as•sem•bly |ə-sěm'blē| (noun)
1. a group of people gathered in one place for a common purpose.
2. a public facility to meet for open discussion.
3. the action of fitting together component parts of a machine or
other object.
4. a collective of artists dedicated to realizing a new American theater.
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Harpo's Salon: A Night of Conversation
Thursday, June 5 | 7pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Performance | 8:30pm Post-Show Hang!
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The Attic @ The Tank
312 West 36th Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY — see transportation options
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Welcome to The Assembly's new performance and conversation salon! We've missed coming together as a community of art-makers and audience members, and so we're thirlled you've joined us in the Attic to drink, snack, see some exciting new works-in-progress by artists in our community!
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THE LINE-UP
The Seagullmachine: a comedy in four acts DRAFT #1
Directed by Bito Boucher & Dilara Naska
Written by Bito Boucher & ​Mya Rosado-Tran
Performed by Bito Boucher (Dorn), Dilara Naska (Nina), Greaves Ponder (Swamvedorinko) & Adelia Castillo (Masha)
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The Seagullmachine: a comedy in four acts DRAFT #1 is a multidisciplinary dance theatre piece that combines Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull with Heiner Müller’s and Robert Wilson's New York University (NYU) premiere of Hamletmachine. The Seagullmachine comedically migrates the machine to the two young artists in Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull. Showcasing three edited sections of the original work.
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Conceived and developed completely independently of The Assembly's 2018 production SEAGULLMACHINE!
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Malpractice
Conceived by Kelleen Moriarty​
Performed by Kate Budney, Madeline Seidman & Mickey Tropeano
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A desperate quest through the archives, Malpractice attempts to chart the course of one woman’s pain through a collage of the legal and medical documents left behind.
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The HeteroMonotony Project
Created by Jenn Bokoch & Jessamyn Fitzpatrick
Performed by Jenn Bokoch & Sarah Misch​
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In a cultural moment of unprecedented choice, but also a renewal of conservative panic and pressure, marriage is still consistently framed as a social achievement and ideal, and a “happily after ever” solution - newly including queer folks. But is it ever possible to rehabilitate an institution so squarely built on patriarchy, property, ownership, and normativity? This is an exploration of female desire and dissatisfaction in hetero marriages that then begs the question - what happens when we push beyond aspiring to an “I do”, and fully realize the power of saying “I don’t (anymore)”.
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And a bittersweet send-off to our Producing Director!
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After almost six years at The Assembly helm, our producer Meredith Lucio is moving on to some exciting new opportunities at the end of June. But, before she goes, we've invited her to lead us in a conversation about the state of theater in New York City today. After navigating a scrappy middle-aged theater company through a pandemic and the staging of a wildly ambitious musical, what has she learned?
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LEAD ARTIST BIOS
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​​​JENN BOKOCH (she/her, The HeteroMonotony Project co-creator/performer) is a playwright, performer, educator, and storyteller. She has devoted her career to creating interview-based theater featuring underrepresented voices and utilizing various mediums such as puppetry, audio recordings, movement, and music. Her goal is to place real words, experiences, and stories onstage; both so that audiences can reflect upon them, and so that real people can see and hear themselves in a script. Her plays have been performed with the support of organizations such as Dixon Place, The Center at West Park, Verbatim Performance Lab, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and The Network of Ensemble Theaters, among others. Jenn is proud to hold an MA in Educational Theatre from NYU, and draws from this experience to elevate voices from the community in her theatre praxis.​
As a performer, Jenn has worked as an actor onstage and in VO, voicing campaigns for Jergens, SmileCrafters, DSW, and numerous other commercials, PSAs, and audiobooks. She has also been a full-suit puppeteer for many years, including working as an original puppeteer for The Watcher from Sony Playstation’s Horizon Zero Dawn. Jenn is a former Parent Artist Space Grantee at BAX in Brooklyn; and has also received artist residencies at Subcircle, Millay Arts, The Omega Women’s Leadership Center, and more. Her greatest ongoing gig is that of being a Mom to her son Lawrence Matteo, age 6. jennygillett.com​
