THE BEHNKE CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE
AUG — NOV 2019
We begin by acknowledging this land is the ancestral home of the Duwamish and many other Indigenous peoples recorded and unrecorded, who have been the custodians of this land since time immemorial. As guests and — in many of our cases — as settlers on this land, we extend our deepest gratitude and respect to their ancestors and elders past, present, and future. On the Boards is beginning to engage in conversations to deepen our practices in a way that reflects and honors Coast Salish protocol. Part of our understanding of the protocol is making material gifts to the Indigenous peoples of this land as a way of recognizing their genealogical responsibility to the well-being of the territory and all beings who make a home here. We encourage you to donate in the Merrill Lobby or online at realrentduwamish.org.
they didn’t know that they were changing the way Seattle would experience performance forever. And they did. Our audience has only become more intrepid and curious over time. And the need for smart, relevant, politically engaged, human performance in our city has never been more critical. Hop into this spaceship of a season with us. We’re creating a performance organization for the future, deeply rooted in the treasures of our past. Do you have an On the Boards story? An old photo from the Washington Hall days? I want to hear it—and see it! Email me, or call. Now is the time to share the OtB experiences that you hold most dear, and the memories of performances that keep coming back to you. Let’s talk about what you hope On the Boards will look and feel like in the next five, ten, or forty years. As Ellen Ripley said, “Show me everything.” Happy new season, Betsey Brock Executive Director
DEAR ART LOVER, Welcome to our 40th Anniversary Season! You’ve never looked better. Forty isn’t a bad club to be in. One of our compatriots, Ridley Scott’s Alien, also turns 40 this year. Like On the Boards, it was born of a specific cultural time and place. I watched it recently and was impressed by how ahead of its time it was. It’s still full of surprises, and still quite relevant. Like the community that founded On the Boards, the characters in Alien are genuinely engaged in curiosity about a wide variety of strange lifeforms. Like you, our audience members, they’re brave risk-takers, used to exploring the uncharted. They’re also comfortable in dark places. When Ridley Scott, Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton, and their crew began the project that was to become Alien they probably couldn’t see that they were charting a new course for science fiction cinema. When Robert McGinley, OtB’s Founding Artistic Director, and Rich Reel, Founding Board President, signed OtB’s articles of incorporation on July 16, 1979
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ON THE BOARDS’ 40TH BIRTHDAY PARTY FRI, NOV 1
6-10 PM
In 1979, On the Boards, the love child of a group of artists with a dream for world-class contemporary performance in Seattle, was born. Forty years later, we celebrate the realization of their dream and toast to the next four decades of courageous art! Art, artists, entertainment, drinks, hors d’oeuvres, games, OtB nostalgia and reminisces, and cake — and you! Celebrate to support the present and the future of your favorite 40-year-old, On the Boards 40 years young
OtB Posters of seasons past
More online at ontheboards.org/birthdayparty.
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RITUALS,
FUTURE’S CEREMONIES,
WAKE
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19/20 SEASON
AND HAPPENINGS
IN THE
ON THE BOARDS
Allow me to introduce myself… I have made and studied art all my life, and I cannot imagine a world without art and artists. I believe in art and artists’ ability to ask hard questions about society and to challenge how we think about ourselves and lives in the world. I believe our cities, communities, and society at large need to invest in artists and support the organizations working alongside them. Recently, I have found myself in conversations about our society that make me realize the importance of this singular belief in art and its value — not as an economic transaction, but as essential in creating a more just and equitable world. This year I curated a season of propositions. The works pose a series of questions for the audience to consider in the hopes of making transparent artistic investigations that rupture our emotional and physical thresholds within the ephemeral nature of contemporary performance. In the present we have experienced loss, trauma, frustration, and lack of belief in the stability of our government, systems of power, and authoritative voices. In the Future’s Wake: Rituals, Ceremonies, and Happenings combines local, national, and international artists who are thinking about the rituals, ceremonies, movements, and performance happenings that we as a community and society need for our future. The season title is taken from Christina Sharpe’s book, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being, published in 2016. On the Boards began a curatorial reading group and read portions of the book while thinking about the artists included in this season, as a way to
