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My Joy is Heavy
ABOUT
Created and performed by The Bengsons
Directed by Rachel Chavkin
Choreography by Steph Paul
2025/26 Season
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Creators and Performers
ABIGAIL AND SHAUN BENGSON are a married composing and performing duo raising two children in NYC and Vermont. They believe grief and joy are the same thing. They are interested in anything that gets us all free. The Bengsons made their Broadway debut in All In: Comedy About Love. They wrote and performed in The Keep Going Songs (LCT3, Obie Award; Actors Theatre of Louisville), Sovereignty Hymns (La Jolla Playhouse), Oh Courage (The Joyce, international tour), My Joy Is Heavy (Arena Stage), Hundred Days (La Jolla Playhouse, New York Theatre Workshop, US Tour), The Lucky Ones (Ars Nova), Where The Mountain Meets The Sea (ATL’s Humana Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club), Anything That Gives Off Light (Edinburgh Theatre Festival, US tour), Hurricane Diane (Two River, NYTW), You’ll Still Call Me By Name (New York Live Arts, Jacob’s Pillow), Sundown Yellow Moon (WP Theater) and Iphigenia In Aulis (Classic Stage Company). They were recognized with a 2024 Obie Award for Sustained Achievement in Performance and have received the Jonathan Larson and Richard Rodgers Awards, as well as nominations for the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel Awards. Proud to be NYTW Usual Suspects.
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Director
RACHEL CHAVKIN is a director, sometime writer and Founding Artistic Director of Brooklyn-based experimental collective, the TEAM (www.theteamplays.org) whose work has been seen all over NY, the U.S., and internationally, and whose consensus-driven writing process was the subject of a feature-length documentary. She won the 2019 Tony Award for her work on Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown (Broadway, NYTW, National Theatre, London). She is a three-time Obie Award winner and received Tony and Lortel Award nominations and a Drama Desk Award for Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway, Ars Nova, A.R.T.). Select projects: Carson Kreitzer’s and Matt Gould’s Lempicka (Broadway), the TEAM’s Mission Drift (National Theatre), Arthur Miller’s American Clock (Old Vic), the TEAM’s RoosevElvis (Royal Court), Larissa Fasthorse’s The Thanksgiving Play (2ST, 1st play by a known Native American woman on Broadway), Lilianna Padilla’s How to Defend Yourself — co-directed with Padilla and Steph Paul (NYTW), Marco Ramirez’s The Royale (LCT; Obie Award, Drama Desk and Lortel noms), Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds (Ars Nova and national tour), and multiple collaborations with Taylor Mac, Heather Christian, The Bengsons, and Manchester-based writer/performer Chris Thorpe. Her first short film, Remind Me, was an official selection of the Venice and Beverly Hills Film Festivals. 2017 Smithsonian Award for Ingenuity.
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Choreographer
STEPH PAUL is a New York-based (and raised) director / choreographer who clears space for uninhibited physical truth. What comes up must come out. In her work she weaves together her lived experience as a first-gen Haitian-American, body percussionist, dancer, and athlete to build community and teams through art. Credits include co-directing and movement directing Liliana Padilla’s How to Defend Yourself (New York Theatre Workshop—NYT Best of 2023), choreographing Jeff Augustin and The Bengsons’ Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (Manhattan Theatre Club—2022-23 SDC Callaway Award Finalist, Choreography), directing Martyna Majok’s Sanctuary City (Steppenwolf Theatre), choreographing Gaby Altar and Itamar Moses’ Nobody Loves You (American Conservatory Theater), directing and choreographing Marco Ramirez’ The Royale (Kansas City Repertory Theatre), choreographing Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves (Studio Theatre—2019 Helen Hayes Award-winner, Choreography) and choreographing Anna Ziegler’s The Last Match (Writers Theatre). Additional credits include Lincoln Center, Paper Mill Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Goodman Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, City Theatre and Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. International credits include NYU Abu Dhabi, Royal Opera House Muscat and National Theatre of Scotland. Steph was selected for Theatrely’s inaugural cohort of the Theatrely 31. She is a Princess Grace Award-winner, NYTW Usual Suspect and proud SDC member. Steph is also a fan of curating playlists and watching all of the sports. www.stephpaul.com
NEWS
ORIGIN STORY
My Joy is Heavy is produced by special arrangement with Arena Stage.
PHOTO CREDITS
Photo of The Bengsons by Jenny Anderson; Rachel Chavkin by Erik Tanner; Steph Paul by Joe Mazza BraveLux.
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