More About the Play

No one knows exactly how many people enter the United States illegally each year, but studies based on data from the Census Bureau and other federal agencies indicate that there are now more than 10 million undocumented immigrants residing in the country. As many as three million of them may have entered the country just within the past year or so. Most of the illegal entry occurs on the U.S.-Mexico border, in spite of U.S. Border Patrol efforts.

Border Crossing is a story of a resilient little girl who traces her immigrant parents' footsteps across the Arizona/Mexico border, told through the voices of the desert itself. To tell this story, Off-Leash Area focuses on the heightened spirituality of the Sonoran Desert to highlight this human drama, while embracing the complexity of the current political debate. The award-winning company uses its singular hybrid approach of fusing movement and interactive scenic elements to tell the story in a uniquely visual way, incorporating dance influenced by prayer and ritual and puppetry constructed from the flotsam left behind by desperate peoples forced to search for a better life. Along with text written by Anishinaabe playwright Marcie Rendon and music composed by Ben Siems, Border Crossing is informed by stories from small-town Mexican citizens, Tucson snowbirds, Latino Border Patrolmen, and Native social workers told firsthand to the artistic team while they were researching along the border last fall, thanks to a Minnesota State Arts Board Artists' Initiative Grant.

About the Playwright

Marcie Rendon is a previous Playwright Jerome Fellow. She was a l998/99 St. Paul LIN Grantee to "create a viable Native presence in the Twin Cities theater community." Currently, Rendon's play Stand's Alone will be at the Spirit in the House Festival the end of April 2008. Rendon's play friends...is a finalist in the American Indian Native Radio Theater contest, 2008.

About the Directors

Paul Herwig has worked as an actor, director, writer, and designer for companies in France, Canada, and the U.S. He trained at the well-regarded Jacques Lecoq International School of Movement and Theatre in Paris, graduating in 1983. Since then, he has performed at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland and the Avignon Festival in France. He performed for a year with the Theatre des Jacquous, performing in French and touring throughout rural western France. During the '80's, Paul was an early member of Theatre Grottesco, one of the nation's longest-running experimental theatre ensembles, with whom he toured internationally to Budapest and Toronto and through twenty-five states on over fifteen coast-to-coast tours, performing in venues from San Francisco's Theatre Artaud to Philadelphia's Painted Bride and our own Southern Theatre. Paul performed as a freelance actor in Canada for six years in several cross-Canada tours with a variety of commercial, summer, and regional theatres, and he has also worked as a Movement Coach for the Young People's Theatre in Toronto and the Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa. Also a visual artist, Paul has designed interactive installation-sets for Off-Leash Area, has sculpted dozens of theatrical masks, and, as a self-taught painter, has mounted several small exhibitions of his work in Detroit, Toronto, and Minneapolis. He has been a member of artists' collectives in Toronto and St. Paul, mounting a solo exhibition entitled Garden of Desire at Toronto's Gallery 306, and another solo exhibition of art objects and installation art at the AZ Gallery in St. Paul. Paul has taught over two hundred physical theatre workshops for universities and professional companies and has participated in five artist-in-residency programs with secondary schools in Ann Arbor and Toronto. He is currently an instructor of Mask and Movement at Macalester College.

Jennifer Ilse grew up in northern Wisconsin and began performing at age three. She has spent her life in theater and dance, and has also been deeply involved in music and competitive sports. Her professional dance studies began in Duluth, Minnesota, and then continued at the University of Oregon in Eugene and at the Eugene Ballet, where she studied under Susan Zadoff of Ballet Russe.

She performed four seasons with the Dance Theatre of Oregon, an energetic modern dance company creating original works under the direction of Marc Siegel and Pamela Lehan-Siegel, whose choreography draws from their history with David Parsons, Ballet West, and Ballet Trockadero. She has also performed in Triskelion by Mason Williams, a comedy originally created by Williams for the Smothers Brothers; Tienanmen by Pat Catterson; and works by Bill Gordon and Eloy Barragan. Jennifer has taught ballet, tap, and modern dance classes to adults and children, as well as dance/theater workshops, for the past fifteen years. In addition to her work with Off-Leash Area, she has worked with local choreographers Gerry Girouard, John Munger, and David Deblieck. Jennifer is a founding member of Off-Leash Area, playing lead roles in directing, performing, choreographing, and designing.

