ARA is a multidisciplinary theater and production company founded by Drew Valins and Michaela Lind with a combined 40+ years of experience working as performers and creators. Their work has toured globally (Edinburgh, Israel, Prague, and Sweden,) and has been featured in unique venues (Ted Talks, The Swedish and Czech Embassies in DC, The Beijing Children’s Opera, to name a few). They have worked with true artistic luminaries such as Slava Polounin (of Slava’s Snowshow), Bill Irwin, Kendall Cornell, and David Shiner, and they have had the esteemed audiences of the Dalai Lama and Madeline Albright. 

Michaela Lind is an award winning clown who ‘wears the elements of all the great female clowns” (stagebiz). Educated at GITIS Moscow Art School, her clown work and acrobatic stilt work has toured festivals in the US and Canada. 

Drew Valins is a classically trained actor and playwright who has performed in a Shakespeare play every single year since 2008 (HIGHLIGHTS: IAGO, PUCK, DON PEDRO, AUTOLYCUS). For eight years Drew played “Vanek”, the fictional alter-ego of Czech playwright and president Vaclav Havel, and performed for the president’s widow and other political dignitaries along the way.  He has been on television (BULL, CBS), Ted Talks, and in numerous short films.

This year ARA will release WHERE IS NOW, a short film and an absurd take on our impending doom written and directed by Michaela Lind and starring Drew Valins. In the fall, LAKEPLAY, Drew’s full length play will have its world premiere at the Wild Project in NYC. ARA is continuing their development of a new adaptation of Franz Kafka’s DER BAU, which was recently presented at the Czech Embassy in DC as part of Kafka’s Centennial. And PIFF, PAFF, POOF, a devised theatrical event based on the text of Russian avant-garde absurdist Daniil Kharms is in development for a festival run in 2025.