Promoting an appreciation of racial and cultural differences through powerful performance art.

 

 Founded by Michell “Mitch” Marshall, Woman in the Woods Productions reflects her experience as an African-American woman and a lover of the arts. She envisioned and set out to build an organization that would embrace and present cultural inquiry and conversation by inviting to the island performance artists with diverse ethnic and cultural perspectives and, with the help of a passionate board and sponsors, she has accomplished that.

 

We partner with Sozo Artists because they believe in the role of artists as thought partners and catalysts for innovation. Their global portfolio of ground-breaking artists helps us build artistic and cultural bridges through bold, perspective-changing performances, to invoke a vibrant, trusting and compassionate society.

Woman in the Woods Productions hosts tap dance sensation Michela Marino Lerman

World-renowned tap-dancing sensation Michela Marino Lerman amazed audiences at Orcas Center for one night of incredible entertainment on Saturday, September 23rd.

Lerman's "Love Movement" production blends original music, jazz, and spirituals with traditional and electronic tap boards. Love Movement reflects a journey through the seven levels of love we experience throughout life. The Huffington Post has called Lerman a "hurricane of rhythm," and the NY Times has called her both a "prodigy" and has described her dancing as "flashes of brilliance." She is very proudly a student of Buster Brown, Gregory Hines, Leroy Myers, and Marion Coles.


Marc Bamuthi Joseph & Daniel Bernard Roumain’s The Just and the Blind was a huge success!

Ground-breaking award-winning artists Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Daniel Bernard Roumain were back with artist Drew Dollaz for a sold-out show that moved audiences.

...It was the raw, cry from the soul new work, ‘The Just and the Blind,’ that has stayed with me. The work is driven by Mr. Joseph’s stinging, brilliant words and is structured as a series of vignettes. —The New York Times

Special Thanks to Orcas Center and to our sponsors:

Gerties Restaurant ( Tara Anderson & Michael Cleveland)

Martha Farish & Joe Cohen

Miriam Ziegler & Tom Baldwin

Country Corner (Ginny Hawker & Theron Soderlund)

The Lower Tavern (Teri Nigretto & Jim Passer)


Some past WIWP performers + artists

  • Jon Boogz

    Jon Boogz is a movement artist, choreographer, and director who seeks to push the evolution of what dance can be – sharing with audiences of all backgrounds an appreciation of the melding of art forms while inspiring and bringing awareness to social issues. Originally motivated to dance by the work of Michael Jackson, Boogz has choreographed for notable icons including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Naomi Campbell, Gloria Estefan; for Pharrell’s Adidas Originals campaign to creative direct, choreograph, and perform in Movement Art Is: Standing Rock at ComplexCon; and as creative consultant for ads launching campaigns for Apple and Lexus.

  • Paul Rucker

    Paul Rucker is a multimedia visual artist, composer, and musician. His practice often integrates live performance, original musical compositions, and visual art installation. For nearly two decades, Rucker has used his own brand of art making as a social practice, which illuminates the legacy of enslavement in America and its relationship to the current socio-political moment. Rucker has been a Creative Capital Grantee in visual art as well as a MAP (Multi-Arts Production) Fund Grantee. In 2015 he received a prestigious Joan Mitchell Painters & Sculptors Grant and in 2016 Paul received the Rauschenberg Artist as Activist fellowship and the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship.

  • Robin Sanders

    Robin Sanders is a captivating communicator and her energy and passion are infectious. Her credentials include more than 13 years of professional experience in teaching, performing and public speaking. Her latest spoken word works include: An Ode to Hip Hop featured on So You Think You Can Dance, At the Geffen featured at Backstage At The Geffen and See What I'm Saying, both commissioned pieces written for Los Angeles' ControlFreakz. Sanders currently serves as founder and director of Out Loud Artistry, a performing arts training and mentorship program with a mission to develop skilled performing artists that leverage their artistry to positively impact and transform their communities and world around them.

  • Amontaine Aurore

    Amontaine Aurore is a playwright, actor and performance artist. Having been drawn to creative expression from a young age, she is grateful for an evolving artistic path from which to explore her mind, create worlds and investigate the complexities of human nature. As an actress, she has performed on stages and sets in Seattle, Montana, Los Angeles and New York, and is the winner of a national acting competition sponsored by Inspirational Productions.

  • Marc Bamuthi Joseph and DBR

    BAMUTHI (Marc Bamuthi Joseph) is a TED Global Fellow, an inaugural recipient of the Guggenheim Social Practice initiative, and an honoree of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship. Bamuthi’s opera libretto, We Shall Not Be Moved, was named one of 2017’s “Best Classical Music Performances” by The New York Times. His evening length work created in collaboration with composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, “The Just and The Blind,” was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and premiered to a sold out house at Carnegie.

  • Sara Porkalob

    Sara Porkalob (she/her) is an artist-activist and creator of the DRAGON CYCLE. She’s based in Seattle but soon will be working all over the nation. Awards and nominations include: 2021 Princess Grace Award Winner for Theater, 2020 nominee Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award, Seattle Times 11 Movers and Shakers to Watch this Decade, 2019 nominee for Americans for the Arts Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities, Seattle Magazine’s 2018's Most Influential People and 2017 City Art's Futures List. She is a co-founder of DeConstruct, an online journal of intersectional performance critique.

Our Woman in the Woods Productions’ 4th Annual Fundraiser (“Look Back and Weep”) was a Success!

Made possible in part by our generous sponsors:

Tom Baldwin & Miriam Ziegler, Joe Cohen & Martha Farish, Inclusion Innovates, Island Market, The Lower Tavern, Windermere Real Estate and Bill Wulff & Betty Corbett.

Special dinner catered by the amazing Chef John Cox, of The Orcas Hotel.

Performances + free workshops + educational programs

The majority of our visiting artists also provide a free workshop to island artists to help inspire them and help them grow as artists. We have also coordinated with the local public high school to provide free educational and inspirational assemblies to the students. We believe that exposure to other races and cultures will breed understanding and compassion and help create dynamic-thinking problem-solvers and future leaders.

OUR SPONSORS

 
 
 

Special thanks to our individual sponsors

Tom Baldwin & Miriam Ziegler, Joe Cohen & Martha Farish, Bill Wulff & Betty Corbett.