*SNAP* STORIES
part of the *snap* First Person Arts Festival
About
Our 5 storytellers for the 3rd annual Snap Festival have been confirmed. Snap celebrates the power of first-person narratives across disciplines because we believe everyone has stories to tell and that sharing these stories teaches empathy by allowing us to recognize commonalities and learn about each other’s unique experiences. We had over 50 applicants from New England and New York submit their first person story proposals this year and are so excited to share the 5 artists chosen to perform in Flynn Space this January.
Amanda card (she/they)
Memory Jam
Amanda Glynn Card (she/they) is a Bushwick-based interdisciplinary artist and puppeteer whose work blends memory, disappearance, and handmade visual storytelling. Using shadow puppetry, toy theater, and live-feed video, Amanda builds intimate performances that explore legacy, care, and the unseen. They are the creator of Boy Crazy, a solo autobiographical puppet musical presented at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest, and the playwright of The Lil Amanda Show, which premiered with Verge Theater Company and Kindling Arts Festival. Performance credits include Boy Crazy (Ars Nova), Our Bodies Like Dams (Mabou Mines), 9000 Paper Balloons (Japan Society), Daydream Tutorial (La MaMa), Small Acts of Daring Invention (Drama Desk Nominee – HERE), The Greedy Peasant’s All Saints’ Day Celebration, and Yuliya Tsukerman’s The Luminous Crow. Amanda received the 2021 Lipkin Prize for Playwriting and holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.
Aster Drew (she/her)
AngelR_________[*
Aster Drewe (She/ Her) is a writer and artist dedicated to the creation of honest work that stems from the true diaspora of human experience. Drewe aims to develop work in a space that is both safe and challenging. In her work she holds herself to letting go of urgency - instead the room and the page will be a place for growth, healing, and patience. The product is no longer the goal, rather the process and development of human voice and story is, in a space that is gracious, open, and receptive. Her directing work has been exhibited recently at Yale University, NYU Tisch Graduate School of Drama, and Columbia University. Her passion for developing new stories has brought her onto the teams of Taryn Marie (Writer/ Director), Bliss (Associate Director), A Walk on the Moon (Associate Director), Most Happy, I and You, and Warm. On Broadway Drewe has worked on Hamilton, Freestyle Love Supreme, and Passover. www.asterdrewe.com | @asterdrewe
Catherine Ashley (she/they)
Postures of Return
Catherine Ashley is a Brooklyn-based multimedia designer and performance artist whose work spans sound, installation, performance, and moving image. With a background in film, projection, theatre, and object-making, she creates layered environments that explore gesture, memory, and systems of transformation, emphasizing visual and auditory experiences shaped by time and presence.
Nancy MA (she/her)
This Body was Made for Bleeding
Nancy Ma is a first-generation performer, playwright, and filmmaker from Chinatown New York. She is a 2025-208 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. Her solo show, Home, premiered with The Latino Theater Company in Los Angeles, and has been performed at schools and festivals around the country. She has worked with Pan Asian Repertory Theater, Ojai Playwrights, and UTR/The Public, and been awarded residencies with The National Arts Club, The New Harmony Project, The Museum of Chinese in America, and FreshGround pepper. Most recently, her short documentary 有一天你不在 One Day You are Not Here, wrapped the festival circuit. Nancy is also the co-founder of Max2 Film Festival, a two-minute film festival focused on experimentation and community. She has taught with The Brooklyn Arts Council, Young Storytellers and Built4Collapse, and currently facilitates storytelling workshops with The Moth.
reynaldo piniella (he/him)
Black and Blue
Reynaldo Piniella is an actor, writer, director and educator from East New York, Brooklyn. In 2021, he was in the acting company of two Broadway shows at the same time: Thoughts of a Colored Man and Trouble in Mind. As a playwright, his work includes Black Doves (Thomas Barbour award), Let us Sit Upon the Ground (Vanderbilt University Eco-Grief Commission), Real Life RPG (commissioned by Baltimore Center Stage, produced by San Diego Rep, Shakesqueer Theater Company and Pioneer Theater Guild), No Shade (produced by the Lee Strasberg Institute at NYU Tisch), I’m Old School (produced by Single Carrot Theater), No History (Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor) and Black and Blue (Ars Nova’s ANT Fest.) His co-created bilingual Spanish-English Hamlet has been developed at Folger Theatre, The Public Theater, the Classical Theatre of Harlem, and the Acting Company. He is an alum of New Victory Theater’s LabWorks, All for One Theater’s Solo Collective, the Civilians’ R&D Group, and a former Artist-in-Residence at Hi-ARTS, the cell theatre, Abingdon Theatre Company, HB Studio, and Culture Lab LIC. Off-Broadway credits include work at Signature Theatre Company, The Public Theater, the Working Theater, Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA), and Rattlestick Theater, regionally with Baltimore Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Cleveland Play House, NY Stage and Film, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, and Actors Theatre of Louisville, and internationally with the Sundance Theatre Lab and NEAP Fest in Rio de Janeiro. @ReynaldoRey. www.reynaldopiniella.com
