From behind our shuttered doors, Kayla Banks, Chris Gonzalez, and Andrea Vernae are developing new work.
Partnered with the CoHo Lab Residency Program, these artists have four months of dedicated time and resources to pursue their latest inspiration. CoHo supports them by providing a stipend and additional funding for a collaborator of their choice, a mentor of their choice, and to help cover the cost of production materials. Residents also have access to the CoHo stage, design materials, and tech. After four months of concentrated creativity, our Residents’ performances will be broadcasted to a public audience.
We are proud to boost our Residents’ work as they build towards performance day. Kayla is a choreographer, dancer, and actor. She has trained and danced professionally all over the country, debuting original work and exploring the human questions of wellness, spirituality, conflict, and ancestry. Andrea is a local writer, director, producer, actor, singer, and dancer- a jack of all trades. Her current project investigates the intersection of mental health and race, uplifting black women’s relationships to anxiety. Chris is a local theater maker, musician, poet, and educator. After featuring his poetry alongside International Slam Champions, Chris taught physical theater along the East and West coasts and is now crafting a cycle of monologues addressing the city/country divide here in Oregon.
Over the next three weeks, we will be publishing individual portraits of each Resident Artist, right here on the CoHo blog. We will dig into their creative processes, artistic histories, inspirations, challenges, influences, rehearsal rooms, aesthetics, and missions. Stay tuned for our next post, where we will release Kayla’s portrait and celebrate her talent and creative purpose.
As always, thank you for joining us in supporting these powerful artists and culture makers. CoHo is immensely grateful to our Residents for collaborating with us as they ask important questions, seek creative solutions, and inspire all of us to do the same.
