In this piece, set in a loosely imagined 2060s rich with vibes, grooves, and laughter, a group of young women riff on the surfer bro trope to examine how friendship, the pursuit of freedom, and growing up will be impacted by climate catastrophe.

VORTEX Associate Artistic Director Teresa Cruz returns to Austin to direct this fresh new performance event written by long-time collaborator Mattie Barber-Bockelman, who joins New York-based artists Aylin Eker and Riana Moore in the ensemble. Ride the Wave invites the public to collectively imagine how a young person can dream of a future that is no longer promised.

Lighting Design by Brandi Alexander. Sound Design by Johann Solo. Stage Manager, Tamara L. Farley. Assistant Stage Managers, Kate Meehan and Joi Green. Assistant Director, Ivonne Lozano. Dramaturgy, Deb Streusand. Assistant Lighting Designer, J Mwaki. Production Manager, Katie Hamilton. Financial Director, Krystle Cline. Managing Director, Melissa McKnight. Producing Artistic Director, Bonnie Cullum.

Teresa Cruz is a Canada-born, Texas-raised director, multi-disciplinary artist, and producer of live events. She has worked on events, productions, and processes across the country at Berkeley Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Huntington Theatre Company, The Drama League, Lincoln Center Theater, Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation, Ars Nova, the Apollo, the Kennedy Center, and VORTEX Rep Co in Austin where she is currently the Associate Artistic Director. VORTEX Directing Credits include: P3M5 (2017), She Kills Monsters (SYT 2018), Origin Story (2020), The VORTEX Odyssey (2020). She graduated from Connecticut College with a degree in Psychology and Theatre.

Mattie Barber-Bockelman is an actor, writer, new media producer, and theater artist based in New York City. As a member of La MaMa’s Great Jones Repertory Company, Mattie has performed as Elektra in Balkan Bordello in Kosovo, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, and New York and as Helen and Andromache in The Trojan Women by Elizabeth Swados, directed by Andrei Serban at La MaMa. Other performance credits include BAM (Next Wave Festival 2022), Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, The Brick, Theater for the New City, BAAD!, and WOW Café. Directing credits include Dixon Place (HOT! Festival 2022) and CultureHub. She has trained with Double Edge Theatre, LAByrinth Theatre, Michael Chekhov School, Strasberg Institute, and La MaMa Umbria’s Symposium on Theater for Social Change and Community Engagement with Belarus Free Theatre. Mattie is the Producing Director at CultureHub, where she works collaboratively to advance the work of artists experimenting with emerging technologies in search of new artistic forms.