The Solo Project Fund
Initiated in 2018, The Solo Project Fund (SPF) seeks to support New York City-based performative artists who use comedy as the driving vehicle in their work and intend to explore humor in a long-format context. The Fund was originally designed to award grants to performers to produce a live, solo work of 45 - 90 minutes in length at the Wild Project theater in the East Village, New York City, where the grant is currently housed.
2022 Grant Recipient
Anni will perform Glaciers on Friday, April 1st, 2022 at Wild Project theater.
Anni Rossi
Anni Rossi is a songwriter, producer, performer and multi-instrumentalist from Minnesota based in Brooklyn. Her work draws from disparate styles and is influenced by her love of pop music as well as her classical background and study of experimental composition and improvisation. She often plays hybrid electric viola-tars built out of tree branches by collaborator THOR HARRIS (Swans).
While a significant body of her work has been released through more conventional musical platforms such as record labels 4AD and TOO PURE, Rossi continues to expand her frame of expression.She's been known to integrate characters and prank phone calls into her mixtapes, performances and recent video collage House Of Rossi.
She collaborated with Marxist anthropologist Michael Taussig as composer and performer of The Berlin Sun Theater at THE WHITNEY she also performed at the NEW YORK BUTOH FESTIVAL in 2019.
2021 Grant Recipients
In December of 2020, SPF joined forces with Wild Project to co-produce FOLLOWSPOT, a series of digital performance projects intended to bring awareness and support to the community theater, which struggled to keep it’s doors open during Covid-19, as well as allow artists to get back to the process of making. #SaveWildProject!
Production grants were awarded to the the following artists to produce a 30 - 60 minute “special” which will debuted on Wild Project’s V.O.D. channel, wildprojectTV, in March and April of 2021. Series Photography by Eric McNatt.
BECCA BLACKWELL
Becca Blackwell is an NYC-based trans actor, performer and writer. Existing between genders, and preferring the pronoun "they," Blackwell works collaboratively with playwrights and directors to expand our sense of personhood and the body through performance. Blackwell was a recipient of the Doris Duke Impact Artist Award, the Franklin Furnace award and the Creative Capital Award. Collaborating with Jess Barbagallo (Director) and Nick Zeig-Owens (DP/Editor).
BRANDON COLLINS
Brandon Collins — unfiltered, uninhibited, and always authentic — is both a versatile stand-up veteran of MTV, VH1, and CollegeHumor, and the raucous co-host of celebrated film podcast Medium Popcorn. Hailing from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Collins was shaped by the liberal college mecca’s embrace of creative expression. A 2004 move to New York resulted in a blooming career in producing comedy showcases, hosting podcasts and interviewing celebrities for AAFCA (African American Critics Association). Collaborating with Ian Havens (DP/Editor).
MANNING JORDAN
Manning Jordan is a published monologist, comedian, and playwright. She is published in Rowman and Littlefield, Inc. entitled 100 MONOLOGUES FROM NEW PLAYS 2020 – WOMEN. Her monthly show is at Brooklyn Comedy Collective and called Monologues with Manning. As a playwright, Manning has self produced five plays, three of which were in Fringe’s FRIGID festivals for three consecutive years (2017, 2018, 2019). She has had two plays go up at Dixon Place, Les Museums July 2019, and The Brewery in March of 2020. Her work has been shown at Dixon Place, The Kraine Theater, Manhattan Rep, Theater Under St. Marks, Vital Joint, The Footlight and more. Collaborating with Ryan Leach (Director) and Hil Steadman (DP/Editor).
PAUL SOILEAU
Paul Soileau is a performer engaged in numerous creative disciplines carving paths to connect his art to the world. His work infiltrates institutions, breaks down social norms, shatters expectations of respectable living, and encourages spiritual surrender to space. He has gathered critical acclaim for his high-octane, radical creative vision/persona, CHRISTEENE, which presents itself as a volatile host thinning the veil between truth and illusion and functioning as a mythological trickster and spiritual/metaphysical conduit to the masses through music and imagery. Collaborating with Roddy Bottum and Frank Haines (Co-Creators/Performers) and Brendan McGowan (DP/Editor).
