Emerson College’s BFA Acting program and a founding member of Macabre Americana, a folk band that explores the dark side of American history. www.lauradadap.com

 

Ro-z Edelston In addition to their work on The Unwritten Law, Ro-z has been the Lighting Director at the Paramount Hudson Valley Theater in Peekskill, NY since 2013. Theatrical lighting design credits include The Practice Child (Fringe NYC, 2014) and Souvenir (Phoenicia Festival of the Voice, 2015). www.LightsbyRo-z.com

 

A.J. Khaw is a Brooklyn-based musician who has performed in Uganda, South Africa, China, Mexico and throughout the USA. A pianist, organist, composer, accompanist, and instructor, A.J. co-composed the score for The Unwritten Law and has performed in the show since its 2017 debut. He has collaborated with soprano Gian-Carla Tisera (Luminosa Project), singer/songwriter Lucas Kane Hall, and alt-Americana artist Dylan Charles.  He plays keyboards in the bands, We are Warriors and Hollow Engine and played with several Latin pop groups and started two jazz combos in Miami, Sonido Batido and Rana Prieta Latin Jazz Project. He produced Sonido Batido’s album Journey of the Refugee with pieces based on social justice themes. In Atlanta he founded the jazz/funk quartet Jazznomad, performed in various classical chamber ensembles, and served as house pianist at Churchill Grounds Jazz Club. A.J. began studying the piano at age five and the organ at eleven, becoming a church organist by twelve. He earned his BA in Music summa cum laude from Emory University and graduated cum laude with a Medical Doctorate degree from Morehouse School of Medicine. ajkhaw.com

 

Ruben Santiago-Hudson is an American actor, playwright, and director who has won national awards for his work in all three categories. He most recently staged the world premieres of Dominique Morriseau’s Paradise Blue at The Williamstown Theater Festival and his own Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine at The Two River Theater Co. From 2009 to 2011, he played Captain Roy Montgomery in ABC’s Castle. In November 2011, he appeared on Broadway in Lydia R. Diamond’s play Stick Fly.

 

Joanna Sobieski (Jo) is a freelance media professional, singer, and teaching artist based in NYC. She received her BA in Film and Media Arts from American University where she held internships at National Geographic and PBS, worked on documentary projects such as The [Monarch] Butterfly Effect and the Student Emmy award-winning Chesapeake Villages, and founded the university’s newest all-female a cappella group Pitches be Trippin. After graduation she moved to Addis, Ababa Ethiopia where she worked on the internationally acclaimed children’s television program Tsehai Loves Learning, and later NYC where where she worked on a tween lifestyle series for American Girl and Mattel. As a freelancer she works predominantly on educational programs for clients such as National Geographic and teaches filmmaking workshops.

 

Varuni Tiruchelvam, a cellist for over 30 years, has been creating music as a spiritual and political vehicle for connecting communities. Her music is influenced by the sounds of her soul — the passionate, dark melodies of the Romantic Era, from composers like Dvorak & Brahms, the sense of place invoked by folk music, and the sparks of resistance in hip-hop, metal, and punk. Born in Sri Lanka, raised in England and Pennsylvania, she continues to strive for justice and equity for all. Varuni works in education for the city’s innovative public high schools. She has performed with Chesney for over a decade in Stone Forest Ensemble, a classical/hip-hop/Afro-beat band. Varuni also collaborates with DreamWolf and plays in Greenwich Village Orchestra.

 

Maleek Washington is a performer, choreographer, and teaching artist who began his dance training at Harlem School of the Arts, Broadway Dance Center, and LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, and attended The Boston Conservatory on a full scholarship before beginning his professional career with CityDance Ensemble (Washington DC). While there he worked with Paul Taylor, Kate Weare, and Alex Noeral, and as a SpringBoard Danse (Montreal) participant, Washington worked with Jose Navas & Rubberband. He collaborated with McArthur Genius awardee, Kyle Abraham, and his company Abraham.In.Motion for four seasons before becoming the first African-American male to perform in the critically acclaimed immersive show Punch Drunk’s Sleep No More. He has also performed for musical sensations, such as Sia, Phish & Rhianna for her immersive AntiDiary Campaign. Washington’s talent has been recognized nationally at prestigious venues such as The White House, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Jacob’s Pillow, and internationally in Australia, Jordan, Mexico, and Sweden. Recently Maleek was a part of the ensemble for NBC Jesus Christ Superstar and just finished performing at the 2018 Ted Talk Conference in Vancouver British Columbia in Camille A. Brown’s ‘New Second Line’. Performed with ASAP Rocky “Testing” Album release installation at Sotheby’s NYC.

September 14 & 15th at 7:30pm

General Admission

$22 in advance

$25 at the door

Stu./Sen./idNYC

$18 in advance & at the door

Estimated Runtime
70 minutes

share £

Credits

Written by

Chesney Snow with Rebecca Arends

Directed and choreographed by

Rebecca Arends

Music composed by

AJ Khaw, Varuni Tiruchelvam, Laura Dadp & Chesney Snow

Performed by

Chesney Snow, Rebecca Arends, Maleek Washington, AJ Khaw & Laura Dadap

Lighting design by

Ro-z Edelston

Projections by

Jo Sobieski

Creative Advisors

Sean Curran & Ruben Santiago-Hudson

Special thanks to

RAREdancework

Photo credit

Peter Yesley