Rocks and Geodes
New York City, New York | Theatre
Comedy, Drama
Rocks and Geodes is a shiny new play from playwright Lydia Riess. Support emerging femme artists in creating its world premiere production--- about mothers and children holding hurt, placing blame and taking care of one another. Coming to the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research, July 2025.
Rocks and Geodes
New York City, New York | Theatre
Comedy, Drama
Green Light
This campaign raised $6,610 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
33 supporters | followers
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Rocks and Geodes is a shiny new play from playwright Lydia Riess. Support emerging femme artists in creating its world premiere production--- about mothers and children holding hurt, placing blame and taking care of one another. Coming to the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research, July 2025.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
You know when you were a kid and someone bundled you up in winter clothes and then you got an itch on your arm under layers of long sleeve and sweater and jacket and you can’t reach the itch and you can’t take your own mittens off and you’re overheating, maybe you’re even sweating, and you want to die, like you literally want to die? Some might say Rocks and Geodes is a play about that feeling.
Others might say it’s a play about make-believe games. Or a hunger for validation. Or the straight-up weirdness of being a kid.
And others STILL might say it’s a play about three seven-year-olds—two girls, one boy—and their chaperone mothers embarking on a geology field trip, except the (adult) actors that play the children also play their own moms.
These characters are Big People longing to be Small, and Small People hurtling towards Big. This is a world where rocks are people, people are things, and words are shiny new toys (or weapons). It’s all fun and games…right?
Who We Are
Meet our playwright, Lydia Riess.
This play was born out of Lydia’s reflection on–or perhaps more accurately, her obsession with–memories of childhood, her mother, and the other mothers she witnessed. Enter collaborators Kaitlin Goldin (our director) and Lydia Sims (our associate director), and workshops of the text began….
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…first, over beers and nachos (shoutout Art Bar), and then, in an invited reading at Playwrights Horizons Downtown, where Lou Baron (our producer) first heard the words out loud.
Throughout each workshop, the language has sharpened, the characters have deepened, and the story has evolved to be equally rooted in looking ahead to possibly being a mother. We strongly believe that the next step for this play is getting it on its feet, in front of an audience. When the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research offered us a PLAY LAB production for early-career artists, we jumped at the chance. The independent community-feel of their loft in Greenpoint, BK is a perfect launching pad for this intimate play.
Why We Need You!
The money raised in this campaign will go directly towards making our world premiere production a reality. When you support us, you are supporting daring, new work. You are supporting a 100% femme cast, and a nearly 100% femme creative team. Your donation will allow us to contribute to the rent of our space—a vital community for a plethora of multidisciplinary artists.. It will also fund production costs (i.e. set, costumes, etc.) and stipends for those working on the show. We are guaranteeing all those involved (playwright, directors, actors, designers, etc.) an equal stipend of a $300 minimum. But the more money we raise, the more we can pay our collaborators for their work.
When we look back towards childhood and ahead towards motherhood, we feel itchy. We can’t recall all the moments of learning what it is to be a person in the world, but we know we were taught, in part, by our mothers. Your donation will open the door for audiences to come to Huron Street and feel that itch too.
We are so grateful for your consideration, and we hope you will join us in bringing Rocks and Geodes to life.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
The People (1x Cast or Creative Stipend = $300)
Costs $2,700
The stipends we’re asking for are key recognition for the hours of effort and care every member of this team is pouring into this play.
The Space
Costs $1,500
This is our place to meet you - 251 Huron St in Greenpoint, BK. Our hosts pay rent, and we need to pay them.
The Set
Costs $1,000
To transform the loft into the place our characters play.
The Props
Costs $250
Rocks, geodes, etc.
The Costumes
Costs $250
While most costumes will be designed from our wardrobes, these funds will bring a specific vision of each character to life.
