Born in Queens, NY in the U.S. on Munsee Lenape and Matinecock land, C. Meranda Flachs-Surmanek (they/them/theirs) is working toward a future where creativity and care are part of our social fabric. They are a civically-engaged artist, theater maker, urban planner, and skilled facilitator who utilizes creative and healing-centered strategies to spark dialogue, evaluation, or reflection. They specialize in documentary theater, facilitate community-based story projects, and hold space for healing-centered dialogue.
C. collaborates with the arts-in-healthcare focused ensemble The Clinic Performance and award-winning theater Ping Chong + Company. C. has been recognized for their work through a Visiting Fellowship with Skidmore College’s Storytellers' Institute, and speaking engagements across the world.
Their dual-degree master’s in Urban & Regional Planning and Theatre’s Directing & Public Dialogue explore how theater and creative connection can help communities heal from the pandemic and the injustices and challenges it magnified. They acknowledge their Diasporic Ashkenazi Jewish lineage as a primary motivator of their aesthetic process and longings for liberation.
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C. Meranda Flachs-Surmanek creates interactive installations and performances from scratch combining fact and fiction, and often incorporating real people's stories. Their facilitation style blends serious play, healing, liberatory frameworks, and big dreaming. They dream wild dreams with Streaks of Lavender, a queer collective of artists building ourstory.