On the boards 1516 season brochure by On the Boards

There is another forest, high up in the trees// If you need space, take it.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Curator’s Note by Artistic Director Lane Czaplinski 4 15/16 Season La Mélancolie des dragons | Philippe Quesne 8; Girl Gods | Pat Graney 10; SHORE | Emily Johnson 12; biograph, last year was pretty//sh*tty | Findlay//Sandsmark 16; Predator Songstress | Degenerate Art Ensemble 18; The Life Model | Fracé/Yousefzadeh 20; Riding on a Cloud | Rabih Mroué 22; Julia | Christiane Jatahy 24; Yellow Towel | Dana Michel 26; Betroffenheit | Kidd Pivot/ Electric Company Theatre 28; NowNowNow | Sarah Rudinoff 30; Employee of the Year | 600 Highwaymen 32 More Programs A 24-Decade History of Popular Music: Songs of the American Right | Taylor Mac 36; Nanook of the North | Tanya Tagaq 38; NW New Works Festival 40; Open Studio 42; Music 46 Claudia La Rocco, Writer-in-Residence 47 Essay by Claudia La Rocco 48 Childcare 55; The Ambassador Project 56; The Ticket Bank 58; OntheBoards.tv 60; Studio Suppers 64; Performance Production Program 67 Join Us 3 Year Club 68; Donate 69; Funders 70; Staff & Board 72; Subscription Info 74; New Subscription Offers 77; Calendar 78; Order Form 79 Cover by Ben Beres Tickets & info @ ontheboards.org | 206.217.9888 2

La MĂŠlancolie des dragons photo by Pierre Grosbois

HOW ART BECAME RELEVANT (THIS SEASON)1 By Lane Czaplinski2 This grand performance ends with a feast.3 But first there are dogs and trees and snow. There’s music and singing, too. Exaltations. A rocker dude, who looks like Klaus Meine,4 Approaches a microphone, accompanied only by the strains of a recorder:

Time, it needs time, to win back your love again I will be there, I will be there

There’re angels dancing except they’re angry like gods, Severe and flailing with rage. A community choir exhorts:

O Fortuna…Velut luna… statu variabilis… semper crescis… aut decrescis5

And then there’s nothing. And then snow refracts white light and it looks like Switzerland. The critic-poet looks on aghast.6 “Why are there… theater lights?” asks the artist Tino Sehgal.7 “No, we don’t want theater lights,” says Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and Talk. “My work, actually, it’s like theater without the theater lights,” he says. “What that means is the theater lights produce a kind of separation—you can see me, but I can’t see you. That’s what we call absorption. We’re creating a situation in which Tina and me are in this situation together and you can partake in this 4

situation as if you were a part of it. So that’s what these lights are doing—and they are really blinding me.” “Is there any way we can actually turn down these lights,” Brown calls out to a crowd of people who look around cluelessly. “They are a bit bright.” “We cannot be contemporary in a theater, it’s impossible,” says Sehgal. And then there’s nothing but people sitting in a circle. (Which is probably how David Lynch would film season 3 of Twin Peaks.) More singing and then another angel, This time bedazzled and wrestling with Dixie. And then: Santa Claus. Fade to the Pyramids in Egypt. A balcony in Lebanon. A kitchen in Brazil. Characters enter and exit. Friends. Brothers. Lovers. Image and reality flicker. Someone is shot but we can’t be sure. And we’ll never know why. And then snow again; flat, sheet-like and everywhere. Enter an angel with curls. Blond? She stammers while her body contorts. And then there’s nothing, like after an unexpected death. Snow like clouds but somehow heavy.8 We’re at the North Pole inside an igloo. Asleep, buried and blinded by pelts. Suddenly, we’re rousted By yet another Angel. She’s pissed and throws us out with only her voice From deep within.

And then there’s nothing. And all that remains is what is broken.9 (But if that’s the case what are we doing here?) There is no final scene, only more angels. They’re young but know things. They teach us we aren’t dead, done or over. Because they sing, too. Inspired by the essay, How Art Became Irrelevant by Michael J. Lewis, Faison-Pierson-Stoddard Professor of Art at Williams College. (www.commentarymagazine.com/article/how-art-became-irrelevant/) 2 Inspired by Rabih Mroué’s use of the unreliable narrator. 3 When talking to Ben Beres about making an artwork for our season brochure, I told him how the term contemporary performance bums me out and how I’ve been thinking a lot about the area of the arts ecosystem this moniker is trying to describe. I’ve always been fascinated by techniques for comprehensively representing systems/ communities/approaches/strategies/styles so I emailed him images of maps and taxonomies as well as of Richard Scarry children’s books, Garden of Earthly Delights, emojis and graffiti. I’ve always admired the density Ben achieves through his drawings and we’re super excited by what he created. 4 From Wikipedia: Klaus Meine is a German singer, best known as the lead singer of the hard rock band Scorpions. He and guitarist Rudolf Schenker are the only two members of the group to appear on every Scorpions album. 5 From Carmina Burana by Carl Orff: “O Fortune… like the moon… you are changeable… always waxing… and waning.” It goes on to say uplifting things like “vita detestabilis” [hateful life] and “Sors immanis” [monstrous fate] and “mecum omnes plangite” [everyone weep with me!]. 6 Writer-in-residence Claudia La Rocco, who recently published a book entitled The Best Most Useless Dress. Jay Sanders, curator of performing arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1

writes: “La Rocco’s impactful writing sketches its performing subjects in real time, depicting not only the character of work, but the conditions in which it collectively forms and exists. Here the spaces of New York performance and the spaces of critical writing reveal themselves anew.” 7 Stolen from artnews.com & news.artnet.com reports on a ridiculous conversation at a dinner for Credit Suisse in Basel. 8 Reminds me of a passage from a friend’s favorite poem, The Spanish Trilogy by Rainer Maria Rilke, and how it touches on the act of making something, maybe even something like art: From these clouds, that carelessly cover the star that just was there— from these mountains over there, now, for a while, taken by the night— from this river on the valley floor, that glimmers with the sky’s broken light— from me and all of this: to make one thing.

From me and from the feel of the flock brought back to the fold, to outlast the great dark closing down of the world— from me and from each flicker of light from the shadowed houses—God, to make one thing.

From the strangers, among whom I know not one, God, and from me, from me— to make one thing. From all the slumbering ones, coughing old men in the hospice, sleep-drunken children in crowded beds, from me and all I don’t know, to make the thing, oh God, God, that thing, that, half-heaven, half-earth, gathers into its gravity only the sum of flight, weighing nothing but arrival. 9 This is how Professor Lewis ends his essay. He makes a lot of valid points, especially about arts education, but overall I don’t agree with him one bit. 7

La Mélancolie des dragons Philippe Quesne Thu – Sat | Sep 10 – 12 | 8pm Sun | Sep 13 | 5pm $23 | $25 week of show “A great, humorous and deeply human, touching work.” — Der Standard (Vienna) Stranded in the middle of a snowy forest, six heavy metal music fans build a DIY version of a Disney theme park as a stand against cheap consumerism. A cheerfully surreal tableau slowly emerges with the help of butt-rock, medieval recorders, and a busted Citroën. An international audience favorite, this three-dimensional poem is full of visual wonder, joy and melancholy, and a sincere delight in human existence. You’ll never hear the Scorpions the same way again. In French with English surtitles. Originally a visual artist, Philippe Quesne studied visual arts and graphic design at L’École Estienne and set design at L’École des Arts Décoratifs de Paris. In 2003 he founded Vivarium Studio, a laboratory for theatrical innovation which features painters, actors, dancers, musicians and animals. His work has been staged all over the world, from Avignon to Tokyo. Quesne is currently artistic director of the Nanterre-Amandiers Theatre in Paris and was last seen at OtB with the profound and stunning L’Éffet de Serge.

