“I cannot think of a time that I’ve seen a more prescient piece of theatre.” – Stage Buddy

“Heartfelt and provocative.” – Theatre is Easy

“Quietly compelling.” – Howlround

The founding members of The Associates met at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where we trained together in devising original pieces and forged a creative vision that we rely on to this day. Now The Associates create, develop, and produce new plays that expose and examine the paradox at the heart of American modes of identity. With a fierce appetite for contradiction and complexity, we give audiences the experience of sinking into another person’s existence: a deep, unnerving experience, and one that can enrich our perception of difference and of commonality. We make our theater through a process of long-term collaboration with generative artists—whether playwrights, devisers, or performers—by nurturing their curiosity and daring in a radically experimental environment.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

PEREGRINE TENG HEARD is a middle child and founding company member of The Associates. New York: Soot & Spit (world premiere by Chuck Mee, at The New Ohio), Sehnsucht (JACK), Songs About Trains (with Radical Evolution at The New Ohio), Call Out Culture, or the unbearable whiteness of being (ANTFest), Dragus Maximus (Roulette), Power Couple (ANTFest), All The World’s A Drag: Shakespeare in Love with Opera (National Sawdust), Ski End (with Piehole at Ice Factory). Regional: POTUS (Arena Stage), Jon Jory's Tom Jones (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Her play Redemption Story was an O’Neill NPC Semi-finalist in 2023, and Maggie and Winnie in The Thirteenth Time, which she wrote with The Associates, was selected as a finalist in the National Ten-Minute Play Competition in 2018. Peregrine graduated from Yale with a handy BA in East Asian Studies.

FOUNDING COMPANY MEMBERS

JAMAL ABDUNNASIR Regional: Refugia (Guthrie), Our Town, Remix 38 (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Superior Donuts (Geva Theatre Center). TV: Forever (ABC). Jamal holds a BA in Theatre from SUNY Geneseo.

LAUREN LAROCCA is an actor and theater-maker whose credits include Baltimore Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Williamstown Theater Festival. She has helped develop new plays with Yale Repertory Theater, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 600 Highwaymen, Clubbed Thumb, The Bushwick Starr, and the NYC Fringe Festival, from whom she received an award for Overall Excellence in Acting. She has a master’s degree in Applied Theater from the City University of New York and teaches theater at the Churchill School and Center.

EMILY STOUT Regional credits include A Christmas Carol and Rules of Comedy at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Along with her work with The Associates, Emily is a proud member of AEA and Actors Theatre of Louisville's 2013-2014 Professional Training Company. Emily graduated summa cum laude from Fordham University at Lincoln Center with a degree in theatre and a minor in classics and earned her MFA in Acting at UCSD.

CASEY WORTHINGTON is a Sacramento-born actor and a proud alumnus of the Actors Theatre of Louisville Professional Training Company. He writes and acts on camera with Means of Productions. His work on stage includes 4000 Miles at American Stage and The Totalitarians at Capital Stage. Casey studied theater at San Francisco State University.