UPCOMING Events

“ART IS NOT A LUXURY. ART IS A NECESSITY.” - JAMIE LEONARD

TWO COMEDIC SOLOS

In Two Comedic Solos one extraordinary dancer plus one out of this world singer add up to one night only of hilarious comedy in this shared bill of a lifetime! Marlina Devery stars in Old Soul: a comedic solo about a young woman with a nursing home day job and Rat Pack dreams, who swears she will be the biggest crooner in the world, written by Marlina Devery with music and lyrics by Devery and John Coyne. Jamie Graham dazzles with eccentric dancing and physical comedy in Tippy Topwell: Dances Around the Subject, a show about putting your best foot forward even when you get it stuck in the door, created in collaboration with Virginia Scott and featuring John Coyne on every instrument we can talk him into playing. 

John Coyne is a musical theatre songwriter, performer, multi-instrumentalist and dramatist interested in the bizarre intersection of alt-comedy, physical theatre, and musical theatre. His music has been heard at 54 Below, Chelsea Table+Stage, Greenroom 42, Musical Theatre West, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and all the other usual spots. Off-Broadway: Krymov Lab NYC's Metamorphoses (Actor, Musician), BEDLAM's Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet (Performer, Original Music). He is currently working on an adventurous adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway. John is a nominee for the 2023-2024 Marvin Hamlisch International Music Award. BFA: Pace University. johncoynejohncoyne.com

Marlina Devery is an actor, writer, and director based in NYC (technically Jersey City, but who’s counting???) A proud member of AEA, she has performed in several off Broadway productions at Classic Stage Company, 59E59 Theaters, The Players Theatre, and Theatre Row. Her original films “Wooly” and “Control” are available on YouTube (make sure not to skip the ads before, because she might be in one!) Some recent commercial credits include Wawa, Homegoods, Preen Weed Spray, Cheez Doodles, José Cuervo, and Force Factor to name a few! Pace University BFA Acting/Devised Performance Ensemble. 

Mikayla Luchun is a Brooklyn based actor, writer, and producer who loves to laugh. Most recently, she wrote, co- executive produced, and starred in her short film Cast Party - an ensemble comedy about theater kids. She is a co-founder of Big Sturdy Book Productions, a women-led production company that supports innovative and comedy-forward scripts and pieces. You can otherwise find her doing improv with her team LIPGLOSS at Brooklyn Comedy Collective, or acting in indie theater productions around the NYC scene. She loves Old Soul, and is just honored to be here, seriously! Other directing/creative credits include — Gruesome Playground Injuries (Cabaret Theater), Creative Coordinator (Livingston Theater Company) and more! She holds a BA in Journalism and Media Studies with a double minor in Creative Writing and Gender & Media Studies from Rutgers University. 

A native Nashvillian, Jamie Graham is a dancer, improvisor and physical comedienne based in Brooklyn, NY. This will be her fourth summer at The Visionary -- you may recognize her as Loner or from last year's Click Your Heels Three Times, Ulysses. Jamie is one half of dance comedy improv duo The Raving Jaynes (who have toured to improv festivals around the world!) and a founding member of Virginia Scott's company SomeClowns (who have toured to the far corners of NYC!). Past work includes ongoing performance in Third Rail Projects’ award winning immersive theater experience Then She Fell as well as 10+ years with Jenny Rocha’s Painted Ladies and Rocha Dance Theatre and in project-based work with Barbara Mahler. She completed her B.F.A. in Dance and B.A. in English Literature at Webster University, St. Louis, a year of post-graduate dance at CODARTS, Rotterdamse Dansacademie, and a M.A. in Applied Physiology at Teachers College, Columbia University. jamiegraham.live

Virginia Scott teaches, directs and devises comedy of all kinds including clown, commedia, bouffon, treteaux, physical comedy and stand-up. Shows Virginia has directed and/or devised have appeared in New York at The Irish Repertory Theatre, Ars Nova Mainstage, 59E59, The Zipper Theatre, UCB, The PIT, Nuyorican Poet’s Café, The New York Fringe Festival and the International Clown Festival, The US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, The Comedy Central Theatre, The Hollywood Fringe and UCB LA in Los Angeles, and internationally at The Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh, The Centaur Theatre in Montreal and the Grahamstown International Festival in South Africa.