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Girl Gods Pat Graney Thu â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Sat | Oct 1 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 3 | 8pm Sun | Oct 4 | 5pm $23 | $25 week of show A stage layered with detritus. Cocktail dresses and high heels. Feminine ancestry & family history. Uneasy vaudeville married to explosive physicality. Five fearless women with a palpable rage boiling below the surface. Indefatigable dance legend Pat Graney returns to the OtB stage with an unsettling journey into the collective feminine unconscious. Featuring dancers Sara Jinks, Sruti Desai, Cheryl Delostrinos, Jenny May Peterson, and Jody Kuehner; composer/musician Amy Denio; and lighting designer Amiya Brown. Choreographer Pat Graney has been making award-winning performance for decades. A recent winner of a Doris Duke Performing Artist award, she often explores female identity and power, taking movement inspiration from ballet to gymnastics to martial arts to slapstick. Graney is also well-known for her community initiatives working with incarcerated women and trafficked teens in the Seattle school system. She is an international and local treasure. Girl Gods is co-commissioned by OtB, Montclair State University, and Miami Light Project through the National Performance Network. Girl Gods is supported by the OtB Performance Production Program.

SHORE Emily Johnson Thu – Sat | Oct 15 – 17 | 8pm $23 | $25 week of show “I view our bodies as everything: our bodies are culture, history, present and future, all at once.” — Emily Johnson

Dance expands beyond the confines of a theater to embrace Seattle in this multi-day performance from Native Alaskan artist Emily Johnson. SHORE will unfold in four parts: Performance | Oct 15 – 17 | 8pm | OtB The heart of the project is a multi-layered dance piece featuring community singers and movers together with the visiting artists. The performance will begin outside and move into the OtB mainstage. Community Action | date & time TBA Join us for a volunteer event in partnership with local community organizations. The nature of the event will be intrinsic to Seattle and will be determined through a Community Visioning Session (see page 15). Story | Oct 11 | 7pm | Hugo House Local writers share their original work relating to home, place and land in this curated reading at Hugo House. Feast | Oct 18 | 5pm | Location TBA SHORE culminates in a festive potluck. Participants are invited to bring their own dishes to share. 12

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Keep up-to-date with info at ontheboards.org. Emily Johnson is an artist who makes body-based work. Originally from Alaska, she is of Yup’ik descent and her cultural heritage is a constant in her choreography. Her performances often function as installations, interacting with a place’s architecture, history, and role in community. She blurs distinctions between performance and daily life and creates material that reveals and respects multiple perspectives. In 2014 Johnson received a prestigious Doris Duke Artist Award and is a 2015 Artist in Residence at Williams College. SHORE is the third in a trilogy of works that began with the New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” award-winning The Thank You Bar and continued with the ten-city tour of Niicugni. SHORE is supported by the OtB Performance Production Program. 15

biograph, last year was pretty//sh*tty Findlay//Sandsmark Thu – Sat | Nov 19 – 21 | 8pm Sun | Nov 22 | 5pm $23 | $25 week of show With a passing nod to Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape and a swipe at the age of selfies, this theater/dance performance examines the very moment something or someone is captured, recorded and then memorialized through technology. In an age where pictures and film are frequently doctored, Findlay//Sandsmark draw a line between the fragile image and the fallibility of memory. Featuring performances by Norwegian choreographer Marit Sandsmark and Klaus Kinski look-alike Joey Truman, a relentless live sound score by Pål Asle Pettersen, prologue video by theater VIP Young Jean Lee, and text from Artforum/New York Times critic and poet Claudia La Rocco. Findlay//Sandsmark is a Norway-based company working across the disciplines of dance, theater, live music, and video art. Their work connects live performance and installation, creating a spellbinding visual language. They are dedicated to working with other artists for each project, leading to collaborations with Jason Rogenes, Diane Madden (Trisha Brown Company), Ruud van den Akker (Wooster Group), Eric Dyer (Radiohole) and playwright Young Jean Lee, among others. The company is led by Norwegian choreographer/artist Marit Sandsmark and American theater and video artist Iver Findlay.

photo by Nina Magnus

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Predator Songstress Degenerate Art Ensemble Thu – Sat | Dec 3 – 5 | 8pm Sun | Dec 6 | 5pm $23 | $25 week of show A fierce band of local artists presents an intensely visual, music-driven theatrical event—a modern-day fairy tale of an anti-heroine in search of her stolen voice, set in a world where the tools that are used to stifle and control are appropriated as means for individual realization. Prepare your eyes and ears for otherworldly visuals, gorgeous vocals, incredible costumes, merrily creepy earworms, and a singular butoh-meets-anime vision. Featuring Haruko Crow Nishimura, Douglass Ridings, Okanomodé Soulchilde, Joshua Kohl, Benjamin Marx, and Paris Hurley. Video by Leo Mayberry & Ian Lucero. Costumes by Alenka Loesch. Scenic design by Neal Wilkinson. Light design by Ben Zamora. Degenerate Art Ensemble is a Seattle-based multidisciplinary performance company led by composer Joshua Kohl and dancer Haruko Crow Nishimura. A performing company as well as a band, they create theatrical works, rock shows, orchestral concerts, and street spectacles. They often collaborate with other artists, including a recent production with Kronos Quartet. Inspired by punk, comics, cinema, and beautiful nightmares, they are a mainstay of the Seattle art scene. Predator Songstress is supported by the OtB Performance Production Program. 19

photo by Zeina Barakeh

The Life Model Fracé | Yousefzadeh Thu – Sat | Jan 14 – 16 | 8pm Sun | Jan 17 | 5pm $23 | $25 week of show Four friends cross paths in Cairo before and during the transformative 2011 revolution: Ali, a young activist; Maha, a video artist; Gabriella, an expat plastic surgeon; and Henry, a visiting artist on an expensive commission. These four very different friends struggle with personal and political transformation as the energy of the revolution ripples throughout the world. Artistic mediums and perspectives seamlessly merge, creating a collective portrait of risk, fear, hope, and love. The Life Model is a collaborative project created by actor/ director Jeffrey Fracé and director Pirronne Yousefzadeh; in collaboration with video artist Zeina Barakeh, choreographer Pavel Zuštiak, performers/writers Gisela Chípe and Maha Chehlaoui, poet Maged Zaher, and composer/violist Christian Frederickson (co-founder of the band Rachel’s). The Life Model is supported by the OtB Performance Production Program.

