You Can’t Be Serious
A solo show that brings Death to life
Choreographer and Performer Andrea Parson brings her award winning solo show to the heart of Astoria, Oregon at Ten Fifteen Theater this May!
With dreams of becoming a professional dancer and artist, Andrea Parson grew up studying dance in Hillsboro Oregon, earned a dance degree from Loyola Marymount University (LA), and became a leading dancer for the acclaimed contemporary dance company, Northwest Dance Project in Portland, OR. She is now coming back to Hillsboro to bring her story back home, to the place where she grew up, Main street. It’s here at the Vault Theater that she will share her award winning solo show that shines a light into the dark waters of a tragic loss through an eloquent blend of dance and physical storytelling.
The journey of this show is extraordinary and unique. After Andrea’s loss of her sister to cancer in 2020 she decided, bravely, to turn this deeply personal tragedy into art. In 2021 she was accepted into the residency program with Portland based non-profit, From the Ground UP, an organization that supports the development of female and fem identifying artists and aims to create risky new art. Over the next few years Andrea worked closely with From the Ground UP’s artistic director, Katherine Murphy Lewis, who also was going through her own journey of loss of her father to cancer, who passed away in 2022, just months before the workshop in performance hit the stage. These two continued to collaborate and have gone on to create what has become a profoundly moving new work that places grief center stage.
In November 2023 the world premier of You Can’t Be Serious was met with sold out shows and rave reviews at BodyVox Dance Center in Portland, Oregon. After such a run it became clear this show had quite the life ahead of it from the Oregon Fringe in Ashland last spring to Hollywood Fringe (LA) this past summer. This fall You Can’t Be Serious met Portland Audiences again in partnership with Open Space at their studio theater before heading to New York City’s 42nd street as a part of the largest curated festival of solo work in the world, United Solo and received an award for Best Physical Theater.
Essential Information:
Presenter- From the Ground UP
You Can’t Be Serious
May 2nd & 3rd, 7:30pm
A community discussion will follow each performance.
The Ten Fifteen Theater – 1015 Commercial St, Astoria, OR 97103
Tickets are $25, and available online at www.thetenfifteentheater.com
Writer/Performer/Choreographer- Andrea Parson
Director/Dramaturg- Katherine Murphy Lewis
Musician/Composer- Joe Kye
Show Description: A final bow in Germany, a cancer diagnosis, a death, a cookie, a conversation with God. This evening of solo dance and storytelling by Andrea Parson explores the loss of her sister to breast cancer to 2020. You Can’t Be Serious is a hilarious and tragic story about witnessing, and grappling with death. Andrea sinks to the bottom, attempts a stand up routine and shines a light into the deepest waters of the ocean. The audience is pulled toward Andrea as she directly asks them questions about death and love. A dance between down and up, between the weight of tears and the levity of laughter, each movement of this story collides into the next in a captivating collage of grief that brings death fully to life.
https://youcantbeserious.my.canva.site/soloshow
Link to the Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcF0rgkaQT4 Photography by: Scotty Fisher @sleeperstudios
Link to Review from LA: https://nohoartsdistrict.com/you-cant-be-serious-review/
Andrea Parson- Lead Artist
Andrea Parson’s performing career began in the basement of her childhood home where she put on original plays for 25 cents. She began choreographing at a young age, making dances for friends and family, and often improvised down grocery store aisles. She furthered her formal studies at the Joffrey Ballet, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and Loyola Marymount University, where she received a BA in dance in 2009. After graduating she joined Northwest Dance Project in Portland, Oregon, where she received a Princess Grace Dance Fellowship award in 2010. For 11 years she performed and toured nationally and internationally, finding much delight in dancing dramatic roles such as Hedda Gabler and Carmen. A love of drama and storytelling led her to self produced three solo dance theater pieces for live theater and film. A study of theater improvisation, physical theater and stand-up comedy greatly influences her creative work. When she’s not daydreaming and devising solo shows, she teaches dance and choreographs both for educational institutions and professional dance companies.
https://andreaparson.com/
Katherine Murphy Lewis- Director and Dramaturge
Katherine Murphy Lewis is the founding Artistic Director of From the Ground Up. Since 2013 Katherine has championed programing, workshops, residencies and new art development. In the past six years, Katherine has spearheaded a refocusing of the organization’s mission towards serving female and female identifying populations, launching an all femme Artist Residency that produces upwards of ten new works for a cohort of multigenerational artists, each presented in From the Ground UP’s annual Mini Festival of New Art.
In addition to her work in leadership and education, Katherine has enjoyed collaborating locally and internationally, most notably in residence with Company of Wolves in Glasgow Scotland, traveling and touring their show Achilles at Edinburgh Fringe and throughout the UK and Europe. She locally co-wrote and co-produced a new play, Tonight Nothing, in partnership with Merideth Clark, which premiered at CoHo Production’s summer of 2019. Most recently she served as Director and Dramaturge for You Can’t Be Serious which premiered fall of 2023 to sold out audiences. Currently Katherine is leading From the Ground UP into its next phase of
evolution, bringing forth a new phase of programs, all aimed at creating risky New Art, fostering innovation, and expanding artistic spaces.
https://www.fromthegrounduppdx.net/our-mission-our-team-copy
From the Ground UP:
From the Ground UP : A Research and Development Center for New Art is a Portland OR, based organization that fosters the creation of new art. We seek to expand, reimagine and invent new ways of making, producing and presenting art. Focusing on marginalized populations we elevate sidelined voices, invoke important community dialogues and support the creation and presenting of stories that are often overlooked. Knowing that by bringing these stories to the forefront we can create spaces that empower artists, invite the unusual, challenge norms and forge new pathways that uplift individuals and communities both here and beyond. https://www.fromthegrounduppdx.net/
A Selection of Audience Feedback :
“Beautiful, heavy, a visceral expression of being human and experiencing grief and loss.” -World Premier 2023
A bright spot in the theater universe. -World Premier 2023
‘The best one person performance I have ever seen’ -World Premier 2023
This show cultivates an atmosphere to process with others to feel free; to laugh, cry, ask questions It reminded us to let life be messy and celebrate those moments, not to quiet them. -World Premier 2023
‘A beautifully told meditation on loss and grief’ NYC 2024
‘remarkable, funny, and heartbreaking’ LA 2024
‘Taking you fully into grief and finding peace.’ NYC 2024