The Rest
Costs $300
A contingency to ensure we're covered if any element of our budget runs over.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
LYDIA RIESS (she / her, PLAYWRIGHT) is a writer, performer, and sometimes director born, raised, and based in New York City. Her original plays include Scorpions Don’t Bite (Providence Fringe Festival), RUFUS (Brown University) and The IKEA Play (The National Theater Institute). Her 40-minute thesis film, This Was Really Great, was an NYCIFF official selection. In all of her work, she draws on her background in sketch comedy and clown, as well as script development experience with Killer Films and Sony Pictures Comedy TV. She graduated from Brown University with a degree in Modern Culture and Media in May of 2024. LydiaRiess.com
KAITLIN GOLDIN (she / her, DIRECTOR) works across storytelling mediums - mostly in theater, audio, comedy, and nonfiction writing. These days, she’s a true crime podcast producer at Glass Entertainment Group. But as a kid, she was a Junior Olympic level archer, and not enough people are talking about that.
LYDIA SIMS (she / her, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR / STAGE MANAGER) is an actor and producer based in New York from Savannah, GA. Most recently she produced and acted in the web series SHREWS (all on youtube now!) that’s making its way through the festival route, with Big Apple and the Art of Brooklyn. In the past year she’s been acting in plays around town, most recently Erase Erase by Zoe Nelms at Grace Exhibition Space. She went to the National Theatre Institute with Lydia Riess, and has forever since been collaborating and attached at the hip with her. Here’s her website and Instagram! Yay! lydiacsims.com / @lydiacsims
ANNA AUBRY (she / her, LEFT GIRL/LISA) is an actor, writer, and comedian based in Brooklyn. Anna recently performed Off-Broadway in Radio Man (Soho Playhouse) and My Titties Are Where I Keep the Horrors (24 Hour Plays: Nationals). She is a member of the NPDF Acting Company at Clubbed Thumb and in fall 2023, her solo show Doom Tank sold out its five night run at the Under St. Marks Theater. She is also a house team improviser on Upright Citizens Brigade’s Harold Night, Brooklyn Comedy Collective’s Home Teams and What Makes [You] Laugh?, and co-hosts the two-prov show Are Jon and Anna Better as Friends? around NYC. Further credits: Liars (Clubbed Thumb), Lobster (Prelude Festival), Road Kills (Frontera Series), and Cockroaches (Breaking & Entering Theatre Co.). Oberlin College (Highest Honors: Acting), Moscow Art Theatre School. annaaubry.com, IG: @anna_aubry
KELSEY COLLINS (she / they, RIGHT GIRL/DIANA) is an NYC based actor from Libertyville, Illinois. She was in the graduating class of 2024 at the SUNY Purchase Acting BFA (co 48). Kelsey recently won Best Performance at the Astoria Film Festival, for the short Writing You Down. Recent performances include Teresa in Will Arbery’s Heroes of The Fourth Turning and The Moor-Hen in Jen Silverman’s The Moors. Kelsey is a multidisciplinary artist, also taking part in painting, filmmaking, improv, etc! IG: @kelscolll
KIKI MILNER (she / her, BOY/PAULA) is an actor, dancer, and clown from California. She has acted for stage and film in NYC and LA, where she created and starred in viral web comedy videos. Kiki has performed original work at Upright Citizens Brigade LA, Lyric Hyperion Theater, Brooklyn Comedy Collective, and with clown ensembles Wet the Hippo and Best Actress. She has performed devised theater pieces at 601ArtSpace, That Show NYC, and The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles. Kiki studied clowning with Dr. Brown (Phil Burgers), Mick Barnfather, Virginia Scott, and John Gilkey, and trained at UCBLA and Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. Her video work has been shown at Undiscovered Countries NYC and LA Indie Film Festival. She holds a BA in Drama from Washington University in St. Louis. It has been a true joy working on Rocks and Geodes with this stellar team, and she hopes you enjoy the show!
