CREATIVE PRODUCER
EVITA
LINE PRODUCER
Darren collaborated with leadership at City Center and the Evita creative team to ensure that every aspect of the production ran smoothly. From casting to orchestral needs to educational components, he was thrilled to help bring the bold ideas from the creative team to fruition. Additionally, he brokered a partnership with Pace University’s Musical Theatre Department, who named City Center as their first ever ‘Institution in Residence.’
WEST SIDE STORY film
ASSISTANT VOCAL PRODUCER
Darren collaborated with the director, lyricist, scriptwriter, and vocal producers at the recording sessions, documenting input from the creative team and working with the producers and engineers on the creation and dissemination of each track. Released in December of 2021, the film was directed by Stephen Spielberg, written by Tony Kushner, and produced by Twentieth Century Fox & Amblin Entertainment. The album was nominated for a 2023 Grammy Award.
Encores! Off-Center
SERIES PRODUCER
In 2013, Founding Artistic Director Jeanine Tesori recruited Darren to join the producing team of the inaugural season of Encores! Off-Center. Her vision was to festivalize this new series and activate the building in a new way. They brainstormed myriad ways to engage intergenerational and interdisciplinary artists. As producer for four seasons, Darren managed several projects throughout the series, including overseeing an Artist Advisory Board, planning and producing the Lobby Project series, which invited spectators to engage with an array of unique and interactive events before each performance, and co-creating and managing a robust internship program for early career artists.
Lobby Project SERIES
PRODUCER
In collaboration with the Artist Board at City Center, Darren curated sensory experiences that took place before each Off-Center performance in the City Center’s Grand Tier Lobby. They ranged from interactive to performative; from installations to tastings. The goal was to challenge the expectation that the audience’s role was a passive one. In 40 unique events over the course of four summers, he sought to invite audiences to engage in an energy exchange, in the hopes that they would enter each performance already leaning forward, activated and primed for discourse.
While I Have the Floor
CREATIVE PRODUCER
Rooted in the legacy of forgotten Black female hoofers, and in Ayodele’s determination to share their stories, Darren collaborated with Ayodele to reveal her journey of claiming her own identity and finding agency through her artistry. They developed the piece for a year in advance of its world premiere at the Spoleto Arts Festival in Charleston, SC.
Diary of a Tap Dancer, vol. 6
CREATIVE PRODUCER
Darren worked with each cast member to ideate themes and hone language for this 7 episode virtual series with City Center. Over the course of several conversations and writing sessions, he collaborated with the directors and dancers to curate a thoughtful and impactful representation of their collected stories.
The shed
DIRECTOR OF CIVIC PROGRAMS
The Shed produces innovative multi-disciplinary art. As Director of Civic Programs, Darren produces artistic work and manages projects for social impact initiatives and public programs, including: Open Call - a large-scale commissioning program for early-career NYC-based artists; The Fire Ensemble - an intergenerational choir community using song and ritual as tools for collective liberation centering BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ folx; and institutional initiatives to develop and codify accessibility efforts. Additionally, Darren works with the NYC DOE and the Manhattan borough response team to produce regular resource fairs for families in temporary housing. Selected projects include: Troy Anthony, Charlotte Brathwaite, and adrienne maree brown’s To Feel a Thing: A Ritual for Emergence in NYC and at the Holland Music Festival in Amsterdam; Troy Anthony’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Pericles; and The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues’ cultural reception.
Watch Darren discuss The Shed’s Civic work with the Harvard Graduate School of Education.