It’s a challenge to decide which is bigger news for LED – the Boise-based showcase of movement, music, storytelling and visuals – this year. The fact that they have opened a gorgeous new facility, The Dixon; or that the theater’s premiere production is a deep dive into AI, with a robot dancing partner, no less.
“When you bring in a team of designers, nine dancers, original music, a puppet maker, puppet coach and scenic designer … I mean, it’s pretty remarkable,” said LED co-founder Lauren Edson. “We often joke that collaboration feels a little more like cooperation and… it's up to us to nurture, and try to give artists the tools to embrace that collaboration.”
Boise veterans may recall the site of The Dixon as the original Dixon Container Company, which for years sold containers, foam fabrication and packaging supplies out of its Garden City facility.
“Once upon a time, we would actually come to the Dixon Container Company to … well, to get cardboard boxes,” Edson recalled. “It was probably four years ago that we were driving down
Chinden Boulevard, saw the Dixon Container Company and couldn't stop thinking about it. And then, two-and-a-half years ago, we had the good fortune of some friends telling us that the building was going to go on the market.
Dreams turned into a grand reality, and what was once warehouse space is now a theater. The former retail space is now a lounge. An expansive floor at the very top of the Dixon has been transformed into a loft for classes, workshops and a gallery.
And then there is LED's opening production, “My Strange Darling,” that co-stars the previously mentioned … well, robot.
“We’ve been thinking a lot about the accelerating space that we find ourselves with AI and the dilemmas that are approaching,” said Edson. “It’s a question of containing it, releasing it, or keeping it, or leaving it behind.”
At the height of activity – what with the grand opening of The Dixon and the opening of “My Strange Darling,” Edson visited with Morning Edition host George Prentice to talk about how LED’s dreams are not just coming true … they’re being showcased.
Find reporter George Prentice @georgepren
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