The Pin

Pilvi Takala (b.1981, Helsinki, Finland) lives and works in Berlin and Helsinki. Takala represented Finland at the 59th Venice Biennial in 2022. Her work has also been shown at FACT Liverpool, UK (2024); Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland (2023); Goldsmiths CCA, London, UK (2023); Pavilion of MUNCH Triennale, Oslo, Norway (2022); Seoul Mediacity Biennale, Seoul, South Korea (2021); Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia (2021); Künstlerhaus Bremen, Bremen, Germany (2019); Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland (2018); CCA Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland (2016); Manifesta 11, Zurich, Switzerland (2016); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2015); MoMA PS1, New York, New York (2014); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2013); New Museum, New York, New York (2012); Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2011); Kunstinstituut Melly (Formerly known as Witte de With) Rotterdam, Netherlands (2010); and 9th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey (2005). Takala won the Dutch Prix de Rome in 2011 and the Emdash Award and Finnish State Prize for Visual Arts in 2013.

Reyna Bonaparte-Sandoz, Director

Reyna Bonaparte-Sandoz is a multi-talented teaching artist, educator, community organizer, facilitator, podcaster, and poet from the vibrant Harlem, NYC neighborhood. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bard College and a Master’s in Applied Theatre from CUNY’s School of Professional Studies, reflecting her commitment to artistic expression and educational growth. With over 20 years of experience in the arts, Reyna has dedicated her career to positively impacting her community. With every artistic endeavor she undertakes, Reyna brings a profound commitment to breaking barriers, promoting diversity, and igniting conversations that lead to positive societal transformations. Her work catalyzes embracing differences, challenging societal norms, and inspiring collective action toward a more inclusive and equitable world.

Performers

Alyssa Alizor is a comedian, actor, singer, and model. She has performed stand-up comedy, characters, sketches, and improv all over NYC. She received the 2023 NBC SNL Scholarship at The PIT, studying all forms of comedy. Currently, she is performing as a cast member of the PIT’s Foolharmonics and the sketch group Lateral Moves. Alyssa has caught the attention of the Just For Laughs Festival Montreal, Warner Bros Discovery, and NBC. She has modeled for brands like L’Oreal Paris and It Cosmetics. She is a jazz-trained singer, who loves singing bossa nova in both Portuguese and English. She loves Cats (2019) and dogs (the species).

Naomi Asa is a writer and performer based between New York and London. She is also a resident host on NTS Radio.

Kevin Emilio Pérez is a multidisciplinary artist (Performance, painting, sculpture and sound) based in NYC via San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Amelia “Meg Spectre” Sylvor Greenberg is an actress and performer, born and raised in New York City. She produces multi-disciplinary performance work that explore cringe, naive camp, and razzle-dazzle, most recently in her one-woman show “The Meg Spectre Spectacular”. She has appeared in theatrical productions such as The New York Times regarded “Zoomers”, and short films such as the BizarroLand Fest award winning “YMG”. Her work has been displayed in Darlings Gallery (Sidney Australia) and GR2 Gallery (Los Angeles). She is truly geeked to be a part of Pilvi Takala’s “The Pin”!

Petrina Ampeire is an African artist, performer, lawyer, and activist born in Uganda. She began her career at the Identity School of Acting and the Central School of Speech and Drama in London before going on to attend a two-year conservatory at the New York American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her recent works include playing Jo in The Legend of Georgia McBride, Kamara in the off-broadway production of the original play The Diamond by The People’s Theatre, Masika in Revolution: Two Stories with the Same Ending at the Tank Theatre, Rebel Joyce in Nick Makoha’s The Dark, and Kakye in Appointment with gOD, as part of the Columbia School of Arts’ International Play Festival. She also serves as a teaching artist with the People’s Theatre.

