Urban Honking

Thursday, May 19

7:00pm MADE HERE NYC/PORTLAND @ Zoomtopia

When: Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 7 pm
Where: The Mouth at Zoomtopia (810 SE Belmont)
Tickets at the door: $7 General/$5 PICA and tEEth Members

The new documentary series MADE HERE, a project of HERE in New York City, examines the daily lives and challenges of NYC-based performing artists. Episodes explore issues like Creative Real Estate, Day & Night Jobs, Family Balance, Activism, Identity, Money, Career, and Home. These issues are part of daily life for performing artists in Portland too. Join Boom Arts, PICA, and tEEth Performance for a special screening of MADE HERE episodes with the documentary’s NYC-based producer, Tanya Selvaratnam Scheib.

Explore how these issues impact performing artists in Portland through a panel discussion featuring local artists, and become part of the conversation through an audience Q & A and post-discussion reception.

Panel participants include:
Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini
Linda Austin of Performance Works NW
Jonathan Walters of Hand2Mouth
Actress Michele Mariana
Erin Boberg Doughton of PICA
Moderated by Helen Daltoso of the Regional Arts and Cultural Council (RACC).
MADE HERE: NYC/Portland is the inaugural event of Boom Arts Performing Arts Projects, presented in partnership with PICA and tEEth Performance. The documentary MADE HERE is presented with permission from HERE, NYC.

About the Documentary:

MADE HERE is a documentary series and interactive website focusing on core issues for eminent and emerging performing artists throughout New York City’s five boroughs. It explores these issues through the stories of a diverse group of artists including director Elizabeth LeCompte of The Wooster Group, performer Reggie Watts, playwright Young Jean Lee, choreographer Miguel Gutierrez, and director Oskar Eustis of The Public Theater. MADE HERE Season One (2010) covered issues related to the careers and lives of working artists such as Creative Real Estate, Day & Night Jobs, Family Balance, Activism and Technology. Season Two (2011) covers issues like Identity, Money, Creative Practice, Career, and Home. MADE HERE is a project of HERE, an award-winning performing arts organization in lower Manhattan and a leader in the field of new, hybrid performance work since 1993. MADE HERE is Executive Produced by HERE (Kristin Marting, Artistic Director and Kim Whitener, Producing Director), produced by Tanya Selvaratnam, and directed by Chiara Clemente. MADE HERE was made possible by a 2009 Rockefeller Foundation Cultural Innovation Fund award and additional support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the New Generations Program administered by Theatre Communications Group.

The Panelists:

Linda Austin is a choreographer and performer whose dance life began in the1980s East Village dance scene. She returned to her native Oregon in 1998 and in 1999 founded Performance Works NorthWest, a feisty incubator of contemporary performance and media arts. Linda’s current project A head of time had its first outing in an installation at the Art Gym with opening performance on April 3, and will premiere late in 2011 or early 2012. Contact (General Inquiries): Ruth Wikler-Luker, Boom Arts / rjwikler@gmail.com / 917.863.5180 Contact (Press): Patrick Leonard, Communications Director, PICA / Patrick@pica.org / 503.242.1419 x224

Erin Boberg Doughton, Performing Arts Program Director at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) has worked on PICA’s performance and residency programs since its inception in 1995. She is part of the curatorial team for PICA’s annual TBA (Time-Based Art) Festival which features artists working in performance, media, visual arts and hybrid forms. She currently serves on the Board of the National Performance Network and is a National Dance Project Hub Site representative.

Thomas M. Lauderdale is the founder and pianist for the ‘little orchestra’ Pink Martini. Born in Indiana and raised in Portland since 1982, Lauderdale began his performance career as an undergraduate dandy at Harvard. He founded Pink Martini in 1994 to play political fundraisers for progressive causes in Portland. In addition to his acclaimed work with Pink Martini, he has collaborated with musicians, filmmakers, and countless other artists; performed as a featured piano soloist with numerous orchestras and ensembles in Portland, the Pacific Northwest and beyond; and currently serves on the boards of the Oregon Symphony and Pioneer Courthouse Square. More at pinkmartini.com.

Michele Mariana is an accomplished Portland-based actor, voice actor and concert artist with a national and international reputation. Recent work on Portland stages includes multiple appearances with the Jewish Theatre Collaborative and a Drammy-winning performance as Fraulein Schneider in Portland Center Stage’s Cabaret, among many other award-winning roles. Highlights from Mariana’s extensive career in theatre, film, television, and music include performing in Eric Bogosian’s Talk Radio at the Public Theater and in Oliver Stone’s film; performing in and recording Bruce Adolphe’sMarita and Her Heart’s Desire at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center with Itzahk Perlman; and helping to found INTERACT Theatre of Los Angeles.

Tanya Selvaratnam Scheib is a producer, writer, actor, and activist. MADE HERE is her third collaboration with director Chiara Clemente; previous works include Our City Dreams (a documentary feature) and Beginnings (a short film series for the Sundance Channel), both of which had a score by Thomas Lauderdale. As a theater artist, Tanya has performed in the Pacific Northwest and around the world in shows by The Wooster Group, The Builders Association and Jay Scheib, among other achievements. She is also the Artist & Press Liaison for the Rubell Family Collection.

Jonathan Walters founded Hand2Mouth Theatre in Portland, Oregon in 2000 and functions as Artistic Director, co-creating and directing the bulk of their shows. Jonathan works closely with guest writers and the ensemble to develop original devised theatre work. Hand2Mouth has created 18 major new performances, installations and international collaborations, with commissions and tours to arts centers, theatres, arts festivals and universities in the Northwest, the West Coast, New York City and in Europe and Latin America.

Helen Daltoso, Moderator, is a Grants Officer for Portland’s Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) in Portland, Oregon. For the past seven years she has worked with the RACC grants team to oversee the grantmaking processes for General Support, Opportunity, Fellowship, Project and Professional Development grants as well as manage the RACC Cultural Leadership Program. Helen has worked in the arts in Portland since 1995. Before joining RACC in 1997 as the Neighborhood Arts Program Coordinator, she served as the Program Manager for the Network of Oregon Artists, a service and support organization for individual artists. Prior to her work in the arts Helen worked for three years in Lesotho as a community extension agent for the U.S. Peace Corps. Her Peace Corps service is preceded by several years in marketing and circulation for a publishing firm.

About the Presenters:
Boom Arts is a new producer and presenter of innovative international and U.S. performing arts projects based in Portland, Oregon. Boom Arts is the brainchild of Ruth Wikler-Luker, an arts manager with diverse experiences in the performing arts ranging from university-based public programming to contemporary circus production. Boom Arts produces and presents public programs and performances in Portland in partnership with local individuals and institutions. More at www.boom-arts.com.

PICA is about the activity generated by a community using its energy. Since 1995, PICA has built a citywide platform for the creation and discovery of contemporary art, through artist residencies and commissions, talks and workshops, and the annual Time-Based Art Festival.

tEEth, founded by choreographer Angelle Hebert and composer Phillip Kraft in 2006, is a Portland-based dance company that interweaves original music and movement through melodic and conceptual mirroring. In addition to local presentations, tEEth has toured to Seattle, NYC, Austin, and New Orleans. Their latest project, Home Made, recently won the A.W.A.R.D. Show! Seattle, a prestigious dance competition at On the Boards. Their newest work in development, co-commissioned by White Bird Dance (Portland) and On the Boards, will premiere in Jan. 2012.