Created by choreographer Charlotte Bydwell and playwright Diana Ly, Bodies, Bones, Blood: The Last Women in America is a new physical theater work that speaks to the rapidly deteriorating experience of being a woman in America. It follows the journey of four female-identifying archeologists, searching for an ancient artifact in an alternate future. This sought-after item has the power to bolster the narrative of the oppressive State or alternately, to justify the rising Rebellion. Each night, the women will be haunted by the spirits and memories that they’re digging up. Eventually, they discover an escape route, which creates fissures in the group as they must decide if it’s better to stay in their dystopia, or leap into the unknown.

We are thrilled to share that we have been granted a prestigious Baryshnikov Arts residency in NYC. During our two-week residency, we will be putting together a first draft of the work alongside a remarkable cast of actors and dancers. We will also be hosting a small industry presentation at the end with the hopes of finding further opportunities to develop the work.

Baryshnikov Arts has very generously awarded us the use of their beautiful studios from April 7th-19th, as well as a stipend and resources to present and document the piece. We’re raising funds to support the compensation for all the amazing artists who will be collaborating with us. If there’s room in your charitable giving this year to make a tax-deductible donation, your contribution will make a huge difference in the success of our residency!

FURTHER DETAILS ABOUT THE WORK:

This piece came to life as a way of expressing and externalizing the growing dread within us, as women’s rights in this country continue to be eroded. As we grapple with where the “line” is, how will we know when it’s no longer safe to be a woman in America? We, like many other women and marginalized people, grow more afraid with each escalation that we might become the “last Jews in Berlin,” who didn’t realize they needed to leave until it was too late.

As artists and collaborators, we are drawn to how the body remembers, what is retained in our bodies and our blood from our experiences, what we’ve inherited from our ancestors, and how we are affected by nature and the cosmos. Our early musings on this piece were inspired by Rilke’s essay Blood-Remembering, and the idea that memories must be “turned to blood within us” before they can make an impact on our current actions. Also by the potentially apocryphal quote of Margaret Mead that the first sign of civilization was a broken femur that healed, because it showed that someone else was there to care for the wounded.

Elements of how the work will look and feel include: dirt onstage, and women digging into this dirt; objects and people hidden in darkness; synchronized gesture in ritual; the evocation of ancient energy; masks to represent the mythical, dead, and infinite; the porous barrier between worlds; a seductive portal to a new reality.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Charlotte and Diana have been supporters of each other’s work since meeting during Charlotte’s rehearsals for Richard Nelson’s The Michaels Abroad at the Hunter Theater Project. They then collaborated as playwright and performer on Diana’s MFA thesis showcase, Walk Away, Anna May, and again for its developmental reading in NYTW’s Mondays@3 series. This would be their first collaboration as co-creators and co-directors.

Charlotte Bydwell holds a BFA in Dance from Juilliard and started her career dancing with Monica Bill Barnes & Co. and Keigwin + Co. She represented the USA and Canada as a DanceWebber at Vienna’s Impulstanz Festival. She also has an MFA in Acting from The Old Globe/USD Graduate Acting Program, and is a recipient of their Craig Noel Fellowship. Charlotte played Lucy Michael in Tony Award-winning playwright Richard Nelson's family plays The Michaels (Public Theater, Drama League Award nominee), The Michaels Abroad and Incidental Moments of the Day. Other favorite credits as a performer include: HELP (The Shed), A Month in the Country (Williamstown), Private Lives (The Cape Playhouse), and Much Ado About Nothing (The Old Globe).

Charlotte has been working as a choreographer for nearly two decades, with work Off-Broadway and at leading theaters around the country including the Old Globe, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Houston Grand Opera and the Cape Playhouse. She was the season choreographer for Comedy Central's series ALTERNATINO and for the National Tour of A Charlie Brown Christmas. She has created multiple pieces with the global advocacy organization Mighty Earth, blending dance with climate activism. Charlotte’s solo show, Woman of Leisure and Panic, was presented by the soloNOVA Festival, NY Fringe Festival, Exponential Festival, DanceNOW Raw at Gibney and Chashama in Anita’s Way (Times Square). It was nominated for a NY Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Performance Art Production. Her solo film, ‘The Nude Model’, premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe. She was a finalist for the Soho Writer/Director’s Lab in 2024 with playwright Diana Ly. Charlotte created ‘Moving into Language’, a movement-based approach to acting, and has taught at Juilliard, Limòn Dance Company, Gibney, Barnard, Peridance, NVA & Guests and HB Studio. She is on faculty at Stella Adler and The New Group/LIU BFA program.

Diana Ly is a Vietnamese-American screenwriter and playwright based in New York. She grew up as an expat in the Philippines before studying Computer Science at Stanford and subsequently working at Google. She recently completed the Universal Writers Lab, a yearlong mentorship program to develop a feature under the guidance of Universal Pictures. She’s currently a member of Orchard Project’s Greenhouse Lab. Her play Sex and the Abbey will have a production at the Brick in Summer 2024. Her work has been funded by NYSCA Support for Artists, and presented at NYTW’s Mondays@3 Series, LPAC+The Brick’s Rough Draft Festival, and Piper Theatre’s Spotlight Series. Diana was previously a Women in Film|Black List Feature Resident, a Project Involve Fellow at Film Independent, a member of the Sống Collective’s inaugural Việt Writers Lab and BMP: Producer Academy. She’s been a finalist for Playwrights’ Center’s Core Apprenticeship and the DGF Fellows Program, and advanced for the Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep and NYTW’s 2050 Fellowship. She received her MFA in Playwriting from Hunter College, under the guidance of Christine Scarfuto. Diana writes about women and people of color coming into their own power, agency and artistry.

*Cover Image by Mark Landon / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0

*Diana Ly's Headshot by Alexandra Bresnan Bronk

Bodies, Bones, Blood: The Last Women in America

By Bodies, Bones, Bloods: The Last Women In America

Bodies, Bones, Blood: The Last Women in America

A new physical theater piece by Charlotte Bydwell and Diana Ly

Team Members