The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University has long maintained a tradition of serving as a creative incubator, with 11 artists-in-residence and 15 projects from around the world calling the space home over the past 10 years.
The Artist-in-Residence program focuses on creating, workshopping, and premiering new work, but unlike many residencies, there isn’t a traditional application process. “We choose to build relationships with artists through agents and networking where we can learn more about their work and creative practice,” said Lori N. Jones, director of programming and operations at the Quick Center. “Often, as they learn more about the Quick Center, artists will share what they are working on and as director of programming, I might realize that the artist’s work is well-timed for how we can best support them as well as the work we are doing on campus.”
As a result, residencies at the Quick Center are rooted in themes that the team feels reflect the current issues affecting the community—while maintaining a particular focus on supporting U.S. and Connecticut-based artists.
This semester, the Quick Center hosted two work-in-progress showings—Emily Coates’s Tell Me Where It Comes From, and Aaron Jafferis’s Bad Baby – title TBD. Coates, a critically acclaimed dancer and choreographer who has performed with New York City Ballet and more, shared a sneak preview of the dance piece she and her team have been developing—an alternative portrait of the choreographic legacy of George Balanchine created by collaging far-flung remains: unanswered letters, lost ballets, old photographs, and early muses.
“Led by Lori Jones and an inimitable staff, the Quick Center for the Arts understands art-making and artists,” Coates shared. “They provided what I needed and then left me and my collaborators to do our work. The space itself is a bit magical. Technical Director Russell Nagy uncannily pops in the moment you think you might need his help. Lori, an artist whisperer, appears miraculously during a break just to check in, never interrupting focus. You are largely left alone to face off with your questions and demons. This is a total gift to a creative process. As a dancer and choreographer from New York, now based in Connecticut, I've deeply valued Lori's mindful support for local artists. I've been able to experiment with new ways of working and sharpen my ideas, all of which takes time. It's a model for artist residencies worldwide.”
Playwright Aaron Jafferis and composers Dahlak Brathwaite and Daniel Bernard Roumain collaborated with five actor/rapper/singers to create a musical in which a simple question—who should inherit the family house when Aaron's parents die—ignites a wild argument between Aaron's blue-collar white cousins, his dynamite-wielding Slovak ancestor, his Black chosen family, and his parents.
“The Quick has been working with Aaron Jafferis for more than two years to support his new work,” said Jones. “We felt his story shed light on experiences with socio-economic dynamics, fatherhood, and how we define our families—all important issues to our community that also extend to Connecticut history in unexpected ways.”
This December, Jared Mezzocchi ’07—two-time Obie Award-winning theatre artist, director, multimedia designer, playwright, and actor who received his BA in theatre and film from Fairfield—returns to campus as an artist-in-residence to work on his new evening-length piece, 73 Seconds.
“To be granted time, space, and resources for a workshop like this is paramount towards the development of new work,” said Mezzocchi. “Having all the artists in one space to simply wrestle with the form and content of the big ideas, without the pressure of an opening night, is where great work begins. Fairfield’s artistic residency is one of the rare opportunities within the country right now that still keeps their door open towards developmental work like this, and our team is so honored to be invited.”
“As Fairfield is my alma mater,” he continued, “I’m particularly honored to return to the Quick Center where I made my very first multimedia production back in 2007 as a senior. That production got me into grad school at Brooklyn College and truly started my career as a multimedia theatre-maker. To be back and working on my latest work, another deeply personal show about my family, collaborating with a group of artists I look up to and greatly admire, is a dream come true.”