Riding on a Cloud Rabih Mroué Thu – Sat | Jan 28 – 30 | 8pm Sun | Jan 31 | 5pm $23 | $25 week of show “…emotionally moving and bristling with intelligence, its story is both intensely personal and utterly universal.” — Daily Star (Lebanon) “I deal with the audience in an equal way, in the sense that they know as much as I know.” — Rabih Mroué

As a young man in the Lebanese Civil War, Yasser Mroué suffered a head injury which made it impossible for him to connect photographic images with their real-life counterparts. How do you make sense of the world when the mind can no longer understand representation? With DIY videos made by Yasser, voice recordings, poetry, and photographs, Yasser and brother/director Rabih Mroué pry apart the idea of representation. What is “real” and what is imagined? How do we construct our own reality? In Arabic with English surtitles. Lebanese artist Rabih Mroué is a stage and film actor, playwright, and visual artist. His work blends reality and fiction and is focused on provoking thought rather than providing spectacle. His photographs, videos, and theater pieces have been seen all over the world, including a recent installation at MoMA. Mroué was the winner of the Spalding Gray award in 2010. He was last seen at OtB in 2011 with Looking for a missing employee. 22

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Julia Christiane Jatahy Thu – Sat | Feb 11 – 13 | 8pm Sun | Feb 14 | 5pm $23 | $25 week of show Brazilian film and theater artist Christiane Jatahy makes her Seattle debut with a piece inspired by August Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Cinema is deconstructed before the audience as the theatrical performers are filmed live onstage. Perception expands as theater becomes cinema and vice versa. Lust, class, power, and race are at the heart of the performance, as two characters circle around one another in a game with deadly consequences. Jatahy closely investigates the themes of class structures, desire, family, and survival of the fittest, grounding her investigation firmly within the realities of contemporary Brazil. In Portuguese with English surtitles. Christiane Jatahy is an author and theater/film director based in Rio de Janeiro. Originally educated in theater and the creator of several theater companies, she has expanded her work in recent years to include film. Her current work is geared toward the search for new scenographic possibilities, leading towards a merging of theater and cinema, documentary and performance, reality and fiction. Her work often deals with social, political, and class structures in modern-day Rio de Janeiro, and has been presented throughout Europe. This will be her first visit to Seattle.

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Yellow Towel Dana Michel Thu – Sat | Mar 3 – 5 | 8pm Sun | Mar 6 | 5pm $23 | $25 week of show As a child Dana Michel would drape a yellow towel on her head to emulate the blond girls at school. This memory became the impetus for a ritualistic work mashing black culture stereotypes into a fascinating alter-ego, simultaneously familiar and grotesque. Strongly influenced by the aesthetics of fashion, music videos, queer culture, and comedy, Michel’s powerfully unique style of work is uber-physical, queasily funny, and fiercely contemporary. Yellow Towel was named one of the top shows of 2014 by Time Out New York. Dana Michel is a choreographer and performer based in Montreal, Canada. Before entering the BFA in Contemporary Dance program at Concordia University in her late twenties, she was a marketing executive, competitive runner and football player. In 2011, she had the honor of being a danceWEB scholar, allowing her to deepen her research process at ImPulsTanz in Vienna, Austria. Her work is an intense mixture of living sculpture, physical comedy, psychological excavation, and deconstructed social commentary.

Betroffenheit Kidd Pivot | Electric Company Theatre AT THE MOORE THEATRE Fri – Sat | Mar 18 – 19 | 8pm Co-presented with Seattle Theatre Group Single tickets available through Seattle Theatre Group at stgpresents.org Subscription tickets available through your OtB subscription The Moore Theatre is a reserved seating house. Subscribers please contact the OtB Box Office with any seating preferences by Jan 15, 2016.

Superstar choreographer Crystal Pite and her company of dancers team with Jonathon Young and Vancouver’s Electric Company Theatre in a new production centered around the German concept of Betroffenheit. A word with no direct English translation that describes the shock and bewilderment experienced in the aftermath of a disaster, Betroffenheit touches on themes of loss, trauma, addiction, and recovery. This new creation by two of Canada’s most celebrated companies is an innovative, boundary-stretching hybrid of theater and dance. Kidd Pivot and director/choreographer Crystal Pite are significant forces on the international dance scene. Pite, a longtime member of William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt, has become an in-demand choreographer with commissions from Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Nethederlands Dans Theater, among others. This will be her fifth time at OtB. Electric Company Theatre is a leading force in the Vancouver theater scene, known for their use of physical theater, adventurous narrative, and new technology.

Betroffenheit is co-produced by On the Boards and Seattle Theatre Group through the support of Glenn Kawasaki. Betroffenheit is supported by the OtB Performance Production Program.

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NowNowNow Sarah Rudinoff

& Wed – Sat | Mar 30 – Apr 2 | 8pm Sun | Apr 3 | 5pm $23 | $25 week of show Social media. Performance. Authenticity vs. scripted reality. Veteran Seattle performer Sarah Rudinoff works with director David Bennett to find a personal truth in a world of created personas. How and why do we present ourselves online? How do we change our voices and personas to fit the mediums of our time? Rudinoff tests the solidity of her own curated realities and wonders why she created them in the first place. She uses shifting narratives, intimate confessions, and her spot-on comedic timing to unravel the schizophrenia of modern living. Local triple-threat performer Sarah Rudinoff has been singing and performing in Seattle for the past 20 years. She was last seen at OtB in 2014 in Dayna Hanson’s The Clay Duke and in the NW New Works Festival, and in 2004 with her show The Last State. Director David Bennett recently directed the award-winning play Torso by Keri Healey. He is known for directing large-scale musicals, many at the 5th Avenue Theatre. NowNowNow is supported by the OtB Performance Production Program. 31

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Employee of the Year 600 Highwaymen Thu – Sat | Apr 28 – 30 | 8pm Sun | May 1 | 5pm $23 | $25 week of show please note new dates A child’s house burns down, forcing her to leave everyone and everything she has behind. From this moment a singular journey to create a life begins. Narrated by five young girls, the piece tells the story of the life of a woman from age three to age 80. How do we become who we are? What is the trajectory of one life? Genuine and straightforward with an ingenius theatrical style, this new work packs a serious emotional punch. Featuring the original songs of Obie-award winner David Cale. Please note: this piece is performed by children. It is not necessarily children’s theater. 600 Highwaymen is helmed by husband and wife directorial team Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone. They are dedicated to a radical approach to live art, constructing events designed to create intimacy among a group of strangers. The company has earned accolades as a rising star of contemporary American theater, with distinctions awarded by The Village Voice, Flavorpill, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Time Out New York. 33

Employee of the Year photo by Maria Baranova

MORE... MORE... MORE...

