The Root Experience is a 2-night festival featuring BIPOC talent from various cultures and disciplines. The festival celebrates regional filmmakers, artists, culture bearers, musicians, and the stories they weave through their art. The goal is to uplift their narratives of culture, family, beauty, and resilience to create a network that empowers living stories and heals elements of the past and present. When talking about indigenous cultures, we must recognize the borders (state & continental) that have been placed by the act of colonization. In doing so, people of the same/ similar cultures have had their homelands divided and people they love placed on opposite sides of these borders. The Root Experience is hoping to help erase these borders by decolonizing art and social practice, providing safe and inclusive spaces to present, while connecting, partnering, and sparking conversation with our communities in the Pacific Northwest (defined as Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Alberta (CAN), and British Columbia (CAN)).
Stage
Performing arts of all kinds! Plays, musicals, staged readings, opera, and more. Local theater houses include the Spokane Civic Theater, Stage Left Theatre, Spokane Children’s Theatre, and many others. The First Interstate Center for the Arts hosts Spokane’s Best of Broadway series, which brings touring productions of acclaimed Broadway shows like Hamilton. Find out more below!
Intro to Improv Teens
In this one-week camp, students will learn the essentials of comedic improvisation. Our trained instructors will teach a variety of improv skills: warm-ups, games, characterization, storytelling, and more. No theater experience is necessary. This intro class is perfect for teens looking to improve their acting ability and learn how to take risks in a safe environment.
ACES // Artists of Color Expo & Symposium
ACES // Artists of Color Expo & Symposium is a BIPOC-led, community-curated program featuring art exhibits, live performances, presentations, workshops, film screenings, artist talks, and artist opportunity tables. We are coming together with intentionality to value our work and see one another as resources, while focusing on the challenges and solutions we face as artists of color in the Pacific Northwest.
Spokane Ensemble Theatre
According to Coyote is a one-man play written by the late John Kauffman, a Nez Perce actor and playwright. The show is a storytelling of the trickster Coyote of Native American mythology. Narrated by Coyote, the play was first performed by Kauffman at the Kennedy Center in 1978; Kauffman continued to tour the show throughout the Northwest until his death in 1990.
Poeta
Quiero Flamenco’s newest show “Poeta” represents the Company’s next step in expanding the boundaries and scope of fusing multiple disciplines and genres of music and dance.
Olivia Evans, James Pakootas & Devonte Pearson (T.S. The Solution)
A two-day festival will bring the community together, inspire, uplift/ showcase the BIPOC peoples of Spokane in music and the arts and a film score residency exploring Colville stories will be hosted by Panoramic Dreams.
Spokane Aerial Performance Arts
Spokane Aerial Performance Arts will purchase 10 sets of stilts and begin a permanent stilt walking program for young performers.
According to Coyote
A vibrant and entertaining family-friendly anthology of tales featuring the legendary hero of Native American mythology. According to Coyote is an encounter with the richness and vitality of Native American culture using age-old traditions of music, dance, and theatre. Written by John Kaufman, the play will be directed by Kauffman’s niece and performed by Nez Perce actor, Kellen Lewis. According to Coyote will warm the hearts of young and old alike. *Produced by Spokane Ensemble Theatre and One Heart Native Arts and Film Festival.
The Dip Concert
Join us for the MWPAC Fall season opening performance starring The Dip! On their Dualtone Records debut Sticking With It, Seattle-based seven-piece The Dip delivers the kind of unbridled rhythm and blues that hits on every emotional level.
ADMISSIONS, by Joshua Harmon
Join us Sept. 16 through Oct. 2 as we proudly present the 2018 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, Joshua Harmon’s ADMISSIONS! Directed by Susan Hardie and featuring Deborah Marlowe, Rhead Shirley, Tom Sanderson, Pam Kingsley, and Audrey Overstreet, this hilarious satire explodes the ideals and contradictions of liberal white America!