IT WAS DARK WHEN WE MET, BUT IT’S LIGHT NOW

60-90 MINUTES

Premier: June 20-21, 2026, Seattle Town Hall, Scrib Fest Festival 2026

This durational movement piece and interactive 1:1 experience takes place in the Department of Liminal Affairs. Usher is doing the paperwork of the dead on their way to the afterlife. There is a lot of it. He pauses from time to time and calls out a number. If it’s your number, you can choose to join him. It’s like the DMV but worse. However, whatever happens in this interaction, you will come out into the light, which is where our DMV analogy stops.

This performance runs during the lunch break. You may choose to engage with it in a way that is comfortable for you—either indirectly as an observer or through an interactive experience with the performer.

Trigger warning: themes of death

CREATIVE TEAM

CREATOR & PERFORMER: ALINA RIOS

PERFORMER & PROPS MAKER: CHRIS HARRIS

SOUND DESIGN: ERIN SLOMSKI-PRITZ

DEVISING COLLABORATOR: AUDREY RACHELLE

EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVES: ADRIANA HILLAS, CHRIS HARRIS, JED MYERS

BIOS

Alina Rios

Alina is a writer and theatremaker based in Seattle. She’s the founding editor of Bracken magazine and a published poet and fiction writer. She now writes for stage and film with her plays being produced on both sides of the Atlantic. Her film pressed/bluebells premiered in Cannes in 2022 and another film Soot Darlings was an official selection of Video Art & Experimental Film Festival (VAEFF), NYC. She was a Dramatist Guild Foundation National Fellowship Finalist (2023-2024). After training with Frantic Assembly, London, she started Verbooom physical theater company. She also wrote for Dragonslayer, an immersive experience directed by Audrey Rachelle (Punchdrunk International) and Alex Oliva (The McKittrick) and directed, wrote for, produced, and was a voice actor for URGE, Verbooom’s inaugural production. Her recent work includes Cabinet of Fathers—an interactive art installation that explores fatherlessness, and WAKE—an immersive experience set at a wake.

CHRIS HARRIS

Chris is a graphic artist working in photo and video mediums and the founding member of Verbooom theatre company. Chris can be found taking photos and posting them on the internet at helloimchris.com.

Erin Slomski-Pritz

Erin is an audio artist and producer based in Seattle. She has worked on projects for numerous outlets and institutions, including National Public Radio, The Kitchen Sisters, Vice Media, Yale, Stanford, and The Aspen Institute. Her most recent work on dreams and synchronicity was featured at Jack Straw's New Media Gallery. Erin previous worked with Alina on URGE and 7 choreographies.

Audrey Rachelle

Audrey is an award-winning movement artist who seeks to submerge audiences in surreal worlds where their participation invites embodied transformation. During her 15 year career, she has had the privilege to work with some of the most innovative immersive artists and dancemakers of today including Felix Bartlett and Maxine Dolye of Punchdrunk, Crystal Pite, JoAnna Mendl Shaw, Koryn Wicks, and Troy Ogilvie. Most recently she originated roles in Sleep No More Seoul, and performed in the closing cast of Sleep No More NYC as Lady MacBeth. As co-director of AnA Collaborations, she incites dialogue between visual mediums and confronts buried boundaries. AnA’s work has been described as “a love child of Pina Bausch and David Lynch” and awarded grants by The Warhol Foundation, 4Culture, and NorthWest Film Forum among others.