Creative Team — Mr. Burns, Post-Electric Play School Arts at Columbia University | MFA Directing

School of the Arts at Columbia University | MFA Directing Thesis
New York, NY
US

A Columbia MFA Directing thesis production of Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play by Anne Washburn, with score by Michael Friedman and lyrics by Anne Washburn, is seeking designers, a Music Director, and a Choreographer/Movement Director to join its creative team.

The production is directed by Emerson Haven as his MFA thesis project.

MR. BURNS: a Post Electric Play

Playwright:
Anne Washburn
Score:
Michael Friedman
Director:
Emerson Haven, MFA Directing ’27
Producer:
Maxwell Peters, MFA Theatre Management & Producing ’29
Production Stage Manager:
Andrea Sicoli, MFA Stage Management ’27

Currently seeking:

Design

• Scenic Designer
• Costume Designer/Builder
• A1
• Props
• Puppetry / Mask Designer

Music & Movement

• Music Director
• Choreographer / Movement Director

Artists working across multiple disciplines are welcome to indicate that in their submission.

ABOUT THE PLAY

After the world as we know it disappears, a group of survivors gathers around a fire and tries to remember an episode of The Simpsons. That act of remembering becomes something much larger. Over generations, fragments of television, music, advertising, memory, and performance are passed down, reshaped, and eventually transformed into a mythology of their own.

At its heart, Mr. Burns asks what happens to the stories we know when the world around them disappears, and why we keep telling them anyway.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

For this production, Emerson is interested in placing the play within a rural American landscape with subtle echoes of Appalachia. The location will never be explicitly named, but ideas of isolation, inherited traditions, resourcefulness, community, and a landscape that can feel both beautiful and unforgiving will quietly shape the world of the piece.

The play moves across three radically different periods of time, and each act changes the rules of the world being built. We’re interested in collaborators who want to dig into that transformation and explore how one theatrical language grows out of another.

There is room here for found and repurposed materials, pop culture, memory, handmade theatricality, music, ritual, spectacle, and design choices that feel accumulated, inherited, and altered over time.

Music and movement become increasingly important as the play moves from people trying to remember something they once knew into a fully realized theatrical tradition. We’re looking for a Music Director and Choreographer/Movement Director interested in building that musical and physical vocabulary alongside the company.

For the Music Director, experience with actor-musicians, vocal ensembles, unconventional or found instrumentation, or devised musical processes is especially welcome.

For choreography and movement, we’re interested in artists drawn to ensemble storytelling, ritual, physical vocabulary, and work that can evolve with the changing theatrical language of each act.

More than anything, we’re looking for collaborators with strong individual points of view who are also interested in building a shared theatrical language across departments.

The creative team will work closely with director Emerson Haven, MFA Directing ’27, producer Maxwell Peters, MFA Theatre Management & Producing ’29, Production Stage Manager Andrea Sicoli, MFA Stage Management ’27, and the larger production team throughout the process.

We welcome submissions from professional and emerging professional artists, including graduate-level artists and artists building their New York portfolios.

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

Venue:
Lenfest Center for the Arts, Manhattanville

Location:

New York, NY

Design Concepts Meeting:
January 5, 2027
Rehearsals:
Late January–February 2027
Tech:
February 26–March 3, 2027
Performances:
March 4–7, 2027

Compensation:
Up to $500

Submission at 11:59 PM ET

We strongly encourage submissions from artists of all backgrounds and identities. We want to build a room where people feel supported, respected, and comfortable bringing ambitious ideas to the table.