About

In 1992, a pioneering ensemble company with a visionary director at its helm began a collective, revolutionary artistic journey. These artists, as SITI Company, made more than 50 pieces of theater that showcase the storytelling power of the performer and the theatrical vision of the ensemble; they have excavated worlds from ancient Greece to contemporary America and examined the creative compulsions of other artists—from Virginia Woolf to Joseph Cornell to Robert Rauschenberg; explored disciplines as varied as opera, dance, visual art and music theater; and they have expanded the meaning of collaboration by creating work with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Ann Hamilton, Julia Wolfe and the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and Elizabeth Streb’s Extreme Action Company. SITI was founded in 1992 by Anne Bogart, Tadashi Suzuki and a group of like-minded artists to redefine and revitalize contemporary theater in the United States through an emphasis on international collaboration. Through performances, educational programs, and collaborations with other artists and thinkers, SITI Company challenged the status quo, trained to achieve artistic excellence in every aspect of the work, and offered new ways of seeing and of being as both artists and as global citizens. In 2022, the company sunset the ensemble.

The SITI Digital Archive was created around the expertise and collaborative processes of the SITI ensemble, with company members as content specialists, providing insights into SITI’s historical artistic practices – which have already shaped a generation of artists who trained with SITI. Its aim is to provide resources for artists who create work in collaborative/ensemble-driven contexts; theater scholars interested in studying SITI Company, Anne Bogart, and ensemble practice; and curious theatre lovers. The Archive also provides an opportunity for the Company to create a lasting artistic work together that showcases the best parts of what SITI has offered the theater field since 1992.

The SITI Living Archive serves a global community of artists that have been cultivated by the Company since its inception. The Archive will be of interest to artists, scholars, audience and others but will also serve as an important resource for companies in order to strengthen, adapt, or modify their own artistic and organizational practices. Transparency around our successes, challenges, and failures offer a one-of-a-kind model for others to learn from.