On the Boards (OtB) is a non-profit contemporary performing arts organization in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, founded in 1978. Originally located at Washington Hall in the Central District, the organization moved in 1998 to their current location in Uptown. They present more than 40 distinct shows annually, amounting to over 100 performance nights each year in 2 theater spaces.About OtB
On the Boards official site. Accessed online 28 July 2008.

Venues

On the Boards began its existence renting the upstairs theater space at Washington Hall from the Sons of Haiti. Washington Hall is a 1908 building whose history prior to OtB included appearances by

W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...

and

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

and performances by the likes of

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

and

Mahalia Jackson Mahalia Jackson ( ; born Mahala Jackson; October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) was an American gospel singer, widely considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. With a career spanning 40 years, Jackson was integral to t ...

. In this space, OtB presented such visiting performers as Eiko and Koma,

Ping Chong Ping may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Ping, a domesticated Chinese duck in the illustrated book '' The Story about Ping'', first published in 1933 * Ping, a minor character in ''Seinfeld'', an NBC sitcom * Ping, a c ...

Meredith Monk Meredith Jane Monk (born November 20, 1942) is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. From the 1960s onwards, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recording ...

, and Spaulding Gray, as well as early work by local choreographers including Mark Morris and

Pat Graney Pat Graney is an American activist and choreographer, based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. She founded the Pat Graney Dance Company in 1991, and continues to serve as its artistic director and executive director. Childhood and educa ...

, both of whom went on to gain national and international acclaim. As of 2008, the building is in poor shape and quite likely facing demolition.Spider Kedelsky
Seattle's storied Washington Hall is likely to be sold and demolished
''

Crosscut Crosscut may refer to: * Crosscut.com, an online newspaper in Seattle * Crosscut Peak, a mountain peak in Antarctica * Crosscut Point, a rocky point in the South Sandwich Islands * CrossCut Records, a German record company * A type of saw cut, mo ...

'', May 29, 2007, updated May 31, 2007. Accessed online 28 July 2008. In 1998, OtB moved to its current location. Built in 1912, the building was originally known as Redding Hall, then later as Queen Anne Hall.Florence K. Lentz and Mimi Sheridan
Queen Anne Historic Context Statement
, prepared for the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, Historic Preservation Program and the Queen Anne Historical Society, October 2005, p. 14. Accessed online 24 July 2008. It had been the long-time home of A Contemporary Theater (ACT), who were moving to a downtown home at Kreielsheimer Place / Eagles Auditorium. OtB had the space remodeled into the 300-seat Merrill Wright Mainstage Theater and an 84-seat Studio Theater. The building is now known as On The Boards/Behnke Center for Contemporary Performance.

Performances presented

As of 2008, OtB's performances are divided into several program series. The Inter/National Series presents artists from around the world; the Northwest Series focuses more locally in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

; 12 Minutes Max is a monthly performance-lab/showcase of short new works and works-in-progress; and the Northwest New Works Festival is an annual 2-week festival of world premiere contemporary performances by Northwest-based artists and ensembles. Besides the artists mentioned above, other national and international performers and acts who have appeared at OtB include Bill T. Jones,

The Wooster Group The Wooster Group is a New York City-based experimental theater company known for creating numerous original dramatic works. It gradually emerged from Richard Schechner's The Performance Group (1967–1980) during the period from 1975 to 1980, an ...

dumb type Dumb Type is an artist collective based in Kyoto, Japan founded in 1984. Dumb Type is a group of creative art forms that express the new and daily life of the twentieth century modern and technological world of Japan. During the 1980s Dumb Type ...

Needcompany Needcompany is an international performance group formed in 1986. The two artists at the heart of Needcompany are Jan Lauwers and Grace Ellen Barkey. Lauwers is the company's founder and artistic director. Their associated performing artists ar ...

Sankai Juku is an internationally known butoh dance troupe. Co-founded by Amagatsu Ushio in 1975, they are touring worldwide, performing and teaching. As of 2010, Sankai Juku had performed in 43 countries and visited more than 700 cities. Amagatsu Ushio A ...

, and

Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker Anne Teresa, Baroness De Keersmaeker (, born 1960 in Mechelen, Belgium, grew up in Wemmel) is a contemporary dance choreographer. The dance company constructed around her, , was in residence at La Monnaie in Brussels from 1992 to 2007. Biography ...

, as well as such Seattle-area performers and acts as 33 Fainting Spells,

Sarah Rudinoff Sarah Rudinoff (born August 26, 1971) is an American actress, singer, and writer. She was the recipient of a 2004 Genius Award from the Seattle, Washington alternative weekly newspaper '' The Stranger''. Life and career Born in Alexandria, Virgini ...

Maureen Whiting Company Maureen is a female given name. In Gaelic, it is Máirín, a pet form of ''Máire'' (the Irish cognate of Mary), which is derived from the Hebrew Miriam. The name has sometimes been regarded as corresponding to the male given name Maurice. Some n ...

, Seattle Chamber Players,

Allen Johnson Allen Kenneth Johnson (born March 1, 1971) is an American former hurdling athlete who won the gold medal in the 110 metre hurdles at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. He is also a four-time world champion. Born in Washington, D.C. ...

locust Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin ''locusta'', meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstanc ...

, "Awesome", and Washington Ensemble Theater.Washington Ensemble Theater, blahblahblahBANG (A Pistol Fit in One Act, December 13–17, 2007
On the Boards archive. Accessed online 28 July 2008. In 2010, On the Boards launched a video streaming service, OntheBoards.tv for high-quality recordings of contemporary performance works.

Notes

External links

{{Commons category
On the Boards
official site
Redding Hall/Queen Anne Hall/Behnke Center for Contemporary Performance
Seattle Department of Neighborhoods
VR tour of On The Boards/Behnke Center for Contemporary Performance
Culture of Seattle Music venues in Washington (state) Theatres in Washington (state) Theatrical organizations in the United States Buildings and structures in Seattle