NICOLAS NOREÑA is a Colombian theater maker and performer based in Brooklyn. He’s had the pleasure of working with theater luminaries such as Richard Foreman, Mary Overlie, Jeff Weiss, Joanne Akalaitis, Liz Swaddos, Paul Zimet and Ellen Maddow/The Talking Band, Jess Barbagallo, and Kara Feely+ Travis Just/Object Collection among others.
He is the artistic director of THE MILLION UNDERSCORES, an experimental theater company he founded in 2013, through which he has developed, produced, directed and designed over twenty original productions that have been presented at The Museum of Modern Art, The Exponential Festival, The Brick Theater, The Clemente Center with Mabou Mines, Target Margin Theater, O.D.C San Francisco, as well as galleries and public spaces around the city.
He was a LEIMAY fellow 2015-2020, a LAB artist with Target Margin Theater in 2019, was a resident artist with MABOU MINES 2015-2016, and was a director in residency at Mercury Store 2023.
Nicolás worked under Mary Overlie’s mentorship for twelve years; studying Hamilton Floorbarre, physical improvisation, spontaneous composition and post-modern philosophy, as well as performing in works she choreographed and directed. During the last years of her life he traveled with Mary co-teaching workshops and designing curriculums with her at IMPULSTANZ (Austria), Accedemia Teatro Dimitri (Switzerland), Teatros Danza Canal (Spain) and Rose Bruford (England). He currently teaches Six Viewpoints at the Experimental Theater Wing in New York University, and is the archive director of the Mary Overlie Legacy Project. Nicolás has also taught at MIT (USA), Playwrights Horizons (USA), Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) and Centro Cultural Lucy Tejada (Colombia).
