NW New Works Festival turns 30! May 23, 2013

by Madeline

Whoa! Check out this celebratory trailer starring artists from OtB's NW New Works Festival 2013!

Trailer shot and edited by Guy Staley with original music by Barry Sebastian composer for The New Animals!

Festival dates: Fri - Sun, Jun 7 - 9 & 14 - 16, 2013

Tickets on sale now!
More info @ ontheboards.org

 


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“We revel here, serving no one [. . .]” May 19, 2013

by Jed M

While the grand title might suggest a turn to things ancient and eternal—and, on some registers, of course, it does—Saint Genet's Paradisiacal Rites, like Jean Genet himself, demands that we attend to the present and the particular, to dirt and blood and saliva and breath, to small, shared intimacies and cruelties and the large, sweeping movements in which they are played out and repeated, just beyond our control.

In a famous passage in The Thief's Journal, Genet writes of being abused by Spanish police when they discover a tube of vaseline in his pocket. The little “sign of abjection” that reveals he has sex with men is vested with a strange power: it brings him violence and ridicule, but he is convinced “it would be able to exasperate all the police in the world; it would draw upon itself contempt, hatred, white and dumb rages.” Meditating on the strength of that symbol—a symbol that is thoroughly material, that holds a sticky substance...

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Sun, May 19 Saint Genet is SOLD OUT May 19, 2013

by Jessica

The Sunday, May 19th performance of Saint Genet’s Paradisiacal Rites is SOLD OUT. A cash only waiting list will be started at 7pm in our upstairs lobby for any seats still not claimed at show time.

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Sat, May 18 Saint Genet is SOLD OUT May 18, 2013

by Charles

The Saturday, May 8th performance of Saint Genet’s Paradisiacal Rites is SOLD OUT. A cash only waiting list will be started at 7pm in our upstairs lobby for any seats still not claimed at show time.

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And there's that. May 17, 2013

by Marlo

And, there's that. 

by Marlo 

The opening scene, a captivating field of wheat. And if I tried to describe more I would surely fail; you would have to see it to believe it. To fully communicate my feelings, reactions, and overall experience of Saint Genet's Paradisiacal Rites would require you and I have an actual conversation, an in-depth, lengthy talk that would probably last all day. In an effort to convey even portions of my experience I have to concentrate on my personal experiences rather than the details of the show itself; those details can only exist and be shared if you were there or if you are going to the show this weekend (grab a ticket before they sell out). 

In an interview for the Seattle Channel (May, 2013) Saint Genet's director, Ryan Mitchell, shares that he will ask his performers "to be leeched, or be contained in very tight clothing, or be buried for four hours, or be shot with a BB gun. And I think...

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notes from a night with Saint Genet May 17, 2013

by Alice

Walking alone, standing, overwhelming sensation of death as we await for everything to start
give me a hand
we are all lost
Don't you fucking look at me that way, so sideways
Slow-motion spinning porcupines
I can feel you piercing my skin
we are all dead
Walk slowly, tell me secrets
The unbearable feelings that you are all robots
>> can you please begin the entrance of Sir. Carl Lawrence
moments are announced, beginnings 
fucking sit down you people - is that what you are thinking?
…it hasn't even started yet
soft boundaries, this is the life
thumps of running steps
stop, just before the space, enter slowly
The unbearable feelings that you are all robots
can you even see?
Porcupine man
More everywhere, smoke everywhere
slow and steady
just like spoiled brats, and just because of that we can afford it.
the luxury of playing with death, the luxury of playing with...





















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Refreshingly Humiliating May 17, 2013

by Richard

This show was dark from the beginning, the cast members were spit upon and sent out into a field of dead plants. Like a disclaimer, these people began the show as damaged, soiled or disgraced. The field actually looked like more fun than the front where that dick was spitting on everyone. It was a pretty gorgeous show  everyone was really attractive. I had only heard of St Genet but I was expecting nudity or sexual situations. This was about humiliation and degradation which certainly made the subject more interesting. It took a long time to clean the stage and the aftermath was a white powder over everything like cement dust. The dancing was really beautiful but the debasement of the guy with the gold paint was powerful. I thought it was belaboring the point somewhat but the performance was bad ass. The set design in this is crazy cool it reminds me of the backdrop for Judas Priest. Sexual situations with impossibly attractive women are predictable and boring generally so it...

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Saint Genet is for G's May 17, 2013

by Heidi

So, I thought I would try to get hella drunk and write this but, I couldn’t get as drunk as I wanted to because I just don’t have the will power.  Or maybe Genet would have won (why? I don't know).

If you want to really get into my review, please also listen to this song while you read which I've had stuck in my head for days so it is the background music for my blog, naturally.

Here I am, back at my lucky coffee shop, Black Coffee, the anarchist coffee shop on Pine where I felt the most luck writing and researching about Saint Genet, a band of artists called after the namesake of Jean Genet, someone who, in the history of theater and writing, was pretty anarchic.  Did you know Jean Genet later wrote for the Palestinians and the Black Panthers?  I like to think of Genet as like a Paul of the Bible type character.  Like, he was a criminal, a total dick, but not for no...

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