About The Staten Island Dialogue Project
The Staten Island Dialogue Project is a documentary theatre project that utilizes personal narrative and community building to bring Staten Islanders from different political backgrounds together. Through the use of interview and devising techniques, Staten Islanders of voting age (as of election day 2020) will rehearse and perform in a theatrical reading for the wider Staten Island community. The Staten Island Dialogue Project aims to begin a process of healing and understanding in our divided political climate through the sharing and receiving of stories. Using personal experience and narrative as the starting point for generating dialogue and understanding.
The Creators
CARRIE ELLMAN-LARSEN (Director/Documentary Theatre Creator) is a born and raised New Yorker. She studied drama and psychology at NYU where she received her BFA in Drama. She attended the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting for her conservatory training and is proud to be a classically trained actress. Carrie is now a theatre artist specializing in theatre for social change, literacy and curriculum connection through theatre. particularly forum theatre, process drama and interview based/documentary theatre. Carrie received an MA in Applied Theatre from the CUNY School of Professional Studies in 2011. She has been a teaching artist and applied theatre practitioner since 2004, working for arts organizations such as The Theater Development Fund, The Center for Arts Education, Arts Connection, The Museum of the City of New York, People's Theatre Project and The Roundabout Theater Company. Carrie is passionate about the way theater can be used to empower individuals and communities to rehearse and implement change in their lives and engage them to be pioneers in their own learning and growth. Carrie's dream is to travel the world, turning people's stories into theatre. Visit Carrieellmanlarsen.com to learn more about her teaching artist and art education consulting work.
HELENE MONTAGNA (Production Assistant) has been involved in Staten Island community theatre for 35+ years. She is a playwright and director who has worked with many Staten Island theatre companies over the years. She also has stage managing and technical experience. Most recently, her original play Momentary Blindness was produced as part of the Women's Playwright Collective's Not Forgotten Play Festival at Snug Harbor in September. Past directing credits include David Mamet's Reunion, Arthur Miller's The Price, and Tennessee Williams' The Long Goodbye at Sea View Playwright's Theatre. Helene has also directed her own work on Staten Island: Don't Hang Up, The Placebo Effect, and and an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart, for which she received a Staten Island Arts grant for in 2015. Helene's first love is writing, she believes in the importance of storytelling that results from the human condition.