Welcome to (S)he: A Bequest

Fonder and Nielsen have collaborated within the world of devised theatre since 2015. Both NY transplants (Nielsen most recently completed a year at Copenhagen Film and Theatre School in Denmark, after receiving her BFA in Acting from  UMass) while Fonder is riding out the second half of the 2020 Pandemic creating socially distant compliant theatre in her alma mater’s city of Austin, TX where she attended St. Edward’s University and received her BFA in Performance and Psychology. The creative pair met after being cast in a production of Bertholt Brecht’s The 7 Deadly Sins, directed by Reykjavik Theatre Company’s Artistic Director: Paulina Jonsdottir; Under the guidance of SITI theatre Company’s Anne Bogart and Classic Theatre Company’s Brian Kulick. The two have been creating together ever since. Both Brooklyn based artists from 2016-2019; Fonder and Neilsen created a multidisciplinary piece, 5.6.7.Intention, that premiered in Midtown at The Tank in 2017. (S)he was born from the pair’s own struggles and fears associated with being dancers who act and sing and whose bodies process sensory information first. The two see the world from a POV of how their bodies react to space. Having never seen a piece of theatre before devoting it’s energy to exploring this phenomenon; the pair set out to make it themselves. 3 years later, after research and development, 2 readings, 3 books (Trauma and Recovery, The Body Keeps The Score, and It Didn’t Start with You) the playwrights now have a full original score, original movement, and a full script in 3 parts. Stay tuned for the next stages as Fonder and Neilsen start applying for residencies to pay their actors and begin to get this labor or love on its feet and breath.

-* Fonder and Nielsen have pulled directly from their own familial and personal traumas from childhood neglect and abandonment, to sexual abuse to create a piece based in truth and painted in a light that gives voice to those who have also felt voiceless or ignored by their societies/families.*-