Click the link above to view the list of 2015 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council – Manhattan Community Arts Fund Grantees for Theatre
Click the link above to learn more about the Queens College Kupferberg Center for the Arts First Acts: Plays in Development Program.
Click here to learn more about our 2013 - 2015 Artists Residency at The Performance Project at University Settlement
Founded in 2009, Leviathan Lab is a tax exempt (501(c)3) not-for-profit creative studio whose mission is to invest in the advancement of Asian American performing artists and their work. Leviathan was founded with the goals of expanding the reach of Asian American artistic voices, and telling our stories to communities who haven't yet had the joy of experiencing them. Our projects – online, on film, and on stage – strive to include Asian Americans in the greater cultural conversation in innovative and dynamic ways: sexy, powerful, vital, and fun.
Prior to Flordelino Lagundino’s appointment as Artistic Director in 2014 and Alyssa Simmons appointment as Management Consultant in 2015, Leviathan was led by Founding Artistic Director Nelson T. Eusebio III (2009-2014; 2015 TCG Spark Leadership Program), and Founding Executive Director Ariel Estrada (2009-2015; 2014 Emerging Producers Program, Commercial Theater Institute).
Leviathan's projects include
- Main stage productions, workshops, and readings of classical theatre, new plays, and musical theatre
- Community-based and children's theatre
- Productions for film and online
Leviathan Lab’s film TWO WEEKS (2012; Directed by Rodney To, screenplay by Eileen Rivera, and starring Paolo Montalban, Tina Chilip, and Crystal Chiu) was the recipient of several national awards, including:
- Award of Merit: Asian American, December 2013.
Best Shorts Competition, La Jolla, CA - Official Selection, December 2013.
Facine Bente Film Festival, San Francisco, CA - Winner, National Short Film Competition, July 2013.
Opened nationwide for indie feature, I DECLARE WAR. - Film Festival Flix, Los Angeles, CA
Official Selection, June 2013 - Screen Actors Guild Foundation Short Film Showcase, New York, NY
Winner, Best Ensemble Cast, Short Film, Spring 2013 - Honorable Mention: Best Actor, Short Film (Paolo Montalban); Best Actress, Short Film (Crystal Chiu); Best Supporting Actress, Short Film (Tina Chilip); Best Director, Short Film (Rodney To); Best Short Film.
Asians on Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA
Leviathan Lab’s film YIELD (2012; Directed by Nelson Eusebio, screenplay by Kurt Uy, and starring Ali Ewoldt and Jojo Gonzalez) was designated as an Official Selection of of the 2014 Planet Connections Film Festival.
Leviathan Lab is a multi-year recipient of support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council-Manhattan Community Arts Fund. Our LMCC-MCAF supported projects include
- 2015: THE CHINATOWN KIDS PLAYMAKING PROJECT, a 10-week playmaking workshop for the 5th grade students of P.S. 124–YungWing School in Manhattan's Chinatown. The workshop was taught by the Co-Directors of Leviathan's Applied Theatre Initiative Lydia Gaston and Claro de los Reyes, with assistance by Jessica Anne Cox, Victoria Chau, and Ariel Estrada. The culmination of the workshop included three performances of JOURNEY TO THE WORLD OF PLAYWRITING performed by adult professional actors at P.S. 124 and the Asian American Writers Workshop.
- 2014: GHOST STORIES (October/November 2014), which will commission new musicals by Asian American composers and lyricists on the subject of ghost stories, curated by Leviathan Lab's Artistic Director Flordelino Lagundino and Musical Theatre Advisor Robert Lee, directed by B.D. Wong, and music directed by Andrew Wheeler, as part of The Performance Project at University Settlement's Performance Series
- 2013: THE CHINATOWN KIDS PLAYMAKING PROJECT, a 10-week playmaking workshop for the 5th grade students of P.S. 124–YungWing School in Manhattan's Chinatown. The workshop was taught by the Co-Directors of Leviathan's Applied Theatre Initiative Lydia Gaston and Claro de los Reyes, with assistance by Jessica Anne Cox and Ariel Estrada. The culmination of the workshop included three performances of JOURNEY TO THE WORLD OF PLAYWRITING performed by adult professional actors as part of The Performance Project at University Settlement's Performance Series.
- 2012: MIGRATION NATION a site-specific, interactive performance work about the experiences of Filipina overseas contract workers, curated by original Leviathan Lab artistic director Nelson T. Eusebio III, with original plays written by Leviathan Lab's Women Writers Workshop.
In March 2015, Leviathan Lab Writer-at-Large Nandita Shenoy, in association with Leviathan Lab, was awarded a Queens College Kupferberg Center for the Arts First Acts: Plays in Development Grant for her play ESSPY. As part of the development grant, the play received a fully funded reading at the Kupferberg Center, co-produced by Nandita and Leviathan.
From 2013 through 2015, LL was an artist-in-residence for the Performance Project at University Settlement, a social service organization for the communities on the Lower East Side. University Settlement Artists-in-Residence are selected because of the quality of their work and the open, welcoming nature of their process. Leviathan will work with U.S. to co-design community-based art experiences and projects.
Leviathan Lab is a member of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Prior to Leviathan Lab's March 2016 incorporation as 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, Fractured Atlas acted as the company's fiscal sponsor from 2009 to 2016.