WITH OURSELVES, WITH EACH OTHER(WIP 2022-present)

Produced by Hatch Arts Collective, WITH OURSELVES, WITH EACH OTHER (WOWEO) is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Kelly Strayhorn Theater (KST) in partnership with Bates Dance Festival (BDF), Hatch Arts Collective (Hatch), and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation.
Premiere Kelly Strayhorn Theater | October 2026
Bates Dance Festival | Summer 2027

DESCRIPTION
Set in a karaoke-funeral-lounge, WITH OURSELVES, WITH EACH OTHER (WOWEO) is an evening-length solo performance in the round. Creator-performer Maree ReMalia steps into the work as a Korean adoptee and ballerina-turned-experimental dance-maker, using dance, text, and pop music to grieve a parent who raised her and a parent she never met. Drawing from karaoke’s spectacle, the ceremonial weight of funerals, and the intimacy of a neighborhood lounge, ReMalia explores how a solo body can become a meeting place for others and how a mic becomes a lifeline—to sing, whisper, scream, and wail her way through the beautiful mess of being alive. WOWEO invites audiences to collectively grieve and celebrate against all odds.

The goal of the work is to support individuals in recognizing, holding, being with, and examining the complexities of our lived experience. Through performance and community engagement, ReMalia aims to cultivate intimacy within and across shared experiences, asking: What compels us to scream, reach, wail, dream, fight, and love? How do we hold our joys and aspirations alongside chaos and loss? How do we grieve and celebrate as acts of healing and resistance?

ARTISTIC TEAM
Creator/Performer/Co-director: Maree ReMalia
Co-director: Adil Mansoor
Sound Design: David Bernabo
Media Design: Kolton Cotton
Dramaturg: Jenny Johnson
Scenic Design: Sasha Jin Schwartz
Assistant Director: Iliana Tomasa Sharp

Additional Artists and Collaborators Who Have Contributed to WOWEO’s Development:
Vocal Coaches: Jisook Kim, Lisa Velton Smith, Kara Staiger, Micaela Tobin
Karaoke Consultant: Eben Hoffer
Wardrobe Stylist: Rachel Vallozzi
Props: Katie Mikula-Wineman

WOWEO Grant Writing Support:
Joseph Hall, Paul William Kruse, Adil Mansoor, Michael J. Morris, Luke Niebler, Ben Pryor, Maree ReMalia, Ellen Smith Ahern, Michael Uhrin

FUNDING AND DEVELOPMENT PROCESS 
Produced by Hatch Arts Collective, WITH OURSELVES, WITH EACH OTHER (WOWEO), is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Kelly Strayhorn Theater (KST), Bates Dance Festival (BDF), Hatch Arts Collective (Hatch), and the National Performance Network (NPN). Developmental support for WOWEO has been provided by Opportunity Fund, Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation, and Carnegie Mellon University Center for New Work Development in partnership with KST, Lawrence University, Middlebury College, and University of Vermont. WOWEO for KST X NYC 2026 is made possible with support from the Ford Foundation and Heinz Endowments America’s Cultural Treasures initiative. In-progress excerpts of the solo have been performed at Cleveland Public Theatre, Fayetteville Movement Festival, Chellis House, Inter-, News and New Dances, Texas Dance Improvisation Festival, and Three Stories. Drawing from the solo work, collaborative performance projects have been created with students at Brown University, University of Central Oklahoma, and University of Vermont. Guided explorations from WOWEO’s creative process have been shared in the courses Conversations with Environmental Icons, Feminist Joy, Writing Gender and Sexuality, and Writing the Body at Middlebury College.

ARTIST BIOS
Maree ReMalia (Creator / Performer) is a dance-maker, performer, and teaching artist. An adoptee born in South Korea and raised in Ohio, her work is rooted in exploring ways to build connection – with ourselves, each other, and the world of which we are part. She welcomes seasoned dancers and curious newcomers into movement practices that honor the richness of diverse bodies, lived experiences, and ways of being. 

Her collaborative performance projects have been presented at venues such as Cleveland Public Theatre, Dance Place, Daegu International Dance Festival, Gibney DoublePlus Festival, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, Mahaney Arts Center, Movement Research at the Judson Church, New Hazlett Theater, and Texas Dance Improvisation Festival. Maree is currently cast in slowdanger’s STORY BALLET and Lida Winfield’s Moving Dialogue Project. She has performed in projects directed by Heidee Lyn Alsdorf, Alicia Chesser and Steve Liggett, Ari Christopher, Gabriel Forestieri, Bebe Miller, Betsy Miller, Michael J. Morris, Elisabeth Roskopf, Blaine Siegel and Jil Stifel, Christopher Williams, and Noa Zuk and was previously a member of MegLouise Dance, MorrisonDance, and STAYCEE PEARL dance project. 

