Festival

One Catches Light

One Catches Light Festival celebrates the new work of extraordinary NYC-based solo performers. In this festival four unique solo artists take the stage for two weeks to showcase their original work. Oye Group supports these artists throughout the production, offering rehearsal space and a technical team. Honesty, music, love, and the city catch the light each evening from the perspective of four unique voices.

Previous Festival Participants:

Bay Bryan, Artem Yatsunov, Olander ‘Big O’ Wilson, Angy Abreu, Nick E. Finn, Nic Adams, Chelsea Dee Harrison, Anna Rognovoy, Beth Graczyk, A.B Lugo, Kelvin Grullon, Neruda Williams

ARTSHUB collaboration

In collaboration with ArtsHub, four artists were chosen to develop a project or work-in-progress with designers, actors, and others, resulting in a staged reading.

Throughout the residency, we offer them:

Financial support
Rehearsal space for the writing/development of one work
Administrative and production support
A monthly meeting with the ¡Oye! Group’s Artistic Director to provide guidance, advice, or any other support the artist feels necessary.

Gabriel Soto

Gabriel Ramirez, author of IF PIT BULLS HAD A GOD, IT’D BE A PIT BULL is a Queer Afro-Caribbean

writer and educator. A 2023 Gregory Djanikian Scholar in Poetry at Adroit Journal and a 2024-2025

CantoMundo Poetry Coalition Fellow. Gabriel has received support from The Conversation Literary Arts

Festival, Miami Book Fair, The Watering Hole, and Callaloo. You can find their work in publications like

Muzzle Magazine, Split This Rock’s The Quarry, Poetry Magazine, BOMB, Acentos Review and others as

well as Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology (Library of America 2024). IG-@RamirezPoet

Paola Alexandra Soto

Paola Alexandra Soto (she/hers) is an award-winning playwright, actor, creative producer, and director. She is the co-founder of the Obie Award-winning Dominican Artists Collective (DAC). Is a 2025 CUNY DSI and NSA Research Fellow. The 2023-2024 Artist in Residence at Oye Group. Playwriting Credits include D’Carnaval (Vision Residency, Ars Nova) which recently received a research grant from CUNY’s Dominican Studies Institute, La Sosa Sisters (Columbia@Roundabout 2021 New Play Reading series finalist), Lucha Libre (HB Studios Rehearsal Residency, Shanghai Theatre Academy), and On The 1 Train (Jacob Weiser Playwriting Award). She is the Creative Producer for Lemon Andersen’s When Aliens Fall From the Sky. Her most recent teaching artist experience includes creating and leading a summer-long theater workshop for R.E.A.C.H at the Museum of the City of New York, teacher of an American Playwriting Workshop at Shanghai Theatre Academy. In the past she has worked for the Creative Arts Team (CAT) at NYU, Harlem Children's Zone, Artists for Creative Theatre, Bronx Writers Center, 52nd Street Project, Abrons Arts Center, and more. She currently serves as the Project Manager of the Obie Awards and was the Creative Producer of the 66th Obie Awards ceremony. Paola Alexandra also serves as a Seasonal Associate for The Democracy Cycle at PACNYC. She is a co-creator of the PlaySonos: A Digital Audio Play Festival at Columbia University School of the Arts. Training: MFA, Columbia University; BA, City College of New York (CUNY). Follow on social media @dominicanpie

TomokoH DeblinGer (Writer, Performer, Media Artist)

Her work serves as a visceral art of communication. She creates psychologically charged environments where the subconscious shapes behavior and buried memories surface through the body.

TomokoH is a long-time member of LAByrinth Theater Company, where she developed her recent solo work, My Body Says No, through the LAB’s Barn Series and the HB Studio 2025 Residency, where it continues to evolve. Other projects include Mad Mystic (Theaterlab, 2024), Mémoire (LAByrinth Barn Series), and Missing You Ko, which screened at the HBO Screening Room. Her play Mimi's Café was presented at The Public Theater as part of LAByrinth's In the Kitchen series.

Social media handles:

Instagram: @tomdeblin

Bluesky: @tomdeblin.bsky.social

Medium: @tomokohdeblinger