A 24-Decade History of Popular Music CIAL Songs of the American Right SPE T EVEN Taylor Mac Thu – Sat | Dec 10 – 12 | 8pm $20 Co-presented with Seattle Theatre Group at On the Boards Single tickets available through ontheboards.org

“Startlingly unique… a must see for anyone who wants to see a kinder, gentler society.” — The Huffington Post Bedazzled shaman, singer-songwriter, and performance artist extraordinaire Taylor Mac visits OtB for the first time with an evening of songs and barbed commentary. Songs of the American Right is a political and hilarious introduction to what will eventually be a 24-hour-long performance work. Mac’s shows are like nothing you’ve ever witnessed: prepare for feathers, a razor-sharp wit, a gorgeous voice, and serious glitter. Equal parts radical angel and Elizabethan fool, Taylor Mac “doesn’t just defy categorization; he makes the categories themselves seem irrelevant” (Time Out New York). For the past 18 years, Mac has created internationally award-winning performance events that at once provoke and embrace his diverse audience. A 24-Decade History of Popular Music is Mac’s most ambitious project to date—a subjective history of the past 240 years since America’s founding told through the music of the times. This will be Mac’s first time at OtB.

photo by Ves Pitts

photo by Ian Nadya Kwandibens

Nanook of the North Tanya Tagaq AT THE NEPTUNE THEATRE

CIAL SPE T EVEN

Wed | Apr 6 | 8pm $30 Presented in partnership with Seattle Theatre Group Single tickets available for purchase with your OtB subscription, or through Seattle Theatre Group at stgpresents.org The Neptune Theatre is a reserved seating house. Subscribers please contact the OtB Box Office with any seating preferences by Jan 15, 2016.

“…the polar punk who makes Björk sound tame.” — The Guardian “[Tagaq’s music is] like Edith Piaf… Totally emotional.” — Björk Native Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq reclaims the 1922 film Nanook of the North with a live sound score unlike anything you’ve heard before. Her unnerving and exquisite style of throat singing is primeval and sublime, perfectly evoking the harsh joy and triumph of existence in cold Northern landscapes. Tagaq takes back the fierce Inuit power and intelligence from a film rife with damaging stereotypes. A serious do-not-miss for humans of all sorts. Tanya Tagaq is a throat singer from Cambridge Bay (Iqaluktuuttiaq), Nunavut, Canada, on the south coast of Victoria Island. She is known for delivering fearsome, elemental performances that are visceral and physical, heaving and breathing and alive. Her shows have drawn incredible response from worldwide audiences, leading to a recent win of the Polaris Music Prize and worldwide tours with musicians including Björk.

NEW WORKS FESTIVAL FRI - SUN | JUN 10 - 12 & 17 - 19

photos by Tim Summers & Steve Smith

SIXTEEN ORIGINAL WORKS ON TWO STAGES OVER TWO WEEKENDS Now in its 33rd year, the NW New Works Festival presents experimental and in-progress work from Northwest artists. The Festival provides artists with rehearsal time, an honorarium, documentation, and the opportunity to present their work on the stages of OtB. The NW New Works Festival has helped launch careers for many local performers. Artists such as Zoe Scofield, Trimpin, Paul Budraitis, Hand2Mouth Theatre, Waxie Moon, Lori Goldston, Kyle Loven, Degenerate Art Ensemble, and Sarah Rudinoff have all participated in the Festival. The Festival lineup is curated by a panel of peer artists and arts administrators. For application information, visit ontheboards.org APPLICATION DEADLINE: Oct 26, 2015

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For 37 years, the entry point to OtBâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s programming has morphed and shifted to serve the needs of local artists in the early stages of creating experimental work. Open Studio is a flexible platform that allows you to see a range of projects from artists showing a few minutes of new material to a performance installation to a durational performance work. All projects are self-contained and technically constrained, providing a low-pressure showcase for artists to experiment. Many artists ask for feedback, so Open Studio can also be your chance to let them know what you think. Open Studio dates and projects will be posted throughout the year on our website and project proposals will be considered three times over the course of the season. Come support new work in its earliest stages. Open Studio showcases are a $5 suggested donation. For application information, visit ontheboards.org APPLICATION DEADLINES: Fall 2015 | applications due Aug 21, 2015 Winter 2016 | applications due Nov 6, 2015 Spring 2016 | applications due Jan 15, 2016

IC S U

We’ve been experimenting with ways to incorporate more music at OtB. We have all the ingredients for great music shows: the intimate feel and ideal layout of the mainstage lobby, the acoustics and piano in the rehearsal room, the wide pool of Seattle musicians, and the brilliant talents of visiting artists. We’ve had some magical listening experiences so far, from Erin Jorgensen’s six free concerts to impromtu lobby performances from the casts of Richard Maxwell and Alain Buffard. (Stick around post-show. You might hear something amazing.) This season promises even more, from accordionist Kyle Hanson to Rabih Mroué and friends to Danish electronic musician Pål Asle Pettersen. Stay tuned.

SAVE THE DATE Phil Kline’s UNSILENT NIGHT Sat, Dec 19 | time TBA | free Join us for a holiday walk through the Seattle streets, accompanied by gorgeous electronica played on iPhones and boomboxes. Fun for the whole family. No musical experience necessary.

ALL STEVE REICH Tue, Feb 2 | 8pm | $5 suggested donation Brighten your February with the gloriously hypnotic sounds of American master composer Steve Reich. Conceived by OtB Ambassador James Holt (see page 56). Nagoya Marimbas: Erin Jorgensen & Memmi Ochi Cello Counterpoint: Rose Bellini New York Counterpoint: Rachel Yoder Violin Phase: Luke Fitzpatrick Get more info and stay up-to-date at ontheboards.org. 46

CLAUDIA LA ROCCO WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE We asked Claudia La Rocco to be our writer-in-residence because a) she’s as much of an artist as she is a critic, b) her critical faculties combined with her poetic voice make for compelling reading, c) we hope the vivaciousness she exemplifies in her watching and responding can inspire others, and d) we wanted to hang out with her more. While the parameters of the gig are a bit open-ended, we suspect she will pen a few thought pieces on extraterrestrial subjects, weave poetry and text into the fabric of our physical and virtual spaces, and organize performative duets and/or wrestling matches with visiting and local artists. Maybe she’ll read a little, too, or maybe she’ll only make root beer floats (although she hates root beer so probably not). Claudia La Rocco is the author of The Best Most Useless Dress (Badlands Unlimited), selected writings encompassing poetry, performance texts and criticism. She edited I Don’t Poem: An Anthology of Painters and Dancers, Buildings and People in the Streets, the catalogue for Danspace Project’s PLATFORM 2015, which she curated. Her work has been presented by The Kitchen, The Walker Art Center, Kiria Koula, and Tokyo’s Dance New Air Festival, among others. She is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts’ graduate program in Art Criticism and Writing, contributes to The New York Times and Artforum.com and runs ThePerformanceClub.org. photo by NancyLeVine/ browneyesgallery.com