From 2015-2017, she was selected as the Andrew W. Mellon Interdisciplinary Choreographer for Middlebury College Movement Matters Residency. She has served as faculty and a guest artist at institutions and organizations like Bates Dance Festival, Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, Dreams of Hope Queer Youth Arts, Fayetteville Movement Festival, Point Park University, University of Florida, University of Central Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma, and University of Wisconsin. Maree earned her MFA at The Ohio State University (2011) and completed the Gaga Teacher Training program (2012).

Adil Mansoor (co-director) is a Pittsburgh-based director and educator centering queer folks and people of color. He has developed new work with The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, Public Theater, Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, Mercury Store, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and others. Directing projects include Daddies by Paul Kruse (Audible), Gloria by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Hatch Arts Collective), and Kentucky by Leah Nanako Winkler (Pittsburgh Playhouse). For the 2025 – 2026 season, Adil will be directing the American premiere of FIRST LADY by Sedef Ecer at Pittsburgh International Theatre Company and EUREKA DAY by Jonathan Spector at City Theatre. 

In 2025, Mansoor’s solo performance Amm(i)gone was published in American Theatre Magazine and produced Off-Broadway by PlayCo, The Flea, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, and Kelly Strayhorn Theater (KST) as part of an ongoing national tour. Amm(i)gone is a National Performance Network Project co-commissioned by KST and The Theater Offensive. 

Mansoor is a founding member of Pittsburgh’s Hatch Arts Collective and the former Artistic Director of Dreams of Hope, an LGBTQA+ youth arts organization. He was part of the inaugural Artist Caucus gathered by Baltimore Center Stage, Long Wharf, St. Louis Rep, and Woolly Mammoth. He was a Sundance Art of Practice Fellow, a Gerri Kay New Voices Fellow with Quantum Theater,  and received the 2024 Emerging Artist Carol R. Brown Award. Mansoor holds an MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University. https://www.adilmansoor.com/

David Bernabo (Sound Design) is a musician, artist, dancer, and independent filmmaker. He currently performs with the bands Watererer, How Things Are Made, and Else Collective; works in dance contexts with Maree ReMalia and his own group MODULES; and has been working with Haylee Ebersole to realize letterpress prints. His film work documents western Pennsylvania food systems, climate change, the studio practices of composers and artists, and the histories of iconic arts institutions like the Mattress Factory. He is most noted for “Moundsville,” a documentary co-directed with former Wall Street Journal writer John W. Miller, which screened on PBS for three years, and the biographical documentary “Just For The Record” about avant-garde composer “Blue” Gene Tyranny.

Kolton Cotton (Media Design) is a projection designer and video engineer specializing in content creation and broadcast technologies for theatre and live events. Kolton produces multichannel video systems through networks, projection mapping, and rapid prototyping. His mixed media approach to motion design and asset creation utilizes real-time, 2D, and 3D compositing workflows. Kolton’s most recent projects range from devising new plays, such as “I think I’m starting to want to be a mother,” to producing interactive installations at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. Drawing on his background in teaching, his interdisciplinary approach to design is shaped by his experience as an educator, photographer, and theatre artist. Kolton continues to advocate for authenticity, inclusive practices, and a critical and methodical approach to technology integration and design theory.

Jenny Johnson (Dramaturgy)  is the author of In Full Velvet. Her poems and essays have appeared in American Poetry Review, BOMB Magazine, and The New York Times. Her honors include a Hodder Fellowship, an NEA Fellowship, and a Whiting Award. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at West Virginia University, and she is on the faculty of the Rainier Writing Workshop. She lives in Pittsburgh with her cat named Shrimp.

