CHRIS SZAJBERT
Creator: Performance+Film

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Chris Szajbert is a writer, director, performing artist and filmmaker who creates original works in collaboration with professional and community artists. Chris is currently developing The Frances Transmedia Project with video artist Don Pavlish (IngenuityLabs 2023, MicroTheater CLE 2024 and upcoming: IngenuityFest 2024). Chris recently premiered Sacred Space, an audience-interactive aerial performance co-created with writer/director Jaime Bouvier and rigger William Ian Auld, with funding from SPACES Urgent Art Fund and IngenuityLabs 2022. Recent works also include Love’s Lost Raree Box, a short film created with Jumar Newell; and The Frances Films - seven experimental short films which appeared in the BorderLight Festival, KeyBank Rochester Fringe and Minnesota Fringe Festivals. Chris serves as director in the development of two new performance works: Marie Curie Horror Story (BorderLight Festival 2023, Cleveland Public Theatre, upcoming: Rhinofest Chicago 2024) created and performed by Holly Holsinger; and The Poetry Psychic Project, a suite of touring interactive performances by Denis Michael Griesmer. Chris was named a 2019 Gordon Square Artist-in-Residence, and performs a touring street performance Love's Lost Raree Box (Rochester Fringe; Jackson Square, New Orleans), a project supported by the Satellite Fund, which is administered by SPACES and funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Live performances of The Poetry Psychic Project and Love's Lost Raree Box are presented by request in their interactive performance studio at 78th Street Studios in Cleveland, Ohio.

Since leaving her position of Director of Education and resident artist at Cleveland Public Theatre in 2016, Chris has appeared in Sweat at Cleveland Play House; contributed to new works by experimental filmmaker Robert Banks and painter John Carlson; and co-created/toured the dance theatre duet Reckoning (Chicago, New York, Mexico City) with choreographer Kora Radella. Chris is the co-creator of the plays F*** Me Love Me Aphrodite, Ancestra (which received Oberlin College and Cleveland State University “sister” productions in Feb/Mar 2024), Insomnia: The Waking of Her Selves, and the multi-media solo performance Cut to Pieces. Longtime collaborators also include director/performer Ivana Bevacqua, director/performer Adam Seeholzer, director/performer Darius Stubbs, installation artist/performer Faye Hargate, director/composer Raymond Bobgan and members of the Cleveland Core Ensemble.


Chris’ work has garnered recognition and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Center for Performance and Civic Practice, Ohio Arts Council, Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project (LA), Chicago C.A.A.P., and DirectorsLabChicago. Chris is a recipient of the Creative Workforce Fellowship, a program of the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (now Assembly for the Arts) funded by Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

Become a member of Chris Szajbert's patron community: www.patreon.com/chrisszajbert

Peek at trailers for The Frances Films and Love's Lost Raree Box: www.vimeo.com/chrisszajbert

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