Azuka One-Acts

Azuka One-Acts- Taking the Fringe on the Road

‘A Must Experience Beginning at The Fringe Box Office at Multiple Times- 9/1- 9/16 

www.Live Arts –fringe.org or 215-413-1318 

Azuka One-Acts- Taking the Fringe on the Road

 

The Azuka Theatre Company and their Producing Artistic Director Kevin Glaccum like to push the boundaries in theater. Their Fringe contribution this year, The Azuka One Acts, topped all my expectations. Billed as a “site specific series of works, eavesdropping on people attempting to be heard,” these performances are a series of interactive communications connected by an on-going monologue delivered by a Clark Kent-look alike, who talks as he leads the audience through Olde City. The monologue’s theme, “An Introduction to the Party at Which Everything Will Happen” is that there are an endless variety of people and experiences all around us, everywhere. The message is reiterated again and again as the audience is led as in a parade through Olde City with stops to see scripted works presented on street corner cafes, sculpture parks, a phone booth, on the roof of a building, and beyond. Each one act explores the nature of relationships – the intimate and the more casual. The writers include Kris Elgstrand, Ross Berger, Genne Murphy, Seth Kramer, Rolin Jones, Alexander Dremann and Tom Donaghy, with direction by Glaccum, Steven Wright, Alison Heishman, Steve Organ and Paul Jerue. The actors - Kate Bailey, Trice Baldwin, Kenrick Burkholder, Coleen Corcoran, Sean Gallagher. Sarah Keifer, Andy Kreitch, Sara Madden, Nate Robertson, Amie Shaffer and Tom Wang – performed in one piece or as many as three.  The artists involved and the variety of locations allows Azuka to feature the depth of its talent pool while blurring the line between reality and performance. As you parade through the city, it’s unclear who is part of the performance (the audience is for true passersby), and what makes a performance space. Was the ice truck at the intersection brought there intentionally? Is the woman going into the store just a hassled mom or a actor in the next one act. As our walk leader says, “There are so many experiences to cover.”

 

I liked so much of the work - from the woman in Coney Island at night, to the videotape rewind, to the monologist/leader - but I can’t mention all.  Let’s just say Azuka knows how to do the Fringe in a way the Fringe ought to be done.

‘A Must Experience Beginning at The Fringe Box Office at Multiple Times- 9/1- 9/16 

www.Live Arts –fringe.org or 215-413-1318