Virginia is a co-founder of the Funny School of Good Acting where she taught clown, commedia and bouffon. Her book Discovering the Clown: The Funny Book of Good Acting was recently published by TCG. In 2018 Virginia created The Commedia Company, which performs contemporary, original commedia shows. In Los Angeles Virginia created the bouffon troupe, Les Enfants Maudit, who began stirring up trouble and taking on power in reaction to the US election of 2016. Now she makes Fizgig Studio.

Virginia teaches/taught clown, commedia, bouffon, play, physical acting, and all that kind of wiggling it around at schools such as The Juilliard School, A.C.T. (MFA), Tisch School of the Arts at NYU: International Theatre Workshop in Amsterdam, Meisner Studio and Open Arts Studio, Pace University, Marymount Manhattan College, U.S.C. (MFA), Movement Theatre Studio, The Michael Howard Studio, Stella Adler Studio, The Clown School, The Idiot Workshops and Berg Studio.

PHYSICAL COMEDY, STORYTELLING

AUGUST 22, 2025 7:00 PM

Godsent

A WORDS TO STAGE PRODUCTION

DIRECTED AND CHOREOGRAPHED BY BEATRICE GEORGALIDIS

ORIGINAL WRITTEN WORKS, CHOREOGRAPHY, ADDITIONAL DIRECTION AND PERFORMANCE BY CAMPBELL COLBY

ORIGINAL WRITTEN WORKS, CHOREOGRAPHY, ADDITIONAL DIRECTION AND PERFORMANCE BY MARK CONKLIN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JASON LAUTRUP

PRODUCER & AERIAL RIGGER: JAMIE LEONARD

PRODUCER & PRODUCTION SUPPORT: PAMELA RAPP

DANCE, AERIAL ARTS, VIDEOGRAPHY AND STORYTELLING

JUNE 21, 2025 7:00 PM

Words to Stage is a flexible format of creative workshops which culminates in a staged performance. GodSent is the inaugural representation of this concept, featuring original dance, ballet, aerial arts, videography and storytelling.

Directed and choreographed by Beatrice Georgalidis, the multidisciplinary performance includes original written works and additional choreography and direction by Campbell Colby and Mark Conklin, with collaborating special guests including Jason Lautrup of Out of the Darkness Lifestyle Photography. The show is a culmination of a series of creative and personal processing workshops led by Georgalidis, in collaboration with her studio, Fly Creek Aerial Yoga, and The Visionary. She invited Conklin and Colby to collaborate with her when their artistry in the silk during regular classes inspired Georgalidis to return to the stage after a twenty year hiatus. Lautrup joined midway through to contribute his lens. Georgalidis is a veteran of arts education curation with decades of non profit arts and media experience (MTV, VH1, Sundance Channel, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Lake Arts Project and Feast of Crispian). Words to Stage workshops include deep dives into interdisciplinary arts training such as the visual fine arts, music, the history of the theatre as a medicinal practice in ancient Greek time, and the craft of storytelling (Aristotle’s Poetics; Joseph Campbell). Personal processing asks all participants to explore their independent landscape to bring forth useful discoveries for the viewer to consume and digest. The process then continues on through to the audience. The great hope is that everyone will want to get a piece of pie after the show and talk about the play, and how it made them feel; what discoveries were made in their own worlds. Lautrup joined midway through to contribute his lens. Words to Stage workshops include deep dives into interdisciplinary arts training such as the visual fine arts, music, the history of the theatre as a medicinal practice in ancient Greek time, and the craft of storytelling (Aristotle’s Poetics; Joseph Campbell). Personal processing asks all participants to explore their independent landscape to bring forth useful discoveries for the viewer to consume and digest. The process then continues on through to the audience. The great hope is that everyone will want to get a piece of pie after the show and talk about the play, and how it made them feel; what discoveries were made in their own worlds. GodSent is an homage to Samuel Beckett’s one act play, Catastrophe. Beckett wrote the short play in 1982 about control and censorship and dedicated it to the Czech dramatist Vaclav Havel who at the time was languishing in prison for daring to challenge the authorities with his work. GodSent explores themes of power, dehumanization, oppression, control, and the healing that can occur if the right tools are embraced and put into practice. The tradition of Absurdism is celebrated: the narrative leans on movement and imagery, inviting the viewer to explore through their own lens, what the story means to them, instead of being presented with a linear narrative. What this all means is that the trio will do what every other artist has ever done; tell their story, in their own way. Specific details of personal history are not shared; the artists hope the audience will come to reflect upon their own life experiences through the arc of the words brought to the stage by way of movement, sound, and imagery

