ODC Theater presents THEATER UNPLUGGED

Next month, ODC Theater is pleased to present the award-winning Epiphany Productions Sonic Dance Theater in a work-in-progress showing for Last Blue Couch in the Sky, scheduled to premiere at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in June. This edition of ODC's signature "Unplugged" format, a recurring platform offering a rare and candid look into the creative process, takes place for one night only, Sunday, March 26 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20, and may be purchased online at odc.dance/tickets or by phone at 415-863-9834.

Under the direction of choreographer Kim Epifano, Epiphany Productions has earned a reputation as one of the Bay Area's leading exponents of interdisciplinary, site-specific performance. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the company's newest work pays tribute to San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, leading audiences on a journey from Tutubi Plaza on Russ Street to the Forum at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Developed in collaboration with over 20 dancers, actors, writers and musicians, the work takes its title from Brian Goggin's public art installation Defenestration, erected in 1997, which until three years ago was located at the corner of Sixth and Howard Streets in an abandoned four-story tenement building. A blue couch frozen mid-fall out of a top-floor window was the last visible remnant of the work. The building has since been torn down to make way for low-income housing.

For ODC's Theater Unplugged, Epiphany Productions will perform an excerpt from the second half of Last Blue Couch, designed for the interior of YBCA's Forum. Joining Epifano are artists Anastasia Barron, Jesselito Bie, Nuria Bowart, Sally Davis,Sammay Dizon, Bob Ernst, Maica Folch, Natalie Greene, Sebastian Grubb, Arina Hunter, Hien Huynh, Laura Inserra, Elisabeth Kindler, Zoe Klein, Sriba Kwadjovie,Areyla Moss-Maguire, Xedex Olivas, Priscilla Park, Jennifer Perfilio, Linda Phung andTim Rubel.

For more information visit odc.dance/theater-unplugged.

Theater Unplugged is a part of ODC's Creative Campus Programming, an initiative highlighting and celebrating the entire creative lifecycle from studio to stage, work-in-process to completion, and for artists of all stages of creative development across ODC's creative campus.

ABOUT EPIPHANY PRODUCTIONS SONIC DANCE THEATER

Founded by Kim Epifano in 1997, Epiphany Productions has traveled the globe with presentations by Tunisia's Mad'Art Carthage International Dance Festival, Switzerland's TanzOlten Festival, Mexico's Parallelos 32 Company and Ireland's Croi Glan Integrated Dance Company. International recognition includes receipt of Mexico's top award in its bi-annual dance competition for a piece commissioned by the U.S./Mexico Fund for Culture. The company has produced over 20 evening-length works with a wide array of collaborators. Productions range from Speaking Chinese, a project with artists from China and the United States, to Fears of Your Life, a multimedia collaboration with differently-abled dancers from San Francisco's AXIS Dance Company.

Since 2004, the company has produced San Francisco Trolley Dances, an annual outdoor festival featuring site-specific performances by local dance, theater and music artists along MUNI trolley lines. In addition, the company has co-presented numerous works, including last year's Mission Street Dances with ODC Theater, Baile en la Calle: The Mural Dances highlighting San Francisco's historic Mission District murals, andIsland City Waterways, a performance tour of Alameda's Tidal Canal with Rhythmix Cultural Works. Epifano began her career with two of San Francisco's most influential dance companies, Dance Brigade and Contraband. She has earned eight Isadora Duncan Dance Awards, and most recently a Choreographer Commissioning Award from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

ABOUT ODC THEATER

ODC Theater participates in the creation of new works through commissioning, presenting, mentorship and space access; it develops informed, engaged and committed audiences; and it advocates for the performing arts as an essential component to the region's economic and cultural development. The Theater is the site of over 120 performances a year involving nearly 1,000 local, regional, national and International Artists.

Since 1976, ODC Theater has been the mobilizing force behind countless San Francisco artists and the foothold for national and international touring artists seeking debut in the Bay Area. The Theater, founded by Brenda Way and currently under the direction of Julie Potter, has earned its place as a cultural incubator by dedicating itself to creative change-makers, those leaders who give the Bay Area its unmistakable definition and flare. Nationally known artists Spaulding Gray, Diamanda Galas, Bill T. Jones, Eiko & Koma, Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, Karole Armitage, Sarah Michelson, Brian Brooks and John Heginbotham are among those whose first San Francisco appearance occurred at ODC Theater.

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