13 December 2022 – American Theatre Magazine, “Company First and Last: SITI Takes Its Final Bow“

For Immediate Release
Nov 14, 2022

SITI COMPANY ANNOUNCES FINAL DETAILS FOR LEGACY PLAN
SITI Living Archive – Partnership With Ohio State University
New Book – SITI Company: This Is Not A Handbook
$180,000 Transition Grants
New Managing Director Brad Carlin

The award-winning SITI Company, a leading New York-based theater ensemble celebrated locally and internationally, announces the final details for the SITI Legacy Plan. This includes the SITI Living Archive – a robust physical and digital archive, the book SITI Company: This Is Not A Handbook, transition grants for ensemble artists totaling $180,000, and the appointment of Brad Carlin as Managing Director. At the conclusion of the Finale 30th Anniversary Season in December 2022, SITI Company will cease to operate in its current iteration as a touring, teaching, and performing ensemble with an administrative staff and a studio. The business entity that remains, SITI, Inc, led by Carlin, will provide service to the field and function as a bridge between the legacy of SITI and new generations of ensembles for exploration of international artistic endeavors, and as a hub for archival inquiries, training inquiries and alumni support.

The SITI Living Archive project aims to create an accessible digital and physical archive that will be a resource for artists, students, and scholars for years to come; to capture artistic methodology while company members are still engaged in the process; to create an archival extension of SITI’s artistic process, so that future audiences, artists, and scholars understand the inner workings of SITI Company as an ensemble.

The SITI Living Archive will be accessible in two forms: a Digital Archive which contains an easily searchable and rich collection of playbills, production photos, video clips, scripts, photos, and more. This incredible resource to the field will launch on November 16, 2022, and will continue to be managed by SITI, Inc.

The second form is the physical archive and SITI Company is pleased to announce that The Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute (TRI) at The Ohio State University (OSU) will be the partner institution for SITI’s physical collection. It encompasses select pieces of SITI’s theatrical production elements, institutional assets, media, writings, methodologies, and philosophies–all curated to showcase the artistic and organizational history of SITI Company and provide a robust resource for artists and scholars. OSU has had a very strong relationship with SITI Company starting in 1996, which has included 10 residencies. One of SITI’s most dedicated presenting & commissioning partners was the Wexner Center for the Arts located on the OSU campus and led by Charles Helm until 2017. SITI performances presented by the Wexner – most recently the theatre is a blank page with Ann Hamilton in 2015 – created dynamic opportunities for OSU students to engage with the company, making Columbus, Ohio a fitting home for the SITI Archive.

“The process of bringing this archive to OSU happened over four years,” says Jeanine Thompson, Director of the TRI, Theatre Professor and Artist, and SITI Company Training Alum. “It started as a conversation during a SITI residency at OSU with Ellen Lauren and Stephen Webber; this grew into more conversations including Anne Bogart asking me to host a webinar discussion, On The Importance of Performing Arts Archives, with her and Sharon Lehner, the archivist at BAM, in 2021; which grew into me looking into the possibilities of the SITI archive coming to OSU, and joining other great artists archives here, such as Twyla Tharp and Marcel Marceau; which grew into many discussions with Michelle Preston (SITI Executive Director), Megan Carter (SITI Producing Director), Beth Kattelman (TRI Curator), and Anne Bogart; which concluded with conversations with Damon Jaggars, the Vice Provost and Dean of University Libraries at the OSU, who believed in this dream and helped to make the impossible possible; and finally the SITI Company members, leadership and Board of Directors agreeing; and now, here it is. This archive will live on long beyond any one person, and it will serve future generations for many years to come.”

SITI Company, in partnership with Yonkers International Press, is also pleased to announce the publication of SITI Company: This Is Not A Handbook, a book co-written by members of SITI Company that is wildly different from the books Anne Bogart has written on actor training. SITI Company: 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. SITI Company: This Is Not A Handbook goes on pre-sale on November 16.

