The Carleton Players, along with the renowned dance/theater company the Flying Foot Forum, will present an exciting new adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland. Held in the Weitz Center for Creativity Theater, performances will take place nightly at 7:30 p.m. on April 11, 12 and 13, with a 2 p.m. matinee performance on April 14. Performances are free and open to the public; reservations are strongly encouraged and can be made online at www.carleton.tixato.com/buy/.
Directed by Joe Chvala, Alice in Wonderland promises to be an ambitious and spectacular journey down the rabbit hole. The Flying Foot Forum is a vibrant and bold percussive dance/theater company that fuses percussion and percussive dances with many other forms of music, dance and theater, telling unusual tales, creating a wild variety of characters, and exploring universal ideas in inventive and exciting new ways.
In collaboration with the Carleton Players, the Flying Foot Forum’s dynamic new adaptation of Alice in Wonderland centers around an innovative promenade-style, participatory staging that invites audience members to join in the performance, including the opportunity to “sing with us, play croquet, participate in a dance-off, and polka ‘til they drop all while helping Alice make her way through Wonderland,” says Chvala.
Aimed at people of all ages, Alice in Wonderland is an exciting story that will happen all around the audience told through virtuosic performances. “But it is also a dance party, a Balkan and Celtic rock concert, a game night and a spectacular community adventure all in one glorious night out,” promises Chvala.
A recent post on the Flying Foot Forum’s Facebook page reads: “Wow! There is something wild and wonderful going on at Carleton College in Northfield. We are building Wonderland over spring break. It is kind of scary and kind of phenomenal. We are really building Wonderland--a Wonderland that you visit like a funhouse-- this show may be worth seeing just for the set, the experience and the spectacle. Oh and then there is that wacky little Lewis Carol story told in a really unusual way….”
Joe Chvala has spent most of his adult life based in New York City, Gothenburg, Sweden, and since 1990, in Minneapolis. During this time he has worked as a director, choreographer, writer, composer, performer, and teacher for opera companies, experimental and non-experimental theaters, concert dance venues, performing arts academies, and universities.
His work, noted for its breadth and its singular brand of creativity, is inspired and informed by his unique combination of artistic skills and experiences. The range of his work has earned him such diverse titles as “Fred Astaire on acid” and “the Agnes Deville of tap.”
After moving to the Twin Cities in 1990, Joe worked with a variety of theater companies while developing his own choreographic dance/theater work for his company of percussive dancers, the Flying Foot Forum. Since the premiere of their first full concert (May ’93), the Flying Foot Forum has been presented in a variety of venues around the world from Paris to New York City, Jacob’s Pillow to England. Learn more at www.flyingfootforum.com.
Chvala has received numerous choreographic and interdisciplinary fellowships and grants from such organizations as the National Endowment for the Arts, The National Dance Project, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Bush Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, Intermedia Arts Minnesota and the Minnesota Dance Alliance, as well as Ivey and Sage Awards for dance and theater.
Alice in Wonderland is being presented in conjunction with the Perlman Teaching Museum’s exhibit Alice and Wonderland, featuring the works of four visual artists (three from Minnesota and one from South Africa) who visit the legendary destination made famous in Lewis Carroll’s imaginative childhood classic via photography, computer technology, painting, drawing, and “magic” mushrooms.
Alice and Wonderland is on display in the Kaemmer Family Gallery of the Perlman Teaching Museum in the Weitz Center for Creativity through April 28, 2013. To learn more about the artists featured in Alice and Wonderland and to see samples of their work, visit online at go.carleton.edu/alice/.
This event is sponsored by the Carleton College Department of Theater & Dance. For more information, including disability accommodations, call (507) 222-4531. The Weitz Center for Creativity is located at Third and College Streets in Northfield. To make reservations to attend the Flying Foot Forum’s performance of Alice in Wonderland, visit online at www.carleton.tixato.com/buy/. (Please note: a limit of two tickets per patron).
