paint my eyes
An immersive play with 15 lullabies
Premiering Off-Broadway in Times Square, February 2027
With two days left on his mission, Elder Garn navigates a crisis of faith as he struggles to reconcile his interactions with an atheist, a derelict, a Holocaust-denier, and a young Iranian mother looking for a sign. Inspired by a true story, this surreal dramedy explores grief, legacy, and what it means to believe.
Creative Team
Jamie Erekson (playwright, composer, performer) is a NYC-based intermedia artist whose work spans a large-scale musical deconstruction of Shakespeare’s Richard II at Carnegie Hall, a 12′×12′×6′ kinetic sound sculpture at the base of the Rocky Mountains, and a 65-foot interactive portrait exhibited on the Manhattan Bridge. He has received commissions from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the Utah Division of Arts and Museums, Ballet West, the Barlow Endowment, and others. He lives in Washington Heights with his wife and four children.
Shadi Ghaheri (director) is an award-winning theater, opera, and film director and choreographer from Tehran, now based in New York City. Her recent Tosca with Heartbeat Opera was praised by The New York Times as “ambitious, agile, and daring.” A graduate of the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale (MFA in Directing), she has directed and choreographed for Signature Theatre, HERE Arts Center, Alliance Theatre, Bard Music Festival, Beth Morrison Projects, Heartbeat Opera, The Tank, Emruz Festival, The Brick, and NYU Tisch, where she now teaches directing.
Emily Erekson (music director, performer) is a New York City–based intermedia artist whose work explores voice, memory, ritual, and communal authorship. A passionately eclectic pianist, she has performed classical, jazz, and art-rock at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Utah Governor’s Mansion, the Utah State Capitol, and venues across Europe, and has opened for major acts including Neon Trees. Her work has received support from the New York State Council on the Arts, Ballet West, the Utah Division of Arts and Museums, the Salt Lake City Arts Council, and the Higher Ground Festival.
Haley Fragen (creative producer) is a Brooklyn-based theatermaker whose practice spans producing, directing, performing, and arts administration. She is currently Associate Producer at HERE Arts Center. Recent credits include Show Trial (The Tank and The Bohemian National Hall), Lottie and the Deep Blue Sea (Ars Nova ANT Fest), and Because the Grass Started to Breathe (Garden Level Theater Co.). She has worked with the Cherry Lane Theatre, What Will the Neighbors Say?, and Evamere Entertainment, and holds a BFA in Acting from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Kristin Perkins (dramaturg) is a Fulbright scholar and Ph.D. candidate in Theatre and Performance at Columbia University, where her research focuses on contemporary dramaturgies of religion, grief, and migration. Kristin’s dramaturgical practice combines rigorous scholarship with creative experimentation, helping artists translate abstract ideas into emotional architectures.