unpack the conceptual and theoretical ideas surrounding rituals, ceremonies, and happenings. In her book Sharpe points to the manifold definitions of “the wake,” defined not only as “the track left on the water’s surface by a ship; the air currents behind a body in flight; a region of disturbed flow,” but also as “processes; through them we think about the dead and about our relations to them; they are rituals through which to enact grief and memory.” Sharpe also considers “‘the wake’ as being awake and, also consciousness.” She continues: “In the Wake: On Blackness and Being is a work that insists and performs that thinking needs care (“all thought is Black thought”) [sic] and that thinking and care need to stay in the wake.” Many of the artists in this season are considering recent deaths, in addition to thinking about issues of embodiment, abstraction, and storytelling. Sharpe’s text, amongst others, will act as a parallel conversation for how we are reimagining, seeing differently, or re-considering art’s role in society and the possibility for it to rupture our state of consciousness. I’m looking forward to experiencing this with On the Boards’ audiences. In the Future’s Wake… includes eleven evening length performances, additional off-site performances, artist conversations, master classes, workshops, and other public programs. Hope to see and talk to you more in our lobby or outside in our Emerald City. Rachel Cook Artistic Director
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OFF - SITE
THU, AUG 1 4-9 PM
FRI, AUG 2 4-9 PM
SAT, AUG 3 3-8 PM
AUG 1 – 4
SUN, AUG 4 3-8 PM
As two of Seattle’s leading advocates for risk-taking, contemporary performance, On the Boards is delighted to partner with Base to co-present Morgan Thorson: Still Life.
Presented at and in partnership with BASE: Experimental Arts & Space, 6520 5th Avenue South, Seattle
ENT RELATED EV
Created for a white-walled gallery space, Still Life is an ensemble dance installation that uses time as both subject and practice to process loss, killing, and extinction. Structured as a dance/time cycle, Still Life explores the death of choreography through the decay of material. As this pattern unfolds, the performers enact aliveness, endurance and anxiety to survive the repetition and loss of material, as well as the indeterminate relationships of light, movement and sound. Staged in close proximity to the viewer, Still Life offers a space for contemplation, processes the violence of the present moment, and creates a long-form choreography that investigates dance as a living and dying thing. Dance and visual art audiences alike will get to experience a singular take on time, extinction, presence, and death.
“Serendipity rules one moment, exquisitely calibrated dance the next. Suspense builds as dancers negotiate fatigue, becoming looser and more courageous as they travel though shifting areas of light.”
PHOTOS: VALERIE OLIVEIRO
LINDA SHAPIRO, CITY PAGES
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O R PR
TNE PAR
OFF-SITE
ARTIST TALK: STILLNESS AND LIVENESS IN CHOREOGRAPHY
SUN, AUG 4
M
GRA
STILL LIFE MORGAN THORSON
11:30 AM
Presented at and in partnership with Seattle Art Fair, this conversation with artist Morgan Thorson, On the Boards Artistic Director Rachel Cook, and Base Co-Founder and choreographer Dayna Hanson. Tickets: seattleartfair.com/Tickets On the Boards is a proud Cultural Partner of the 2019 Seattle Art Fair. Presented by AIG, Seattle Art Fair takes place August 1-4 at CenturyLink Field Event Center, and features over 90 local, regional, and international art galleries presenting modern and contemporary art.
Since 2000, MORGAN THORSON has generated a body of work that questions the conventions of western concert dance through interdisciplinary collaboration. Engaged in critical dialogue with the form, and inspired by a subject, physical process or point of view, her work honors the body as complex means of expression as it relates to the site and community in which it is situated. For Morgan, dancing provides communication and connection to people, silence, rage, space, beauty, and itinerant imagination. Still Life is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts; and is supported, in part, by the Contemporary Art Council and Exhibition Series Sponsors of the Portland Art Museum. This project is made possible in part by support from the National Performance Network (NPN) Creation and Development Fund. The Creation and Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). www.npnweb.org.
