Performance

Performance Slideshow|Directing & Devising|Gallery|Playwright’s Notes

Carnivals Trailer|Clown Solo|Barker Entrance

PROJECTS

Carnivals and Snowstorms, ATLAS Resident Artist and BCAA Emerging Artist Award

Carnivals and Snowstorms (director), was a devised multi-media production that explored the liminal space of dreams and memory through the metaphor of carnival. Digital and analogue film, computerized programming, and electronic sound mediums were created in close collaboration with designers, including Live Design magazine’s 2015 “One to Watch” filmmaker, Travis Mouffe. Choreography was developed in collaboration with dancers from the University of Colorado at Boulder graduate dance division, and was inspired by Butoh and the image of a broken carousel.


The Colorado Shakespeare Festival

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival is the second-oldest Shakespeare festival in the country and is recognized nationally, and was named one of the top three Shakespeare festivals in the USA by TIME Magazine. I worked with CSF in the various roles of actor, assistant director, and dramaturg in the 2008-10 productions of Much Ado About Nothing (2009 Denver Post Ovation Award Nominee for Best Comedy), Hamlet (2009 Denver Post Ovation Award Nominee for Best Actor and Best Actress) Measure for Measure, and a meta-theatrical adaptation of Two Gentlemen of Verona, as well as visiting dramaturg for a guest production of MacB through the African-American Shakespeare Company. In 2009, CSF was nominated for the Denver Post Ovation Award, “Best Year by a Company.”

“Theater doesn’t get any better than sitting under the stars and seeing the secrets of Shakespeare unlocked by a series of insightful directorial choices and exemplary performances, which is exactly what you experience with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s take on this [Much Ado]. ….You may never see a better production of this classic.” Bob Bows, The Denver Post

“Saturday’s opening performance of “Much Ado About Nothing” turned out to be a magical nights outdoors…. Playful, smart, romantic and genuinely funny, this “Much Ado” is something to love.” Mark Collins, The Daily Camera

“The Colorado Shakespeare Festival is a mover and a shaker.” John Moore, Denver Center for Performing Arts Associate Director


The Tempest Fantasy

The Tempest Fantasy is Paul Moravec’s Pulitzer-prize award-winning composition for violin, piano, cello and clarinet, inspired by Shakespeare’s Tempest. I directed and wrote an original text (“Miranda’s Tempest”) for a faculty concert of this rarely performed work. The Tempest Fantasy was conceived and produced in collaboration with the University of Colorado Music College, the CU Dance division, and members of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

“Just as my piece expresses a personal musical meditation on various aspects of Shakespeare’s Tempest, Daniella’s direction is a personal mediation on my piece, re-imagined for a contemporary audience.” Dr. Paul Moravec

Review: http://daniellavinitski.com/press/daily-camera-article-on-the-tempest/


Original works

As a playwright, my work is inspired by the Theatre of the Absurd, with an emphasis on image, atmosphere, and language. My plays have been professionally workshopped and produced by the Mid-America Theatre Conference, FUSION Theatre (American-Theatre Wing recognized company), The Independent Actor’s Theatre (featured playwright), Corner Cone Playhouse (Best Comedy), Judith Shakespeare (forthcoming), the Philadelphia Dramatists’ Center in conjunction with Barrymore-nominated Iron Age Theatre, as well as recognized through Cambridge University Press and published and adapted for film and course curriculum.

Homesick review: http://alibi.com/art/23660/The-Seven-Something-Left-Unsaid.html

“Daniella Vinitski Mooney’s MEMORY is the haunting story of a couple that are able to remember each other in the afterlife through Shakespearean quotes. The dialogue interweavers some of Shakespeare’s most haunting lines. Vinitski Mooney.’s characters have no idea who or where they are, but as the play moves on, it becomes clear they are in some kind of an afterlife after experiencing actual hell on earth. Lovely and lyrical and thought-provoking, I would love to see MEMORY live.” Cambridge University Press, “Channeling the Bard”


Bent

Truth Be Told Productions is a Philadelphia-based theatre company with a mission towards producing new and established LGBT-themed works. In 2014, I was dramaturg for their premier production of Martin Sherman’s Bent as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. This site-specific production took place in the basement of the Power Plant, a 1900’s power plant and former chocolate factory, located in Old City’s gallery district.

“This production of Bent, like many other Fringe shows, uses an unusual venue – Philly’s Power Plant on Bread Street, a concrete basement never intended to be a theatre. It could hardly have worked better – the experience was complete and immersive….The committed acting, clean and clear direction, and bare bones staging were powerful.” David Fox, Reclining Standards

“A lot of hard work and heart went into this production, and it shows. The set is minimalistic and works well with the large basement space it’s in, as well as with the bleak locations and themes of the play. The actors’ fine performances and the touching script are given the room they require by the restrained direction, while the occasional moments that approach melodrama are balanced with touches of dark humor.” Ninni Saajola, Phindie


Acting

Over the years, I have had the privilege of working and studying under various internationally recognized artists, such as but not limited to Six-Viewpoints founder Mary Overlie, Stella Adler Master Teacher Joanna Rotte, and respective USA Knight Fellows Michelle Ellsworth and Pig Iron Theatre Company, among others through Master Class and conservatory study. I am extensively trained in various facets of physical, somatic, classical, and traditional based methods that I utilize in the classroom, rehearsal hall, and research.