INTERMISSION By Claudia La Rocco

1. Does anyone read season brochures? It’s me, Margaret. 2. At first I thought that this was going to be a lightly edited version of a lecture I gave at the Walker Art Center’s Superscript conference on “connectivity and community” in May, a lecture (findable on YouTube et al.) which itself stole from an interview I gave to a Yale University student who was studying The Performance Club (this thing I started several years ago when I was gigging for WNYC radio that is now on its third life at ThePerformanceClub.org, if you’re interested). The talk seemed to be in keeping with a lot of the things Lane and I have been talking about. How you get restless. How you can become too beholden to the notions of others. How you can adore talking to (or should I say connecting with) smart people and shudder at the idea of “community.” Or something. But now I’m not so sure that this is a good strategy. I just opened that lecture back up after a month or so away from it, and it feels like a dead thing. Repertory theater for writers. 3. I was interested in the possibility of creating a third space. I don’t care if everything’s been done, Lane. I’m still waiting for you to live in the penthouse above the theater. 4. It’s not that I don’t care about my readers. It’s just that I don’t necessarily think of them. I mean, when it’s their turn to take over, they do. But it’s not their turn yet. I mean, if they were sitting here with me in my boyfriend’s living room in Oakland, where I am living for the spring, I would probably try these passages out on them. What am I trying to say to you?

5. Something about a dense, slate-blue sky. The scale of the truly big ships. The highway rushing along beside the harbor. An idea of speed and solitude. My first time in Seattle, I was in town to review a ballet production for The New York Times. And to do some side reporting about dance competitions. My private affairs were in catastrophic disarray, and I was immensely, devastatingly sad. Paralysis. It seemed almost impossible to leave my hotel room. I took a car out to the suburbs, to see about this competition. Once there, I was unable to do anything, and left almost as quickly as I arrived. 6. I salvaged enough for what would eventually become this lead:

On a Sunday morning in February—Super Bowl Sunday, as a matter of fact—out past the strip malls and the auto dealerships and worlds away from nearby Seattle, families streamed into the Highline Performing Arts Center in Burien, Wash., for a traditional American orgy of razzmatazz and rivalries.

There was no football paraphernalia in sight. The prodigious war paint instead revolved around hot-pink tulle and rhinestones, and the day’s diminutive contestants could be easily identified by their proclivity for high-pitched, synchronized squealing and bare (at times bejeweled) midriffs. They traveled in fast-moving packs, trailed by gusts of glitter, feathers and serious-looking, rhinestone-unadorned women. At Starpower, the men were largely afterthoughts.1

7. Your white truck positioned on one of the big ferries pointed out to sea. Onto the peninsula, and into the Olympic forest. The truck gets as far northwest as it can go, and then our feet go the rest of the way. Rain coming harder now. Preludium for jazz band. The rock is still floating through space. Eyes returning to the offshore outcropping of rock, disappearing 49

and then returning in the fog. Pigeon guillemots. The waves of water coming and the sea birds wheeling below at such hard angles. The sky is dark. Mists that come in and obscure everything, but they don’t last. Water coming in on curving waves of glass. Spider webs full of its heaviness. Water dripping from every needle, jeweling on knobbed finger-like branches. Animals moving past on either side like dark ghosts. No one else on the path. And my feet turn around and I go back, further and further away from the northwestern most corner of these contiguous United States. 8. Some notes I took while watching & thinking about Michelle Ellsworth work on something at OtB: questions of 1. Attention span(s); 2. Medium(s); 3. Music/no music – how much manipulation do you want to impose? very aware of being a performer—or, on display, at any rate … and how you vary tempi and direction controls things I think it’s maybe key that other people can be in the room THE INDIVIDUAL PIECE (Libations): Empathy Chill the wine Questions of individual responsibility vs. ease of going with a system, feeling protected, seen, and at what cost? Individual rights vs. individual subjugation --do you build themes into the structure, or do you underline them via content --confession booth, the feeling of wanting to tell you everything 50

--feeling of surveillance, wondering, can people see me in here? That as a delicious tension --what if the technology “misfires”? If you follow directions but it follows an alien (divine? Ancient? Greek?) wisdom of its own, this machine? --why do a stage piece at all? Someone said “I had some desire to create some sort of compensation, how can I make this ok?” (I think it was G.). [Now I feel awful—I didn’t take you out! I sat on you and felt good …] It’s like a Rorschach test. Driving up here P. and I passed a sign in rural Washington: “Is it immigration or an invasion?” … --color cow lung so piece does not [and here I am sorry to say I don’t really know what I wrote—maybe “suck stat”??? no idea. Disregard] Post Theater show [it was so strong and inevitable that it erased my question of why would you do a theater piece from earlier] --thinking of the movie Her and global positioning … from Hal 9000 to Her … how we do and don’t relate to those systems …. An ode to dance, it’s absolutely an ode to dance … anxiety of influence ….art & history Balance of tricks and content. Quiet vs. shits & giggles Pre-Homeric Greek; emotions, etc., on outside of body Ramshackle nature of it … nice to not nail down the versions. Do you have to make it tighter? 9. There’s nothing so symbolic as geography.

I worked part-time I scanned the internet I spent most of my shifts composing I realized I wasn’t a journalist I began to think of criticism as a Trojan horse 10. I didn’t even realize I was sitting on Michelle Ellsworth. Later, perhaps that same day, she did a dance in the hotel bathroom, with Zoe, for the towels. Who I am betting have no idea how lucky they are. If people were less like towels, more of them would be at her shows. I wasn’t, as it turns out, at OtB for the actual performances of Michelle’s show, which ended up being called Clytigation: State of Exception—or, I wasn’t there in the flesh. But I performed in the work. Specifically, I worked one of two phones Michelle had included in the installation, talking with whoever felt like picking up. Are you there, God … indeed. There’s something incredibly sexy about being a disembodied voice. Sexy in a way that has nothing to do with phone sex, mercifully. But intimacy, anonymity, a certain permission to perform oneself however one wants. The worst that happens is someone hangs up. Meanwhile, you get to imagine the best show of your life. The ideal audience. The perfect moment. The Operator standing by. 11. I’m on a plane from Seattle to San Francisco. A little plane, tilting fiercely the way little planes do high up here in the dark clouds. It’s Monday night, 6:29 to be precise. I have just spent the weekend watching four dances by Tere O’Connor: The large ensemble work BLEED, which enfolds and explodes elements from the three smaller dances Secret Mary, poem, and Sister. So many bodies cast into and about space. Pleasures of full movement, both simple and ornate. Collisions of virtuosity, formalism, technique, rigmarole, the pedestrian, the absurd. All the little cruelties we casually gift to others, to ourselves. The events that don’t quite come into being, and in fact are gone before we have ever fully registered them. Torsos folding, manic arms, sensuous 52

and sensual grasping. Bodies curled in and curving. Breathing room. Gender performed and performing. Moments in time as characters. This mini-survey came courtesy of On the Boards theater and Velocity Dance Center, making Seattle the only place other than the American Dance Festival to showcase this particular moment in O’Connor’s extensive body of work; lucky them, and unlucky the rest of the country. I had seen all of these dances before, other than Sister, and I have seen just about everything O’Connor has made in the past decade. But the cumulative weight of experiencing them all together like this—I wasn’t expecting it to feel so important. The mind watching others. The mind watching itself. That’s something I thought a lot while taking in these restless, exactingly built dances. They are the sentences I would choose if I had to say what these interconnected pieces are about—but the less reductive answer is that this question of “aboutness” is the wrong one entirely to ask, or answer.2 12. I’m not convinced that Kristen Kosmas is capable of making anything that isn’t good. I could sink into her art forever. 13. I’m so uninterested in anxiety around criticism. It just seems like a given. That’s one of the things I wrote in the Walker script. Also: “Is there a way to say that the island of misfit toys suits you more than the mirage of inclusivity? That you’re worn out by the evangelism game artists and writers are supposed to play in this country? I have no appetite for convincing anybody of anything. Also for lasting—we don’t last, why should the things we make be any different?” This is something Lane wrote: “We’re not a bank or a law firm. We’re an arts organization. Let’s act like one.” 53

