October 26, 2009

Double bill to take the stage at Kleinau Theatre

by Andrea Hahn

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Halloween weekend brings a double bill to Kleinau Theatre at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

First up is “The Carnival,” directed by Rick Jones, a graduate student in the Department of Speech Communication.

Jones describes the performance as an “Amazing Carnival of Viewpoints.” By viewpoints, he means a movement technique developed by Ann Bogart and Tina Landau based on an improvisational technique first introduced by choreographer Mary Overlie in the 1970s. The technique focuses on the six “viewpoints” of space, story, time, emotion, movement and shape to create movement.

“The Carnival” uses this technique in a cast-generated performance that presents a carnival of images of a circus “gone horribly awry.”

The second performance on the bill is “Tending the Crocodile,” presented by writer and director, graduate student Nichole Nicholson, and co-director Sam Sloan, also a graduate student.

The directors describe this performance as one seeking to re-narrate the lives of Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOAs) through postmodern dance, narrative theory and auto ethnography. Auto ethnography refers to a form of personal narrative that explores an individual’s subjective experience of life. This approach presents matters of identity in a new way.

This double bill of performances runs Oct. 29-31, and all performances begin at 8 p.m. Tickets are $7 for general admission, $5 for students. Tickets are available before the performance at the Kleinau Theatre box office, on the second floor of the Communications Building.

The Student Fine Arts Activity Fee contributes to the presentation of these performances.