Joy Tomasko is a writer, director and artist based in Queens, NY.
Theater
Joy's work has been performed in the US, Canada, Cuba, Germany and the UK.
She is the Artistic Director of Tiny Box Theater, a company that creates theatrical experiences using repurposed boxes and objects of nostalgia.
With director and choreographer Jeffry Denman, Joy is co-writing a new dance theater piece about The Donner Party. Joy frequently works with Theatre 167 as a writer and creative consultant and participated in their collaboration with NYMadness to write and produce a new full-length play in one week with nine writers and directors.
Media
Joy writes scripts for media interactives, environments and videos for Batwin + Robin Productions. Clients have included: The FDNY Foundation, The Brooklyn Historical Society; The New York Historical Society; The Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia; King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Saudi Arabia; the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences; the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Ada, Oklahoma and the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.
Art & Installations
Joy's created several site-specific interactive installations for New York City festivals and galleries. Other recent collaborations include dialogue for visual artist Karen Ostrom’s animated Civil War era tintype, Card Players that won "Best in Show" in BRIC’s Open (C)all: Up for Debate. They collaborated on two additional tintypes for a show at Ball & Socket Arts in Cheshire, CT.
Teaching
As an educator, Joy taught Theater Studies at Fordham University; Playwriting, Screenwriting and Puppetry at The Gateway Middle School for students with
learning disabilities and has taught private workshops in both New York City and Minneapolis. She's participated in workshops on genocide studies and how art can contribute to the process of reconciliation in theaters in Serbia, Rwanda and Uganda.
Affiliations, Residencies, & Grants
Joy is an Artistic Associate of Denman Theatre & Dance Co. and an affiliated writer with the Playwrights Center and Theatre 167. She's a former Jerome Fellow, MacDowell Colony Fellow, AROHO Creative Artist Retreat Scholar, Women’s Project Lab Member and NYSCA Playwright-in-Residence, plumage writer's group member, Gateway Middle School Playwright-in-Residence and LaGuardia Performing Arts Center Lab Resident Playwright. Joy is a 2019 recipient of a Queens Art Fund Grant from the Queens Council on the Arts.
Joy is an Associate Editor for LA Yoga Magazine and an avid traveller. Follow her explorations on instagram.
BA: Drew University. MFA: California Institute of the Arts.
Member of the Dramatists Guild.