W is for explores the overwrought but unconsummated fantasies inhabited by four women in unstable stasis. Facing dangers that are as yet undetermined, that may be real or psychological, they survive by alternately approaching and avoiding their own inner worlds: they can’t resist what draws them in, but they can’t bring themselves to face it. Like the asymptote of a hyperbola, it seems, they will get closer and closer without ever touching bottom. But the lens of fantasy, at first taken up as a survival strategy, inevitably becomes their new reality, leading to the breakthrough breakdown.

Irina Arnaut grew up in Soviet Moldova and Cleveland, Ohio, and studied studio art at NYU’s Steinhart School. She’s currently completing an MFA at Bard College. Arnaut is interested in narrative structure that conveys experience through suggestion.

Cast: Zana Blestel, John Lovett, Becca Broughton, Stella Arnaut, Bella Kenigfest, Sammy

Crew: Irina Arnaut, Justin Drobinski, Thom O’Connor, Jonathan Karas, Anthony Jones, Kiersten Lukason, Galina Arnaut, Rostislav Arnaut

Arnaut would like to thank: Will Heinrich, Amy Heinrich, Susan Vladeck, Graham Harlan Smith, Anna Adler, Bonnie Jones, Roberta Savage, Julie Dubois

Curated by Jasmin Tsou