Past
In Mon, Ma, Mes, the NYC-based dancer, choreographer, and writer examines the permeability between the real and the fictive in a disarming and interactive retrospective of his life and work.
Learn moreIn their individual and collaborative work, Hilary Clark and Luke George share an investigation into the ways we exist, move, relate, and experience ourselves and one another, and how that translates into presence and performance. In this workshop, we will consider how to develop tools, methods and questions for ourselves towards openness, vulnerability, rebellion, ability and perceived lack of ability, and about how being a performer is also being a maker and an audience. The workshop will include improvisation as a practice and tool to know our bodies while generating energy and depth.
Learn moreSQUART! says "Get your ass on stage, be spontaneous, short-circuit the forces of habit and expectation in the face of the dominant order, celebrate this space of not knowing to make something strange together!” —Jeremy Wade, SQUART! Berlin Celebrity Judge, 2014
Learn moreMammalian Diving Reflex, of the revered social practice-based work Haircuts by Children (TBA:07), returns with All the Sex I’ve Ever Had. Mammalian uses storytelling to plunge fearlessly into provocative uncharted waters with a frank, vulnerable and unpredictable work that examines intimacy, old age, youth obsessed culture and sex.
Learn moreWe cordially invite you to an “elegant” al fresco dinner (in a parking lot), served with the gone-but-not-forgotten flourish of the grand restaurants of yesteryear. For one night, we’ll summon the uncompromising finesse of James and Julia (Beard and Child DUH!), and we’ll capture the style of Sardi’s, Elaine’s, and the Pump Room, where table-side Caesars and flaming desserts were the norm.
Learn moreOne of PICA's most popular year-round programs gets TBA treatment with five festival Field Guides facilitated by visiting and local artists and scholars. Each small-group session creates context around contemporary performance and a particular artist's social, political, cultural, and aesthetic influences through a pre-show workshop with lecture and discussion; group viewing of a performance; and post-show conversation over food and drink. Online artist interviews and other media supplement learning and engagement. Anyone curious about contemporary art is welcome. Limited to 25 participants.
Learn moreJoin the community choir! Singer, composer and performing artist Holcombe Waller will lead warm up and rehearsal for a working excerpt from his new project, LGBT Requiem Mass. This full-body chorale music workshop will include writing, improvisation, and discussion to explore the convergence of LGBT voice, song, community and the legacy and shadow of Christian liturgical and spiritual music. Amateur and professional singers, sight-readers and ear-exclusive learners all welcome. Wear comfortable clothes you can move in.
Learn moreLuke George and Hilary Clark reflect on their collaborative process and unpack notions of intimacy and transmission between artist and audience explored in their TBA:14 piece, Not About Face. In conversation with choreographer, dance artist, and professor Linda K. Johnson.
Learn moreIn 2013 Portland based artist, photographer, and comic Jason Traeger began documenting Portland Oregon’s internationally recognized stand-up comedy scene in his blog, Portland Stand-up Comedy Photo Album. Over 2,000 posts later, the blog and Traeger’s photos stand as the definitive document of the comedic explosion flowering in Portland. Taking inspiration from his blog, Traeger will host an evening of boundary pushing stand-up comedy featuring some of his favorite funny people from Portland and beyond.
Learn moreA Living Documentary is a raw comedic reflection on the trials and tribulations of earning a living as a professional theater artist in the 21st century. Intertwining elements of musical comedy, documentary, and fiction, Hopkins’ newest work intersperses autobiographical storytelling with portrayals of semi-fictional comedic characters, all the while asking myriad questions about the realities of artistic life in New York City.
Learn moreDuet Love performs love, lust, and charged energy. Portland choreographer Tahni Holt returns to the TBA Festival with her latest work that presents coupled bodies performing gendered states around the romantic premise of the “duet.”
Learn moreOur second of two TBA Festival Flights, Seniors, Sex, Spirituality: Art and Social Change references two TBA projects: Holcombe Waller’s LGBT Requiem Mass (a work-in-progress to debut at a future TBA Festival) and Mammalian Diving Reflex’s All the Sex I’ve Ever Had.