And this: “There is not much time left. There are only a few moments left to say something. Those of us who watch and listen would do well to realize that this is not an indefinite proposition.” 14. Writing is time-based, too. You have to earn certain states, certain maneuvers, and you don’t always realize you haven’t until the printer stops the clocks. Marble and mud, isn’t that what Hawthorne thought? The late day sun slanting in. Afternoon drinking. Finding your tribe. Coffee in the morning and the giant hill at night. Four or five years ago Sarah Wilke had me make a list of the things I wanted my life to be composed of. I’m convinced she’s a magician. To change and keep changing. I had a great-aunt, who, in that deep-seated immigrant need to assimilate, switched her name from Margherita to Margaret. I understand. And also, the loss. The power of naming. – Claudia La Rocco

“Tap-Tap-Tapping Into a National Obsession,” published September 3, 2012, The New York Times; http://www.nytimes. com/2012/09/03/arts/dance/dance-competitions-for-youngsters. html 1

The first four paragraphs of “Roundabout Way,” a column I wrote for ARTFORUM on 12/12/14; http://artforum.com/slant/ id=49439 2

CHI

It has become increasingly important for OtB to be inclusive and accessible for families and kids. We know it’s sometimes hard to bring the whole family, so last year we moved our Sunday shows to 5pm to make it easier for kids age six and up to see our shows with parents.

photos by Erin Westover

A RE C D

But what about families with kids under the age of six? No need to call the babysitter or cash in that favor—Sweet Pea’s top-notch teachers have your back. This year OtB is partnering with Sweet Pea Cottage in Upper Queen Anne to provide reliable childcare for kids age two – six for most Sunday 5pm shows. We want to make seeing great art as easy as possible for everyone! Parents will be able to easily add childcare to ticket orders online, over the phone, or in person up to 24 hours before the show date. Time blocks will be available for purchase in either 2.5 or 5 hour blocks at a rate of $9/hour. Sweet Pea will open at 3pm, with pick up time at 8pm. Sweet Pea Cottage was founded on the belief that the arts are a crucial part of child development. Their dedicated staff, expertise, and location make them a perfect partner for OtB. Learn more & sign up at ontheboards.org. Learn more about Sweet Pea Cottage at sweetpeacottage.org.

THE AMBASSADOR PROJECT The Ambassador Project uses OtB as a hub for diverse cultural leaders, innovators, and creators to connect around art and civic dialogue.

OtB AMBASSADORS STRENGTHEN community ties as they lend their voices and perspectives to OtB. HELP OtB reach new audiences by leading projects. SHAPE shared spaces and social activities. PARTNER with each other and OtB. IDENTIFY issues in the creative community where OtB can serve as a platform for dialogue or a resource. INVEST in the goals of equity and inclusion in our regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creative community. RECEIVE exposure for their work in the greater community.

photo by Erin Jorgensen

2015/16 AMBASSADORS Kellen Braddock Luzviminda Uzuri “Lulu” Carpenter Rachael Ferguson Neil Ferron Jameson Fink Seth Garrison Yonnas Getahun James Holt Tessa Hulls Tina LaPadula Brian McGuigan Cristina Orbé Shin Yu Pai Mary Ann Peters Tracy Rector Sierra Stinson Dani Tirrell James Williams Chris Weber

e ht TICKET BANK

In a perfect world, cutting-edge art would be easily accessible to everyone. In real life? We know there are barriers to seeing art at OtB. One barrier is ticket price. To many people, our ticket prices are no problem. For others, they are a drawback. What if people could buy extra tickets for others and store them in a ticket bank? What if people who wanted banked tickets had a way to get them? This season we’re trying something new: the Ticket Bank. The idea was sparked by a coffee shop tradition in Naples, Italy: caffè sospeso, or suspended coffee. A simple, anonymous act of generosity: a customer orders one coffee, pays for two—then leaves the receipt with the barista for a stranger who otherwise couldn’t afford a coffee. We’re doing this with tickets. Instead of espresso, you can buy an extra ticket for a audience member. Or maybe you are that audience member and can claim your free ticket at the box office. It’s a win-win.

HOW IT WORKS TICKET BUYERS: When buying tickets online, look for a note on your checkout screen about contributing to the ticket pool and follow the prompts. When buying tickets in person/over the phone, just ask! TICKET USERS: 1. Sign up online or at the OtB Box Office. You will be added to an email list of potential recipients for this season. 2. Wednesday, eight days before each performance opens, we’ll email everyone on the list and spread the word. 3. Respond to the announcement within the next 48 hours with your name and the day of the performance you would like to attend. 4. Recipients will then be drawn at random and notified by email on Friday (six days before the show opens). That’s it! Broadening the conversation is a benefit for everyone. Let’s keep it interesting. We hope you’ll help us make this program a success! More details available at ontheboards.org.

P.S.: We were also inspired by Austin’s Fusebox Festival and Minneapolis’s Mixed Blood Theater. Both of these forward-thinking organizations have found ways to make their programs more accessible to a broader range of people. Learn more at fuseboxfestival.com and mixedblood.com. 59

ONTHEBOARDS.TV The leading resource for today’s most provocative contemporary performance.

ABOUT ONTHEBOARDS.TV Since 2010, OntheBoards.tv has delivered full-length, high quality contemporary performance films straight to your TV, desktop or mobile device. We professionally film with 4 – 5 high-definition cameras, collaboratively edit with the artists and deliver the best possible representation of the live performance to audiences from Bellingham to Brisbane. Champions and students of contemporary performance have access to artists from around the world, regardless of where they live and their busy schedules, at affordable prices.

DID YOU KNOW? Proceeds are split 50/50 with the artists • We reach audiences in all 50 states and 152 countries • We have viewers in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia • We have filmed 45 performances, by 41 artists, with more on the way • Partner distribution platforms include Indieflix and TenduTV

AND...

You can screen OntheBoards.tv films. There have been 40 screenings in the US, Canada and Europe. Contact us and we’ll walk you through it. 60

Germinal | Antoine Defoort & Halory Goerger, OntheBoards.tv

HOW IT WORKS 1. Sign up. 2. Browse & purchase. $5 to rent. $15 to buy. $50 to subscribe ($25 with OtB subscription). 3. Watch & enjoy on your computer, tablet, or smartphone. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that easy!

