NW New Works artist Mike Pham was profiled in a recent episode of Seattle Channel's Art Zone. Check out the feature - which was directed by Dayna Hanson and filmed by Ben Kasulke - on their player (Mike begins at about the 4:15 mark).
We're getting close to kicking off yet another amazing NW New Works Festival. Our artists have been hard at work choreographing, costuming, composing, and crafting their pieces for this year's showcases. They took some time out to interview one another about their creative processes.
[Board member Brian Curry grilling bratwursts at our most recent board meeting. Photo by Jess Massart]
10/11 artist Vivarium Studio won a special citation award for their work L'Effet de Serge. Congrats to Philippe Quesne and company!
Like the music from "Awesome"'s West? They'll be performing some if this weekend at Sorrento's Night School. The event, brought together by One Pot's Michael Hebb, will also feature Matthew Richter, Sarah Rudinoff and Nick Garrison. Click through for more info.
Congrats are in order to OtB/OntheBoards.tv artist Tommy Smith who just snagged a Lark Fellowship.
Julian Martlew, OtB's Sound Technician extraordinaire and musician (check him out), has started up a blog called Farfetcher in which he chronicles performances he sees around town and the shows he plays.
OtB's amazing Development Director, Ariel, is getting hitched this weekend. We took her for an OtB-style bachelorette brunch yesterday at Mecca:
[Photo by Sarah Wilke]
Best wishes to Ariel and her husband-to-be, Tyler!
Michael Strangeways:
Best Before is that odd conundrum/enigma of a "play" that's not really a "play" in the traditional sense of the word, but in reality, and in it's completed state, it manages to BECOME a play, meaning that you meet characters, go on a journey and experience complicated human emotions and feeling. There IS growth, and warmth, and fear, and humor, and birth, and death, and longing, and love, and hate and all the other emotions we need to feel/experience in order to be fully realized human beings.
Amy Mikel:
The gaming is fun, yes, but Best Before delivers that fun with a steady, tangible reality ”¦ and in some odd circular sense, the experience of the show is reality.
And reality reared its ugly head as the performance last night suffered a technical glitch that crashed the program near the game’s culmination point. Here the “life experts ” had to scramble to deliver the show’s closing without the planned-for technical oomph. But it wasn’t awkward; it was an experience.
Michael van Baker:
All I knew about Rimini Protokoll's Best Before show at On the Boards (through May 9, tickets $24) was that it somehow involved video-game controllers and would last two hours.
When the show first started, I was psyched. Live people! A stage! I liked the premise & everything started well. I was disappointed that one particular friend of mine had been unable to attend, because he develops games for phones & absolutely lives for these types of concepts.
The first half hour was great, and the audience was enjoying the show as much as I was. It was novel, easy to participate, and showed promise. The following hour seemed to be the same as the first half hour, but with the novelty worn away. There were a few inte
From Monet C:
"Starting with a solo guitar with a coffee house vibe, this play/video game soars after the first five minutes and continually amazes with the twists and turns of our choices. It is like nothing that I have ever seen before!"
From Michael Upchurch:
"Best Before is the latest production by the Berlin-based theater troupe, key figures in Europe's Reality Trend movement ("Theater der Zeit"). Far from being intimidating in feel, the "show" is warm, informal, even neighborly.
Did you come see the show? What was your experience of participating in the video game? Leave us a comment with your thoughts.
When I attended Rimini Protokoll’s Best Before in Canada, I experienced both a new theater venue and a new type of performance. Never having attended a highly produced theater piece where the performers were not professional actors but "life experts" and this being my first show at The Cultch, I sat in the seats holding my video game controller with anticipation.
...Andyjoe! He'll receive 2 Complete Series Subscriptions for our upcoming season.
We drew his name from this bag that contained over 100 names from everyone who commented in the past week:
Thanks to everyone who participated!
...Renata!
Here's what she would ask an OtB artist:
My question is similar to Jeanna’s. What drives them to create and keep performing in spite of the fact that, in many cases, they can’t make their living out of their art?
Read other questions people proposed. Everyone who left a response is now entered to win two 10/11 subscriptions!
Remember that post last week with all the glitter and pipe cleaners? This weekend at Rimini Protokoll we'll be displaying the results of what happens when OtB staff is handed glitter, hot glue guns and other arts and craft supplies.
Are you a choreographer making contemporary dance? Want to have your work seen on the OtB stage? Want a chance at winning $10,000? Want to have people talking about your work for months after the curtain closes? If you said "yes" to any of those questions, don't forget to send in your application for
Today is the final day of the blog giveaway! A winner of the two 10/11 Complete Series Subscriptions will be announced tomorrow.
...3CountyLaugh!
Here's what he had to say about the distribution of film online:
I completely agree with Gina, but if my ONLY chance of seeing companies from around the globe is on-line, I’ll take it. If I’m hemming & hawing about $40 tickets to something I prefer a little on-line taste to know if it’s worth it to step deeper and spend the money.
To Matthew’s point about the MET’s HD. A friend of mine discovered he loved opera this way. Never would have spent the cash to see opera of any sort without this.
The set is still coming in and now the videogame controllers are being unpacked. Check it out:
[Photo by Lane Czaplinski]
The book, Rimini Protokoll: Experts of the Everyday, contains essays and background info on Rimini Protokoll.
This is Arts Week in the Stranger's QuestionLand and guest art experts are currently hanging around on the site to answer your burning questions about art. Yesterday someone asked "are videogames art" and some debate has ensued. Click on over to their site to read about what people think in regards to the relationship between art and videogames.
Our artistic director Lane chats with Stefan Kaegi, the co-director of Rimini Protokoll, about Best Before, the show opening this week here at OtB.
Want to know what we'll be up to in the next season?
[Ralph Lemon image by Ralph Lemon]
Day 5! Today is the second to last day of the blog giveaway. It's also the day that we announce our season. Stay tuned for info to come on that soon. In the meantime, here's your question:
More and more artists and organizations are filming and distributing performances online.
...Joyce Liao!
Here's her idea of what to name the next wave of contemporary performance:
i think we should number them. so what comes up in this century should be called Art 2.1 and what comes next should be called Art 2.2 – and so on.
Read other comments on the topic. Everyone who left a response is now entered to win two 10/11 subscriptions!
The set for Best Before has begun loading in and the OtB crews are getting it all set up. Coming soon: 200 videogame controllers.
Here's a little preview of what could be your avatar this weekend at Rimini Protokoll's Best Before.
Happy monday and welcome to day 4 of the giveaway. We're only 4 days away from the opening of Rimini Protokoll, which means you have 3 more chances to enter to win 2 Complete Series Subscriptions. Here's today's question:
The contemporary arts are moving into a new era, but the field hasn’t figured out what to name it yet.
...ilvs!
Here's what she had to say about the relationship between installations that use performers and live theater:
is not art but stationary objects, materials, 2D, 3D, imbued with the artists intent, vision, and overall energy anyways? why not just cut out the middle person, the messenger?
After making its world premiere here at OtB, "Awesome" took West to Theatre Junction in Calgary last week. Sounds like their inaugural trip went well:
"...of all the shows I have ever read or seen, never has anything been quite like West by “Awesome ”, the last show of Theatre Junction Grand’s 2009/2010 season.
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