‘Under the Tree’ explores holiday rituals at iDiOM Theater

“Under the Tree,” the current production at iDiOM Theater, is no “Miracle on 34th Street” or “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

That said, writer Angela Kiser and Ian Bivins say they had the idea for the play, which has “been in gestation for about a year,” after they started discussing how the holiday season can be so wonderful, yet for so many people it is not a happy time.

“We began questioning why the most wonderful time of the year creates dissonance on a personal and societal level,” Bivins says.

“We didn’t set out to make a show that is a war on Christmas; it’s more about exploring images and concepts that we have observed, in order to gain perspective,” he says. “Taking a look ‘under the tree’ is about seeing where our shared American holiday rituals come from and asking about the meaning.”

The play runs Dec. 10-12 and 17-19 at iDiOM, which is known for its original, non-traditional shows.

Bivins says the play is meant to be “silly, surreal, gritty, and a little creepy.”

“Some of the ideas we are playing with will be familiar to the average disgruntled teenager, or anyone who ever was a disgruntled teenager,” Bivins says.

Together, Kiser and Bivins are On the Precipice, a production company they founded last New Year’s Day.

“We know and work with a lot of amazing artists and wanted to provide Bellingham with a ‘one-stop shop’ for production services,” Kiser says. “Also, the idea was to create a hub for creative professionals to be able to find each other. OTP serves as a point of departure for people working to bring a dream to life; whether that be a fully staged theatrical production, a website showcasing handcrafted jewelry, or even wedding photography.”

They had worked with Darrell Hillaire and Lummi Nation on Hillaire’s original play, “What About Those Promises?” in 2013, and had done several “really fun” do-it-yourself productions in association with other artists and companies, and realized there was a niche to be filled.

The couple — yes, says Kiser, they are partners in business, art and life — met during a creative project under the advisement of Pam Kuntz at Western Washington University, when Bivins was invited to choreograph Kiser’s BFA dance capstone project about six years ago.

Kiser says the production process of staging a play is messy, but fun.

“Sometimes it starts in a thrift shop, seeing that one piece of clothing or tchotchke that is crying out to be put on stage,” she says. “Sometimes it was simply being inspired by other artists around us and the new work that they have delved into.

“Once we have a seed of inspiration, we get on our feet in the studio and create problems for ourselves to solve,” she says. “We really try to take the crazy cartoon images that are in our heads and bring them to life.”

“We both have similar artistic goals, which involve creating multidisciplinary performance work, while exploring a deeper understanding of metaphorical storytelling,” Kiser says.

They have worked with Pam Kuntz and Kuntz and Company, performed in iDiOM’s Spring Rep production and its 48 Theater Festival, and have been frequent choreographers and performers for Bellingham Repertory Dance’s “Phrasings” concert.

One of the highlights of their collaboration was trip to Barcelona, Spain, to participate in creating a new work called “HEADSHOT!,” which was an incredible cross-cultural collaboration, Kiser says. That work was brought to New York for its premiere.

But, Kiser says, “we really wanted to create a new piece of theater on our own, really experimenting with a familiar theme and presenting it in a new way. ‘Under the Tree’ is our way of demonstrating this research. We thrive off of bringing audiences to places they’ve never been before.”

“We knew that we wanted to work with some of our favorite local artists in collaboration on this project,” she says. “Brenden LaBotz is creating an original sound score and will be performing live with us every night. We’ve invited Juliette Machado to lend her talents as a digital video artist to the project as well.

“Also, Christian Anne Smith has had a huge role in designing and creating our set and stage props with her playful and fantastic approach to visual design. Then we have our secret weapon, Fish Lopez, who will be performing with us as well.”

The couple is gearing up to produce a podcast called “Stage Hackers.”

“It’s about pulling back the curtain on the mysteries of performance, stagecraft and creative entrepreneurship, and the many hats one must wear to be a self-starting artist of the stage,” Kiser says. “It may actually have a live manifestation at some point, but for now we are conducting interviews and coming up with creative prompts to build the episodes.”

Bivins says a big part of his focus in 2016 will be “taking the helm” at Bellingham Arts Academy for Youth while founder David Post takes a hiatus.

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 4:01 PM with the headline "‘Under the Tree’ explores holiday rituals at iDiOM Theater."