About the Composer

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Siems creates music across the spectrum of styles, from jazz to rock to avant-classical to meditative soundscapes. His previous work with Off-Leash Area includes the cinematic soundtrack of "Maggie's Brain" and the rock opera-inspired score for "Our Perfectly Wonderful Lives." He is a valued collaborator in the dance and theater communities, where he has been commissioned by Danielle Robinson-Prater, Cathy Wright, Deborah Jinza Thayer, Nicolas Lincoln of the James Sewell Ballet, and many others. In October 2007, he presented the critically acclaimed premiere of All Nora's Daughters Can Fly, his evening-length concert blending live music with dance, theater, and documentary storytelling, at the Ritz Theater. His 2007 avant-classical CD, "Empire at Twilight," has been the subject of multiple features on Minnesota Public Radio and KBEM-FM (Jazz 88 Twin Cities). Nationally, he is best known for his work as leader and chief composer of The Willie August Project jazz trio. The group’s current CD, "Surrender to the Wind," has received a host of honors, including charting as the #1 New Addition on XM Satellite Radio Real Jazz 70 in early 2006. Siems has received over ten composition and performance grants from sources including the American Composers Forum and Meet the Composer, Inc. Other honors he has received include a Runner-Up Award in the 2006 Song of the Year international songwriting contest, six Minnesota Music Awards nominations, and inclusion in the 2007 and 2008 editions of Who's Who in America. The music of Ben Siems and The Willie August Project can be found on iTunes or by visiting www.mnartists.org/Ben_Siems and www.myspace.com/WillieAugust.

About Off-Leash Area

Founded in 1999, Off-Leash Area (OLA) is a non-profit performing arts organization that creates original productions. Honored with two Ivey Awards (Outstanding Production Psst! 2005, Outstanding Choreography for Artistic Associate Gerry Girouard in Crimes and Whispers 2006) and multiple listings in the local press' Best of the Year lists, OLA is one of the most critically acclaimed companies on the Minnesota scene. With a playful disregard for artistic boundaries, Off-Leash Area Contemporary Performance Works recombines vocabularies and styles to create deeply transforming experiences for its audiences. The work results in a union of the vocabularies of physical theatre, dance, music, and visual art. Our creation process is extensive and involves visual storyboarding and a collaborative rehearsal process with our performers and designers. Our goal is to link all of the artistic elements not only as an artistic aesthetic, but as an interdependent and emotionally linked whole. In all our work, we strive to create a project that is both artistically challenging for us and a thought-provoking yet fiercely emotional experience for the audience. While ideas are valuable and social and political agendas are worthy, the heart is the primary field of action in our work.

Honors and Awards

2007 City Pages Best Sets and Those Who Designed Them

A Gift for Planet BX63 - Paul Herwig/Off-Leash Area

2007 Star Tribune's Highlights in Dance for 2007

Jennifer Ilse performance and choreography in Maggie's Brain

2006 City Pages Best Sets and Those Who Designed Them

Crimes and Whispers - Paul Herwig/Off-Leash Area

2006 Ivey Award for Outstanding Choreography

Artistic Associate Gerry Girouard in Crimes and Whispers

2005 City Pages Artists of the Year

2005 City Pages Best Sets and Those Who Designed Them

A Cupboard Full of Hate - Paul Herwig/Off-Leash Area

2005 Ivey Award for Outstanding Production - Psst!

2002 City Pages Best Theatre of the Year for 2002

The Sunrise Cafe - Off-Leash Area*

2000 City Pages Best Theatre of the Year for 2000

Zap Kunst! - or - Presto It's Art! - Off-Leash Area*

(*then called The Theatre Gallery)

The Ritz Theatre Presents Off-Leash Area's Border Crossing

Created and directed by Jennifer Ilse and Paul Herwig,

with Marcie Rendon, and cast.

CAST

Kym Longhi, Paulino Brener, Katie Kaufmann, Dave Schneider, Taous Khazem, Zeb Henderson Shreve, John Zeiler, Erin Drummond, Dana Buchwald, Jaime Kleiman, Marian Kimball Eichinger, Tom Leblanc, Adri Mehra, Pedro Fonseca, Jennifer Ilse, Paul Herwig, and Citlalitl de Leon

STAFF and DESIGNERS

Created and Directed by Jennifer Ilse and Paul Herwig

Text by Marcie Rendon

Original Score by Ben Siems

Choreography by Jennifer Ilse

Sets and Puppets by Paul Herwig

Costumes by Kym Longhi

Lighting by Mike Grogan

Marketing by Dana Munson