Eliot Feenstra

EDUCATION

2017-2018 York University - MA Theatre & Performance Studies

2016-2017 MFA-level coursework at Portland State University - Art & Social Practice

2006-2010 The University of Chicago - BA in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities : Linguistics, Anthropology & Performance

Performance &  Projects

2021 OUT Dance Project (lead artist)

2018 The (w)HOLE: Beyond Boom & Bust in Rural America (lead artist)
Documentary dance-theatre production based on interviews with over 50 farmers, trimmers, and community members in the Illinois Valley and Rogue Valley in southwestern Oregon about the economy and impact of recent recreational cannabis and hemp legislation. Created in partnership with the Illinois Valley Community Development Organization and with the support of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; generously supported by the MAP Fund and Oregon Humanities.

2018 I have become suspicious of my flesh (solo performance; more details here)
Work-in-progress performed at Greensboro Project Space (Greensboro, NC), in residency at the Prattsville Art Center (School of Making Thinking residency; Prattsville, NY), Healthy U (Cave Junction, OR) and at University of Toronto’s Decolonizing Conference in November 2018 (Toronto, ON)

2018 The Cardinal, A Journey Through Flushing (Cornerstone Theater Company & Queens College)
World premier of play about Flushing community featuring local residents, original music, and shadow puppetry
Directed by Juliette Carillo; written by Cusi Cram; original music composed and directed by Emily Gardner Xu Hall
assistant musical director, musician (piano/accordion); 2018
Queens, New York

2018 Listening to Places: The Neighborhood Poetry Project
A three-part workshop series/book-making project about listening to places and writing poetry to specific places in the neighborhood Toronto, Ontario

2018 "Song for the Beloved" (performance installation by Honor Ford-Smith)
performer
Toronto, Ontario

2017-2018 Configurations of a Divine Bitch
Ensemble member; directed by Maria Wodzinska and Oliver Jane
Part bouffon show, part ritual exploration of mysteries/transformations of menarche, pregnancy, and menopause
Toronto, Ontario

2017 Black Creek Scores (York University)
collaborative web-based imaginative ethnography project in developing scores for experiencing place
Toronto, Ontario

2017 The Gathering Project (York University)
performer in devised performance
Toronto, Ontario

2017 The Institute for What Is Possible Today (Institut für Alles Mögliche)
Collaborative exhibition and projects developed in the course of a one-day residency
Berlin, Germany

2017 KSMoCA
graduate assistant, workshop leader for 5th graders in 'docent training' at a contemporary art museum inside an elementary school
Portland, Oregon

2017 Assembly (Portland State University Art & Social Practice)
conference organizer, workshop leader
Portland, Oregon

2017 Hotline Think (Portland State University Art & Politics class)
organizer/collaborator
Portland, Oregon

2014 - 2017 DIRT ensemble/dancefarm (led by Gina Angelique)
ensemble member
Cave Junction, Oregon

2014 - 2016 RiverStars Performing Arts
arts integration and sequential teacher, director, performer
Program providing afterschool dance and theatre classes integrating social justice and place-based focus to devise original dance-theatre work with rural ensembles in the Rogue Valley
Cave Junction, Oregon

2013 - 2017 Whirlwind Festival
founder, coordinator, performer/director/writer
Hugo, Cave Junction, and Portland, Oregon; shows included:

• Us/Them (June 2017)

• Out of Hibernation (Feb. 2017)

• The Web of Life (July 2016)

• This is Our Moment (May 2016)

• Break on Through to the Other Side (Nov. 2015)

• 2115:? (June 2015)

• Things are Not As They Seem (March 2015)

• The Beltane/Mayday Show (April 2014)

2014 "Presence and Pipelines" (Body Research Project)
performer/researcher
Vancouver, Canada and Bella Bella/Shearwater, British Columbia

2014 "Borderlines" (dir. Isabelle Kerouac, Synapsis Studio)
collaborator/performer
Eureka, California

2013 - 2015 The Country Grind
collective member for rural punk newspaper, US shipping
Manitoba, Canada

2013 Queers Landing Gathering
organizer
Hugo, Oregon

2012 - 2014 Versailles
Founded with Fox Del Mar and z behlen
Rural queer art space and anticolonial homesteading incubator
Hugo, Oregon

2012 CLARMY/New Cascadia Clown Army (a project of the Lightbox Kulturhaus)
Co-founded a local chapter of the insurgent rebel clown army
Portland, Oregon

2008 - 2010 UofC 24-Hour Play Festival (UChicago Theater[24])
Founded with Tamara Silverleaf, Sara Tamler, and Ethan Dubin; supported by the University Arts Council
Quarterly collaborative 24-hour performance-making event
University of Chicago

2009 que(e)ry radical/queer/arts convergence
Organized with Antonia Clifford, Iah Pillsbury, Caro Cox-Orrell, z behlen and supported by a UChicago Uncommon Fund
A city-wide convergence featuring workshops, speakers, performances, and installations at the intersection of politics, sexuality, and art
University of Chicago

2008 - 2010 que(e)ry collaborative queer zine project
A collaborative zine-making workshop on rotating themes
University of Chicago

teaching

2018 Teaching artist, VR Filmmaking Workshop for youth at Parkway Forest Park, in partnership with Arts in the Park TO and Toasterlab (Toronto, Ontario)

2017 Teaching assistant, Movement for Actors taught by Philip Cuomo, Portland State University (Portland, OR)

2017 Teaching assistant, Museum in a Public School taught by Harrell Fletcher & Lisa Jarrett, KSMoCA, Portland State University (Portland, OR)

2017 Public dialogue facilitator, "This Place" series for Oregon Humanities (Portland, OR)

2016 Teaching assistant, Acting I/II/III taught by Wayd Drake, Rogue Community College (Grants Pass, OR)

2015 Arts teacher in nature-based outdoor school, SUN School (Cave Junction, OR)

2014-2016 Lead arts integration teaching artist, acting & movement teacher for elementary and high school ensembles, RiverStars Performing Arts (Cave Junction, OR)

2015 Facilitator, Paradox Pentacle Play Workshop: Insurrectionary Boredom, Free Cascadia Witchcamp (Wolf Creek, OR)

2013-2015 Facilitator, long-term theatre & storytelling workshop in residential mental health facility, Kairos (Grants Pass, OR)

2008 - 2009 Writing/Improvisation teacher, Civic Knowledge Project (Chicago, IL)

2006 Teaching assistant, Theatre of the Oppressed Intensive led by Jill Wadsworth, Carnegie Mellon Pre-College Program (Pittsburgh, PA)

Selected Publications