Docbloc

Hi, Friends! @docblocprojects is publicly launching this fall with our inaugural Intergenerational Theatre Lab and “I Went to Paterson,” a documentary theatre piece about the opioid crisis in the USA. We are pleased to be supported by a fellowship through @socialpracticecuny and a grant from @psc_cuny . We are fiscally sponsored by @idaorg (The International Documentary Association). We are looking to expand our community and collaborate with folks doing similar work. If what we do seems interesting, reach out. We would love to meet, collaborate and conspire with you. Share with your friends and community. 📸❤️ #docblocprojects #documentarytheatre #nonfictiontheatre #nonfiction

We kicked off our Artist as Citizen Journalist initiative with a journalism workshop led by John Tarleton, Editor-in-Chief of The Indypendent (@theindypendent ). Our Citizen Journalist cohort will be covering the Rent Guidelines Board hearings over the next month by writing articles, taking photographs, and creating performance pieces. We’re excited to explore this collaboration between theatre makers and journalists. Cohort members: @lizjuneinbloom @monyakin @boosted_cola @karinajasmin_o_ 📸: @ashmarinaccio #citizenjournalist #docbloc #theindypendent

This week we’re sharing the new projects we are developing in the @bechdelproject FIFE CoHo Residency this summer. We’re excited to be working on “Play Without Ceasing” by Wren Phoenix and directed by @ashmarinaccio , which explores Christian Nationalism from the perspective of a preacher’s kid. We’re workshopping the script this summer and debuting the play in fall 2026. About the Artist: Wren Phoenix (they/them) is thrilled and honored to continue their collaboration with Dr. Ash Marinaccio and the DocBloc community. Wren is an award-winning, non-binary, neurodivergent, multi-hyphenate artist and arts educator based in New York City. As a performer, they relish devised work and specialize in quirky underdogs with a soulful soprano (a “Julie and Carol” special with a Jane Lynch edge). As a writer, they pen stories about magic, spirituality, queer identity and the EXvangelical experience. Their latest short film, “Counting”, won first place in the shorts category in the North by Northwest Micro-Budget Film Festival and Best Screenplay Award at the Fargo Moorhead LGBT Film Festival. Most recently, they were an inaugural member of DocBloc’s Intergenerational Theater Lab, and its devised piece, Now and Then and Now, was well-received at The Tank. A veteran performer with Frigid New York’s Living Radio, they’ve voiced and/or penned 100+ roles. Other favorites include Mrs. Ruthers in “Attackazoids, DEPLOY!” (Grand Prize Nominee, USA Film Festival), Iris in Children’s Letters to God (TYA National Tour) and Helena in A MidSummer Night’s Dream (Lucille Lortel). As an arts educator, Wren has co-created, adapted, and directed 100+ original short plays / film projects for and with K-8 children, including adaptations of both Shakespeare and musicals. In addition to their one-person show currently in development with DocBloc, Wren will also soon launch a podcast for ex-vangelical artists. A cum laude graduate of both Millikin University and The New School for Drama, Wren is a proud member of both Actor’s Equity Association and The Ring of Keys. #worksinprogress #nytheatre #newworks #docbloc

This week we’re sharing some of the new projects we’re working on in the FIFE coho Residency with @bechdelproject . We are thrilled to be developing WE RISE by aaron moore ellis (@mooreweirdwerds ) a documentary musical about the ICE Raids in Minneapolis, Minnesota. About the Creator: aaron moore ellis (they/them) has a PhD in Theater and Performance as well as a MA in Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy from Florida State University, in historic Anhaica (AKA Tallahassee, Florida). ellis is an activist/organizer and interdisciplinary artist, using community-based arts like applied theater, theater of the oppressed, ritual arts, and devised performance to address critical social justice issues; questions of faith, meaning, hope, and doubt; and to lift up the voices and stories of those most impacted by oppression and social injustice. ellis teaches and facilitates workshops widely in theater, social justice, and world religions at universities, conservatories, seminaries, community colleges, prisons, and in other community settings. ellis is program developer and grantwriter for Latinx, immigrant theater company, Descolonizarte Teatro, and a freelance facilitator of courageous conversations for the Peace & Justice Institute (on Timucua, Seminole, and Miccosukee lands, AKA Orlando, Florida); co-editor of the open-source, peer-reviewed Pedagogy and Theater of the Oppressed Journal; and serves on the Board of the National Queer Theater (Lenapehoking, AKA NYC). ellis splits time and work between Lenapehoking and Timucua, Seminole, Anais, and Miccosukee lands (Central Florida). #docbloc #worksinprogress #nytheatre

We are thrilled to announce our Artist as Citizen Journalist initiative, bringing together theatre makers and journalists in a shared act of civic reporting. Welcome @lizjuneinbloom , @karinajasmin_o_ , @boosted_cola , and @monyakin to the pilot cohort. @ashmarinaccio will facilitate. We’ll be collaborating with @theindypendent on this initiative and are grateful to @bechdelproject and @artny72 for financial and space support to get this off the ground. We look forward to sharing the work. ✍️🖤 #artistascitizenjournalist #citizenjournalist #docbloc #theindypendent #nytheatre

