WHO WE ARE
Shawn Shafner
Shawn Shafner (The Puru) is a Brooklyn-based artist, educator and activist. He founded The People's Own Organic Power (POOP) Project in 2010 and has since created numerous theatrical works, educational programs, online videos, installations and community-based projects, podcast episodes, a book, and more. (Check out the history page for a comprehensive list.) For his work, Shawn has been featured as a Waste Warrior on CBC Radio One, interviewed for articles in the New York Post and DNA Info, and The POOP Project has been profiled in The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, American Hipster, Good.com, TreeHugger, and Broadway World. See his personal website at www.ShawnShafner.com
Outside of The POOP Project, Shawn's community-based art projects include a 2014-15 LABA Fellowship (with final project Eat Your Feelings), Urban Backstage: a 2015 iLAB residency (iLAND and LMCC), Let It Go: A Tashlich Walk for Elastic City (featured in the forthcoming book), and The Clap. During "Latch / Attach" for The World Policy Institute and Fourth Arts Block, hundreds of community members from NY's Lower East Side contributed used clothing and labor to the creation of a communal rug, made from recycled t-shirts. The resulting work was displayed in The Great Hall of Cooper Union as part of the Sustain exhibit.
As an actor, Shawn has performed on the stages of Madison Square Garden, London’s Institute for Contemporary Art, the Denver Center, Classic Stage Company, 59E59, The Culture Project and many more. He has collaborated on dozens of ritual theater events for Lab/Shul (formerly Storahtelling) from 2005-present, and toured for nine months as Pablo the Pengin in Nickelodeon's The Backyardigans! Live!
Shawn has been working as a Teaching Artist in NYC schools since 2005, working with the Guggenheim's Learning Through Art program, Everyday Arts for Special Education (a program of Urban Arts Partnership), Arts for All, Move This World and more. He has created original educational programming for the JCC Manhattan and the 14th Street Y, and regularly leads corporate workshops on teambuilding, leadership, and storytelling.
Shawn graduated with honors from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, was a 2005 Spielberg Fellow, and was invited to join the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation's ROI Community in 2015.
Annie G. Levy
Annie G. Levy (Resident Director) is a NYC- and Bostonbased theatre maker. Recent directing credits include: And She Bakes! (Dixon Place, NY International Fringe Festival, the San Francisco Fringe Festival and the Los Angeles Fringe Festival), and Daughter of the Sun: The Latvia Project (Dixon Place, Indiana University Paul Artist Residency, The Access Theatre), George Sand Invitational One-Minute Play Festival (City Center), SIX SEEDS: The Persephone Project (Theatre at the Tank, Space on White), TREE ARMY: The CCC Project (The Figment Festival, The Irondale Center), Elana Bells’ Eyes Stones (The Green Building, Scape Goat Garden), Deborah Yarchun’s The Man in The Sukkah (JPP OPEN Festival), and Lauren Feldman’s AMANUENSiS (Northwoods Theatre Company).
Annie is a founding member of WorldWideLab, an international festival of director-driven work, where she recently collaboratively directed Last Request (based on Franz Xaver Kroetz's Wunschkonzert) and collaborated on Agamemnon (directed by Jay Stern and Ioli Andreadi. Other international credits include, The Assembly Rooms (Edinburgh, Scotland), Discoteca di Storia (Rome, Italy) and Acadia University (Nova Scotia, Canada).
Annie has received a FAIR assistantship at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a residency at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, and was a 2010 LMCC Uptown/Downtown Artist. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab, an associate member of SDC and is the co-founder of the literary series SWEET! Actors Reading Writers. She earned her BA at Columbia University and her MFA at Sarah Lawrence College.
Joshua Sitron
Joshua Sitron (SHHH Producer, Resident Co-Composer/Orchestrator) is a music composer / producer, multi-instrumentalist and sometimes shaman filmmaker. He has written music for Nickelodeon, Fox, Disney, PBS, and Showtime, including the mega-hit show, Dora the Explorer for which he served as musical director and composed the theme song and underscore.
Recently, Josh composed the Main Title Theme (with Shawn Shafner) and musical underscore for Jonah Hill’s animated FOX sitcom Allen Gregory. When not composing music for film and television Josh produces bands and other artists at his studios in Brooklyn, NY and Northampton, MA, including Nikki Blonsky (Hairspray, Smash), Margaret Garrett (Mr. Airplane), Mark Mulcahy (Miracle Legion, The Adventures of Pete & Pete), Duke Amayo (Antibalas, Fu Arkest-Ra), Eric Biondo (Beyondo, the Monkees), Stuart Bogie (TV on the Radio, Iron & Wine, Superhuman Happiness), along with the bands, The Wild Yaks, Big Nils, Goat Boy, Hylo-fi, Lazer & the Dookers, The Expandable Brass Band, Josephine & The Mousepeople and others, some of whom he performs with at live shows.
Download the closing song from An Inconvenient Poop, "I'm A Pooper and So Are You"
Angela Rees
Angela Rees (Webmaster, Resident Plumber) graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2020 with a degree in civil engineering and a concentration in architectural design. Since then, she has pursued her dream of reducing water waste on a local level by working as a residential plumber’s apprentice. Her dream is to live in a world of proud poopers where we ditch the perfect porcelain toilet and find a more sustainable system then peeing in clean water. She is currently getting her Masters in Technical Entrepreneurship at Lehigh University. Find her on Instagram: @angreesies
Croft Vaught
Croft Vaughn (Resident Costume Designer, Financial Advisor) has proudly volunteered with The POOP Project since spring 2012, and produced their Edinburgh Fringe Production. He works in Syndicated Finance at Capital One, and serves as their NYC LGBT Network Chapter Lead. He is a Board Member of TNYA.org, and has a boutique bespoke men's swimwear line, Bright Beachwear (trademark pending).
Chad Chenail
Chad Chenail (Touring Director) is a graduate of Pace University and freelance director based in Jersey City. Directing credits include: Subverted (Lynn Redgrave Theatre), Rough for Theatre II (La Mama ETC), Douche (The Player’s Theatre), Refresh (La Mama ETC), In Your Mother’s Garden (MITF), The Family Continues (La Mama ETC). Assistant directing credits include Hildegard (St. Anne’s Warehouse), Latvia/Latvia (The Access), Something Cloudy, Something Clear (Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival), and Maria Celeste: Galileo (Incubator Arts).
Veronique Ory
Veronique Ory (Marketing/PR) is an Actor and Producer based in New York City. Ms. Ory is the Founding Artistic Director of Athena Theatre, a non-profit theatre company since 2003. Ms. Ory is excited to continually support new works! She was honored to present the World Premiere of The Man Under by Paul Bomba at 59E59 Theaters.