ON CAMPUS 87 (and counting) academic institutions from around the globe have integrated our films into their curricula. Our films are available 24/7 on and off campus for an unlimited number of simultaneous users. The films are used for study in dance, theater, and interdisciplinary classrooms. Your school or alma mater can join the ranks with University of Washington, Cornish College of the Arts, Princeton University, Duke University, Yale University, Amherst College, Florida State University, Columbia University, Edith Cowan University, and University of Amsterdam, to name a few.

WHAT YOU CAN DO Check our website to see if your university subscribes. Sign your school up for a free 45-day trial. Contact tv@ontheboards.org to learn more. 62

FEATURED ARTISTS the shipment

reggie watts & tommy smith

fontainbleau

transition

mariano pensotti

zoe

tanja liedtke

zoe

wunderbaum

| songs at the end of

| heaven | orgy of tolerance diana szeinblum | alaska radiohole | whatever, heaven morgan thorson

temporary distortion

jan fabre

temporary distortion

| americana

| el pasado es

un animal grotesco

the world newyorkland kamikaze

allows

teatro de ciertos habitantes

del incendio

of cotton fields

allen johnson

| another you | electric midwife kyle loven | loss machine ralph lemon | how can you stay

frédérick gravel

beth gill

fails nobody knows

in the house all day and not go

theatre replacement and neworld

anywhere

theatre

rude mechs

BLEED | Tere O’Connor, OntheBoards.tv

| dark matters | construct young jean lee’s theater company crystal pite

el gallo suttonberesculler

| to be

determined michelle ellsworth

| phone homer | amidst

pavel zuštiak/palissimo kyle abraham

| when the wolves

came in radosław rychcik

| in the solitude

| usually beauty

niwa gekidan penino

| a room

| winners and losers

antoine defoort & halory goerger germinal tere o’connor

| bleed | opposing forces faye driscoll | thank you for coming: attendance amy o’neal

STUDIO SUPPERS “There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” — George Bernard Shaw OtB helps you create the perfect evening: an amazing dinner, free-flowing wine, interesting conversation, and great art. Join us in our Studio Theater before select opening night performances for a meal created by one of Seattle’s finest chefs. Now in its fourth year, our popular Studio Supper series brings together a dynamic mix of people for an intimate, family-style meal. Guests meet and mingle as they enjoy hand-crafted cocktails and canapés, then head to the table for an inspired dinner before the show. The pay-what-you-can sliding scale ($25 – $100) secures you a seat at the communal table. A portion of the proceeds goes to a charity of the chef ’s choice. So far we’ve raised over $23,000 for charities including Hedgebrook, University Food Bank, Women’s Funding Alliance, Northwest Harvest, and many more. Reservations are on a first-come, first-served basis and are taken 10 days in advance. Sign up for the supper email list to stay up-to-date with chefs and reservations at ontheboards.org.

THU, OCT 1 Girl Gods | Pat Graney Nick Coffey and Wylie Bush, Barjot

photo by Ian Robert Wade

THU, SEP 10 La Mélancolie des dragons | Philippe Quesne TBA

THU, NOV 19 biograph, last year was pretty//sh*tty | Findlay//Sandsmark Rachel Yang, Joule THU, DEC 19 Predator Songstress | Degenerate Art Ensemble Frankie Cannata-Bowman, Pair THU, DEC 10 Songs of the American Right | Taylor Mac Derek Bugge, Frank’s Oyster House THU, JAN 14 The Life Model | Fracé/Yousefzadeh Ba Culbert, Tilikum Place Café THU, JAN 28 Riding on a Cloud | Rabih Mroué mamnoon THU, FEB 11 Julia | Christiane Jatahy Manu Alfau, Manu’s Bodega THU, MAR 3 Yellow Towel | Dana Michel Donna Moodie, Marjorie THU, APR 28 Employee of the Year | 600 Highwaymen PK Frank, Little Uncle/Big Uncle 65

Girl Gods photo by Jenny May Peterson

PERFORMANCE PRODUCTION PROGRAM One of the most important roles OtB plays is helping artists develop new projects. The Performance Production Program allows us to provide artists with resources and support in the form of commissioning fees, rehearsal space, mentoring, advocacy and technical residencies with one of the best production departments in the United States. This season, Pat Graney, Degenerate Art Ensemble, Kidd Pivot, Sarah Rudinoff and The Life Model collaborators will develop and present new works directly supported through this program. Special thanks to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Glenn H. Kawasaki Foundation, and all our funders who support the creation of new performance. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re interested in learning how you can contribute to the Performance Production Program, please send an email to betsey@ontheboards.org.

3 YEAR CLUB JOIN THE 3 YEAR CLUB AND RAISE YOUR GLASS IN STYLE. The 3 Year Club is made up of OtBâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most diehard supporters, each committing to support OtB with an annual minimum donation of $500 per year for 3 years. This exclusive membership opportunity gives us the sustainability to support our programs for multiple years and brings you into the inner circle of fellow OtB enthusiasts. 3 Year Club benefits include invitations to exclusive events, special access to tech rehearsals, sneak peeks of works-in-progress and discussions with artists, and your very own personalized drinking glass behind the Fubar to use at shows. Interested? Email betsey@ontheboards.org for more info.

Donor support is what allows OtB to program based on artistic risk—not box office receipts—and to keep ticket prices low. With about a third of each season’s costs donated by generous audience members just like you, donors are an incredibly important part of what powers OtB.

Predator Songstress photo by Marcelo Lipiani

DONATE

We’ll make it as easy as possible, whether you’d like to give in a lump sum, in monthly installments, as a 3 Year Club donor, or as an A-List Subscriber (see p. 75 for details). Just give. It’ll be a snap. And it keeps the art happening! Online: ontheboards.org/donate By phone: 206.217.9886 ext. 1025 (Betsey Brock, Director of Patron Relations) By mail: PO Box 19515 | Seattle WA 98109

WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF THE FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Glenn H. Kawasaki Foundation

Lucky Seven Foundation

Nesholm Family Foundation

THE NORCLIFFE FOUNDATION

Tomlinson Linen Service

Olson Kundig Architects

Kreielsheimer Remainder Foundation

Wyman Youth Trust

Posner-Wallace Foundation

WE ACKNOWLEDGE THE FOLLOWING SPECIFIC PROJECT SUPPORT: The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation OntheBoards.tv, Adaptive Change Capacity Initiative The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Performance Production Program Pat Graney, Emily Johnson, zoe | juniper National Performance Network Pat Graney, Emily Johnson, FracĂŠ | Yousefzadeh MAP Fund zoe | juniper WESTAF/Tour West Dana Michel French American Cultural Exchange Philippe Quesne Southern Exposure: Performing arts of Latin America, a program of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation Christiane Jatahy New England Foundation for the Arts/National Dance Project Pat Graney, Emily Johnson IN-KIND & MEDIA SPONSORS