Sasha Jin Schwartz (Scenic Design)  is a theater scenic designer and artist inspired by family and how spaces tell stories. Selected designs: Little Amal ‘Imagination is My Playground’ (Hatch Arts & CDCP), Dragon Lady (Pittsburgh Public Theatre), What the Constitution Means to Me (City Theatre), Kentucky (Pittsburgh Playhouse), The Devil is A Lie (Quantum Theatre), the dance floor, the hospital room, and the kitchen table (Kelly Strayhorn Theater), Off Peak (59e59), My Cousin Nelu is Not Gay (The Brick), Selling Kabul (Northern Stage), The Thanksgiving Play (Dorset Theatre Festival), Dear Jack, Dear Louise (Virginia Theatre Festival). Recognition: 2023 Prague Quadrennial Featured Emerging Designer, 2023 Chatham University Women’s Institute Visiting Scholar, 2022 Theatre Communications Group Rising Leaders of Color Cohort, 2019 Lloyd Weninger Award for Stage Design, 2019 USITT Young Designers Forum, ‘Mixed Family Portrait’ featured at Pittsburgh MuseumLab, Featured in JADED’s Lunar New Year AAPI Art Show. BFA Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama. www.sashaschwartzscenic.com

Iliana Tomasa Sharp (assistant director) is a Pittsburgh-based director, choreographer, and playwright who loves blending art forms. As a queer Latinx American – born and raised in Austin, TX – utilizing a devised and collaborative rehearsal process, she aims to engage in storytelling that educates, advocates, and celebrates the act of building community. Credits include: The Trees, assistant director, (Pittsburgh Playhouse); My sister’s lipstick, intimacy choreographer, (New Hazlett CSA); The Winter’s Tale, choreographer/assistant director, (Pittsburgh Playhouse),  ≈ [Almost Equal To], choreographer, (Pittsburgh Playhouse). Unstitch, choreographer, (Kelly Strayhorn Freshworks); Being Beings, choreographer, (NACHMO). 

Kitoko Chargois (Photo Documentation) is a Pittsburgh-based photographer available for portraits, events of all kinds, performances, and art for your wall or a special gift.

Eben Hoffer (Karaoke Consultant) is a director, writer, and musician who makes live events for people to experience together, in the same place, at the same time [coronavirus update: same time, not same place]. He pairs sumptuous visuals and scoring with joyful movement, with comedic excess, with subject matter that confronts and complicates the assumptions of the here and now. If all storytelling models future behavior (it does), then our stories should teach us to connect, find joy, yet think deeply and critically. This is the plan.

Jisook Kim (Vocal Coach), M.A. from the University of North Texas, is a vocal coach, pianist, and choir director. She performs with the Tulsa Opera Signature Chorale and serves as choir director and accompanist at the Korean Church of Tulsa, while also teaching private piano and voice lessons. She is passionate about helping students discover their unique voice and develop confident, expressive singing through healthy vocal techniques.

Paul William Kruse (Video Documentation) tells Queer love stories. As a playwright and media artist from Western Wisconsin, his work flows from his Catholic roots and ever-evolving experience of family. Paul often writes collaboratively, drawing from his years of experience as a videographer and documentarian. He is a 2023–2025 Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and a cohort member of Audible’s third Emerging Playwrights Fund. His audio play Once Removed was an official selection at the 2022 Tribeca Festival. Paul’s plays have been produced by Adjusted Realists in Brooklyn, NY; Quantum Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA; the Vortex Theater in Austin, TX; and in high schools around the country. Paul has developed work at The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Yaddo, the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, and Middlebury College. Paul completed his MFA at UT Austin in 2020, where he was a fellow with the Michener Center for Writers. From 2012–2022, Paul was resident playwright with Pittsburgh’s Hatch Arts Collective, which he co-founded with Adil Mansoor and Nicole Shero.

Katie Mikula-Wineman (Set Dressing/Props) is thrilled to collaborate with Adil and Sasha on her first project with the Hatch Arts Collective. She is the resident Prop Shop Manager at the Pittsburgh Playhouse and has taught at Point Park University for the past 7 years. Recently she connected a partnership for Point Park to be the host school of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for Region 2. Many of her students went on to receive awards and recognition for various design and technical management categories. Recent favorite productions include Almost Equal To, Cinderella, Kentucky, Dance Nation, and Pippin. Other local credits include Buoyant Sea and My Traveling Song with The Hiawatha Project, The Illustrious Invalid at Kinetic Theatre, Arsenic & Old Lace at Prime Stage Theatre, and A Couple of Blaguards at South Park Theatre. Other theatre credits include Bricolage Theatre Company, Attack Theatre, Ohio Light Opera, Old Town Playhouse, and apprenticed at the Olney Theatre Center outside of Washington D.C. She is a member of S*P*M Society of Props Managers and IATSE Local 3. She hails from her home state of Michigan with her loving husband Isaac, and is the proud pet parent of her kitties, Jiji Louise & Peridot, and her one-eyed wonder dog Zuko. @winekula18 @pghplayhouseprops

