Our Team

Company History 

TheREDprojectNYC (TRPNYC)  is a network of artists dedicated to holding creative space for those who are othered, oppressed, and unheard. We as a company are invested in artistic work that encourages the development of new processes, and that uplifts the practice of documenting investigation. With a mission to cultivate freedom of thought, the company invests into collaborations that are community responsive and culturally reflective. We curate events, organize workshops, host labs, and produce concerts that center the progression of post-contemporary ideas. We believe in the power of change and that tradition is a map from the past that holds the key to our future. 

Originally founded in Richmond in 2015 by Johnnie Cruise Mercer, Torian Ugworji, and Shanice Mason, the company is celebrating ten years of service to its community. After relocating to New York City in 2016, the company has been in partnership with The Stephen Petronio Residency Center,  Appomattox Regional Governors School, The CUNY Dance Initiative, The 92NY Harkness Dance Center,  BAAD!, Ping Chong and Company, RestorationArts, First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, Movement Research's Dance Makers Program, The American Dance Festival, Center for Performance Research and  Brooklyn Arts Exchange's Practice Labs. 

At its root, TRPNYC is a company comprised of five branches of service; The Movement Ensemble (a rotating team of movement, theater, and performance artists), The TRPNYC Band (a tribe of sound makers, instrumentalists, and music producers), Community w/TRPNYC (a curated set of happenings/events centered around communional healing, resting, and joy), TRPNYC’s Visual Makers (a collaborative group of media, film, and visual artists), and the TRPNYC Think-Making Lab  (a series of process forward labs dedicated to learning, and collaboration in partnership with other like minded institutions/organizations). 

We believe that art echoes from us, and because of that we are conduits of revolution. We are vessels holding our historical foundations and our own legacies. 

We believe that art should be a vehicle for change and that, in its true form, art cannot be contained. We believe that it travels with time, with people (with us). We believe that when curated with purpose art can provide our  community an outlet towards finding authentic voice, subconscious freedom, and renewed actuality.

As makers we are interrogators of our current time, we are (both on and off stage) working with the contemporary. We are instigators that see the present as a building block towards constructing space for our post-contemporary existences.

Company Mission