Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 things to know about UNA Productions' Grass is Green, at the Rothstein on April 25

Inspired by devastating forest fires, California work features a drag cellist-pianist and six dancers

By Janet Smith

UNA Productions’ Grass Is Green. Photo by Whitney Browne

SAN FRANCISCO AND New York City–based UNA Productions’ Grass is Green explores connection and rebirth in its Canadian premiere at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre on April 25 as part of the Chutzpah! PLUS series. It tours afterward to the Northern Gulf Coast with BC Movement Arts Society (hitting Sointula, Alert Bay, Port Hardy, and Campbell River between April 27 and May 2).

Here are five things to know about the unique company and its evening-length dance work.

#1

The piece connects the art of drag to the topic of climate change, with six dancers performing around Oakland-based drag artist and pianist-cellist Rose Nylons. In the work, Nylons plays the instruments live and acts as a force of rejuvenation amid a larger theme of destruction and rebirth.

#2

The choreography was inspired by UNA artistic director Chuck Wilt’s visit to Northern California in 2019, when raging forest fires had devastated the landscape. By the end of the year, according to the U.S. Forest service, there were 7,860 fires across the state,, with an estimated 105,147 hectares of scorched land and 732 structures destroyed.

#3

Amid a far-ranging resume, artistic director Wilt is a faculty member with the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program; served as resident choreographer for the 20th-anniversary Springboard Danse Montreal Program; and has choreographed and produced two music videos for Los Angeles electro-pop band Fig Vision. Wilt was selected at age 10 for a full scholarship to the San Francisco Ballet School, and went on to study at NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts.

#4

There’s a strong Vancouver connection with one of Grass is Green’s performers: Rebecca Margolick, another Tisch School grad. She’s currently both rehearsal director and dancer with UNA Productions. Trained at Arts Umbrella on Granville Island, she was a dancer with Sidra Bell Dance New York from 2012 to 2016 and has performed her own choreography here.

#5

This is the first time that Chutzpah! Festival’s past director—BC Movement Arts Society’s Mary-Louise Albert—and its current artistic managing director—Jessica Mann Gutteridge—have teamed up to produce a show. In 2019, UNA presented its Coloring, a celebration of the forces that bring the queer community together, at the Chutzpah! Festival (when it still had Albert at the helm).

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