BEHIND THE SCENES STAFF (as of 7.20.15) Lane Czaplinski | Artistic Director Sarah Wilke | Managing Director Rich Bresnahan | Technical Director Betsey Brock | Director of Patron Relations Monique Courcy | OntheBoards.tv/Digital Media Manager Susan Den | Finance Director Ashraf Hasham | House Manager Erin Jorgensen | Communications & Design Julian Martlew | Sound Technician Mark Meuter | Production Manager Beth Raas-Bergquist | Director of Institutional Relations Charles Smith | Director of Program Management & Audience Services Clare Strasser | Audience Services Associate Shasti Walsh | Director of Program Operations BOARD (as of 7.20.15) Tyler Engle | President Ruth Lockwood | Vice President Tom Israel | Vice President John Robinson | Treasurer Caroline Dodge | Secretary Priya Frank | Member at Large Norie Sato | Member at Large Andrew Adamyk • Jennifer Barry • Kristen Becker • John Behnke • Kim Brillhart • Maryika Byskiniewicz • Paige Davis Crick • Brian Curry • Rodney Hines • Michaela Hutfles • Chiyo Ishikawa • Kirby Kallas-Lewis • Tom Kundig • Davora M. Lindner • Allison Mills • Deborah Paine • David Pierre-Louis • Richard Reel • Spafford Robbins • Robert Stumberger • Annette Toutonghi • Josef Vascovitz • Merrill Wright 72

biograph, last year was pretty//sh*tty photo by Minna Suojoki

Yellow Towel photo by Ian Douglas

S U B S C R I B E

WHY SUBSCRIBE TO OtB?

Seeing one show is ok. But seeing a broad range of art widens perspective, opens your mind to new ideas, and helps build connections with other art lovers. Subscribers are an integral part of OtB. Our subscribers are smart, curious, and dedicated to keeping contemporary performance alive and well. Some of you have been with us for decades. Some of you are brand new. Thank you for being a part of OtB! We couldn’t do this without you.

SUBSCRIBER BENEFITS ticket exchanges • bring a friend to a show for free • ticket discounts • cheaper parking • lost ticket replacement • first to hear about special offers & added events • 50% off ontheboards.tv streaming subscription • part of the OtB family!

COMPLETE SERIES | $252 La Mélancolie des dragons • Girl Gods • SHORE biograph, last year was pretty//sh*tty • Predator Songstress The Life Model • Riding on a Cloud • Julia Yellow Towel • Betroffenheit • NowNowNow Employee of the Year

GOLD SERIES | $192 La Mélancolie des dragons • Girl Gods • SHORE Predator Songstress • Riding on a Cloud Yellow Towel • Betroffenheit • NowNowNow Employee of the Year

PURPLE SERIES | $192 La Mélancolie des dragons • SHORE biograph, last year was pretty//sh*tty • The Life Model Riding on a Cloud • Julia • Betroffenheit • NowNowNow • Employee of the Year

PICK-6 | $129 Pick any 6 shows in the Complete Series to build your own subscription. Pick-6 Ideas Visual: biograph, last year was pretty//sh*tty • Predator Songstress Julia • Yellow Towel • La Mélancolie des dragons • Girl Gods The World: Riding on a Cloud • Julia • Yellow Towel SHORE • Employee of the Year • The Life Model Use Your Mind: Girl Gods • biograph, last year was pretty//sh*tty Riding on a Cloud • Julia • Yellow Towel • Employee of the Year

Julia photo by Marcelo Lipiani; Emplyoyee of the Year photo by Maria Baranova

NEW SUBSCRIPTION OFFERS UNDER 25 SUBSCRIPTION Under 25 as of September 1, 2015? You’re in luck. This season we’ve made a new subscription just for you. If you’re under 25, you can see most shows at OtB for $12. At $144, the Under 25 Subscription gets you tickets to all subscription series shows at the Under 25 rate PLUS all the subscriber perks. As a subscriber you’ll already have a ticket to sold-out shows. You’ll be able to easily switch performance nights, bring a friend to a show for free, get discounted parking, receive discount offers on extra programming, and be among the first to be invited to special events. Give yourself or someone else the gift of seeing great art in great surroundings all season long.

CORPORATE SUBSCRIPTION Keep your clients and staff in step with the newest ideas in art while introducing them to some of the coolest people in the city. OtB has been presenting some of the planet’s most forward-thinking artists for 30+ years. Show your community that you are leading the charge of supporting new ideas, artists, and the creation of new work. Subscription packages are available to businesses large and small. Email beth@ontheboards.org to learn which package is right for your business. See you at OtB!

15/16 CALENDAR La Mélancolie des dragons Philippe Quesne

OCT 1 – 4

Girl Gods | Pat Graney

OCT 15 – 17

SHORE | Emily Johnson

NOV 19 – 22

biograph, last year was pretty//sh*tty Findlay//Sandsmark

DEC 3 – 6

Predator Songstress Degenerate Art Ensemble

DEC 10 – 12

Songs of the American Right Taylor Mac*

JAN 14 – 17

The Life Model | Fracé/Yousefzadeh

JAN 28 – 31

Riding on a Cloud | Rabih Mroué

FEB 11 – 14

Julia | Christiane Jatahy

MAR 3 – 6

Yellow Towel | Dana Michel

MAR 18 – 19

Betroffenheit Kidd Pivot | Electric Company Theatre at The Moore Theatre

MAR 23 – 27 & MAR 30 – APR 3

NowNowNow | Sarah Rudinoff

APR 6

Nanook of the North | Tanya Tagaq* at The Neptune Theatre

APR 28 – MAY 1

Employee of the Year | 600 Highwaymen

JUN 10 – 12 & 17 – 19

NW New Works Festival

*special event 78

Brochure design by Erin Jorgensen; amazing drawings by Ben Beres: suttonberesculler.com

SEP 10 – 13

ORDER FORM Mail in, call or order @ ontheboards.org

SUBSCRIPTION SERIES COMPLETE SERIES

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$192

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$750

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$144

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$129

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ALL EVENTS + EXTRA BENEFITS

2ND A-LIST ALL EVENTS + EXTRA BENEFITS

Under 25 Subscription 12 NIGHTS

___

Pick-6 CHOOSE 6 PERFORMANCES BELOW La Mélancolie des dragons Girl Gods SHORE biograph, last year was pretty//sh*tty

Predator Songstress

Yellow Towel

The Life Model

Betroffenheit

Riding on a Cloud

NowNowNow

Julia

Employee of the Year

I’d like to add Songs of the American Right Nanook of the North OntheBoards.tv

___ ___ ___

$20

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$30 $25

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ONE YEAR OF UNLIMITED STREAMING

DONATION

omplete

F lip to c

TOTAL _____

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A-LIST

$252

9 NIGHTS

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12 NIGHTS

GOLD SERIES

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SHIPPING & HANDLING

$3 _____

GRAND TOTAL

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I’D LIKE TO ATTEND

(most performances run thu – sun. dates/programming subject to change.)

THU 8PM

FRI 8PM

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