Aaron Landsman

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Aaron Landsman is a theater artist and teacher. His work includes site-specific productions in the kinds of places where people perform their lives: homes, offices, buses and meeting rooms, as well as more traditionally staged works. Landsman is an Abrons Arts Center Social Practice Artist-in-Residence,  a 2017-18 Guggenheim Fellow in Theater, a former Arts Fellow and current Visiting Lecturer at Princeton, and the 2013-15 Gammage resident artist at ASU Gammage. His recent projects have been presented in New York at Abrons Art Center, The Chocolate Factory Theater, EMPAC, and HERE Art Center. From 2012-14 his participatory theater work City Council Meeting, created with Mallory Catlett and Jim Findlay, was presented in Houston, Tempe, New York, San Francisco and Keene, NH, with funds from NPN, NEFA’s National Theater Project, MAP, Jerome and LMCC. He is currently in year three of a 20-year art and activism project about gentrification called Perfect City, which is being funded by LMCC, the Rubin Foundation, Graham Foundation, Abrons Arts Center, and 200+ Kickstarter donors. He was recently commissioned by Gaudeamus Musikweek to write the libretto for the new music-theater work Follow, composed by Igor Silva and performed by Ensemble Klang with vocalist Stephanie Pan. Follow toured the Netherlands and Portugal in Fall 2021. Landsman is making a new pair of performance works with The Chocolate Factory, as well as a multi-media encounter about translation and oligarchy, in collaboration with Clarinda Mac Low and Lewis Center alum Ogemdi Ude, along with artists and activists in Serbia and Nigeria. In addition to Princeton, he has taught at Juilliard, NYU, and Bard, and guest lectured at many schools. He co-created and continues to teach professional development workshops through the Creative Capital Foundation. As a performer, Landsman worked for ten years with Elevator Repair Service Theater, with whom he performed at The Public, New York Theater Workshop, and on tour in the US, Europe, UK and Australia. He also appeared with Richard Maxwell, Tory Vazquez, Julia Jarcho and Andea Kleine. His writing is published or forthcoming in Theater, Ghost City Review, Hobart, Painted Bride Quarterly and other journals. Landsman's first book, The City We Make Together (co-authored with Mallory Catlett), was published in August 2022 by the University of Iowa Press.

Visit Aaron's artist website, or follow him on Twitter or Instagram @thinaar

Empathy School. Premiere of a new work at EMPAC, a collaboration with visual artist/filmmaker Brent Green in Troy, NY. October 4, 2014

Perfect City: Republic Of New York. Panel discussion in New York, part of the Crossing The Line Festival. October 6, 2014

City Council Meeting: Keene, NH. Performance and various other activities. October 29, 2014

Running Away From The One With The Knife. Premiere of new play at The Chocolate Factory Theater, Long Island City, NY. March 9-28, 2015

Love Story. Monologue with video, a collaboration with Janet Wong at ASU Gammage, Tempe, AZ. March 21, 2015 (Open rehearsals in November 2014 at Princeton)

Empathy School and Love Story: NYC premiere. At Abrons Playhouse, New York, New York. April 20-30, 2016

NYT Critics’ Pick. Review: ‘Empathy School & Love Story’ Plumbs the Varieties of Loneliness

Time Out New York. Review: Empathy School/Love Story

Love Story at Bard’s Focus Festival: Ritual and Capital; April 8-9, 2017

What Do You Avoid? Where Do You Belong? in the Architectural League’s Urban Omnibus, July 5, 2017.

“The arts take center stage in the entrepreneurial spotlight” | Princeton University news, Nov. 2, 2018

Gatz at McCarter Theatre Center, Feb. 15-17, 2019

Creative Residency at The Chocolate Factory Theater, January 27-February 16, 2020

Landsman commissioned by Gaudeamus Musikweek to write libretto for music-theater work Follow

Landsman receives BAC Open Artist Residency to develop Night Keeper | Baryshnikov Art Center, spring 2022

Landsman’s collective Perfect City awarded NEA Grant for new project Invisible Guides to be presented spring 2023 at Abrons | Abrons Art Center, February 2022

Publication: The City We Make Together (co-authored with Mallory Catlett) | University of Iowa Press, 2022

“We can transform local government by treating it as a kind of theater” by Aaron Landsman | The Washington Post, August 12, 2022

Grants for Perfect City at Abrons Arts Center:

• The Architectural League’s Architecture and Design Independent Project Awards
• The Mellon-funded Artist Employment Program, part of Creatives Rebuild New York

Civic theater, transforming local government and hope for democracy — START Entrepreneurship program at Princeton gives grant to project by Ebony Noelle Golden & Aaron Landsman | Princeton Entrepreneurship Council, September 2022