Victoria Lynn Awkward is a multi-hyphenate creator, administrator, educator and the Director of VLA DANCE. Through her work she aims to inspire people to pause and reflect on their actions towards themselves, their community and their environment. She pursued her multiple interests at Goucher College and graduated with high honors in Dance, Visual Art and Secondary Education. Alongside directing VLA DANCE, Victoria is a freelance artist, who most recently choreographed for Huntington Theater, Company One Theatre, Boston Lyric Opera, and Commonwealth Shakespeare. Victoria is also an educator having worked at Salem State University, Brown University, West End House, Middlesex School, and Urbanity Dance. She continues to deepen her teaching practices as a mentee with Midday Movement Series. Victoria is currently a Brother Thomas Fellow, and recipient of the Next Steps for Boston Grant Dance Program as well as a recipient of the Queer (Re)public Theater Offensive Residency.

Cheyenne Wyzzard-Jones is an artist of playwriting, contemporary art curation, radical learning environments, and joyful third spaces. They come from a political art background, as the former Director of Programming at In Solidarity and the current Associate Education Director at Company One Theatre. Cheyenne loves capturing conversations, the imagination, and the ways history cycles itself in our culture, language, clothing, and political beliefs. She started her art career in Boston, MA as a child actor where she appeared in historical pieces such as Aftershock: Beyond The Civil War directed by The History Channel, Fences directed by Up You Mighty Race Company, and Voices of Hope: Autobiography of Barbara Jordan directed by Jaqui Parker. Her love for theater has led her to write her first production, The Messenger, commissioned in 2022 by 5th Avenue Theatre.

As an artist who blends the power of storytelling, Cheyenne assumed the role of Independent Contemporary Art Curator through the platform Spiritual is Political, blending her expertise in radical space-making, art history, curriculum development, facilitation, and design. Her curation centers around histories, realities, and narratives that often go unnoticed and erased. Her curatorial practice has included collaborations with The Studio Museum in Harlem, Indigenous Curatorial Collective, The New Museum, and The Longwood Art Gallery, among others. Cheyenne holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Development & Social Change from Clark University and Master of Arts in Comparative and International Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Whether through intimate, character-driven plays or multi-sensory exhibitions, they seek to create spaces where audiences can experience what is, what was, and what could be. They hope to center the breadth of Black Indigenous Queer Technologies in this work.

Known by many names: Annalise, River or Rio. Annalise “River” Guidry (they/them) is a non-binary Black and Puerto Rican theater artist—playwright, director, educator, dramaturg, and theorist—based in Boston, originally from New Orleans. With a background in anthropology, Annalise blends interdisciplinary approaches to create theater that challenges cultural norms and fosters collective liberation.

Throughout their career, Annalise has demonstrated a deep commitment to both theater and the Boston community. Their credits include work as the True Colors Resident Artist with The Theater Offensive, as a two-time Volt Lab playwright and director with Company One Theater, as a teaching artist with Stage One at Company One Theater and Hyde Square Task Force, and as a playwright and dramaturg with Fresh Ink Theater (Mad Dash, 2023; The More the Man, 2024). They have previously served as the Artistic and Community Engagement Fellow at Speakeasy Stage (2023–2024).

Annalise’s directing credits include eight productions, over half of which are original works, such as XROADS (Company One Theater), 3 Womxn, 3 Myths (Edinburgh Fringe), and Just a Thing (Emerson College).

Currently, Annalise is developing an innovative pedagogical framework called Theater of Union, which seeks to dismantle systems of domination through theater. Drawing on anthropological theories and indigenous ways of knowing, this praxis emphasizes interconnectedness, a love ethic, and community-based healing as core values for social change.

Annalise’s work as a playwright, director, dramaturg, speaker and educator is rooted in a deeply embodied practice that explores the intersection of theater, anthropology, and social transformation, all through the lens of love and collective liberation."