Richard Foreman (TEXT)

Richard Foreman (1937-2025) was a writer, director and designer who created over fifty of his own plays both in New York City and abroad. Five of his plays have received Obie awards as best play of the year—and he has received five other Obie’s for directing and for sustained achievement. He received the annual Literature award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a"Lifetime Achievement in the Theater award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the PEN Club Master American Dramatist Award, a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, and in 2004 was elected officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of France. He was the Founder and Artistic Director of the Ontological-Hysteric Theatre.

ILANA KHANIN (Creator & Director)

Ilana Khanin is a director of experimental performances. She won the 2025 Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award for Best Direction of a Musical for her production of the Dora-nominated musical I Was Unbecoming Then at the Next Stage Festival, which was a Globe and Mail, Intermission, and Broadway World Top Pick of 2024. Her work has been developed and presented at Ars Nova, Prelude, HERE Arts Center, New Ohio, Judson, Governors Island, The Tank, The Brick, Primary Stages, Theaterlab, Dixon Place, Samuel French Festival, and the Center at West Park. Artist-in-residence at Montclair State University New Works Initiative and Baryshnikov Arts. She has worked as an associate director for Lila Neugebauer, Annie-B Parson, and Lee Sunday Evans on productions at Playwrights Horizons, Playmakers Rep, Abrons Arts Centre, and Carolina Performing Arts, and is an associate Artist with Big Dance Theater.

Her work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, and the Puffin Foundation. She also researches and writes about crypto culture, performance art, and theatre, and her SSHRC-funded dissertation received the Alumni Dissertation Award. BFA and MA: NYU. PhD: University of Toronto. www.ilanakhanin.com