Alembic Cohort #12—claire barrera, Meldody Erfani, and Jae Seung Hancock—have been researching, creating and rehearsing during the past months and will now share the results of their Alembic Residency at PWNW!
This evening brings together three distinct explorations of movement, sound, and relationship: Claire Barrera and pianist Rory Cowal investigate the impulses between stillness and movement, silence and sound; Melody Erfani’s Queen Lear reimagines Shakespeare’s aging king as a mother confronting the changing dynamics of care, power, and family; and Jae Seung Hancock draws on the colors, textures, and rhythms of the natural world to explore origin, memory, and cultural identity.
The Alembic Residency: Three local artists are awarded 100-150 hours of studio time to be used within a 9–11 month period, plus an artist fee, and a production of new or in-progress work in a shared program at the conclusion their residency.
Alembic Artists in Performance
November 5–8, 2026
Thursday* through Saturday at 7:30pm
Sunday at 4:00pm
*Thursday is a ticketed dress rehearsal/preview and has a cheaper ticket option!
ASL interpretation provided on Saturday, November 7
Funded in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council and the Arts Access Fund
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
claire barrera is an artist, activist and educator based in Portland, Oregon. Their recent dance work includes the intergenerational performance Grammar of the Imagination and The Fantastical Power of Two with Maya Dalinsky. Upcoming projects include the original work CAME BACK DIFFERENT and roles in Sam Hamilton’s Te Moana Meridian and Allie Hankins’ By My Own Hand Part 5: INVISIBLE TOUCH. They are a published writer and zinester; since 2008 they have co-edited the zine When Language Runs Dry with Meredith Butner which was anthologized by Mend My Dress Press in 2021. Their essay, “Brown Girl Rise: How We Take Care of Our Own,” was printed in Constellations of Care: Anarcha-Feminism, edited by Cindy Milstein, Pluto Press, in 2024.
Jae Seung Hancock was born in and adopted from Seoul, Korea and raised in a suburb of the Twin Cities. They received their B.A. in Dance and Arts Management from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point in 2016. After graduating, Jae relocated to Portland, Oregon, where they have lived for the past ten years pursuing dance, theater, and painting. They have collaborated with organizations including Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, CoHo Productions, The Holding Project, Theatre Diaspora, and Tongue Dance Collective.
Melody Erfani (she/her) is a theatre maker and movement-based director whose work lives at the intersection of dance, theatre, and installation. Raised in an Iranian-American family in Dallas, she creates devised performances that translate inner emotion into physical language, using gesture, rhythm, and sound to tell stories of belonging and identity.
She has a deep passion for writing and devising based on true stories from marginalized communities, with immigration playing a central role in her work. Her projects include Bee زنبور (HB Playwrights, Headwaters Theatre), Stars Falling Upside Down (Women Center Stage Festival, NYC co-created with Tracy Francis), the outdoor devised piece The Sacrifice of Belonging (Pavement Festival with Risk/Reward), and 97 Orchard Street, which explored the lives of three immigrant women in Manhattan’s Lower East Side using video, movement, and storytelling.
Melody holds an MFA in Directing from the Actors Studio Drama School, completed the Advanced Training Course at Frantic Assembly in London, and has received residencies from HB Studio (2017 & 2024), Barn Arts Collective, and the Drama League’s First Stage Residency. She is the founder of LES Shakespeare Co. and is currently developing The Words Will Come, a movement-driven work exploring dyslexia, shame, and perception.