Last year's party was amazing and featured so many talented folks from the Bechdel Project community. Come revel with us May 2nd and meet some of our newest artists in residence! Full Line Up: @emmanuellezagoria   @shelley_burlesque @allyibach @anomalous_co @mmmlloyd @dejasolthedj @thestarchaeologist For one night, step into an immersive evening of art, ritual, and collective imagination where you’re not just watching, you’re participating. Move through spaces designed to help you see, hear, speak, and shape new narratives both individually and together. Dress Code: Dress in alignment with the world you want to live in. All-inclusive tickets include: Unlimited themed finger foods Unlimited signature cocktails + zero-proof elixirs Full access to all experiences Come revel with us as we take a bite out of outdated power structures and toast to a future that uplifts us all. Because the patriarchy won’t eat itself. #EatThePatriarchy #BechdelProject #BrooklynEvents #FeministArt #NYCEvents SupportArtists IntersectionalFeminism

We are thrilled to announce that Docbloc is a 2026 recipient of the NYSCA-A.R.T./New York Creative Opportunity Fund (a Statewide Theatre Regrant Program). We’ll be using these funds to launch our pilot Artist as Citizen Journalist initiative and support development of two works in progress, “WE RISE: Struggles for Freedom Where the Water Clearly Reflects the Sky” and “Play Without Ceasing.” HUGE thank you to the team at @artny72 for supporting our work. 🖤

Docbloc resident artist aaron moore ellis (@mooreweirdwerds ) sharing a song excerpt from our work in progress “WE RISE: Struggles for Freedom Where the Water Clearly Reflects the Sky” at Sunday’s @undzerpurim event. WE RISE a documentary musical theatre project using the testimony, chants, and songs by people with first-hand experience of the 2025/2026 ICE/CBP/DHS “Operation Metro Surge” in Mni Sóta Makoce, (Minneapolis, Minnesota). Aaron has been developing this project over the last few months and we are excited to be workshopping it. More soon! #documentarytheatre #workinprogress #documusical

We started our residency at Bechdel Project today! We are so excited to be working on three exciting projects. Today, we started “Play Without Ceasing” written and performed by @wrenlyphoenix which explores the exvangelical experience from the perspective of a preacher’s kid. In June, we will be workshopping a new documentary-musical about the Minneapolis ICE uprisings by @mooreweirdwerds . They shared some of this work on Sunday at UP! Purim (can’t wait to share the video!) We will also be workshopping a new Artist as Citizen Journalist initiative. So many exciting things and a full announcement coming this week! Thank you to @bechdelproject for your support! #summerprojects #worksinprogress #residency #newwork

Sneak peek from today’s UP! @undzerpurim at ART NY - a beautifully curated liberation carnival created by @kaplow21 , @gorenjeremy , @toni.mello and @mooreweirdwerds . It was an afternoon of brilliant performances, music, trainings, games, and the community coming together to raise money to support local Brooklyn families impacted by immigration actions and South Brooklyn Legal Aid. On a personal note, it was also a wild convergence of the many worlds I walk in. I saw folks from various communities I’ve been part of over the last 20 years in NYC… friends, former students, colleagues, theatre folks who didn’t know I am a photographer and photography folks who don’t know I am in theatre. A reminder that NYC can be small sometimes. So much fun. 📸 @ashmarinaccio #nytheatre #nyphotographer #brooklyn #stopice

Join us for a fantastical afternoon of political Purim-inspired revelry to raise funds for BK families impacted by 🧊! With an amazing variety of professional performers, fun activities, food and surprises — as well as direct ways to get involved. Come in costume! Bring cash for tipping your Queens, and your internet-able device for donate-to-play activistivities and refreshments — all proceeds go directly to our neighbors and partner organizations. An insanely fun way to spend an afternoon making a difference ✨ Reserve a ticket by making a direct donation at the link in our bio and emailing a screenshot or receipt to [email protected] . Suggested donation $20+, but no one turned away for lack of funds. All ages welcome, though some performances might be more geared for mature folks. There will be multiple spaces to be in, and we’ll make clear ‘adult swim’ announcements. Stay tuned for our featured artists - we’re SO excited to have these folks on! See you there! ***a few spots left for performers — and we’re looking for other creative and friendly folks to help create fun activities and otherwise pitch in on the day of. Reach out to asummerofwistaria@gmail . com <art by IG @soniavillaninyc >

Docbloc is thrilled to announce one of our new collaborations this spring - “Play Without Ceasing” written by @wrenlyphoenix and directed by @ashmarinaccio . Wren Phoenix is many things: non-binary, neurospicy, an artist, a dog mom, a Goonie. They’re also a preacher’s kid, and a survivor of Project 2025 Christianity. Like most “ex-vangelicals”, both Wren and Ash have spent nearly two decades deconstructing their very old, very odd trauma — now a very new, very odd trauma for most Americans. What to do? In Play Without Ceasing, Wren invites audiences to church, a church service turned inside out and upside down — part docudrama, part queer camp, part witchy revival covered in paint — we hope that the raunchy rubble gives release and a roadmap for resistance. #playwithoutceasing #indevelopment #documentarytheatre playdevelopment