Concept/Direction/Edit DA Hoskins | Artistic Director Statement Here.
Dance Artists David Rose, Winston Reynolds, HyoSeung Ye
Text Byron Fast
Audio Daniel Maslany
DOP Nico Stagias
Voice Rodney Diverlus, HyoSeung Ye, Winston Reynolds
Producer Pip Bradford
Rehearsal Assistant(Seoul) Jung Ah Chung
Artistic Associate Danielle Baskerville
Text translation Sebastian Hirtenstein, Brad Holman, Tag Chang, Tyler Gledhill
Special thanks Oz Weaver, Shannon Cooney, Nadia Marsy, JS Ahn, Sylvain Bombardier, Peter Reynolds, Theatrehaus Berlin Mitte, Orla Wittke, Johanna Bergfelt, Mila Volpe, Eve Tobolka, Mike Moore
I am Marilyn
Made possible with generous support from:
‘I am the kind of Marilyn who loves too much, feels too much and bleeds, for real, when poked’ - Byron Fast
I Am Marilyn is a three-chapter video installation examining both personal and collective identity. Set to a commissioned monologue by Byron Fast and filmed in Seoul, Berlin and Toronto, this work features dance artists HyoSeung Ye, Winston Reynolds and David Rose in an exploration of intimacy and exchange.
I Am Marilyn emerges from a space of profound inquiry—a meditation on identity, vulnerability, and the ways we share and receive one another’s truths. At its core, the work is an exploration of exchange: the intimate, sometimes invisible, dialogue that happens between artist and audience, between one body and another, between the self and the collective.
The figure of Marilyn Monroe acts as both muse and mirror—an emblem of cultural mythology refracted through a personal lens. Rather than seeking to represent her, I Am Marilyn seeks to encounter her. Through this act of encounter, the work opens up questions about the performance of identity, the burden and beauty of being seen, and how a single voice—when offered with honesty—can ripple outward into a collective resonance.
The piece began as a minimalist gesture, a simple entry and pause, but through collaboration, time, and reflection, it has now evolved into a multidimensional conversation. With dance, visual language, text, and sound, I Am Marilyn creates a space where marginalized narratives, internal dialogues, and shared human experiences can meet.
This work is not about answers. It is about staying present with the complexity of being alive—our passions, our pain, our longing to connect. In the vulnerability of offering, and in the courage to listen, we find each other. That is the essence of I Am Marilyn—an act of making that resists sentiment, insists on presence, and locates empathy not in expression, but in attention.
