Upintheair Theatre and What Lab take a quantum leap with The Array: Less Than Zero
The three-night showcase explores science-fiction themes through experimental performances
Jarin Schexnider (left); at right, The What Lab space
Upintheair Theatre presents The Array: Less Than Zero at What Lab from October 9 to 11 at 7:30 pm, with a matinee performance October 11 at 3:30 pm
FOLLOWING DEAD DRONE, Upintheair Theatre’s “weirdcore”-inspired presentation earlier this year, the company returns to its frontier-science throughline with The Array: Less Than Zero, a three-night showcase presented in partnership with What Lab.
Now in its fifth iteration, The Array draws on the world of astrophysics and its recent discoveries to generate different themes for artists to respond to. This year focuses on the paradoxical existence of negative time in the quantum world, and its connection to our understanding of the past, present, and future. Described as “the ultimate fusion of sci-fi thrills with new, experimental performances,” this year’s lineup of devised, scripted, and musical presentations capture The Array’s ability to find common threads through art-making.
Robyn Jacob
“One of the reasons that The Array fits so well with What Lab is that we do a lot of residency-based work, where an artist gets time in the space to create a piece, and that piece is then presented,” says Jarin Schexnider, the founder of What Lab and a co-curator for Less Than Zero. “It builds a sense of community, where we’re all creating together.”
As a participating artist from 2023’s The Array: An Exquisitely Sensitive Machine, Schexnider speaks from experience and recalls the kinetic energy of witnessing all the performances come together, not knowing what to expect.
“The year that I was a performer, there was lots of overlap and it felt very cohesive,” they recall. “Even though the theme could have been taken in many different ways, you could see the threads between all of them, which was really lovely.”
Like Upintheair and What Lab’s other initiatives, The Array draws on the multidisciplinary energy of its artists, whose practices span dance, performance, composition, dramaturgy, community engagement and more. This includes the performing arts company The Biting School, co-founded by brothers Aryo and Arash Khakpour, and the trio of Anjela Magpantay, Abi Padilla, and Argel Monte de Ramos. Musician Robyn Jacob rounds out this cohort, bringing a definitive musical element to the time-bending showcase.
“We like to present many types of work and many types of artists sharing one space,” says Schexnider. “As soon as we reached out, [Robyn] said something like, ‘I’ve been looking to incorporate more performative, theatrical stuff in my music.’ I was like, this is exactly the spot to try that out.”
Before What Lab, Schexnider grew up in the U.S. as a self-described theatre kid, attending a small liberal-arts college in Vermont to pursue theatre studies, focusing on writing and directing. Once life brought them to Vancouver, their work in arts administration and facilitation cultivated a new path that led to the founding of What Lab, a safe incubator for underrepresented artists and communities to experiment and take creative risks. Like many community-minded artists, Schexnider’s roles as artist and organizer inform one another in layered and complex ways.
“In a lot of ways, I see What Lab as part of my artistic practice now,” Schexnider explains. “It’s a different kind of hustle, that hustle as an artist of just trying to be seen, to get your work out there, versus the hustle of building community. But what is the work that keeps me going artistically? How I express myself and navigating those two things, is a real ongoing question, and an ever-evolving one.”
Artists can discover their own answers through some of Upintheair Theatre and What Lab’s upcoming offerings. Upintheair Theatre’s rEvolver Festival—an annual festival highlighting innovative emerging and mid-career artists—has opened calls for submissions to join their 2026 lineup. Meanwhile, What Lab’s Exquisite Pressure performance residency, which includes 30 hours of studio time and a paid stipend to develop a work-in-progress piece, will culminate in a series of public showcases in 2026, each supported by a different local company or collective. With a fundraiser slated for November featuring performance artist and filmmaker Santi Henderson, Schexnider hopes to bolster What Lab’s commitment to creative incubation and community by offering the best of both worlds
“It’s an oddity in the city to have a dedicated space, and with that comes the responsibility to use that power for good,” says Schexnider. “Being able to partner with organizations where it’s their vision, their values, and they get to use the space instead of it all being What Lab branded, or it has to be this way—that’s what I’m going for. It can be a space that can hold lots of things. I think The Array is a great example of how that can look.” 
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