On the Boards
Northwest New Works Festival
June 5–6, 12–13
KT Niehoff and Alia Swersky in publicity photos
for their NWNW piece (Tim Summers photo)
for their NWNW piece (Tim Summers photo)
PIX
The Offshore Project (Sean M. Johnson photo)
Josephine’s Echopraxia by (Tim Summers photo)
Laara Garcia/Pseudopod Interactive (Tim Summers photo)
PRESS RELEASE
(Verbatim)
(Seattle) – On the Boards (OtB) is delighted to present the 2010 NW New Works Festival. The festival continues to push the boundaries of our region’s creative community, featuring emerging and established artists from a variety of performance disciplines. This year’s festival highlights artists who are pushing themselves to take on new challenges. Many choreographers are conceptually re-approaching their art forms and methods of creating work (eg Mark Haim and AmyO), musicians are taking on theatrical elements (The Mint Collective featuring Ivory Smith, Kelli Frances Corrado and Joseph Gray; and Josephine’s Echopraxia featuring Spencer Moody and Marissa Rae Niederhauser) and other newcomers to the festival are rising to new challenges with ambitious multimedia design (eg The Satori Group and Laara Garcia/Pseudopod Interactive’s Sakura Rising).
Format of the festival
Sixteen companies have been chosen for this year’s festival. These artists will present new and in-progress performance works showcases (each under 20 minutes) in OtB’s Studio Theater and the Merrill Wright Mainstage Theater. Four artists are included in each showcase (see page 2 for a full schedule).
PODFEST
PODFEST, video podcasts featuring performance made for film, returns for the 2010 NW New Works Festival. From June 4 – 13, OtB will roll out 6 short videos, one each Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the festival. They can be viewed at ontheboards.org and in the lobbies prior to each festival showcase. More info about 2010’s PODFEST will be posted, as available, on the festival page of the OtB website. Past PODFEST videos have included works by ilvs strauss, Adam Sekuler, Melanie Kloetzel and Matt Hals.
THE 2010 FESTIVAL PARTICIPANTS:
WEEKEND 1
Studio Theater Showcase
June 4 at 8pm & June 5 – 6 at 5pm
The Mint Collective – Music
Paul Budraitis – Theater
Mike Pham – Theater
The Cherdonna & Lou Show – Dance Theater
Mainstage Theater Showcase
June 5 – 6 at 8pm
AmyO/tinyrage – Dance
Danny Herter & the Invasive Species – Dance
Josephine’s Echopraxia – Dance Music
Mark Haim – Dance
WEEKEND 2
Studio Theater Showcase
June 11 at 8pm & June 12 – 13 at 5pm
The Satori Group – Theater
Erin Leddy – Theater (Portland)
Lily Verlaine – Dance
Charles Smith – Theater
Mainstage Theater Showcase
June 12 – 13 at 8pm
Lingo – Dance
The Offshore Project – Dance
Corrie Befort – Dance Music
Laara Garcia – Dance
BOX OFFICE INFO
206.217.9888 | Tue – Fri, noon – 6pm
$14 for 1 showcase | $20 for 2 showcases
$24 for 3 showcases | $30 for all 4 showcases
The festival lineup was curated by a panel of peer artists
and arts administrators including
The festival lineup was curated by a panel of peer artists and arts administrators including:
Jeremy Barker | Journalist, The SunBreak
Lane Czaplinski | Artistic Director, On the Boards
Erin Boberg Doughton | Performing Arts Program Director, PICA’s TBA Festival
Erin Jorgensen | Musician, The French Project
Mark Kenison | Dance and theater artist, creator of Waxie Moon
Jessica Massart | Communications Director, On the Boards
Becky Poole | Theater artist
Jerry Tischleder | Producer, Risk/Reward & Company Member, Hand2Mouth Theater
Weekend 1 Studio Showcase
Fri | Jun 4 | 8pm
Sat – Sun | Jun 5 – 6 | 5pm
Daughters of Air
Seattle | Music & Visual Art
Daughters of Air is a musical-visual performance that evokes an aqueous world formed by sound, light, costume and sculpture. A chorus of female vocalists creates an ethereal sound score utilizing electronic audio effects while visual artists paint with light on an environment of organic costume and set pieces using digital projection. These digital projections are performed live by visual artists using custom real-time animation software that generate images on-the-fly using input from video game controllers. Daughters of Air is also the name of the new collaborative performance trio of Kelli Frances Corrado, Joseph Gray and Ivory Smith.
Paul Budraitis | Not. Stable. (At all.)
