Production Dates & Times
Thursday, June 12th at 7:30 pm
Friday, June 13th at 7:30 pm
Saturday, June 14th at 3:00 pm
Saturday, June 14th at 7:30 pm

Location
20 Putnam Avenue in Brooklyn, C or G train to Clinton-Washington. Accessible station at Franklin Avenue C/Shuttle train.

Tickets!

Cara Hagan: Mama Piranha

Written, Directed, and Performed by Cara Hagan
Dramaturgy by Gabri Christa
Voice of "The House" by Christopher Collier
Lighting Design by Dani Draper
Scenic Design by Rodrigo Pocidônio
Stage Management by Austen Parent

For Cara Hagan, Mama Piranha began as a visual exploration in conversation with the realities of living and mothering in a society not built for human connection and care. As a way of meditating on the negotiations of time, space, and agency as a female-bodied, birthing person, Hagan created a series of watercolor spills. One batch is made from unfinished cups of tea, representative of the demands and assumptions of the outside world, and a contrasting batch is made in vivid colors, representing the colorful inner world that persists even when it cannot be expressed outwardly.

The image of the piranha came to her in dreams, as colors first—red, green, and silver—that materialized into a creature representing the danger women and those who do not adhere to heteronormative narratives pose to a patriarchal society. The myth of the piranha as a dangerous species is largely man-made (Theodore Roosevelt, to be specific). It undermines the fact that piranhas must travel in schools because they are prey to many larger predators. Piranhas also lose and regrow all their teeth cyclically throughout their lives, about every 100 days. For Hagan, the imagery of the piranha, its existence as prey, and its relationship to its most talked-about feature represent cycles of loss and reclamation of autonomy and agency.

On stage, Mama Piranha manifests itself as a work of physical theatre. The work introduces audiences to a collection of dreamy archetypes that invite viewers to ruminate on the tension between who we think we are, who others think we are, who we think others are, and how we all get free. Ultimately, the piece reminds us that we are world-builders, and that if the world we are living in doesn't serve us, we must build another.

Special thanks to the GALLIM Parent Artist Residency and the Monira Foundation Performing Artist Residency for their invaluable support in the development of Mama Piranha.

Mama Piranha is funded in part by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and by a grant from the Harkness Foundation for Dance.

Additional Events
Workshop for Artist Caregivers at Brooklyn Public Library for Arts & Culture:
Shapes of Care: a multi-modal making experience for all, centering caregivers
Saturday, June 7th from 11am-1pm
Join choreographer and visual artist Cara Hagan for a restorative workshop designed specifically for artist-caregivers. Whether you're caring for children, elders, or loved ones of any age, you're invited into a grounding circle that blends gentle movement (no experience needed), reflective writing, and visual art-making.

Inspired by multi-modal expressive arts therapy, this session centers process over product, offering space to reconnect with your creative self and be in community with others who understand the balancing act of caregiving and artistry.

Childcare will be provided, so you can fully step into this experience for yourself.
Free + RSVP Here!

About the Artists
Cara Hagan (She/They) is a mover, maker, writer, curator, champion of just communities, and a dreamer. She believes in the power of art to upend the laws of time and physics, a necessary occurrence in pursuit of liberation. In their work, no object or outcome is sacred; but the ritual to get there is. Hagan’s adventures take place as live performance, on screen, as installation, on the page, and in collaboration with others in a multitude of contexts. Hagan’s newest short film, “Cut Me Summa Dat Noise,” premiered at the Grrl Haus Film Festival in Cambridge, MA, in December of 2024. In April of 2025, the film won "best music video" at the Allentown Film Festival. It has been accepted to several festivals for the remainder of 2025. She is currently in process for “In/Separate,” a multimedia performance work that explores how human bodies and non-human bodies experience climate trauma in ways that are similar, connected, or both. The work has been supported by a grant through the Puffin Foundation and a technical residency at the Barnard Movement Lab in 2024. The anticipated premiere of In/Separate is set for the fall of 2026. Other recent work has included "were we birds?,” an immersive, site-specific work commissioned as part of the 90th anniversary season of the American Dance Festival. Additionally, Hagan's body percussion work titled "SKIDD-ID-A-BOP" was commissioned as part of the 2023 season for Rhythmically Speaking, a jazz-focused dance company based in Minneapolis. Hagan was awarded a 2023 GALLIM Parent Artist Residency, where she has had the pleasure of crafting the groundwork for "Mama Piranha." Thus far, iterations of Mama Piranha have been presented by Morven Moves at the Morven Museum, a GALLIM artist residency showing at the Chelsea Factory, and by Pioneers Go East as part of the Crossroads Festival. Hagan is thrilled to share the culmination of this process with audiences at JACK.

