Who We Are
As immersive technologies come of age, TimeWave is currently exploring virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality. We launched the XR Lab in New York City to train and nurture the next generation of media creators. Hats off to New York University ITP & MAGNET for their help.
We are now focusing our efforts on TimeWave Studio, which is dedicated to creating new XR formats. J Dakota Powell (bio & portfolio: jdakotapowell.com) is the Producing Artistic Director of the Studio as well as an XR developer (Unity C#) and 3d artist (Maya, ZBrush) with seven years of 3D experience under her belt. Powell has been steering the efforts of TimeWave for well over decade.
TimeWave/LoNyLa (London-NY-LA) was originally a transatlantic collective that focused on the intersection of arts/media and technology. Our original mission was to bridge the transatlantic divide between the US and UK as well as the chasm between NYC theater and the LA TV/film world via digital technology. By broadcasting new work (e.g., rehearsed readings) of underexploited artists, producers and other creative executives could view original material in Internet time. In addition, these broadcasts were viewed by larger audiences worldwide.
The Team in the Early Years
Cannes Golden Palm winner Neil LaBute, a prolific writer/director whose latest film – Some Velvet Morning with Stanley Tucci and Alice Eve – debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival to glowing reviews. His films include: In the Company of Men; Your Friends & Neighbors; Nurse Betty; Possession; The Shape of Things; The Wicker Man; Lakeview Terrace; Death at a Funeral; Some Girl(s); Some Velvet Morning. Theatre includes: Bash: Latter-Day Plays (Douglas Fairbanks Theatre, Almeida Theatre); The Shape of Things (Almeida Theatre, Promenade Theatre); The Distance from Here (MCC Theatre, Almeida Theatre); The Mercy Seat (MCC Theatre, Almeida Theatre); Filthy Talk for Troubled Times (MCC Theatre); Fat Pig (MCC Theatre, Trafalgar Studios); Autobahn (MCC Theatre); Some Girl(s) (Gielgud Theatre, MCC Theatre); This is How it Goes (Donmar Warehouse, The Public Theatre); Land of the Dead/Helter Skelter (Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Bush Theatre); Wrecks (Everyman Palace Theatre, The Public Theatre, The Bush Theatre); In a Dark Dark House (MCC Theatre, Almeida Theatre); The Break of Noon (MCC Theatre, Geffen Playhouse); Reasons to be Pretty (MCC Theatre, Almeida Theatre); In a Forest, Dark and Deep (Vaudeville Theatre, Profiles Theatre); and Reasons to be Happy (MCC Theatre).
John David Coles is an award-winning director and producer known for evocative material with compelling performances. He has enjoyed success in features, television and theater while his production company, Talking Wall Pictures, has focused on the development of cutting-edge feature and television projects. Coles’ first feature film, Signs Of Life, starred Beau Bridges, Vincent D’Onofrio and Mary Louise Parker. The film won the International Critics Prize at the Deauville Film Festival and the Best Director award at the Cadiz festival in Spain. Other credits include Rising Son starring Brian Dennehy and Matt Damon (winner of the Audience award at Deauville); Darrow starring Kevin Spacey; Friends At Last starring Kathleen Turner; The Good Fight, starring Christine Lahti and Against Her Will starring Marlee Matlin. In the world of episodic television, Coles has directed numerous award-winning series, including West Wing, Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy and Damages. Coles also directed and produced Thief which led to Andre Braughers’ Emmy award. His executive producer credits include Elementary with Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller, Law & Order: Criminal Intent with Jeff Goldblum, 3LBSwith Stanley Tucci, andNew Amsterdam. Coles continues to write and create original dramas through Talking Wall Pictures, which produced the CBS dramaSongs in Ordinary Time (based on the Oprah Book Club pick) starring Sissy Spacek and Beau Bridges and co-created and executive produced the series Crash and Burn. Talking Wall has developed numerous projects with HBO, CBS, New Line, IFC and Bravo. His Off-broadway credits include directing the critically acclaimed play The Impostor by J Dakota Powell, starring Austin Pendleton and Calista Flockhart.
Michael Steger is known for his role, “Navid Shirazi,” on CW’s drama series 90210 as well as Assisting Venus (2010) and The Cheetah Girls: One World (2008). He is currently lensing as “Riley Smith” in the film, The Circle.
Brandee Tucker can be seen in the film, The Punisher: Dirty Laundry, with Thomas Jane and Ron Perlman. Her one-woman show Brandee Built on Crazee – a comedy loosely based on her life – was directed by Michael Steger and Sean Hankinson. In this show, Tucker plays over 15 characters where she walks the audience through her experiences starting from age six. The audience meets childhood bullies, a beauty shop guru, relatives with mental illness and an inspiring grandmother. The show premiered to a sold out audience in November 2011 and will be on iTunes in 2013.
Producing Artistic Director J Dakota Powell gathered the American theatre to respond in 911 in Brave New World on Broadway. Plays include: Bliss Moon, The Impostor, Savage Light, Blackwater, Harry Black. Harry Black was produced in the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s New Works Series. Blackwater was selected for the National Playwrights Conference, O’Neill Theatre Center and by John Guare for the Lincoln Center Reading Series. The Impostor was twice nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award and received an Honourable Mention for the Jane Chambers Playwrighting Award. Powell has been produced by the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Philadephia Theater Company’s New Works Series, Circle Repertory Theatre Lab, the Ensemble Studio Theatre and Duke University’s New Works Series; she has been commissioned by South Coast Repertory Theatre, Talking Wall Pictures, PBS Great Performances. Powell is a winner of the Writers Guild of America, East screenwriting fellowship (NYC) and won the Scriptapalooza (LA) competition.
Powell is a multi-disciplinary artist and is working on a Virtual Reality narrative game in the wuxia (Chinese martial arts, chivalry and sorcery) genre. She has also illustrated and animated a graphic novel. Her skills include: Maya, Unity, sound and video editing, Photoshop and coding. To view her creative portfolio, please see: jdakotapowell.com
Graduate of Yale, ITP/NYU and the Ensemble Studio Theater (NYC) 2-year program in acting, writing and directing.
Associate Artistic Director (London) Ben Mills is an emerging talent and a Westminster Film School graduate whose award-winning short film “Wrestling Yetis” was called “funny, heartwarming” by Alice Jones in the Independent and screened at the BFI, the House of Commons and the Olympic Park. He has previously collaborated with LoNyLa for TimeWave Festival 2013, directing Off The Hook by Jonathan Guy Lewis. Mills’ theatre directing work includes A TED* Talk with Clay JW Crowne (Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Festival), Baggage (Salisbury Playhouse and the Roundhouse, London) and the European/Japanese tour of Maid Marian for White Horse Theatre, playing to audiences of over 40,000. He is part of the Young Vic Genesis Directors Program and the Proteus Artist Development Program, and was the 2014 JMK Assistant Director at the Salisbury Playhouse. He is currently Experiment Associate Curator at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton.
Drayton Hiers is a writer, director and dramaturg. His plays, films, and performances have been seen in Singapore at the Arts House, 72-13, and the SPORE Arts Salon; in New York at Eyebeam, the Bushwick Starr, Anthology Film Archives, and The Tank NYC; and in Amsterdam at Het Muiderpoort Theatre. He has worked as a director and dramaturg with Jean Tay (“Between Us”), Chong Tze Chien (“The Book of Living and Dying”), and Su Ching Teh (“Call Me Bea and Ubin”). He lectures at NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia and Singapore Repertory Theatre, and holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch Asia.