Marissa Joyce Stamps will direct the new work, premiering in Manhattan at The Studio at the Chain Theatre on April 25, 2025

NEW YORK, NY, April 17, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ — Synecdoche Works is pleased to announce the cast and creative team for its workshop production of THE FATE OF THE ONLINE COW, an innovative new play by kanishk pandey.

ONLINE COW features an immersive game of Minecraft and an active stream chat designed by media designer Lauren Serafica. The Cow spends her life in front of a camera, playing Minecraft for an active chat, earning money for her owners, Mud and Hue. Up until this point, her life has been simple but fulfilled. However, when the game leads her to consider her own predicament, she must come to terms with the oppressive conditions she exists under and the act of earned revolution.

Marissa Joyce Stamps (Director) will lead the production. She is a Black, Haitian-American NYC-born and based Afrosurreal writer, director, actor, and educator, and often in dialogue with kinetics and landscape dramaturgy. The recipient of the 2023 Princess Grace Playwriting Award/New Dramatists Residency, she is a member of Lucille Lortel’s Alcove, Roundabout’s Directors Group (Cohort 6), The New Georges Jam, EST/Youngblood, and TAG at The Tank. A past member of Clubbed Thumb’s Early-Career Writers Group, a Finalist for The National Black Theatre’s I AM SOUL Playwrights Residency, and a Mercury Store Lead Artist, Marissa has directed the development of new works with The National Black Theatre, The Vineyard, BAM, Brown University, New Dramatists, Exponential Festival, Mercury Store, Conch Shell Productions, among others.

Deja Rion, recently seen at The Brick and in Choreomania at BAM Fisher, leads the cast as the COW, an innocent forced to stream Minecraft online for a living, and is joined by Arjun Biju (Williamstown Theatre Festival; The Workshop Theater; Cartoon Network) as HUE and Vincent Santvoord (Theatre Royal Bath; founding member Built4Collapse, Invulnerable Nothings, and Theatre is Dead) as MUD, the two brothers responsible for her plight.

kanishk pandey (Playwright) is a 2024-2025 New Voices Van Lier Fellow at Rattlestick Theater. His work has been recognized by the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Austin Film Festival, and New York Stage and Film. His playwriting has been supported by companies such as Ars Nova, Rattlestick Theater, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Clubbed Thumb, Exponential Festival, Invulnerable Nothings, The Brick, SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Lark, Sanguine Theater, and Boomerang Theater.

Production Stage Manager: Marissa Councill
Lighting Designer: Lillian Hilmes
Sound Designer: Jordan Rose Bernstein
Fight Choreographer: Annie Oberholtzer
Produced by Synecdoche Works, in association with Nervous Habit, Inc.
Supported by Forvis Mazars Group
Executive Producer: Jennifer Mosier
Associate Producer: Jennifer Van Meter

Performance Dates: April 25-27, 2025
Location: The Studio at The Chain, 312 W 36th St, New York, NY
Tickets: at Zeffy
Press Inquiries: support@synecdocheworks.org
For more information, visit synecdocheworks.org

Synecdoche Works is a California-based arts non-profit that promotes art education, creation, performance, and exhibitions by underrepresented or underserved individuals, with the goal of recognizing and celebrating individual differences among all theater artists. Through the Frank Moffett Mosier (FMM) Fellowship for Works in Heightened Language, as well as their strong support and funding for up-and-coming performance arts festivals, Synecdoche Works advocates for a diverse creative community of promising playwrights, actors, authors, musicians and other creatives around the globe. For more information, visit www.synecdocheworks.org.

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