As we get our feet under us on steemit, we want to take the time to share our mission and history as an artist collective so that you can know us better -- and know what to expect from the community we build here!
Our Mission & History
OUR MISSION The New Alchemists make experiential, multidisciplinary performances that bring stories that need to be told to life with courage, compassion, humanity, and heart.
OUR GOAL is to demonstrate the transformative power of art and performance to model better solutions for an equitable future while building empathy.
OUR TARGET AUDIENCE is an inclusive community of intersectional artists, collaborators, and free thinkers.
The New Alchemists formed in 2015 out of a long-time partnership between Artistic Director/director Lily Raabe (she/her), Creative Director/composer Ahmed Alabaca (he/his), and Literary Director/playwright Lavinia Roberts (she/her), who found a creative soul-mate in Artistic Producer/scenic designer Brandon Estrella (he/his).
Ahmed, Lavinia, and Lily worked extensively together in New York producing original new works for festivals and venues across the city. In particular, their work EATEN VOICES won “Best Play in Festival”, and a $5,000 cash award, at the 2013 Thespis Theatre Festival.
Remounted in 2015, EATEN VOICES made its West Coast premiere at the Arts in Nature Festival in Seattle, WA. This also marked the first project produced by The New Alchemists as a newly formed LLC in Washington State.
OUR DREAM is to be a collective of artists living and working anywhere we choose, who support one another's creative projects, and collaborate freely with one another to create the art we want to see in the world.
In this model we each play an artistic and an administrative role so that there is always a balance and appreciation for both sides of our business practices.
Since 2015 The New Alchemists have each continued to pursue an outstanding roster of individual work (watch out for posts highlighting each of our members over the next few weeks)! Additionally, we have been working together to curate an annual program with the East Hawai'i Cultural Center that we launched in 2017 -- more details coming soon!
The cast of Painted Woman, an improvised rock musical devised by Lily and Ahmed, and photographed by our dear friend Issa Luckett in 2013
Our Core Values
Be Equitable & Diverse: We are strengthened by inclusion and diverse perspectives. We acknowledge, celebrate, and promote the full range of human experiences.
Be Built for Communities: We want our work to reflect our community, and we want to include them in the process.
Be Transformative: We want to model and mentor better solutions to share resources, take risks, and be vulnerable in our humanity.
Be Experiential & Non-traditional: The passive audience/art binary relationship is tired. We believe that new forms of creativity should be practiced, and that the audience should be an active participant in the creative process when possible.
Start Conversations: We want our work to inspire and activate our audiences.
That's all for now! We'll be featuring each of our founding members over the next few weeks AND introducing our new steemit members!! We'll also be rolling out some regular steemit programming, so stick around.
JOIN THE NEW ALCHEMISTS DISCORD CHANNEL --> It’s for artists and creative minds of all backgrounds!
Hi friend! Thanks for stopping by, I’m really glad you’re here!
I’m an artist, writer, and creative consultant based in the Pacific Northwest. I'm also the Artistic Director of The New Alchemists! You can check out my intro post, read more about the theatre projects I work on, or follow me! I’m especially interested in finding other performing artists on this site. If that’s you, please say hello! See you around the steemosphere! @lilyraabe