Kara Staiger (Vocal Coach) In addition to owning and operating Overture, Kara is an Adjunct Vocal Music Professor. She grew up as a studio dancer at Patti Parrish School of Dance in Sapulpa, OK. Kara was Dance Team (Ping-Ping) Captain and All-State Dance Member. She also served as Choir President and was awarded a scholarship in Music Theory. She earned a BFA in Music Theatre from Oklahoma City University and Master’s Degree in Education from Oral Roberts University. Kara has worked with Orlando Rep, The Wick Theatre, Theatre Tulsa, Tulsa Project Theatre, American Theatre Company, Clark Youth Theatre and Playhouse Tulsa as a performer and director/choreographer. Kara served as masterclass teacher with Tulsa’s ORBIT arts program. Kara is also an accomplished “cabarista”, performing cabarets at The Equality Center’s Rainbow Room, TPAC’s SummerStage and Zarrow’s ongoing cabaret series.

Micaela Tobin (Vocal Coach) Filipino-American composer and sound artist Micaela Tobin wields her soprano voice against the confines of convention, specializing in experimental and contemporary realms of opera and noise. Integrating voice with electronics, ritualized gesture and amplified object-symbolism, she weaves dynamic music that is at once alluring and demanding. With her primary project, White Boy Scream, Micaela dissects her operatic and extended vocal techniques through hardware, oscillating between extreme textures of noise, drone, and choral sound-walls. As a composer and director, Micaela presented her cinematic debut at REDCAT in May 2021, titled “BAKUNAWA: Opera of the Seven Moons,” as an adaptation of the synonymous album. Continuing her series incorporating the precolonial mythology of the Philippines, Micaela premiered her second opera in July 2023, “APOLAKI: Opera of the Scorched Earth,” at the historic Zorthian Ranch. Micaela is the proud recipient of the 2021 MAP Fund, the 2022 NPN Creation & Development Fund, and was most recently awarded the 2024 Civitella Ranieri Fellowship. She is currently based in Tulsa, OK as an awardee of the 2025-2027 Tulsa Artist Fellowship.

Rachel Vallozzi (Wardrobe Stylist) is a costume designer, wardrobe stylist, and personal stylist who is thrilled to be collaborating with Maree ReMalia again, after working together on “The Ubiquitous Mass of Us”. Rachel first became interested in a career with clothes when she opened vintage boutique Kharisma Vintage Fashions in 2002. She then moved into dressing actors for over a hundred commercials. She has worked with Hatch Arts Collective and Adil Mansoor as a wardrobe stylist on AMM(I)GONE, designed costumes for Quantum Theater, “…on being…”, a Staycee Pearl dance project, and films “ Progression” and “Definition Please” available on Netflix. Rachel has an unstoppable passion for helping private clients find a “visual voice” for their unique style and needs and believes that a functional personalized wardrobe works as a system to energize your day. You can find out more at www.VallozziStyling.com.

Lisa Velten Smith (Vocal Coach) is a voice practitioner, actor, and educator based in the Pittsburgh area.  A Designated Linklater Teacher and certified Lessac Practitioner, she has taught voice and acting at University of California San Diego, Middlebury College and currently is an Assistant Professor in the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University.  As an actor she has performed on Broadway, off Broadway, regionally and can be seen in the upcoming Quantum Theater production of Scenes from an Execution.

IN-PROCESS PERFORMANCES 2022-2025

Carnegie Mellon University Center for New Work Development + Kelly Strayhorn Theater Residency
presented in partnership with Hatch Arts Collective + Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
In-process showing | November 13, 2025
Acts of Remembrance Workshop | November 4, 2025
Three Stories, Pittsburgh, PA

RESIDENCY TEAM
Creator/Performer/Co-director: Maree ReMalia
Co-director: Adil Mansoor
Sound Design: David Bernabo
Media Design: Kolton Cotton
Dramaturg: Jenny Johnson
Scenic Design: Sasha Jin Schwartz
Assistant Director: Iliana Tomasa Sharp
Lighting Design: Nicole White
Scenic Assistant: Sydney de Haan
Lighting Assistant: Delaney Price
Photo Documentation: Kitoko Chargois, Brannon Bowers, Anna Hanson
Video Documentation: Parker Stephens

Additional Artists and Collaborators Who Have Contributed to WOWEO’s Development:
Vocal Coaches: Jisook Kim, Lisa Velton Smith, Kara Staiger, Micaela Tobin
Karaoke Consultant: Eben Hoffer
Wardrobe Stylist: Rachel Vallozzi
Props: Katie Mikula-Wineman

