MEET THE CREATIVES

Joseph Reese Anderson

Librettist/Poet
Joereese623@gmail.com

Joseph Reese Anderson has created global projects using poetic language to promote awareness, tolerance, and empathy through beauty and accessibility. After earning double BFAs in Professional Acting and Musical Theatre at East Carolina University, he moved to New York, where he discovered spoken word and performance poetry. Recent works include Fatty Fatty No Friends (FringeNYC Excellence Award, Innovative Theater Award Nominee, NYMF Best of Fest, Time Out Critic’s Pick), Whiskey Pants: The Mayor of Williamsburg (Audience Favorite at FRIGID New York, Showscore Critic's Pick, off-Broadway at HERE), Cadence: Home, and Red Sky the Musical. As a writer and lyricist, Joseph’s work has appeared in NYC at Joe's Pub at The Public, Feinstein's/54 Below, HERE, Intersections International, The Stonewall Inn, and La Mama E.T.C. An advocate, ally, and activist, Joseph explores themes of inclusion in his work. As an outreach coordinator for St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, he spread awareness in meaningful ways, especially when founding Social Socials: Social Events for Social Causes, a microfinancing event-planning organization that impacted lives domestically and internationally. He recently founded Capital Moments, an artist collective in Raleigh, NC, supporting artists with space to workshop and perform. His greatest hope is to raise his twin daughters, Jolie and Everly, to be joyful, empathetic humans who use their talents to better the world.

www.capitalmomentsnc.com.com | Represented by UIA TALENT AGENCY

Christian De Gré Cárdenas

Composer/Playwright
Christiandegre@gmail.com

Mexican artist, producer, and arts executive Christian De Gré Cárdenas has overseen over 1,000 new theatrical productions in New York City. He served 15 years as Artistic Director and CEO of the acclaimed Mind The Art Entertainment and was General Manager of The New York International Fringe Festival, North America’s largest multi-arts festival. He co-created 30 award-winning multidisciplinary works with The Public Theater, HERE Arts, La Mama, The Brick, Discovery Channel, The Armory, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, The Drama Desk Awards, and The Mexican Cultural Institute of New York. A Yaddo and SPACE on Ryder fellow, he created the musical series Twisted Operettas and A Drink with Death at Joe’s Pub and Feinstein’s/54 Below. A former activist and theatermaker in Eastern Europe, Northern Africa, and the Americas, he was Global Outreach Partner for Theater for Social Change with the UN Y-Peer Network. He is an alumnus of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, The Broadway League’s Commercial Theater Institute, and an advanced member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop. He recently served as Director of The National Opera Center and then guided OPERA America through the pandemic as COO. De Gré Cárdenas is a two-time New York Innovative Theater Award nominee, NAMT semi-finalist, and recipient of numerous creative excellence awards from FRIGID New York, FringeNYC, The Lark, Fringe ENCORES, Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce, Mexico International Film Festival, and The New York Musical Festival. He currently splits his time between New York City, where he is Executive Director of Heartbeat Opera, and a small town near Mérida, Yucatan, where he is developing new works and quietly obsessing over the bugambilias in his garden.

www.cdegre.com | Represented by UIA TALENT AGENCY

All photography by Ze’ Castle Photography