Gabri Christa (she/her) is a NYC-based transdisciplinary artist whose work explores social issues through a post-colonial and experimental lens. Born and raised in the Dutch colonial island nation of Curaçao, she believes that art can create understanding for humanity. Her creative practice centers on intergenerational work. Awards include a Guggenheim for Choreography, an ABC television award for creative excellence for “High School”, the Jerome Foundation, and Pangea Day Festival’s “one of the World’s 100 most promising Filmmakers distinction. She’s a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Global Brain Health. Both the documentary “Un Dia Kada Momentu” and the film “Kasita” can be seen on Kweli.TV, a streaming service for Black Global African Diaspora films. Her award-winning film, Kankantri (the silk cotton tree), is touring the global festival circuit. The latest work, “The Breakup” is an installation film that premiered at Dia Art Foundation, March 25. Gabri Christa regularly works as a mentor and dramaturg with dance and film artists. She is the founding director of the Moving Body - Moving Image, a biennial Social Justice Screen-dance-movement festival. She’s an Associate Professor of Practice at Barnard College of Columbia University, where she teaches dance and film and is the founding director of the Movement Lab, a space for movement and technology research. She serves on the advisory commission for Culture for NYC, installed by former Mayor de Blasio and continuing under the current Mayor Adams. https://www.gabrichrista.com/

Christopher Collier (he/him) is a NYC-based, interdisciplinary artist who uses his preferred mediums of poetry, theater, and song to explore all things identity, representation, and love in all its forms. Since beginning his career, he's worked in PA, CT, AK, MN, and now NY. Recent credits include: the starry eyed at the New School's Apex Festival, Yellowtree Theatre’s adaptation of Seven Keys to Baldpate, Full Circle Theater’s production of Anon(ymous), The Gray Mallard Theater Co.’s production of 12th Night, and Seven Guitars at the University of Pittsburgh Stages. He can be found performing poetry at open mics and aims to publish his first collection of poetry by the end of this year.

Dani Draper (she/her) is a NYC-based lighting designer originally from Santa Barbara, California. Her work has taken her around the globe to theater festivals in Macedonia, Armenia, Georgia, and Poland. Dani is currently working towards her MFA in Lighting Design at NYU Tisch.

Rodrigo Pocidônio (he/they) is a Brazilian theatre-maker based in NYC, working at the crossroads of theatre and new media art. He holds a BA and an a MA in Performing Arts from UNICAMP, one of Brazil’s top universities in the field, and is currently pursuing an MFA in Contemporary Theatre at The New School on a full merit-based scholarship. In 2008, he co-founded Academia de Palhaços, an independent company where he worked until 2018 as an actor, dramaturg, and artistic manager on over 15 productions. In 2021, he founded the contemporary arts hub Máquinas Desejantes (maquinasdesejantes.com/en) and directed Antimadox, his debut in hybrid theatre and new media. He is currently developing President Protocol, a piece exploring smartphone culture through theatre, live voice processing, video mapping, and motion-tracked interaction powered by UWB ESP32 microcontrollers and TouchDesigner.