Risk/Reward Opens Applications, Names New Festival Director

Applications are now open for the 2024 Risk/Reward Festival of New Performance, which showcases new works by indie performing artists from across the region. Apply now for the 16th year blurring the boundaries of independent theater, music, dance, and performance art in new and surprising ways. 

HOW THE FESTIVAL WORKS

The festival is soliciting proposals from regional artists for new works that can be performed in less than 20 minutes. A panel of local artists and tastemakers select a lineup and we challenge the artists to run wild - encouraging creative risks, experimentation and bold investigation. No one really knows what to expect until opening night. Four to six of the chosen performances are staged back-to-back nightly in a festival environment. Audiences come to sample a variety of artistic voices and art forms in what the Willamette Week calls "speed dating for contemporary performance."

NEW FACES AND PLACES

After 10 years with the Festival, Producing Artistic Director Katie Watkins has decided to move on, and pass the baton to James Mapes. A familiar face to festival-goers, James has been involved with Risk/Reward from the start as a lighting designer, production manager, and Festival artist. As Interim Festival Director, he plans on blowing up the festival, breathing new life into the presentation, and he promises to continue celebrating the festival as it was always meant to be: A way to champion PNW artists and audiences pushing the boundaries of performing arts.

This June, Risk/Reward will sprawl out over the full theater and the luxuriously spacious 10,000 sqft main space at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s Hancock Building in northeast Portland. Our 16th Festival of New Performance will include a full slate of pieces from around the Pacific Northwest, the 2nd Annual Portland Drag Theatre Workshop by Anthony Hudson and Pepper Pepper, the R n’ R Cocktail Bar, and even more of the installations and late night fun that made the vibe at last year’s festival.

HOW TO APPLY

Find this year’s festival application link at https://risk-reward.org/event/risk-reward-festival-2024/ along with information regarding best practices and instructions on our festival application process.