I'm thrilled to announce that the 2018 commission has been awarded to Anya Pearson!

Anya Pearson is an award-winning actress, playwright, poet, producer, and activist. She is honored to receive the 2018 Orphic Commission. She is the current playwright-in-residence for Shaking the Tree Theatre. She is the inaugural winner of the prestigious $10,000 Voice is a Muscle Grant from the Corporeal Voices Foundation run by best-selling author Lidia Yuknavitch. Anya recently received a $10,000 commission from Bag & Baggage Theatre to adapt Measure for Measure with an African-American lens focused on the prison industrial complex and its effect on black families. She is the author of the choreopoem, Made to Dance in Burning Buildings, which is a fusion of poetry, theatre, and violent and visceral contemporary dance which poses the question: how do we heal from trauma? Made to Dance in Burning Buildings played to a sold out house at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater on April 24 and will receive its World Premiere at Shaking The Tree in February 2019.