Guild Hall Hosts HBAC Members for Juneteenth performance by Whitney White and Exhibition Tour by Melanie Crader
Writer, Performer, and Tony-Nominated Director Whitney White brings The Case of The Stranger to life in this new and original song cycle.
With a score rooted in soul, jazz, R&B, and diverse geographical soundworlds, The Case of the Stranger takes its title from a passage in Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas Moore — one of the earliest known pleas for a compassionate refugee policy. The piece explores themes of identity, migration, and the power of unexpected kinship.
Created by Whitney White, in partnership with Maxim Pozdorovkin with music direction by Ben Covello, this song cycle brings White’s signature style to the forefront, emphasizing the raw power of voice and sound in an intimate, deeply resonant experience.
Cast and Musicians to include Whitney White (Actor/Vocalist), Veronica Otim (Actor/Vocalist), Rotana Tarabzouni (Actor/Vocalist), Ben Covello (Keys & multi-instrumentalist), Clyde Daley (Trumpet), Emily Fredrickson (Trombone), Nathan Repasz (Percussion & multi-instrumentalist), Mohan Ritesma (Bass), and Harvey Valdes (Guitar, Oud).
A conversation will follow the program with Whitney White, Minerva Perez (Executive Director, OLA) and Oscar Molina (Artist), moderated by Monique Long (Curator / Residency Thought Partner).
The Case of The Stranger was developed as part of the 2024 Guild Hall William P. Rayner Artist-in-Residence program. This performance is presented in-association with Little Island.
WHITNEY WHITE
is an Obie and Lilly Award winning director, actor, and musician based in Brooklyn, New York. She is a Tony Award nominee, a recipient of the Susan Stroman Directing award, an Artistic Associate at the Roundabout and part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Her original musical Definition was part of the 2019 Sundance Theatre Lab, and her four-part musical exploration of Shakespeare’s Women and ambition is currently under commission with the Royal Shakespeare Company (UK).
She has developed work with: Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theatre, Ars Nova, The Drama League, Roundabout, New York Theatre Workshop, The Lark, The Movement, Jack, Bard College, NYU Tisch, Juilliard, Princeton, SUNY Purchase, South Oxford, Luna Stage and more.
Whitney was a staff writer on Boots Riley’s I’M A VIRGO (Amazon, Media Res).
Whitney is a believer in collaborative processes and new forms. Her musical discipline is rooted in indie-soul, and rock. She is passionate about black stories, reconstructing classics, stories for and about women, genre-defying multimedia work and film. Past fellowships include: New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellowship, Ars Nova’s Makers Lab, Colt Coeur and the Drama League. MFA Acting: Brown University/Trinity Rep, BA Political Science, Certificate in Musical Theatre: Northwestern University.
EXHIBITION TOUR WITH MELANIE CRADER
FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS: ARTIST-MADE FURNITURE
Sunday, May 4, 2025 – Sunday, July 13, 2025
“I started making couches about 1969 or 1970. I needed some place to sit down, which is the best reason for making them, I suppose.” —John Chamberlain.
Artists often come to be associated with specific mediums or bodies of work when in fact their practices are much more expansive. Visual artists are frequently also musicians, designers, performers, filmmakers, writers, furniture makers, and so on. An encounter with one of the couches made by John Chamberlain, an artist best known for his metal sculptures, can be surprising, but the reality is that artists integrate their studio practices into all their life activities.
This presentation focuses on East End artists who have produced functional furniture as an extension of their creative practices—as a means of problem-solving, as an element of designed living, and as a way to foster social spaces. Functional Relationships: Artist-Made Furniturepresents work by Scott Bluedorn, John Chamberlain, Liz Collins, Quentin Curry, Peter Dayton, Connie Fox, Kurt Gumaer, Mary Heilmann, Yung Jake, Donald Judd, Julian Schnabel, Karen Simon, Strong-Cuevas, Mark Wilson, Robert Wilson, Evan Yee, Nico Yektai, and Almond Zigmund.
In conjunction with Functional Relationships, Guild Hall commissioned two projects as further explorations of this common practice: Lindsay Morris’s photographs of interior spaces show how artists utilize furniture and shape their domestic environments, while Almond Zigmund’s installation Wading Room in the Marks Family South Gallery provides an artist-designed environment for activation through public use and a series of participatory programs.
This exhibition was organized by Melanie Crader, museum director and curator of visual arts, with Philippa Content, museum manager and registrar and Claire Hunter, museum coordinator and curatorial associate.
