View TBA:07 Calendar.CALENDAR
Elevator Repair Service. Photo: Kenneth Aaron.
Guest Artistic Director Mark Russell returned for a second year at the helm, and TBA's fifth anniversary, filled with future aesthetics, visual performance, and bold storytelling. Composer Rinde Eckert orchestrated an original vocal performance by Portland's Flash Choir, mimicking the sounds and wonder of a great flock of birds; the legendary Mikhail Baryshnikov performed with Donna Uchizono Company; Portland met the inimitable comedian/beatboxer/performance artist Reggie Watts; Nature Theater of Oklahoma returned with a four-hour "dinner theater" performance featuring ham sandwiches; and Elevator Repair Service performed their mind-blowing verbatim reading of The Great Gatsby, dazzling audiences for over 7 hours!
TBA:07 also encompassed an expansive program of roving projects, including Mammalian Diving Reflex offering Haircuts by Children, Gary Wiseman's Tea Project happenings, and a series of Great American Novels read aloud on street corners throughout town. "Fake Space" brought together a suite of visual art projects that explored illusion and the suspension of disbelief, including a vast, swirling cloud of monofilament and knotted string created by Larry Bamburg, Arnold J. Kemp's horror-influenced exhibition, DAYDREAM NATION, and a show on the campus of Reed College featuring Peter Kreider and Marko Lulic. THE WORKS moved north to the renovated Wonder Ballroom, a former lodge of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians that served as TBA's own secret refuge for ten glorious late summer days.