Claudia Alick Bio and Art Statement

BIO

Claudia Alick, Associate Producer, Community
Artistic Office Producer, Fences, Coriolanus
At OSF: producer of OSF Hip-hop Boot Camp (2007), curates and produces The Green Show, nexthetics play development, and serves as the artistic office liaison to the education department and the community at large. Other credits: artistic director of Smokin’ Word Productions, author and director of plays that have been seen at The Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, LaMama E.T.C., Cherry Lane Theater, and the Hip Hop Theatre Festival; member of the NY Neofuturists; teacher of writing, performance, and professional development workshops nationwide, performer on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. Awards: Fresh Fruit Festival best director (2006), DUTF Audience Award (2005) myspace.com/claudiaalick

Describe the type of theater you would like to create and/or support and sustain. The point of the statement is to give other theater professionals a sense of where your specific theatrical interests and concerns lie. You may approach and phrase your description however you'd like.

My personal aesthetic is based in hip-hop, language, and multi-media work. I love experimental narrative and theatricality. I love the danger of autobiography. I love rough theater. I love making magic happen on a stage using nothing but a cardboard box and a beatboxer. I love bricolage, sampling, non-linearity, humor, risk. I think theater is political and should embrace its power. I think theater should address difficult issues and allow us to understand them more deeply. I think theater should entertain. I believe in catharsis. I believe in expanding our definition of theater to include non-traditional spaces, performers, audiences, and ways of communicating.