LOU BARON (she / her, PRODUCER) is an NYC based producer. By day, you can find her producing audio for brands, films, podcasts and museums at duotone audio post. By night (and whatever other time she can find), she’s developing new work like ROCKS AND GEODES. This July, you can also find her Off Broadway at the Women’s Project theater, producing events for Crystal Skillman’s NYT Critic's pick OPEN. more at lou-baron.com.
ISAAC JENEMANN (he / him, SET) is a scenic designer and technical director working primarily in theater, dance and film. He arrives at scenic design from a background in overacting, and his work focuses mostly on the comparative nuance of physical space. Isaac finds inspiration in detritus, the bottoms of coffee cups, and, occasionally, his friends and family. Recent work includes A Midsummer Night's Dream (Production Workshop), [sic] (Something on the Green), and The Moors (Uptown One Train). He currently works as the Technical Director at Spoke the Hub, a dance and performing arts studio in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He and his work can be found at isaacjenemann.com
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JOSIE MILLER (they / them, COSTUMES) is an early career designer and director interested in the eerie, outrageous, and horrific, with a pronounced investment in new play development. A recent graduate of Brown University, Josie completed a thesis in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies exploring the intersection of women’s issues and body horror in contemporary satirical plays. Their select directing credits include The Moors (American Theatre of Actors), Money Shot (Writing is Live Festival), The Thin Place (Brown University), psychopsychotic, or everyone at yale is a goddamn sociopath!!!, and Do You Feel Anger? (Brown University). Brown/Trinity credits: Alabaster, One Flea Spare, and Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play. They have had the pleasure of working at theatres in New York and Atlanta such as Clubbed Thumb, Actor’s Express Theatre Company, and Horizon Theatre Company.
JULIA LITTLE (she / her, SOUND) is an NYC-based Technical Director and Project Manager, currently working full-time at Odeum Labor Services (Associate Project Manager) while also taking on freelance projects throughout the city. In addition to her work as a TD, Julia also has a deep passion for sound and how it helps with storytelling; she’s thrilled to make her professional sound design debut on Rocks and Geodes. Julia loves creating sonic moments that allow people to connect with a story and enhance the emotional depth of a piece. She also holds a BFA in Theatre Design/Technology from SUNY Purchase. Julia looks forward to continuing to bring powerful stories to life through thoughtful design and collaboration.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
You know when you were a kid and someone bundled you up in winter clothes and then you got an itch on your arm under layers of long sleeve and sweater and jacket and you can’t reach the itch and you can’t take your own mittens off and you’re overheating, maybe you’re even sweating, and you want to die, like you literally want to die? Some might say Rocks and Geodes is a play about that feeling.
Others might say it’s a play about make-believe games. Or a hunger for validation. Or the straight-up weirdness of being a kid.
And others STILL might say it’s a play about three seven-year-olds—two girls, one boy—and their chaperone mothers embarking on a geology field trip, except the (adult) actors that play the children also play their own moms.
These characters are Big People longing to be Small, and Small People hurtling towards Big. This is a world where rocks are people, people are things, and words are shiny new toys (or weapons). It’s all fun and games…right?
Who We Are
Meet our playwright, Lydia Riess.
This play was born out of Lydia’s reflection on–or perhaps more accurately, her obsession with–memories of childhood, her mother, and the other mothers she witnessed. Enter collaborators Kaitlin Goldin (our director) and Lydia Sims (our associate director), and workshops of the text began….
…first, over beers and nachos (shoutout Art Bar), and then, in an invited reading at Playwrights Horizons Downtown, where Lou Baron (our producer) first heard the words out loud.
Throughout each workshop, the language has sharpened, the characters have deepened, and the story has evolved to be equally rooted in looking ahead to possibly being a mother. We strongly believe that the next step for this play is getting it on its feet, in front of an audience. When the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research offered us a PLAY LAB production for early-career artists, we jumped at the chance. The independent community-feel of their loft in Greenpoint, BK is a perfect launching pad for this intimate play.
