SITI Company Releases New Book THIS IS NOT A HANDBOOK

The world-renowned Siti Company has released a new book, Siti Company: This Is Not A Handbook, co-written by members of SITI. Wildly different from the books Anne Bogart has written on actor training, This Is Not A Handbook is filled with anecdotes from rehearsals and tours, backstage shenanigans, intimate investigations of craft, and many photos and ephemera from 30 years of working together. It captures the ensemble as a passionate collective of individual artists and illuminates the many layers of theatrical process. Siti Company: This Is Not A Handbook, published with the support of Ben Van Buren at Yonkers International Press, is currently on sale for $35 at www.siti.org/home-placeholder/this-is-not-a-handbook/.

Contributors to the book include Akiko Aizawa, Anne Bogart, Will Bond, Gian-Murray Gianino, Leon Ingulsrud, Ellen Lauren, Ellen M. Lavaia, Kelly Maurer, Barney O'Hanlon, Michelle Preston, Brian H Scott, Samuel Stricklen, Stephen Webber, and Darron L West. Those company members who were not able to contribute to the book because of other obligations – J.Ed Araiza, James Schuette, and Neil Patel – are represented through their colleagues' memories.

After the company members made the decision in 2019 to intentionally end Siti Company, a conversation about “legacy” evolved. In true SITI fashion, the artists questioned the meaning of the word legacy and why it might matter. With SITI staff, the SITI Legacy Plan that emerged addressed two things: the desire to celebrate the accomplishments of the Siti Company ensemble over the past 30 years, and the aspiration to provide valuable resources for the next generation of theatre artists and ensembles. SITI was in the midst of planning its 30th Anniversary/Finale Season when the pandemic arrived, postponing shows and upending many plans. But with time not filled by rehearsal and touring, an opportunity emerged and a book came into being. 

Though the ensemble disbanded at the end of 2022, SITI, Inc. remains as the legacy organization with an updated charitable purpose to serve the field and artists. No longer creating plays and leading workshops, SITI, Inc. has put its attention to maintaining the SITI Living Archive to provide long-term, continuous access to a wealth of information about how Siti Company made work from both artistic and administrative perspectives; and the the SITI alumni network to create a bridge to the future. Siti Company's true legacy lives on in the artists who have trained with them and then taken that training into their communities, often creating ensembles of their own. SITI's intentional sunset contributed to a necessary evolution towards a more pluralistic arts and culture sector by making way for, and facilitating the birth and growth of, new companies that represent a broader range of aesthetics, identities, perspectives, and values. 

Siti Company was an ensemble-based theater company whose three components were the creation of new work, the training of theater artists, and a commitment to crossing boundaries. The entity that remains, SITI, Inc., stewards the Legacy of Siti Company and its Emeritus Artists for the benefit of future ensembles. SITI, Inc. provides services to the field as a bridge for new generations of ensembles, and a hub for archival inquiries, training opportunities, international artistic endeavors, and SITI alumni support.

Siti Company was founded in 1992 by Tadashi Suzuki, visionary director Anne Bogart, and an ensemble of pioneering artists interested in revitalizing and redefining contemporary theater in the United States through international cultural exchange, creation of new work, and the training of theater artists. These artists created almost 50 pieces of theater that showcase the storytelling power of the performer and the theatrical vision of the ensemble; they have excavated worlds from ancient Greece to contemporary America and examined the creative compulsions of other artists—from Virginia Woolf to Robert Rauschenberg; explored disciplines as varied as opera, dance, visual art and music theater; and they have expanded the meaning of collaboration by creating work with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Ann Hamilton, Julia Wolfe and the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and Elizabeth Streb's Extreme Action. Originally envisioned as the Saratoga International Theater Institute (SITI) in Saratoga Springs, NY, SITI quickly established itself in New York City and expanded to encompass a year-round season inclusive of creating new work, touring, and training programs to cultivate the next generation of independent theater artists. The Company is known nationally and internationally as a top-level artistic ensemble that generates groundbreaking theater. 

Siti Company members now Emeritus Artists are Akiko Aizawa, J.Ed Araiza, Anne Bogart, Will Bond, Gian-Murray Gianino, Leon Ingulsrud, Ellen Lauren, Ellen M. Lavaia, Kelly Maurer, Charles L. Mee, Barney O'Hanlon, Neil Patel, James Schuette, Brian H Scott, Samuel Stricklen, Stephen Duff Webber, and Darron L West. Former company members include Susan Hightower, Jefferson Mays, Elizabeth Moreau, Tom Nelis, KJ Sanchez, and Megan Wanlass.

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