2020 Grant Recipients
Grants were awarded to the the following artists to use as they like during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hannah Hiaasen
Hannah Hiaasen is an interdisciplinary artist whose work interweaves performance and textiles. Their performances have shown nationally and internationally, exhibiting at Freie Universitat, Berlin, Germany (2015), Yale School of Art (2016), New Haven, CT, and a 14-city, cross-mid-country tour with NY-based performer Jennifer Vanilla (2018). In 2016, they began a conceptual workwear collection called Ventilated Workwear that has been collected privately and publicly. In 2019, Ventilated Workwear was published into a Ventilated Workbook by Press Press Baltimore, released at NYABF 2019, and then collected by the Whitney Archives. A Baltimore expat, they currently live and work in Brooklyn, NY. (Image: Lee Ash)
Francesca D’Uva
Francesca D'Uva is an experimental comedian living in Brooklyn. She has performed in venues including MoMA PS1, Ars Nova, and Mercury Lounge. She has also performed hour length multi-media performances at Dixon Place and at Union Hall.
Becca Blackwell
Becca Blackwell is a NYC based trans actor, performer and writer. Existing between genders, and preferring the pronoun "they," Blackwell works collaboratively with playwrights and directors to expand our sense of personhood and the body through performance. Some of their collaborations have been with Young Jean Lee, Half Straddle, Jennifer Miller's Circus Amok, Richard Maxwell, Erin Markey, Sharon Hayes, Theater of the Two Headed Calf and Lisa D'Amour. Film/TV includes: High Maintenance, Marriage Story, Shameless, Deadman's Barstool, and Jack in the Box. Becca is a recipient of the Doris Duke Impact Artist Award and Creative Capital.
Origins
Comedic performers who want to create theatrical work beyond the stock 15-minute stand-up routine face challenges in finding the preparatory support available to more traditional theater makers. Long-being some of the most nuanced performers, the contexts in which they create and perform often dictates their work is temporal by default instead of by choice. This creates a cap in the creative landscape for performers who blur the line between stand-up and theater, comedy and art. SPF seeks to provide these artists the time, space, feedback, and technical support necessary to dive deeper into their material and create lasting and impactful works of art.
Intent
Enforce preparation and goal setting as a creative tools.
Pay performers a fair wage for their work separate from their abilities to self-promote, market, and sell tickets.
Offer self-produced performers the rare opportunity to work with an industry-recognized director/mentor.
Continue the longstanding tradition of comedians producing ground-breaking, alternative performance work.
Recipients Receive
Guaranteed Performance Stipend
Dedicated Director/Mentor Stipend
Generous Ticket Split
Theater Tech Assistance
Dedicated In-theater Rehearsal
Marketing Stipend
Industry and Personal Comps
To Apply
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Required components of the application include: Contact Information, Project Title, Short Description, Performance Video (examples of previous work), Resume/Bio. Optional components include: Website, Press, Budget, and Images. For any questions regarding the Solo Project Fund and/or the application process, please contact the project administrator at soloprojectfund@gmail.com.
Eligibility
Solo Project Fund supported artists are non-student, vocationally-driven performers who actively generate new original work, maintain creative control in the creation of their work, and create works that are authentic, boundary-pushing, compelling, distinct, engaging, imaginative, rigorous, and well-executed.
Questions
For any questions regarding the Solo Project Fund and/or the application process, please contact the project administrator at soloprojectfund@gmail.com
Privacy Policy
Unless otherwise specified herein, The Solo Project Fund will not disseminate personal information obtained from artists, donors, and others without their permission. As a condition of funding, recipients of funding from Solo Project Fund must permit Solo Project Fund to publicize their names and documentation of their projects.