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LIGIA LEWIS
SEP 19 – 22
ON SERIES
SUBSCRIPTI
WATER WILL (IN MELODY)
THU, SEP 19 8 PM
SAT, SEP 21 8 PM
SUN, SEP 22 5 PM
Melodrama is a point of departure for Ligia Lewis’s latest choreographic work, Water Will (in Melody). Four performers enact a gothic tale set in a wet, cavernous landscape. A dystopian fantasy unfolds, creative (im)possibility becoming the engine by which states of hopelessness, darkness, and unexamined emotions are explored. Lewis uses color, embodiment, and dramaturgical unruliness to twist ingrained symbols of the body and the theater with playful abandon. She seeks out the edges, frictions, and ruptures of these sites, paving way for an “othered” experience of time and space. Water Will (in Melody) is the final chapter of Lewis’s BLUE, RED, WHITE triptych, which began with Sorrow Swag in blue, succeeded by minor matter in red.
“Few dancers force me to listen as carefully.”
PHOTOS: MARIA BARANOVA
LYDIA BRAWNER, PERFORMA MAGAZINE
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FRI, SEP 20 8 PM
LIGIA LEWIS is a dancer and choreographer. She has worked in multiple contexts, including that of the theatre and museum. Engaging with affect, empathy, and the sensate, her choreography considers the social inscriptions of the body while evoking its potentiality. Lewis is currently managed and produced by HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin and she is a factory artist at tanzhaus NRW Düsseldorf. Parts I and II of Lewis’ BLUE, RED, WHITE triptych were presented in the 18/19 season at On the Boards. Presented in partnership with Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Red Cat, and Performance Space NY. Production by Ligia Lewis / HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Co-produced by Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement 2018 / Centre D’Art Contemporain (Geneva), tanzhaus nrw (Düsseldorf), Arsenic Centre d’art scénique contemporain (Lausanne), donaufestival (Krems), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), and Münchner Kammerspiele. Funded by Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe with support from Baryshnikov Arts Center (NYC). Thanks to Jarrett Gregory for residency support.
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AUTUMN KNIGHT
OCT 10 – 13
ON SERIES
SUBSCRIPTI
M _ _ _ ER THU, OCT 10 8 PM
SAT, OCT 12 8 PM
SUN, OCT 13 5 PM
Employing improvisation, sculpture, sound, and lights, interdisciplinary artist Autumn Knight’s newest work addresses a range of subjects, including the nature of intimacy with self, others, and objects-stuff. The title suggests various interpretations of the missing letters, and the performance itself addresses certain ideas such as “mother”, “murder”, and “matter,” while leaving room for ambiguity. M _ _ _ ER is a nonlinear, scenic examination of entanglement from mothers to matter to the notion of twins as a metaphor for inextricable intimacy. The work investigates relationships that are common to almost everyone and probes at the nature of precarity born out of physical or emotional intimacy and proximity.
“Intense and disarming, [Knight’s] pieces play off the social dynamics of her audiences, amplifying the race, gender, and power relationships in the room—often to absurd (even hilarious) effect.”
PHOTOS: LYNN LANE
ART IN AMERICA
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FRI, OCT 11 8 PM
AUTUMN KNIGHT is an interdisciplinary artist working with performance, installation, video and text. Drawing from her training in theatre and the psychology of group dynamics, Knight makes performances that reshape perceptions of race, gender, and authority. Her performance work has been on view at more than a dozen institutions internationally, and her ongoing performance series Sanity TV was featured in the 2019 Whitney Biennial.
Autumn Knight: M _ _ _ ER is a National Performance Network/Visual Artist Network (NPN/VAN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by DiverseWorks, Houston; On the Boards, Seattle; and Women & Their Work, Austin. M _ _ _ ER premiered at DiverseWorks in October 2018 and will be presented at Abroms Art Center in New York in May 2020.
