Troy Schumacher (director/choreographer) is a Bessie-nominated American choreographer, dancer, and director living in New York, NY. His athletic aesthetic draws upon the artists he collaborates with to produce fresh, unexpected results. He is a soloist dancer with New York City Ballet and the founder of BalletCollective. He has been dubbed a “visionary artist” by T Magazine and is “one of his generation’s most acclaimed choreographers” (PBS). Schumacher’s work has been presented by New York City Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Performa, Danspace Project, Guggenheim Works & Process, Guggenheim Bilbao, Peak Performances, the Joyce Theater, the Savannah Music Festival, and NYU Skirball Center, among others. He has collaborated with many artists including Jeff Koons, Karen Russell, Zaria Forman, Thom Browne, Ken Liu, Ellis Ludwig-Leone, Maddie Ziegler, and David Salle. In addition to live performances, Schumacher has choreographed numerous art, fashion and commercial shoots, including works for Google, Sony PlayStation, Capezio, HP, Aritzia, CR Fashion Book, Tom Ford, and The New York Times. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Schumacher created, directed, and produced the first live world premiere ballets in the US: the one act Natural History and the full-length Nutcracker at Wethersfield. For more info, visit troyschumacher.com

Karen Russell (book/lyrics) is the author of three acclaimed story collections, most recently Orange World and Other Stories, the novella Sleep Donation, and the novel Swamplandia!, a New York Times bestseller, winner of the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, one of the New York Times’ best books of 2011, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her recent work has been featured in the 2022 Best American Short Stories and the 2022 Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy anthologies and optioned for TV and film. She won the 2018 and 2012 National Magazine Award for Fiction, and was chosen for The New Yorker's "20 under 40" list and the National Book Foundation's 5 under 35 Award. She has received a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Bard Fiction Prize, and a Shirley Jackson Award. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, she now lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, son, and daughter.

Ellis Ludwig-Leone (music/lyrics) Lauded by The New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino for his “knack for simultaneously expressing beauty and crisis,” Ellis Ludwig-Leone’s music exists in the fine margins between euphoria and dread. Having come to international attention as the songwriter behind the celebrated band San Fermin, Ludwig-Leone has spent the last decade balancing his work as a songwriter with a robust career composing works for many of today’s contemporary classical luminaries. 

The 2022-23 season brings the premiere and album release of False We Hope, performed by the Grammy-winning Attacca Quartet and soprano Eliza Bagg (Roomful of Teeth); as well as the premiere of The Night Falls, with a libretto by Ludwig-Leone and Karen Russell (Swamplandia!), and direction and choreography from Troy Schumacher (New York City Ballet), at Peak Performances @ Montclair State University. This season will also see the premiere of Daphne, a musical drama for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus with a libretto by Russell; the premiere and subsequent European tour of “Past Life” for harpist Lavinia Meijer and violist Nadia Sirota; and the premiere of a new work for choreographer Danielle Rowe and the Grand Rapids Ballet. Together with his bandmate Allen Tate, Ludwig-Leone is a founding partner of Better Company Records, a Brooklyn-based label with an emphasis on collaboration. He is a recipient of residencies from MacDowell and Banff Centre for the Arts.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Stacey-Jo Marine - Production and Company Manager
Zachary Jenkins - Production Stage Manager
Beatrice Perez-Arche - Assistant Stage Manager
Kristen Segin - BalletCollective Artistic and Administrative Manager
Michael Breeden - Rehearsal Director
Elise Monson - Assistant Rehearsal Director
Lauren Koval - Production Assistant
Esther Bermann - Production Assistant

CREATIVE AND DESIGN TEAM

Composer and Co-Lyricist Ellis Ludwig-Leone
Librettist and Co-Lyricist Karen Russell
Director and Choreographer Troy Schumacher
Set Designer Jason Ardizzone-West
Associate Set Designer Kenny Duecker
Costume Designer Karen Young
Co-Lighting Designer Amith Chandrashaker
Co-Lighting Designer Abigail Hoke-Brady
Contributing Visual Artist Harold Garcia V
Projections Hannah Tran
Sound Designer Garth MacAleavey
Music Director Naomi Woo