Swimming to Inishkeel
Ekstasis
Concrete Republic
Traffic Island  
Prison Farm

Watchtower
Katrina
The Dog Tail Wars
Empire/Umpire
Hostis
Body Fluid Bed
Hanging Creatures

Homeless Deaths  
Poster Project
Full Shackle
Sapa
Swollen Eye
Frontiers
Deed

Every Revolution
Forces
Boarder
Surveillance Chair
Suite
Cruise Control

Ostrich
The Big Silence
Asylum Screamed
Think No Evil
Belfast
Crisus

CRISUS

Sharing an interest in site-specific performance, Malcolm McClay and Jeff Becker founded Crisus in 1991 while in graduate school. After graduation the company relocated to New Orleans. There they specialized in site-specific theater that was highly physical and utilized large kinetic sets, motorized sculpture, original soundtracks, and film. For the next nine years, Crisus wrote, produced and toured large-scale multimedia performances throughout the US and abroad. The company moved from New Orleans to Chicago, and finally San Francisco. In 2000 the company disbanded to allow the members to pursue their individual goals. Crisus has collaborated with a wide array of dancers, actors, street performers, visual artists, and musicians to create their performances.

What made the work of Crisus innovative were the guiding principles on which the group was based. The name Crisus comes from the marriage of the words crisis and circus. Crisis denotes an unstable turning point, a sequence of events that leads to a point of decision. The word circus refers to a spectacle that is empowered by the expectations of the audience. The live art produced by Crisus presented an instinctual level of communication. Rather than making comments or statements, Crisus sought to become the very essence of that which it explored.

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