WHAT PROBLEM? Comes to the Meany Center

The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company returns to Meany Center for the Performing Arts with it's latest work What Problem? from March 24-26, 2022 at 8 p.m. In What Problem?, Jones, a two-time Tony Award winner (FELA! and Spring Awakening), choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer, invites the public into his creative process for a provocative and thoughtful meditation on the tension between belonging to a community and feelings of isolation in divisive times. The performances are the culmination of a week-long artistic residency that includes Seattle-area community members and a town hall conversation at LANGSTON.

The residency is the beginning of a new artistic relationship between Bill T. Jones and Meany Center. Jones has recently been named the Center's Artistic Associate, a one-year position that invites leading artists to work within the organization, bringing fresh new perspectives and creative programming ideas. Jones is in the process of creating a new series for the 2022-23 Season that will feature 4 to 6 productions curated in collaboration with Meany Center's Artistic and Executive Director Michelle Witt. The new series will be announced in June.

"We are thrilled to have such a towering figure as Bill T. Jones launch this important pilot initiative here at the University of Washington," says Michelle Witt. "The benefits for artists, for Meany Center and for the University are meaningful: BIPOC and underrepresented artists are empowered by having a participatory voice at Meany. New collaborative voices keep Meany Center Visiting Artists' programming and engagement relevant. Artists will be in dialogue with partners on and off campus, activating learning and connections with students, faculty and community."

For the production of What Problem?, up to 30 community members will participate in the performance, including University of Washington students and alumni. During the Company's residency, participants will join Bill T. Jones, along with the company's associate artistic director Janet Wong and members of the Company in rehearsal to create collaborative and personalized content to be performed in What Problem? Participants will include dancers and non-dancers alike coming together to create their own unique community onstage.

The performances include three thought-provoking sections: Jones in solo performance; Jones alongside members of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company; and, in conclusion, Jones and the company onstage with the local community members.

What Problem? has been adapted for the proscenium stage from Bill T. Jones' massive work Deep Blue Sea (2020). Text deconstructed from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois, "Never Catch Me" by Kendrick Lamar and Herman Melville's Moby Dick serve as the basis for the spoken text Jones delivers as a performer in the work. The multilayered score is by composer and vocalist Nick Hallett.

"For the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line...the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men...And yet, being a problem is a strange experience - peculiar even for one who has never been anything else." - W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903)

"I have long accepted Dr. King's immortal words 'We Shall Overcome' mixed with the scripture of our democracy as formed and shaped by we the people," says Bill T. Jones. "And yet there's always been an uneasy recognition of the truth at the base of the great W.E.B. Du Bois statement concerning 'the Problem.' The 'Color Line' for Du Bois represented the epitome of otherness, yet we now understand this is much more complex. In our fractious era, I am compelled to elaborate on this 'line' in terms of sexual politics, gender identity, class struggles and especially at this moment in time, immigration."

"These ideas collide in my mind and my creative self like tectonic plates. Tectonic activity creates land formations, volcanic eruptions and rearranging of whole continents. What Problem? is the latest result of this social/political/spiritual grinding and reformation. Are you a problem? And what does it mean to be a problem? All of my work is in pursuit of the 'we.' What Problem? is the notion of WE THE PEOPLE."

Tickets for What Problem? are on sale now at https://meanycenter.org/tickets/2022-03/production/bill-t-jonesarnie-zane-company, with ticket prices ranging from $58-$70. Discounts are available for students, youths, seniors, UW Alumni and veterans.

The public is invited to attend a Community Conversation with Bill T. Jones: Is there a "We"? at LANGSTON, https://www.langstonseattle.org/ Tuesday, March 22, 2022 at 4 p.m. Jones, along with a panel of invited guests and attendees, will explore the importance of community and belonging, and the notion of collective redemption in a conversation moderated by veteran arts producer and civic advocate Vivian Phillips. Participants will be encouraged to bring their ideas and questions about what makes a community strong, and to explore what responsibilities we have to one another. Admission is free, but reservations are requested here.

All Meany Center staff, artists and participants in the production are vaccinated. For audience members, Meany Center requires proof of vaccination or a negative provider-administered COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of the performance for admission. Masks are required at all times in Meany Hall. For up-to-date information and details, see https://meanycenter.org/visit/covid-safety

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