Piacenza’s 30-year professional performance career and her history as a sex worker become an embodied tapestry of artistic material, a thematic entanglement of sex labor, the pursuit of freedom, and ageism.
Artistic Director Rachel Cook sits down with artists Rachel Mars, Michelle Ellsworth, and Jenny Peterson to talk about their favorite performance objects, previous pieces—and to briefly introduce their pets to the world.
Watch Michelle Ellsworth's "Phone Homer" on ontheboards.tv!
This segment aired during the 2021 ontheboads.tv fundraiser in March 2021.
Timothy is commissioned by Artistic Director Rachel Cook for a residency on the planet Mars and sets off for the stars, discovering DANGERS, ALIEN FAUNA, and LONELINESS at a level never before experienced by humankind! Watch him experimentally and "contemporary-ly" perform his way THROUGH SPACE.
Originally aired live on May 20th, 2021 as part of On the Boards’s annual Virtually Spectacular: MARS | PERSEVERANCE. Mission: Seeking signs of ancient and future life and bringing forth new worlds
Blurring the lines between fiction and reality, Awaiting Oblivion... follows the story of AO, an anonymous street artist who has tasked Emmy and Jeffrey with the creation of a performance as a way to share AO’s “temporary solutions” for existing within our collapsing empire. Inspired by creative processes developed by the '60s Fluxus art movement, each “temporary solution” is a visual/textual poem contained in a Flux-kit (a cigar box collaged with stenciled imagery and typewritten letters).
Paradisiacal Rites is the realization and completion of the “Aesthetic Declarations” Transports of Delirium: Aesthetic Ascesis in 4 Acts. Conceived, written, and directed by Derrick Ryan Claude Mitchell. These Aesthetic Declarations showcased elements of ballet, symphony, installation, modern dance, ritual, site specific installation, and experimental theatrical performance.
JACK & is a comedy of errors structured on social codes and trainings, from prison reentry programs to African American debutante balls. Conceived and directed by Kaneza Schaal, a veteran performer with Elevator Repair Service and The Wooster Group, JACK & combines influences from aspirational class stories found in 1950s sitcoms, real and imagined entering-society ceremonies, and tigers in Harlem to build a portrait of a dream interrupted and resumed.
An eerily glowing kinetic sculpture and a hacked '50’s era typewriter create a fuzzy portrait of a Cold War operative, privacy-obsessed misanthrope, and real-life father of director Lars Jan. Archival wiretap transcriptions and missives from communist spies intertwine with MRI brain scans and the NSA, prompting questions about the nature of memory, privacy, and the possibility of ever truly knowing your dad.
The merciless humor of comedian and social critic Paul Mooney is channeled in a fast-paced and ruthless new work merging stand-up comedy, theater, and physicality. Billing himself as “Seattle’s first Black talk show host,” choreographer and performer Markeith Wiley unveils a new, no-holds-barred persona as an engaging, brutally direct entertainer and loquacious dancer. Featuring live guests and a house DJ, It's Not Too Late is a timely capsule of emotional resignation around race immediately following the 2016 presidential election.