Marty Chandler (they/them) is a Filipino-American, nonbinary performer, writer, and collaborative theatermaker, passionate about art that illuminates the human experience through spontaneity. They have performed their style of one-person, long-form improv at the Providence Fringe Festival, played the Narrator in Every Brilliant Thing as a guest artist at the Yale Schwarzman Center, devised theater as part of the Orchard Project Core Company ensemble, and received the Yale Marina Keegan Prize for Excellence in Playwriting. They hold a B.A. in Theater & Performance Studies and Psychology from Yale University, and currently, they work at New York Theatre Workshop and are part of the People’s Sketch Revue at the PIT as well as the Second City Grad Revue program.

Eva Dorrepaal has appeared in more than 50 independent films that have been screened in over 100 film festivals, including Cannes, Toronto, and Sundance. She is an actress and playwright with numerous appearances in European TV programs. After studying acting and directing in the Netherlands, she was invited to travel to former Yugoslavia to perform and live with the renowned KPGT theater group during the Serbo-Croatian war. She has played leading roles in almost all of Edwin Brienen’s feature films, shot in Amsterdam and Berlin.In the late 1990s, Eva moved to New York, where she continues to collaborate with filmmakers such as Jonathan Caouette, Jorge Torres-Torres, Onur Tukel, Mars Roberge, and others. She has written three theater plays: Mata Hari, Lovers, Letters, and Killers, and Raising a Revolutionary.

Willem Ehrenfreund is an artist born and raised in New York City. He has performed on stage and screen since he was kid and is a proud member of The One-One Project, an experimental theater company making spontaneous and subconscious driven work.

Summer Gan is an actor, dancer, model, choreographer, and intimacy coordinator. Born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, she trained in classical ballet and contemporary dance before moving to New York to study Dance Theater. Her credits include Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater with TerryandTheCuz, Wiederhoeft at NYFW, Mei-Be WHAT Ever at the Museum of Chinese in America, Disney, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, and WHY NOT HERE? at ILHAM Gallery.

Justin Hofstad is a Wyoming-born, MGSA-trained, NYC-based actor. Justin is a founding Player and Director of Operations of The One-One Project, an experimental theater company dedicated to devising live, improvisational events rooted in audience agency, sustained unknowns, and the belief that performance is a living negotiation of perception and self. He has appeared in the feature film Exhibiting Forgiveness directed by Titus Kaphar, Ophelia’s Ocean (Claudius/Nick) directed by Maya Milenovic Workman, and stage productions including Boeing Boeing, The Pillowman, and Moon Over Buffalo. He is passionate about exploring characters caught in moral complexities and, in a time of deep division, hopes to remind us that—as James Baldwin wrote—“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

Yuki Kawahisa, a native of Japan, is an actor, theatre creator and performing artist. Kawahisa has been actively working/ performing in New York, seen internationally also. She has collaborated and devised pieces, experimented new ideas, and performed across disciplines with various artists, worldly renowned directors and companies. Learn more at www.yukikawahisa.com.

Michael Valladares is a performer, playwright, and dramaturg. Select performance credits include Fairy Tales (Makers’ Ensemble); Spring Awakening (Ouside the Lines); Rat King (The How/CultureLab LIC); Oh Soledad (Actors’ Temple); ‘Tis Pity (Gymnopedie Bushwick); Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Theatre in the Open); 6 Ft Apart, All Together (Double Edge Theatre); and Sunlight Interior (InMotion Theatre). Writing credits include Untitled Zine Play (Re/Venue NYC); Mad Little Reefers (FreshFruitFestival at The Wild Project); and Sometime When Everything Has Changed (Theatre in the Open & Herter Park Amphitheater, Boston). Production dramaturgy credits include Kate Hamill’s Little Women at Cherry Lane Theatre, Chekhov’s Swan Song at Pentameters Theatre, and the 2021 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Michael has also freelanced as an artist and technician at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Double Edge Theatre, and Boston Children’s Theatre. He believes liberation begins with imagination. BFA: Boston University.