Special thank you Brannon Bowers, Piper Clement, Rick Edinger, Joseph Hall, Anna Hanson, Isaiah Jones, Mingsi Ma, Melanie Paglia, Ben Pryor, Camille Rohrlich, J.R. Shaw, Kierra Williams

Hatch Arts Collective Development Residency Open Rehearsal
Inter-, Pittsburgh, PA
June 27, 2025

RESIDENCY TEAM
Creator/Performer/Co-director: Maree ReMalia
Co-director: Adil Mansoor
Sound Design: David Bernabo
Media Design: Kolton Cotton
Dramaturg: Jenny Johnson
Scenic Design: Sasha Jin Schwartz
Assistant Director: Iliana Tomasa Sharp

Additional Artists and Collaborators Who Have Contributed to WOWEO’s Development:
Vocal Coaches: Jisook Kim, Lisa Velton Smith, Kara Staiger, Micaela Tobin
Karaoke Consultant: Eben Hoffer
Wardrobe Stylist: Rachel Vallozzi
Props: Katie Mikula-Wineman

NEST RESIDENCY WORK-IN-PROGRESS SHOWINGS
PRESENTED BY HATCH ARTS COLLECTIVE AND CASEY DROEGE CULTURAL PRODUCTIONS
Inter-, Pittsburgh, PA
February 23 & 24, 2024

RESIDENCY TEAM
Creator/Performer: Maree ReMalia 
Co-Director: Adil Mansoor 
Sound/Tech: David Bernabo 
Dramaturge: Jenny Johnson 
Media Design: Kolton Cotton
Scenography/Lighting: Sasha Jin Schwartz  
Set Dressing/Props: Katie Mikula-Wineman
Wardrobe Stylist: Rachel Vallozzi; dress gifted by Jennifer Jourdan
Rehearsal Assistant: Iliana Sharp
Vocal Coaches: Kara Staiger and Lisa Velton Smith
Video Documentation: Paul Kruse
Photo Documentation: Kitoko Chargois

SUPPORT
Principal support for the NEST Residency has been provided by The Heinz Endowments; Opportunity Fund; Workhorse Collaborative; and Dreams of Hope.

CASEY DROEGE CULTURAL PRODUCTIONS AND HATCH ARTS COLLECTIVE STAFF
Hatch Artistic Director: Adil Mansoor 
CDCP Connections Coordinator: Eriko Hattori
CDCP Assistant Director: Hannah Turpin

Casey Droege Cultural Productions (CDCP) is an artist-run, woman-owned, disability-owned business created in 2016. Droege built the business to house the ongoing programs of SIX x ATE, CSA PGH, and PGH Photo Fair. Over the years we’ve had a gallery space downtown and in Wilkinsburg, plus created and sold a concept store called Small Mall. In 2022, CDCP rebranded its art consulting wing as The Art Supply Co., where we connect clients with living, local artists to help create dynamic, art-forward spaces.

Hatch Arts Collective is a Pittsburgh-based performance incubator that enables the development of new, interdisciplinary, and queer- or BIPOC-led performance projects. The Nest Program rigorously supports queer and BIPOC artists creating new work through residencies and workshop presentations. 

SPECIAL THANKS 
Jackie Baker, Anya and Mitsuko Clarke-Verdery, Michele de la Reza, Joseph Hall, Jennifer Jourdan, Taylor Knight, Katie Meyers, Michael J. Morris, Luke Niebler, Nicole Shero, Jil Stifel, Anna Thompson, Inter-, City Theatre, and Pittsburgh Playhouse. 

WITH OURSELVES, WITH EACH OTHER
Fayetteville Movement Festival
Mount Sequoyah Millar Hall
Fayetteville, AR
July 6, 2024

WITH OURSELVES, WITH EACH OTHER
Texas Dance Improvisation Festival
Margot Jenkins Performance Hall
Denton, TX
October 7, 2023

WITH OURSELVES, WITH EACH OTHER
News & New Dances
Resonator Institute
Norman, OK
September 30, 2023

WITH OURSELVES, WITH EACH OTHER
MorrisonDance 25th Anniversary Showcase
Cleveland Public Theatre
Cleveland, OH
April 20-22, 2023

WITH OURSELVES, WITH EACH OTHER
Uncharted Forms of the Occasion
Lawrence University Esch Hurvis Studio
Appleton, WI
September 28, 2022