SITI’s Board of Directors announces that Brad Carlin has been hired as the new Managing Director.  Carlin will work with Megan E Carter, SITI’s Producing Director, to steward key Legacy Plan activities, such as the 30^th Anniversary Season and the launch of the SITI Living Archive, through the end of 2022. He will also oversee operations as SITI Company transitions from its current iteration as a touring, teaching, performing ensemble to a smaller organization. Carlin brings 15 years of arts organization management experience to his new role with SITI.

The final component of the Legacy Plan is transition grants totaling $180,000 for the SITI Company members to help facilitate their shift to the next phase of their careers. The grants for ensemble members and staff aim to help stabilize the artists’ income while they seek out new projects and collaborations. Many Company members have been making work with SITI for most of their professional lives. These transition grants are designed to help send the SITI artists, who have invested themselves deeply in this ensemble—many since its inception—on to new artistic adventures, resourced and with grace. 

Following a two-year planning process that began in 2017, SITI Company determined that its mission was rooted in the passions of like-minded individual artists—its ensemble members—and not a larger self-sustaining institution. In early 2019, SITI Company members, board, and staff decided that shedding the constraints of an organization, such as an administrative staff and a physical office and studio, in favor of moving towards a more flexible configuration, was the organic next step. This would allow all stakeholders to move onto new projects in a healthy way. In the fall of 2020, SITI Company announced the SITI Legacy Plan, which includes the finale 30^th anniversary season and the creation of a robust physical and digital archive. All of these activities are currently underway thanks to generous funding from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York Community Trust, New York City Department of Culture Affairs in partnership with City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts.

“The question that we asked was, are we an institution that continues on indefinitely, or are we a group of artists who circled around one another thirty years ago and then stayed together based upon a shared vision about collaborative creation?” said Anne Bogart, Co-Artistic Director of SITI Company. “After much consideration, it became clear that we are a specific group of likeminded artists moving through time and space together. And now, here we are, taking our next step, but united in our intention to help others to carry the tradition forwards, each in their own fashion.”

SITI Company has always occupied an important, boundary-pushing role in the American theatre. The Legacy Plan and the thoughtful transition of the organization is the latest and final extension of that role. The contributions that SITI has made to the industry are incalculable and deserve to be recognized and preserved for future generations, while simultaneously celebrating the historic accomplishments of this dynamic ensemble of 17 artists.

Please visit www.siti.org for more information.

About SITI Company

SITI Company was founded in 1992 by Tadashi Suzuki, Anne Bogart, and a group of like-minded 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. 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 is 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.

SITI Company was built on the bedrock of ensemble. They believe that through the practice of collaboration, a group of artists committed to working together over time can have a significant impact on both contemporary theater and the world at large. Through performances, educational programs, and collaborations with other artists and thinkers, SITI continues to challenge the status quo, to train, and to achieve artistic excellence in every aspect of their work, and to offer new ways of seeing and of being as both artists and as global citizens.

SITI is deeply committed to the training and development of young and emerging artists as well as a continuing dialogue with established artists.  SITI has redefined contemporary theater in the US through innovative approaches to actor training, collaboration and cultural exchange. Mary Overlie’s Viewpoint work deeply influenced Anne Bogart and the Company continues to teach an evolving form of Viewpoints, inspired, informed and rooted in Overlie’s work. The world renowned director Tadashi Suzuki was instrumental in the founding of SITI Company and continues to support SITI’s work and teaching. The direct lineage of SITI’s training with these pioneers has made Company members uniquely qualified to introduce artists to both of these essential and innovative techniques for nearly thirty years.
SITI has traveled to 27 countries on 5 continents and created nearly 50 productions, which have been presented at venues across the world. Widely known for highly innovative, physical productions that have ranged from new plays to original devised pieces to reinventions of classics, SITI has expanded the meaning of collaboration by creating work with Rachel’s, 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 STREB Extreme Action.
Press Contact: John Wyszniewski, Everyman Agency: john@everymanagency.com, 347-416-3881.

###