Seattle | Theater
Not. Stable. (At all.) weaves together a multitude of characters, voices and mannerisms into a single performance by Paul Budraitis. The work deals with establishing a direct and honest connection with the audience then using that connection to trick them; establishing what Budraitis refers to as the “elasticity of trust”. The creation of this work mixes in elements of fantastic realism, chaos, impossibility of lasting connections, fear and isolation in the modern world. Budraitis recently returned from a7 ½ years of living and working in Lithuania as a theater director. Collaborating with Budraitis on Not. Stable. (At all.) is director Sean Ryan (Another You by Allen Johnson).
Mike Pham | I Love You, I Hate You
Seattle | Solo Performance
I Love You, I Hate You is a conceptual look at death, duality, and dissociative disorders –
the inexplicable disruptions and breakdowns of one’s consciousness. Pham’s examination of abstraction, mobility, intimacy, and storytelling helps him to confront issues about individual authenticity, control, manipulation, and psychosis. This piece continues his experimentation with the incorporation of video art and live performance. I Love You, I Hate You is Mike’s third appearance in the festival, following 2 previous performances with Helsinki Syndrome.
The Cherdonna and Lou Show | It’s a Salon!
Seattle | Dance Theater
The Cherdonna and Lou Show is a dance-based collaboration between choreographers Jody Kuehner and Ricki Mason. Using movement as the impetus for character development, Kuehner and Mason merge dance with the artifice of drag to reveal something true. Out of this process, both have developed an overzealous alter ego named Cherdonna Shinatra and Lou Henry Hoover. It’s a Salon! inhabits Cherdonna’s onstage living room as the pair hosts a private party, giving Cherdonna the opportunity to confront her existential crisis in the form of supernatural visions and Lou to articulately express his love for abstract art. Kuehner and Mason are longtime Seattle dancers and choreographers who have performed their characters Cherdonna and Lou at a variety of venues including Century Ballroom and OtB’s 12 Minutes Max.
Weekend 1 Mainstage Showcase
Sat – Sun, June 5 – 6 at 8pm
AmyO/tinyrage | In the Fray
Seattle | Dance
Initially created through a series of residencies in Japan and Seattle, Amy O’Neal faces the fear of making a larger solo for herself with In the Fray. This performance tests her artistic defaults, patterns, strengths and weaknesses, shedding the medium of video and investigating other ways to create the visual world. For someone who has never been in a fight and fantasizes about it in all different contexts and styles – from boxing rings to anime and mud wrestling to dance battles – In the Fray relishes the human desire for power, to win, to be the hero. AmyO recently presented too at Northwest Film Forum and crushed at Velocity as part of SCUBA.
Danny Herter & The Invasive Species | couloir (trek)
Seattle | Dance
couloir (trek) combines choreograher Danny Herter’s dual interests in mountain climbing and dance making. While creating this piece Herter has taken copious amounts of digital photographs of alpine tundra in Washington’s Cascade Range. These images will be projected as a backdrop that evokes both mountainscapes and alien planets. Danny Herter and The Invasive Species were last seen in NW New Works in 2008.
Josephine’s Echopraxia | stifle
Seattle | Dance Music
National economic collapse, war, personal struggles and a brush with death led choreographer Marissa Rae Niederhauser to track the things in this world that work to hold her down physically, socially and psychically. Josephine’s Echopraxia’s stifle ponders the magnitude of grace required of each of us to persist in the face of an unknown final outcome manifesting a dance and live music performance that is at times brutal and devotional. Niederhauser is joined by four dancers Allie Hankins, Meredith Horiuchi, Meredith Sallee and Rosa Vissers and accompanied by Spencer Moody (Murder City Devils) and fellow musicians Ryan Crase and Cameron Elliott.
Mark Haim | This Land Is Your Land
Seattle | Dance
How interesting is it to watch people walk for 20 minutes with only subtle and gradual changes? And what if it’s all set to country music? And what if clothes come on and off, walks change subtly and dancers carry cardboard coffee cups? Choreographer Mark Haim thinks outside of the dance box using these questions as inspiration setting the work on a wide variety of people, both in age (ranging from early 20’s to 50) and experience (professional dancers and non-dancers). Performers include Curt Bolar, Sruti Desai, Tova Eisner, TJ Elston, Mark Ferrin, Beth Graczyk, Karn Junkinsmith, Jurg Koch, Jennifer Salk, and Hendri Walujo.
Weekend 2 Studio Showcase
Fri, June 11 at 8pm
Sat – Sun, June 12 – 13 at 5pm
The Satori Group | The Making of a Monster
Seattle | Theater
The Satori Group brings the story of a young girl’s sexual awakening to the stage in The Making of a Monster. The company combines video, sound and movement to frame the story as a manga comic, using the styling honed by the comic book industry to communicate a story that is challenging and delicate. The Satori Group formed in Cincinnati (OH) in 2006 and moved to Seattle in 2008. Since relocating, the company has become established themselves for their experimental, multimedia creations.