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KATE BUDNEY (she/her, Malpractice performer) is an actor and multi hyphenate theater maker based in Brooklyn. Recent credits include We Do The Same Thing Every Week and Katie Laid an Eggy (Attractive Nuisance Theater), The Play That Goes Wrong (Northern Stage), Interstellar Cinderella and Frederick The Musical (Long Island Children’s Museum), and One Night (Target Margin Theater). She is also a teaching artist (currently working with Dancing Classrooms NYC), an avid baker, and a cat fosterer. katebudney.com
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​​JESSAMYN FITZPATRICK (The HeteroMonotony Project co-creator) is a theatre artist working at the intersections of sexuality, reproductive justice, and performance. Jessamyn spent several years touring Sex Signals, an interactive show about sexual violence prevention. She was a company member with For Youth Inquiry (FYI), which develops participatory theatre for reproductive justice. She produced and co-wrote FIRST, a play about virginity and This Boat Called My Body, call to action play about youth abortion access. As an educator she delivers programming on orgasm equality and DEI work. She holds a BA in Theatre from Reed College and an MA in Performance Studies from NYU, where her research focused on activating live performance in service of pleasure equity and liberation. She is the creator of Sex Positivity Tarot – a tarot-inspired practice designed to facilitate curious, shame-free conversations about sex. Most recently she co-conceived, produced and performed in Meeting Our Desires, a site-specific piece exploring how COVID-19 has impacted folks’ relationships to sexuality, intimacy, and relationship. She is an avid fan of e.e. cummings, crop tops and audience participation.
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SARAH MISCH (The HeteroMonotony Project performer) is a Brooklyn based actor, dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker. Favorite credits include For the Love of Friends (Hup! Productions), That Which Remains (Improbable Stage), The Curse of the Babywoman (BiG Theatre Co.), and the original horror film, “Corpse Pose” (Film Repertory Group, available on Amazon Prime). Sarah has also choreographed and produced two original dance films, “me(e)t” (FRG, 2018) and “Astraphene” (FRG, 2023). Visit www.sarahmisch.com or follow @smischievous on Instagram for more updates.
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​​KELLEEN MORIARTY (she/her, Malpractice creator), is a queer, disabled director, dramaturg, and storyteller based in Brooklyn. She is a former Westport Country Playhouse Directing Fellow and a two-time member of Mercury Store’s Directing Lab. Favorite credits include “Houses of Telescopes” (Pipeline Theatre Company), “She Kills Monsters” (Governors State University), “Cupid and Psyche: an audioplay” (Stay True). Her debut poetry chapbook Ablaze: A Fire Cycle was published by Bottlecap Press in 2025. She loves tea, baseball, and podcasts.
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​MICKEY TROPEANO (Malpractice performer) is a NY-based actor and writer, currently a member of the Resident Acting Company at the Mercury Store. She has worked across creative mediums in various roles, with a focus on development and new works. www.mickeytropeano.com.
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​MADELINE SEIDMAN (Malpractice performer) is a Brooklyn-based actor. Her off-broadway credits include Garside’s Career (drama desk nom, outstanding revival), Partnership, and Becomes a Woman (The Mint). Regional credits include Love, Love, Love(Studio Theatre D.C.); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Christians (Chautauqua). She can be seen on screen in the TV shows “Elsbeth” and “A League of Their Own.” MFA: Yale School of Drama.
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​THE ASSEMBLY is a multi-disciplinary collective of theater artists committed to realizing a visceral and intelligent theater through sustained collaboration. Founded in 2008, the company has created 11 original works, including IN CORPO (2023); SEAGULLMACHINE (2018); HOME/SICK, a NY Times and Backstage Critics' Pick ("a cutting edge young theater collective" -NY Times, 2011), revived in 2017 (JACK, Brooklyn); and I WILL LOOK FORWARD TO THIS LATER (2016), praised for its "boldly unhip sincerity" (NY Times). The Assembly has performed in such New York venues as Theatre Row, La MaMa ETC, The New Ohio, The Ontological Incubator, The Prelude Festival, HERE Arts Center, toured to the Edinburgh and Philadelphia Fringe Festivals and The Odyssey Theater in LA. From workshops to productions to post-performance discussions, The Assembly is dedicated to rooting its artists, audiences, and peers in a profound sense of community.
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Harpo's Salon is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
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The Assembly is Ben Beckley, Meredith Lucio,
Emily Caffery, Jess Chayes & Stephen Aubrey
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The Seagullmachine: a comedy in four acts DRAFT #1​​