Tanner Harmon ’26 (photo by Mark DiOrio)
Tanner Harmon ’26, who majored in theater and economics at Colgate University, has joined the New York City Players — an experimental theater company led by Guggenheim Fellow, playwright, and artistic director Richard Maxwell — as an assistant stage manager and foley artist.
Maxwell was Colgate’s Christian A. Johnson Artist-in-Residence from Sept. 29 to Oct. 9, 2025. During the residency, Harmon served as an assistant stage manager and had a cameo in Maxwell’s open studio performance. The piece engaged robots, AI, and amateur actors in a theater performance alongside some of Maxwell’s longtime collaborators.
After the residency, Harmon contacted Maxwell, hoping to keep working with and learning from the company. Harmon recognized that Maxwell’s creative process was generative and emotionally resonant with audiences, and that was enough to make him want to learn more.
“I think that curiosity and modesty went a long way,” Harmon says.
Maxwell responded and hired Harmon for Galicia, his original sequel to Federico García Lorca’s La Casa de Bernarda Alba. In addition to stage management duties, Harmon is creating live sound effects such as thunder, bells, and hooves by physically manipulating objects in the performance space.
“In the theater department and other arts programs at Colgate, students learn not only from faculty but also from artists-in-residence like Richard Maxwell, who are consistently impressed by their creative and intellectual accomplishments,” says Associate Professor of Theater Christian Ducomb. “For those graduates who want to break into theater or the entertainment industry, contact with artists-in-residence can open doors and foster important mentoring relationships that last a lifetime.”
Harmon brings a broad range of hands-on experience to the professional theater world. As a member of Masque and Triangle, Colgate’s student theater organization, he directed, acted, stage-managed, and worked as a technician. Alongside Vee Vuignier ’26, he co-founded 15 Minute Fest, an annual festival that features original student short plays. During their senior year, Harmon and Vuignier completed their theater thesis project, Everything Must Go — Harmon served as writer and director.
“If you choose to do something, it is within your power to make it happen,” Harmon says. “There is no better place to start doing the things you want to do than at a school where people are supportive and talented.”