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E
AT-A-GLANC
ON SERIES
SUBSCRIPTI
ITE OFF - S
M
GRA
PRO NER
T PAR
WED, OCT 9 8:00 PM
Presented at The Moore Theatre in partnership with Seattle Theatre Group
Composer Bryce Dessner, librettist Korde Arrington Tuttle, director Kaneza Schaal, and designer Carlos Soto, in collaboration with Roomful of Teeth and a live chamber orchestra, seek to capture the complex effects of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe’s works. Through music, Mapplethorpe’s images, and poetry by Essex Hemphill and Patti Smith, this work examines how humans look, touch, feel, hurt, and love one another. RELATED
EVENT
THE WORK OF ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE, A COMMUNITY DISCUSSION 4:00 PM
“Witty and wicked... forbidding and seductive... Dessner is at his best.” THE NEW YORK TIMES
Join Sylvia Wolf (Executive Director, Henry Art Gallery) and Michelle Dunn Marsh (Chief Strategist, Photographic Center Northwest) in discussion about the influential and controversial works of Robert Mapplethorpe.
This season On the Boards is thrilled to partner with Seattle Theatre Group to present multiple performances and public programs, including Taylor Mac: Holiday Sauce and Dani Tirrell: Black Bois, presented in partnership with Central District Forum.
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PHOTO: MARIA BARANOVA
Presented by Seattle Theatre Group and On the Boards, at On the Boards Free. RSVP at stgpresents.org
AUG 1–4
Morgan Thorson: Still Life Presented at and in collaboration with BASE
AUG 4
Artist Talk: Stillness and Liveness in Choreography (at Seattle Art Fair)
AUG 8–9
In-process showing of Ahamefule Oluo: Susan
SEP 19–22
OCT 6
Ligia Lewis: Water Will (in Melody) Community Event with Seattle Theatre Group for Bryce Dessner: Triptych (Studio Theater at On the Boards)
OCT 9
Bryce Dessner: Triptych (Eyes of One on Another). Presented at The Moore Theatre in partnership with Seattle Theatre Group
OCT 10–13
Autumn Knight: M _ _ _ ER
NOV 1
On the Boards’ 40th Birthday Party
INFO & TICKETS: ONTHEBOARDS.ORG
UPCOMING DEC 5–8
Ahamefule J. Oluo: Susan
DEC 19–20
Taylor Mac: Holiday Sauce. Presented at The Moore Theatre in partnership with Seattle Theatre Group
JAN 23–26
Jaha Koo: Cuckoo
FEB 14
Dani Tirrell: Black Bois Presented in partnership with Seattle Theatre Group and Central District Forum
FEB 20–23
Solo: A Festival of Dance
MAR 19–22
Timothy White Eagle: The Violet Symphony
APR 9–12
Markeith Wiley: Working (Undecided Title)
MAY 7–10
Tina Satter/Half Straddle: Is This A Room: Reality Winner Verbatim Transcription
JUN 4–7
Pat Graney: ATTIC
= Performance included in the 19/20 Subscription Series
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BOXOFFICE@ONTHEBOARDS.ORG
SUN, OCT 6
AUG – NOV 2019
206-217-9886 EXT.1019 (TUE-FRI, 12-4 PM)
(EYES OF ONE ON ANOTHER)
19/20 SEASON
OCT 9
BOX OFFICE
TRIPTYCH BRYCE DESSNER
BOXOFFICE@ONTHEBOARDS.ORG
— Free and easy ticket exchanges — Complimentary ticket to bring a friend — Discounts on additional tickets to off-site performances and public programs — Discounted parking in the OtB lot — Priority access to special events Subscribers receive priority access or discounts on tickets to additional programming in the 19/20 Season, including off-site performances Morgan Thorson: Still Life at Base (Aug 1–4) and Dani Tirell: Black Bois, presented in partnership with Seattle Theatre Group and Central District Forum (Feb 14, 2020). PERFORMANCES IN THE SUBSCRIPTION SERIES SEPT 19–22
LIGIA LEWIS
OCT 9
BRYCE DESSNER
OCT 10–13
AUTUMN KNIGHT
DEC 5–8
AHAMEFULE J. OLUO
DEC 19–20
TAYLOR MAC
JAN 23–26
JAHA KOO
FEB 20–23
SOLO: A FESTIVAL OF DANCE
MAR 19–22
TIMOTHY WHITE EAGLE
APR 9–12
MARKEITH WILEY
MAY 7–10
TINA SATTER/HALF STRADDLE
JUN 4–7
PAT GRANEY
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COMPLETE SERIES ($330)
Tickets to all eleven Subscription Series performances and all subscriber benefits. PICK-5 ($135)
Create your own subscription! Tickets to five Subscription Series performances of your choosing plus all subscriber benefits. The Pick-5 DOES NOT include STG performances. Pick-5 subs will receive a discount code to the STG shows instead.