Why We Need You!
The money raised in this campaign will go directly towards making our world premiere production a reality. When you support us, you are supporting daring, new work. You are supporting a 100% femme cast, and a nearly 100% femme creative team. Your donation will allow us to contribute to the rent of our space—a vital community for a plethora of multidisciplinary artists.. It will also fund production costs (i.e. set, costumes, etc.) and stipends for those working on the show. We are guaranteeing all those involved (playwright, directors, actors, designers, etc.) an equal stipend of a $300 minimum. But the more money we raise, the more we can pay our collaborators for their work.
When we look back towards childhood and ahead towards motherhood, we feel itchy. We can’t recall all the moments of learning what it is to be a person in the world, but we know we were taught, in part, by our mothers. Your donation will open the door for audiences to come to Huron Street and feel that itch too.
We are so grateful for your consideration, and we hope you will join us in bringing Rocks and Geodes to life.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
The People (1x Cast or Creative Stipend = $300)
Costs $2,700
The stipends we’re asking for are key recognition for the hours of effort and care every member of this team is pouring into this play.
The Space
Costs $1,500
This is our place to meet you - 251 Huron St in Greenpoint, BK. Our hosts pay rent, and we need to pay them.
The Set
Costs $1,000
To transform the loft into the place our characters play.
The Props
Costs $250
Rocks, geodes, etc.
The Costumes
Costs $250
While most costumes will be designed from our wardrobes, these funds will bring a specific vision of each character to life.
The Rest
Costs $300
A contingency to ensure we're covered if any element of our budget runs over.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
LYDIA RIESS (she / her, PLAYWRIGHT) is a writer, performer, and sometimes director born, raised, and based in New York City. Her original plays include Scorpions Don’t Bite (Providence Fringe Festival), RUFUS (Brown University) and The IKEA Play (The National Theater Institute). Her 40-minute thesis film, This Was Really Great, was an NYCIFF official selection. In all of her work, she draws on her background in sketch comedy and clown, as well as script development experience with Killer Films and Sony Pictures Comedy TV. She graduated from Brown University with a degree in Modern Culture and Media in May of 2024. LydiaRiess.com
KAITLIN GOLDIN (she / her, DIRECTOR) works across storytelling mediums - mostly in theater, audio, comedy, and nonfiction writing. These days, she’s a true crime podcast producer at Glass Entertainment Group. But as a kid, she was a Junior Olympic level archer, and not enough people are talking about that.
LYDIA SIMS (she / her, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR / STAGE MANAGER) is an actor and producer based in New York from Savannah, GA. Most recently she produced and acted in the web series SHREWS (all on youtube now!) that’s making its way through the festival route, with Big Apple and the Art of Brooklyn. In the past year she’s been acting in plays around town, most recently Erase Erase by Zoe Nelms at Grace Exhibition Space. She went to the National Theatre Institute with Lydia Riess, and has forever since been collaborating and attached at the hip with her. Here’s her website and Instagram! Yay! lydiacsims.com / @lydiacsims
ANNA AUBRY (she / her, LEFT GIRL/LISA) is an actor, writer, and comedian based in Brooklyn. Anna recently performed Off-Broadway in Radio Man (Soho Playhouse) and My Titties Are Where I Keep the Horrors (24 Hour Plays: Nationals). She is a member of the NPDF Acting Company at Clubbed Thumb and in fall 2023, her solo show Doom Tank sold out its five night run at the Under St. Marks Theater. She is also a house team improviser on Upright Citizens Brigade’s Harold Night, Brooklyn Comedy Collective’s Home Teams and What Makes [You] Laugh?, and co-hosts the two-prov show Are Jon and Anna Better as Friends? around NYC. Further credits: Liars (Clubbed Thumb), Lobster (Prelude Festival), Road Kills (Frontera Series), and Cockroaches (Breaking & Entering Theatre Co.). Oberlin College (Highest Honors: Acting), Moscow Art Theatre School. annaaubry.com, IG: @anna_aubry
