BIO

Marcella Murray is a New York-based theater artist from Augusta, Georgia. She is a playwright, performer, collaborator, and puppeteer. Murray’s work is heavily inspired by the observed ways in which people tend to segregate and reconnect. Her work tends to focus on themes of identity within a community and (hopefully) forward momentum in the face of trauma.

Performances include The Slow Room, a piece directed by Annie Dorsen at Performance Space New York; a workshop reading of Ocean Filibuster which was co-created by the team Pearl D’Amour (Lisa D’Amour and Katie Pearl) with composer Sxip Shirey at Abrons Arts Center; I Don’t Want to Interrupt You Guys which was created in collaboration with Leonie Bell and Hyung Seok Jeon during RAP at Mabou Mines; New Mony created by Maria Camia at Dixon Place; and Shoot Don’t Talk at St. Ann’s Warehouse/Puppet Lab created by Andrew Murdock.

Along with David Neumann, she recently co-created Distances Smaller Than This Are Not Confirmed (Obie Special Citation for Creation and Performance) which opened at Abrons Arts Center in January of 2020.

INSPIRED BY

Art and the art makers and the art lovers, community, Octavia Butler, idiosyncrasies, existential crises, mysteries, and the movie Twister

EXPLORING:

I think I want to continue developing a series of short plays that I've started. It's a series that seems to be about decay and family. Although, that could possibly change.

INSPIRATION FOR PROJECT:

Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, Francisco Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son, Iyaba Ibo Mandingo's The Gathering, Bisa Butler's The Warmth of Other Sons, African Diaspora Folktales, Janna Levin's Black Hole Blues, Afrofuturism, lineage, legacy, and stress dreams.