Risk and Reward - OTB NWNW preview

On The Boards Theatre’s Northwest New Works Festival has always been about bravery to me. It’s a chance for artists to put something new out there, often for the first time on a larger stage, or for the OTB audience – which (who) may be the most valuable thing about the festival. Mostly, no-one can predict how the audience will react, and the risk of it, is for me, the most exciting part.

In this spirit then, I will risk previewing instead of re-viewing. May the artists and audience prove me wrong, or right!

The Mint Collective Daughters of Air– is Kelli Corrado and Ivory Smith, with projections provided by Joe. The piece is based on the Little Mermaid, in particular the non-Disney death of said half-fish. She becomes a “daughter of air” or perhaps sea foam. There are 6 tulle jellyfish, and the projections so far are beautiful, like underwater bubbles moving like a school of tiny fish. If the rest of the lighting is as good, and the women get their music together this will be very good.

Paul Budraitis Not. Stable. (At. all.) – Paul does a solo performance, today the writing was solid, with great moments (I loved the description of other folks on the bus as Les Miserables). He was a little tense about the preview, and so all the characters were a little more agitated than I suspect they will end up, less Woody Allen on speed, less Lewis Black on crack. He has the presence to pull it off.

Mike Pham I Love You, I Hate You – The Helsinki Project’s right brain (or is it the left?) uses movement lifted from the winter Olympics, falling down hard, and some inspired video to create a struggle to the death worth watching. His dance is almost too good to be funny (or is it too funny to be good?)

The Cherdonna and Lou Show It’s a Salon – Jody Kuehner and Ricki Mason are so good on stage, that anything they do will be funny. There will also be substance. I predict they will take something beautiful and break it for you. Salami was also promised.

The Satori Group The Making of a Monster – this group theatre piece is based on Japanese Manga, uses the art of Kurogo - assistants are dressed all in black costume who technically animate parts of the set and perform lifts etc. The cartoon framing is bang on, as is the English version of Japanese cartoon voice. The costumes promise to be incredible, including an octopus! The script seemed a bit too after-school-special, (teen sex! Embarrassing!) but perhaps the total package will hold up.

Erin Leddy My Mind is Like an Open Meadow – I had no preview, so none for you either.

Lily Verlaine Magpie – described as a “non-consensual interaction.” Lily gets naked, dances, climbs in the audience. She is playing around with sex, burlesque, pornography and people. I’m not sure what it achieves. I ended up with lipstick on my collar – No really honey it was a performance artist! I think this one needs a full audience to work, if it will work at all.

Charles Smith Today I am a Zionist – Full disclosure – I work with Charles and consider him a friend. Nonetheless, this is clearly my favorite of the studio shows this festival. He plays the hammered dulcimer, sings, and delivers well written monologues with force and wit. There is Seattle history, there are some stunning slides, and there is archival footage of a long ago performance. Go and see this.

Hmm, reading back over this, I guess overall NWNW this year looking good so far. Tomorrow I get to see the previews for the upstairs theatre, so more bravery and blogging to come. Writing a blog about these performers, or really any show in particular, there is the tendency to critique, to assume a voice of authority, to assign value. I want to say to readers and artists alike that I believe that some work is good, some work is really bad, but that all the work is worth attempting. Failure is only a beginning, if you have bravery.