UNDER-30 COMPLETE SERIES ($195)
A complete series subscription just for young art lovers! Tickets to all eleven Subscription Series performances and all subscriber benefits. Must be under 30 years of age as of Sep 1, 2019. MORE SUBSCRIPTIONS & INFO AT
ontheboards.org/subscribe
You are the kind of person who keeps the On the Boards magic alive by putting your money toward the art you love! Your donations are responsible for 1/3 of the costs of presenting our seasons. Your support helps keep tickets affordable, and we work hard to make sure that your generous gift goes to the heart of what we do — put art on the stage and support the artists who make it. Thank you for making sure we can keep bringing the art and the fun all year long! JOIN THE 3-YEAR CLUB
The 3 Year Club is an inner circle of art enthusiasts who help give us the sustainability to support our programs for multiple years. Each member commits to supporting OtB with an annual donation of at least $500 a year for three years. 3 Year Club benefits include: invitations to exclusive events, special access to tech rehearsals, sneak peeks of works-inprogress and discussions with artists, and your own personalized drinking glass behind the FUBAR. Email Beth Raas-Bergquist, Director of Development, or call 206-217-9886 to get started! CURRENT SUPPORTERS
We are grateful for the support of the following organizations Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), ArtsFund, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Performance Network (NPN), 4Culture, Kreielsheimer Remainder Foundation, The Morgan Fund, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, WESTAF, Paypal, Totokaelo, The Norcliffe Foundation, Tyler Engle Architects, Facebook, Washington State Arts Commission (ARTSWA), Nordstrom, Prairie Underground, Baby & Co, Olson Kundig, The Ostara Group, The Seattle Foundation, Tomlinson Linen Service, Mutuus Studio, Wyman Youth Trust, The Pink Door, Garneau-Nicon Foundation, Kremwerk, The Cloud Room, Artefact In-Kind and Media Sponsors City Catering Company, Caffe Vita Roasting Co., Dave Holt, Fleurish, KUOW, Aesop, Jones & Associates LLC, Mediterranean Inn, Hot Cakes, Cupcake Royale, Fortunate Orchard Botanical Design, The Stranger, Odin Brewing Company, Hello Robin, Oola Distillery, K Vintners, GreenRoom Decor, Brothers & Company Catering, Champion Party Supply
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BOXOFFICE@ONTHEBOARDS.ORG
206-217-9886 EXT.1019 (TUE-FRI, 12-4 PM)
Your subscription provides vital support for our programming, and subscribers receive the lowest available ticket price, plus all sorts of exceptional benefits including:
ontheboards.org/support
206-217-9886 EXT.1019 (TUE-FRI, 12-4 PM)
BOX OFFICE
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TICKETS
The Lobby Box Office opens 1 hour before performances for will call and walk up sales (subject to availability). Single tickets for performances will go on sale 6-8 weeks ahead of scheduled dates. ADVANCE
WEEK OF SHOW
General Admission
$28
$32
Seniors (65+)*
$24
$28
Under 25*
$12
$16
TeenTix Member
ALWAYS $5
*Must show ID. Cannot be combined with other discounts. SLIDING SCALE TICKETS
Tickets to all Sunday performances in our Subscription Series are available on a sliding scale, $10-30. TICKET BANK
We know that ticket price can be a barrier to attending OtB, so we created a Ticket Bank to make our art experiences more accessible. The Ticket Bank encourages patrons to buy and "bank" extra tickets for other audience members, and allows potential audience members to claim those tickets for free. Help us make it work: To contribute, find out more, or sign up to receive tickets, please visit ontheboards.org/ticket-bank or contact the Box Office.
THE BEHNKE CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE 100 WEST ROY STREET SEATTLE, WA 98119
BOXOFFICE@ONTHEBOARDS.ORG 206-217-9886 EXT.1019 (TUE-FRI, 12-4 PM) BOX OFFICE
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