Photo By Scott Pakudaitis
Edgar Allen Poe’s Nutcracker (the un-ballet)
Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts
By Bev Wolfe
Interact Center’s Un-ballet Reveals Unexpected Potentials of the Human Experience
Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts works with artists with disabilities to produce visual and performing arts. It recently moved to a new location in St. Paul. For the holiday season, Interact produced an ambitious undertaking combining the stories of Edgar Allen Poe with the music of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. As a theatre ensemble, Interact flaunts conventional expectations of theatre performance to change perceptions of disabilities and the arts.
The rectangular cafeteria space newly reconverted into a performance area is important as the context of the production. You can tell upon entering that this will not be mainstream theatre. With the soundtrack of the well-known orchestral work, a story is sketched on stage about Trippetta, a lovely dancer, Hop-Frog, a lively prankster and the Mayor of a town of eccentric characters. The artistic moniker of “un-ballet” turns out to be quite applicable. The Dada movement, an avant-garde artistic movement at the turn of the previous century, permeates the performance. I felt that I was witnessing a performance in the spirit of the “Cabaret Voltaire” in 1918 (the cabaret that was the center of the start of the Dada movement).
It is not surprising Interact uses a dadaesque aesthetic to integrate actors with and without disabilities seamlessly. Original works are developed through an ensemble workshop process of improvisation and theatre games. This technique opens the door to a universe of action not usually expressed in conventional theatre.
The genius of this Interact performance is the mise-en (telling a story in a visual way) scene of many different kinds of bodies coming together in clusters, dissipating and flowing in a wave across the stage. Within this movement is a swirling collage of scenes, and characterizations. It is a great example of a production built around the glib but freeing question: “OK, what can we do next?” As an integrative form of theatre, each performer’s level of expression is considered unique and is built upon to create the show.
Aaron Gabriel as composer and musical director does a masterful job of weaving the orchestration into the production. Colette Illarde as choreographer does unique movement work with the entire cast. Co-directors Taous Claire Khazem and Scotty Reynolds coordinate the multiple elements and the large cast together to create this multi-layer work.
During the 2015 theatre season in the Twin Cities, I have experienced many excellent productions. Interact’s Nutcraker makes one realize we do not need to strive for one version of virtuosity in performance. Theatre can turn that aesthetic inside out and reveal the unexpected potentials of human experience. Interact’s production points us toward a theatre of humankind.
Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts
1860 Minnehaha Ave W
St Paul, MN 55104
Phone 651-209-3575
Fax 651-209-3579
Performance dates: Wednesdays – Saturdays
November 20 – December 19, 2015
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