 Campbell Colby is a classically trained ballerina and has danced with many esteemed ballet schools around the country. Performing on stages from Lincoln Center to small historic theaters, Campbell has trained in both Balanchine and Russian techniques with the aspiration and dedication of becoming a professional ballerina. With similar determination, Campbell stepped away from her pointe shoes in 2020 at the beginning of lockdown and instead set her sights on writing, a passion that helped carry her through all her years as a dancer. Her first novel was completed in April of 2024. Continuing her love for dance, Campbell teaches at the Bronxville Ballet for pre-K and kindergarteners. Helping little girls to discover their own love for ballet and encouraging them to believe that with enough passion, anything is possible. She began training with Beatrice Georgalidis at Fly Creek Aerial Yoga in the fall of 2024, where her love for the aerial arts was discovered. GodSent unites all of her passions; ballet, dance, the written word, and her silk.

In 2024, Mark Allen Conklin, Jr. returned to Otsego County where eight generations of Conklins have been born and raised. He was educated in the ‘School of Hard Knocks’ and is considered an expert in real-life challenges, setbacks and hardships. He credits his resiliency and adaptability to his upbringing as a military brat. Mark values health, honesty, growth, integrity and above all else family. By trade he is an accomplished house painter demonstrating a high level of expertise. By passion he is a physical culturalist. In June 2025 he will be NASM certified in Personal Training. And, he will begin his 200 hour YTT. He began training in aerial at Fly Creek Aerial Yoga in October 2024, where he is presently a Teacher’s Assistant for the Bassett Hospital Resident Workshops. Mark's favorite authors include Thích Nhất Hạnh, Alan Wilson Watts, Paul Waggener. As a side hustle Mark is a team member of Carry On Ritchie, INC. Yes, it takes a village. And, for mindless fun he enjoys watching Kung Fu movies with Mr. Bean. Mark’s current life goal for 2025 is to keep a plant alive for 365 days. Mark courageously places himself in this uncomfortable situation in honor of his two teenage daughters, Killian and Brennan. He dedicates this performance to the brothers he left behind as a message of HOPE.

Jason Lautrup is a dynamic and multifaceted professional whose journey spans service, endurance, and creativity. Currently serving as the Facilities Director at the Norwich Family YMCA, Jason brings a wealth of experience drawn from a diverse background that includes work as a U.S. Navy helicopter electrician, over-the-road truck driver, and firefighter. Born in Denver, Colorado, Jason has traveled extensively through Eastern Asia and Australia, and lived in Japan - experiences that have shaped his global perspective and deepened his appreciation for resilience and adaptability. A lifelong athlete and competitor, Jsson has played rugby, completed multiple marathons, and taken on ultra-endurance challenges including a 300-mile adventure race across Florida. He is currently training for his most ambitious goal yet: a 200-mile ultramarathon. He also trains in Brazilian Jiujitsu and embraces physical and mental discipline as a lifestyle. In addition to his professional and athletic pursuits, Jason is an accomplished photographer with a passion for capturing life’s raw, authentic moments - particularly those tied to sport, struggle and triumph. Driven by a hands-on ethos and commitment to growth, Jason blends grit, service, and creativity in all he does.