TANYA BIRL-TORRES (DIRECTOR)

Tanya is an award-recognized choreographer, movement director, director, and cultural consultant known for emotionally charged storytelling, kinetic precision, and a deeply human approach to theatrical movement. Her work bridges classical technique, contemporary vocabulary, and character-driven physicality—using choreography as dramaturgy and movement as language.

She choreographed and served as movement director for the World Premiere of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Goodman Theatre), How I Learned What I Learned (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Peter and the Starcatcher (OSF), Twelfth Night (The Public Theater), The Red Letter Plays (Signature Theatre), As You Like It (The Guthrie Theater), and Cabaret (University of Michigan), among others. Her work is distinguished by its emotional architecture, muscular theatricality, and intimate attention to ensemble storytelling.

In 2024, Tanya was named a Hi-Arts Critical Breaks Artist in Residence. She was a 2023 MAP Fund and NoMAA grantee for her original choreo-play A Play in Three Movements, and a 2023 NewYorker4NY honoree recognized as one of the “Women breaking glass ceilings & exercising their voice in NYC & beyond.”

Tanya currently serves as the Social Practice Artist in Residence at The Shed in New York City, where she is directing, choreographing, and envisioning The Zora Project—a cosmic theatrical offering honoring the legacy of Zora Neale Hurston.

Respected for building collaborative rehearsal rooms grounded in rigor, generosity, and cultural fluency, Tanya’s work centers identity, resilience, and transformation. Whether staging Shakespeare, developing new musicals, or creating original interdisciplinary performance, she crafts theatrical experiences that move—literally and metaphorically—audiences and artists alike.

KENI B FINE (WRITER & CREATOR)

is a New York and Richmond based lyricist, composer, playwright, librettist, Broadway and off-Broadway producer and co-producer, attorney, member of the Dramatists Guild, and creator of the groundbreaking off-Broadway eco-musical ENDANGERED!

Keni believes in creating stories and spaces for the unearthing, invoking and awakening of foundational goodness with themes that are of a divine healing nature for people and the planet. 

Keni is also a seasoned solo theater artist who creates immersive, interactive, and transformational spaces as an actor, singer-songwriter, spiritual comedian and workshop leader, visual artist and filmmaker - Associate Producer and legal advisor to the film RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island, now streaming on Apple TV+ and Amazon.

A grateful and devoted father, son, brother, friend and yogi, Keni believes in the sanctity of the Earth and all life upon it, absolute equality for women, equal rights for everyone, towering tolerance, resounding respect, the Golden Rule, the sixth commandment, the Preamble and Posterity Clause of the Constitution, and the eternally joyful validity and dignity of the soul… and loves musical theater.