HALF STRADDLE is an Obie-winning, New York City-based ensemble of performers and designers that make plays, performances, videos, and music led by writer and director Tina Satter that have been seen through the United States and internationally.
Half Straddle has premiered 10 full-length shows, and a number of shorter works and video projects that have been seen at festivals and theaters throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Asia.
In October 2019, the critically acclaimed Is This A Room, a show conceived of and directed by Tina Satter and starring Becca Blackwell, Emily Davis, Pete Simpson, and TL Thompson, with costumes by Enver Chakartash, was the company’s Off Broadway debut at the Vineyard Theatre. The show had premiered at The Kitchen in January 2019. In 2014, Half Straddle’s show House of Dance was nominated for a ZKB Patronage Prize at Zürcher Theater Spektakel.
The company began in 2008 and received their Obie Award grant in 2013.
All of Half Straddle’s company members and collaborators work extensively in a range of other performance contexts, often creating their own work, in avant-garde theater to Broadway, to university teaching and as theater artists in NYC public schools.
In New York City, the company’s work has been presented at The Kitchen, New York Live Arts, New Museum, Danspace, Performance Space New York (formerly PS122), Bushwick Starr, HERE Arts Center, Dixon Place, American Realness at Abrons Arts Center, COIL Festival, Ice Factory Festival, and PRELUDE Festival.
THE COMPANY* AND COLLABORATORS
Performers:
Jess Barbagallo*, Eliza Bent*, Becca Blackwell*, Nikki Calonge, Emily Davis*, Elizabeth DeMent, Jim Fletcher, Chris Giarmo*, Amber Gray, Erin Markey*, Paul Pontrelli, Kourtney Rutherford, Kristen Sieh, Pete Simpson, Julia Sirna-Frest*, Susie Sokol, Lucy Taylor, T.L. Thompson, Adrienne Truscott
Designers:
Ilan Bachrach, Elliott Cennetoglu, Enver Chakartash*, Thomas Dunn, Chris Giarmo*, Chris Kuhl, Parker Lutz, Erin Markey*, Andreea Mincic, Hanna Lea Novak, Naomi Raddatz*, Randi Rivera*, Sanae Yamada, Zach Tinkelman*
OUR COMMITMENT
A Commitment to Anti-Racism
Dear, Friends:
All of us as a company of Half Straddle are incensed and heartbroken by the ongoing murder of black people by police in the United States—and understand this kind of violence comes out of insidious and very deep systemic racism and white supremacy that we are implicated in and part of as a primarily white company. We stand with and have joined the protesters in this moment sparked by the horrendous death of George Floyd.
Additionally, as a company and individuals we are committing to doing the ongoing personal, company, and community anti-racist work necessary to break down this systemic toxicity that allow both these ongoing tragedies and the daily racism that black people live in and with. We are also putting efforts and support towards the goal of defunding the police.
BLACK LIVES MATTER
A few of the organizations we have given to working towards these ends that we recommend if you want to donate:
Communities United Against Police Brutality
Together towards dismantling white supremacy.
Tina Satter and Half Straddle