Erin Leddy | My Mind Is Like An Open Meadow
Portland | Theater
In 2001 Erin Leddy lived with her Grandmother for a year to record her memoirs. Upon leaving, she had acquired over 20 hours of audio recordings and was destined to make something from the experience. My Mind Is Like An Open Meadow rises from these tapes as sermons, dances, songs and long-distance radio dedications. Erin’s near obsession with the life and spirit of her Grandmother delicately closes the gap between these two generations. Erin Leddy is a Portland-based artist and a member of Hand2Mouth.
Lily Verlaine | Magpie
Seattle | Dance
Lily Verlaine premieres a new solo burlesque/dance work that integrates her embrace of erotic art and her academic background in feminist theory. The piece explores issues of obsession and fantasy as Verlaine flips the traditional performer / audience dynamic placing into their intimate proximity and objectifying members of the audience. Lily Verlaine is a burlesque artist known for incorporating visual art and performance art into her act, including a recreation of Manet’s Dejeuner sur L’Herbe. Her work was incorporated into the 2009 documentary A Wink and a Smile.
Charles Smith | Today I am a Zionist
Seattle | Theater
A solo performance piece incorporating slides/video and live music, Today I Am a Zionist is a satire on the “American Maverick” rhetoric used in everyday speech. Inspired by the Duke Ellington quote, “You’ve got to find some way of saying it without saying it,” the language and stories are presented without linear or logical narrative. Keeping the writing fun and irreverent while remaining abstract has been the touchstone in developing the piece. Directed by Matthew Richter and part of the upcoming solo show, My Arm Is Up in the Air. Charles Smith has been working as a performer, director and designer in Seattle theater for 20 years. Past credits include 14/48, Greek Active and lighting design for Dina Martina.
Weekend 2 Mainstage Showcase
Sat – Sun, June 12 – 13 at 8pm
Lingo | Embracing the Inevitable
Seattle | Dance
Niehoff came to a realization that how she moves is shifting from what could (potential) to what is (completion). After 21 years of using her body as a creative tool, she has become acutely aware of its strengths and limitations (eg there is a certain thing her body does now: rotates right hip socket, rib cage splays, left leg hikes to roll). Whether set or improvised, it is inevitable. Working with Alia Swersky, the duet will nail down the minutia of their respective “invevitable” dancing and embrace the selves they have become. KT Niehoff has been creating original dance works in Seattle for 15+ years with her company, Lingo. She was most recently seen around Seattle with Glimmer, a project seen at SAM, ACT and multiple outdor venues.
The Offshore Project | The Buffoon
Seattle | Dance & Visual Art
The Offshore Project invites the audience into the home of a highly conventional family as they entertain around static sculptures an eccentric, quizzical uninvited guest or The Buffoon. The story is visually narrative, derived thematically from “The Doubtful Guest” by Edward Gorey. The Offshore Project is recognized for showcasing athletic and high energy performances; in The Buffoon they hone that same strength and channel it into a more specific and articulate conversation between characters, sculptures and sound. The sculptures are original pieces made exclusively for the show by local visual artist, Sean M. Johnson along with an original score comprised of stringed arrangements, percussion, electronic synthesis, and text by composer and cellist Dylan Rieck, performed live by a quintet.
Corrie Befort | Cut Chalk
Seattle | Dance & Music
Corrie Befort brings a precisely tuned cast of Cornish dancers and musicians together to create a work of visual and sonic polyrhythm. Six deft and sinuous female dancers press and beat intricate physical patterns surrounded by a live rhythmic score of clapping hands, stamping feet and piercing, swooping voices. From subtle ripples they gradually build to a fierce and reverberant heat as male and female voices blur and bend trembling with dissonance. Darting limbs join to shudder, churn and pound as the performers engage each other in this ancient yet prevalent method of generating focus, endurance and pleasure. Finally, featured soloist Trez McBean laces a path through the thrumming residue of sound and motion, slicing and defining the space with clean and quiet determination.
Laara Garcia/Pseudopod Interactive | Sakura Rising
Seattle | Dance Theater
Sakura Rising is a playful, ultra-collaborative, multi-media, live action videogame performance is conceived by director/choreographer Laara Garcia/Pseudopod Interactive. Garcia delved deep into the movement study of translating the digital qualities of videogame characters onto real bodies, from passive stances to fight methodology and knock-outs. The performance features a “real-time” nature and interplay in which everything is performed live, mixed and projected in real time. Taking on this challenge is a cast of 13 collaborative Seattle-based artists including dancers Eric Aguilar, Alice Gosti, Devin McDermott, Laurie Roberts, Heather Stockton, Graham Vanderwood and Markeith Wiley, graphic designers Anna Czoski, William Feffer and Gaelen Sayers, video artist Scott Bennett a.k.a. VJ Scobot, composer and music engineer Eli Hetrick a.k.a. PotatoFinger and lighting designer Dani Prados.
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