Jest
JEST is an exploration of contemporary femininity, depression, moon cycles, overwhelming sense of impending doom, ritual and witchiness, the color blue, walking bass lines, uncomfortability, snow, and isolation. It’s deeply personal to Katie Rose McLaughlin, part her coming out story and part exploration of the four weeks she was locked in a government quarantine in South Korea and created an alter ego named Princess Quarantine.
JEST was first created through a month-long residency at the Chautauqua Institution (Chautauqua, NY) in 2021 with generous support from the Mental Insight Foundation and performed by Emily Pacilio and Veronica Jiao with sound design by Gavin Price.
In 2022 the Strand Theater commissioned and presented a further workshop of JEST.
JEST will premiere in Fall 2024.
HOPE’S EXIT
Lead Artist, Choreography & Co-Direction by Katie Rose McLaughlin
Co-direction by Dan O’Neil
Dramaturgy by Joshua William Gelb
Featuring performances by Emily Craver, Emily Pacilio, Victoria Roberts-Wierzbowski, Mary Kate Sickel, and Kaitlyn Gillilan
Commissioned and presented by the 2016 Target Margin Lab at HERE Arts Center and subsequently performed at the Exponential Festival in 2017
Check out the NYT Critic’s Pick Review: Cheering Up Eugene O’Neill With Song, Dance and Puppets