26/27

Dear Friends,

I’m inspired by something that choreographer and dancer Angie Hauser said on stage last year when speaking about her approach to improvisation: she feels “capable within the unknown.” I think that’s what we do at OtB. It takes a brave community to support art that challenges us, confronts us with the unknown, and leaves us with our hearts touched and our minds confounded. It takes a special community to seek that out, to find that pleasurable, and to withstand confusion in the pursuit of surprise. I’m down bad for it. I suspect you are too.

Capable within the unknown. That’s such a nice way to say ‘fuck around and find out.’ Which might be a secret theme within this season, certainly for Alex Tatarsky, and their deranged storytelling and Clayton Lee who brings toxic relationships to a new level. Heather Kravas will premiere a new work in the form of a disjointed fairy tale about failure. French playwright Mohamed El Khatib quite literally takes this on in surfacing real-life stories of sex, desire, and love from people aged 80-100. Kate Wallich and Perfume Genius explore the erotic in their new ode to The Piano Teacher.

One of my curatorial sensibilities could be called something like,“subverting genre once more with feeling.” David Roussève’s dance theater self-portrait brings us through his life with honesty. Holland Andrews and yuniya edi kwon’s experimental opera pulls from their spiritual lineages and their real life as partners navigating queer-trans family building. ILVS STRAUSS employs movement, text, sound, and a bright green mask to bring us down an audiophile rabbit hole.

On the subject of the unknown, I am excited about three distinct pathways that OtB supports artists in their development of the new: the Northwest New Works festival returns, curated by Akoiya Harris, Alyza DelPan-Monley, and Amy O’Neal. We kick off a brand new artist residency program, selected by our new Curatorial Council Jody Kuehner and Janet Wong. And we are now in partnership with Base for the beloved 12 Minutes Max showcase.

Let’s feel things in the dark,