Learn moreOlive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad of BodyCartography Project discuss the intersection of movement, empathy, and tension in their project, Super Nature with Michael Sakamota, interdisciplinary artist and Program Co-Director of the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts Program at Goddard College.
Learn moreNo need to stay fixed to your seat, no need to act as passive viewer, or sit in reverence of the image. Tonight we privilege the soundtrack as a way to suspend the normal functioning of film. In Favor of Skepticism is a re-viewing of materials from the Letterist and Situationist movements in which words will be shifted, translated, and overlayed onto, from, and between language and medium.
Learn moreWith virtuoso chops, rock-star charisma, and an appetite for pushing her instrument to the edge of avant-garde adventurousness, Maya Beiser is the post-modern diva of the cello.” – The Boston Globe
Learn moreJoin public intellectual Madison Moore, (King’s College, London) and Portland's premier art queen, Pepper Pepper, for an unconventional lecture and discussion about their academic and artistic work and collaboration for Critical Mascara.
Learn moreIn this workshop we will use movement to reveal the connection between how we feel, how we think and how we act. We will practice enacting one-on-one performances that travels through public space. As performers’ our score is to be present. Like a therapist, we will attempt to meet our audience’s tone, energetically and physically. This non-verbal experience will challenge both the audience and performer to navigate the city through feeling and curiosity. Using this practice as point of departure we will initiate conversations that reflect on movement, behavior and transformation.
Learn moreChristopher Sutton describes his whole life as revolving around his love of music. RE: Disc COVER is part performance, thoughtful dissertation, and dance party based on artist Sutton’s lifelong journey as a collector of 12” vinyl.
Learn moreCanadian-based musician and sound artist, explores the intersection of noise, dissonance, and melody, fostering an approach to songcraft that is both physical and emotive. Marking Hecker’s Portland debut, this rare concert will be an immersive sensory experience that includes both recent and debut material.
Learn moreOne of PICA's most popular year-round programs gets TBA treatment with five festival Field Guides facilitated by visiting and local artists and scholars. Each small-group session creates context around contemporary performance and a particular artist's social, political, cultural, and aesthetic influences through a pre-show workshop with lecture and discussion; group viewing of a performance; and post-show conversation over food and drink. Online artist interviews and other media supplement learning and engagement. Anyone curious about contemporary art is welcome.
Learn moreSouth African dancer and choreographer Mamela Nyamza uses dance to access the deepest layers of the body, such as emotions, fears, and expectations. During this masterclass, she draws inspiration from the participants, working from the inside to the outside, guided by her and the participants' inner feelings. Part of the masterclass will be working with empty Cola cans, so every participant is asked to bring two cans. 2 hours, Intermediate/Advanced, Performance/Movement
Learn moreCRITICAL MASCARA "A Post-Realness Drag Ball" returns to the TBA stage with a much anticipated sequel evening of fabulousness and extravaganza. CRITICAL MASCARA features some of the Pacific Northwest's most courageous and raw talent all competing to win 666$ in a queer driven dance-off drag spectacular! The evening is hosted by, the one and only, Pepper Pepper with celebrity judges, features special guest performers, and wraps up with a raucous late-night dance party for all! Come dressed as your fiercest self!
Learn moreIn this concert for film, Inuit throat singer and famed tour de force vocalist, Tanya Tagaq reclaims the controversial 1922 silent film Nanook of the North. Tagaq’s innovative vocals and deep sense of Arctic life work to create a powerful soundscape of authentic emotion and pulsing breath against the backdrop of the film’s racially charged clichés. In Nanook, Tagaq’s haunting singing is joined by violinist Jesse Zubot, genius drummer Jean Martin, and Juno Award-winning composer Derek Charke’s original film score to frame the vintage semi-documentary of an Inuk family in a revealing contemporary light.
Learn moreVisiting choreographers Meryem Jazouli (Morocco) and Mamela Nyamza (South Africa) will discuss their respective creative practices, current projects, cross-disciplinary collaborations, and cultural outreach and engagement with their communities. Moderated by PICA's Artistic Director, Angela Mattox, with time for audience Q&A.
Learn more