KELSEY COLLINS (she / they, RIGHT GIRL/DIANA) is an NYC based actor from Libertyville, Illinois. She was in the graduating class of 2024 at the SUNY Purchase Acting BFA (co 48). Kelsey recently won Best Performance at the Astoria Film Festival, for the short Writing You Down. Recent performances include Teresa in Will Arbery’s Heroes of The Fourth Turning and The Moor-Hen in Jen Silverman’s The Moors. Kelsey is a multidisciplinary artist, also taking part in painting, filmmaking, improv, etc! IG: @kelscolll
KIKI MILNER (she / her, BOY/PAULA) is an actor, dancer, and clown from California. She has acted for stage and film in NYC and LA, where she created and starred in viral web comedy videos. Kiki has performed original work at Upright Citizens Brigade LA, Lyric Hyperion Theater, Brooklyn Comedy Collective, and with clown ensembles Wet the Hippo and Best Actress. She has performed devised theater pieces at 601ArtSpace, That Show NYC, and The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles. Kiki studied clowning with Dr. Brown (Phil Burgers), Mick Barnfather, Virginia Scott, and John Gilkey, and trained at UCBLA and Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. Her video work has been shown at Undiscovered Countries NYC and LA Indie Film Festival. She holds a BA in Drama from Washington University in St. Louis. It has been a true joy working on Rocks and Geodes with this stellar team, and she hopes you enjoy the show!
LOU BARON (she / her, PRODUCER) is an NYC based producer. By day, you can find her producing audio for brands, films, podcasts and museums at duotone audio post. By night (and whatever other time she can find), she’s developing new work like ROCKS AND GEODES. This July, you can also find her Off Broadway at the Women’s Project theater, producing events for Crystal Skillman’s NYT Critic's pick OPEN. more at lou-baron.com.
ISAAC JENEMANN (he / him, SET) is a scenic designer and technical director working primarily in theater, dance and film. He arrives at scenic design from a background in overacting, and his work focuses mostly on the comparative nuance of physical space. Isaac finds inspiration in detritus, the bottoms of coffee cups, and, occasionally, his friends and family. Recent work includes A Midsummer Night's Dream (Production Workshop), [sic] (Something on the Green), and The Moors (Uptown One Train). He currently works as the Technical Director at Spoke the Hub, a dance and performing arts studio in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He and his work can be found at isaacjenemann.com
JOSIE MILLER (they / them, COSTUMES) is an early career designer and director interested in the eerie, outrageous, and horrific, with a pronounced investment in new play development. A recent graduate of Brown University, Josie completed a thesis in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies exploring the intersection of women’s issues and body horror in contemporary satirical plays. Their select directing credits include The Moors (American Theatre of Actors), Money Shot (Writing is Live Festival), The Thin Place (Brown University), psychopsychotic, or everyone at yale is a goddamn sociopath!!!, and Do You Feel Anger? (Brown University). Brown/Trinity credits: Alabaster, One Flea Spare, and Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play. They have had the pleasure of working at theatres in New York and Atlanta such as Clubbed Thumb, Actor’s Express Theatre Company, and Horizon Theatre Company.
JULIA LITTLE (she / her, SOUND) is an NYC-based Technical Director and Project Manager, currently working full-time at Odeum Labor Services (Associate Project Manager) while also taking on freelance projects throughout the city. In addition to her work as a TD, Julia also has a deep passion for sound and how it helps with storytelling; she’s thrilled to make her professional sound design debut on Rocks and Geodes. Julia loves creating sonic moments that allow people to connect with a story and enhance the emotional depth of a piece. She also holds a BFA in Theatre Design/Technology from SUNY Purchase. Julia looks forward to continuing to bring powerful stories to life through thoughtful design and collaboration.