Before Lane Czaplinski spent 15 years artistically directing On the Boards, Seattle’s internationally renowned and locally beloved center for avant-garde performing arts, he was an athlete and an author.
Making the Basketball Team: Get off the Bench and into the Game, published by Quality Sports Publications in 1996, drew heavily on his time as a point guard for the celebrated University of Kansas men’s basketball team. He walked on in 1991-92 as a cocaptain, and led the mighty Jayhawks to a Big Eight Championship.
It’s tempting to compare Czaplinski’s ability to effectively communicate highly technical aspects of the game with his ability to effectively program highly technical arthaus acts, but that’s not the reason I bring up the book. I bring it up because his quest to publish it indirectly landed him where he is today: a truly curious, risk-taking curator who’s leaving a prestigious Seattle arts institution better than he found it.
