mnartists.org: Live Action Set

STORMING OF THE BASTILLE (PREMIERE: BARBETTE CAFE, BASTILLE DAY, 2005)

Live Action Set — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:19:58 GMT

Live Action Set and its collaborators storm the stage of Barbette's annual Bastille Day Celebration in the style of Bouffon, a French form of grotesque clowning. Society's misshapen castoffs seek out the jolly-making crowd, and the chaotic romp culminates in a ludicrous re-enactment of the storming of the Bastille. Viva la (twisted) France!

Cast: Noah Bremer, Kari Kelly, Megan Odell, Kimberly Richardson, Galen Treuer, Vanessa Voskuil Directors: Jon Ferguson, Sarah Richardson Props Master: Christian Ferguson Presented with support of Barbette Restaurant and Amusements, Norcostco

EXPOSURE (PREMIERE: MINNEAPOLIS THEATRE GARAGE, 2003)

Live Action Set — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:19:01 GMT

This twisted love story is about the dynamic and metaphysical journey of four characters discovering truths about themselves, and their relationships to each other. Driven by dance and fueled by emotion, Exposure fuses art forms and creates a unique physical-theater experience.

Cast: Natasha Hassett, Megan Odell, Galen Treuer, Vanessa Voskuil Director: Noah Bremer Costumes: Ritchie McFadden Scene Painter: Emily Allan

Ice Cube Documentary

Live Action Set — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:17:48 GMT

Live Action Set collaborator Jon Ferguson filmed the building of our Art Shanty, including a light saturated time lapse of the final stages on the ice of frozen medicine lake. Available on DVD in three different running times.

Cast: Noah Bremer, Megan Odell, Galen Treuer, Vanessa Voskuil, Jon Ferguson (cameo) Director and Cinematographer: Jon Ferguson

Ice Cube

Live Action Set — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:17:08 GMT

Ice Cube (premiere: frozen Medicine Lake, 2005) Part of the Soap Factory's Art Shanty Project, Ice Cube delves into a multi-faceted exploration of "home." The interactive sculpture literally reflects the surroundings and people who choose to battle the elements, live, play, and build on the ice.\ Builders: Noah Bremer, Rebecca Disrud, Jon Ferguson, Megan Odell, Galen Treuer, Vanessa Voskuil Architect: Dan Vercruysse Presented with support of Art Shanty Projects, Soap Factory

THE PIANO TUNER (PREMIERE: THE SOUTHERN THEATER, 2008)p

Live Action Set — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:07:45 GMT

Critically acclaimed performance ensemble Live Action Set returns to the Southern to premiere their latest hybrid theater-dance-music work, The Piano Tuner. Known for a surreal logic where anything is possible, this exciting and award-winning collection of physical theater artists creates a grand and romantic new work of dangerous elegance. Inspired by the dissonant labor of the Southern Theater's own piano tuner, the production brings to light a community out of tune and the unassuming master craftsman who is pulled into their drama of discord. Cast: Heidi Berg, Noah Bremer, Laurel Cameron, Tim Cameron, Ryan Hill, Paul Kovakovic, Nicole LeDuc, Andrew Lynch, Katie Melby, Eric Sharp, Mike Swanson, Sheila Regan, Kimberly Richardson, Galen Treuer, Jessica Weappa. Director: Megan Odell Assistant Director: Noah Bremer Music Director Paul Kovacovic Set and Lighting Designer Paul Whitaker Costume Designer Lindsey Strange Stage Manager Stacy Davis Spensley

Rite of Spring (PREMIERE: RITZ THEATER, 2008)

Live Action Set — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:54:07 GMT

Imagine yourself in Paris, May 29th 1913. The clock strikes 8:00 pm and the outrageous performance begins at Le theater des Champs-elysee. The audience begins angrily crying out, screaming, writhing, biting, tearing, pounding, in a tumultuous mass of self-destruction....Programs flutter around in the air. The music hardly audible above the shouting, crying, screaming of the audience. Back on stage, the choreographer calls out the cues to the dancers... Rite of Spring was first performed 95 years to the day. Live Action Set collaborated with Myron Johnson of the Ballet of the Dolls to re-interpret this ground breaking work with fellow Twin Cities envelope pushers Zorongo Flamenco. Each company offered a unique view of the Stravinsky classic. From di Palma's passionate & innovative flamenco ballets to Live Action Set's profoundly engaging ensemble work to Ballet of the Dolls' fearless approach to the classics. Project Director for Live Action Set: Vanessa Voskuil Co-created and performed by:Galen Treuer, Sarah Jacobs, Vanessa Voskuil Artistic Support: Megan Odell and Noah Bremer Video: John Koch Sound Design: Vanessa Voskuil with support from Katherine Horowitz Music Excerpts: Stavinsky - "Rite of Spring", Steffen Schleiermacher - "Stille Und Klang", Friedrich Goldman - "sinfonie 3" Costumes: Vanessa Voskuil, Galen Treuer, Sarah Jacobs

Deviants (PREMIERE: THE SOAP FACTORY, 2008)

Live Action Set — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:51:43 GMT

Meet four individuals you'd rather not know but can't ignore. Follow them into an old Soap Factory. See what they do. Live Action Set in collaboration with Theater de la Jeune Lune co-founder, Robert Rosen presents DEVIANTS, a reincarnation of the sell-out show, DESIDERARE: DESIRE THE UNDESIRABLE, initially presented by the Red Eye Theater in their 2007 New Works 4 Weeks Festival. DEVIANTS showcases the Set's trademark idiosyncratic, highly physical, morphing of dance and theater while exploring one of the more basic but agonizing of human emotions: desire. DEVIANTS tells the story of four individuals who become seduced by their transgressive desires and engage behaviors that conventional society does not want to see but can't ignore. Originally inspired by the Amish schoolhouse shootings in 2006, DEVIANTS looks inside the human psyche and investigates, with humor and poignancy, the intersections between revelation, repression and expression. Cast: Noah Bremer, Galen Treuer, Vanessa Voskuil, Megan Odell Director: Robert Rosen Scenic Design: Robert Rosen Lighting Designer: Paul Whitaker Sound Designer: Robert Rosen Technical Director / Operator: Mark Ruark Stage Manager: Katy Clanton

MY FATHER'S BOOKSHELF AT THE GUTHRIE (PREMIERE: THE GUTHRIE THEATER'S DOWLING STUDIO, 2009)

Live Action Set — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:53:45 GMT

My Father's Bookshelf is a new work about dementia, neuroscience, and the mortality of families. Part family drama, part lecture, and part clowning comedy, this engaging performance springs from Live Action Set's uniquely collaborative style. It tells the story of a man afflicted with Alzheimer's, his family, and scientific response to a disease that eats at the essence of human society: our ability to communicate. A basic introduction to the latest developments in neuroscience research is at the heart of My Father's Bookshelf. Used to highlight the dramatic gap between contemporary Alzheimer's research and practical application, it explores the tragic humor of decline and the inspirational relevance of science. Cast: Robert Rosen, Barbra Berlovitz, Dario Tangelson, Jason Ballweber, Megan Odell Director: Noah Bremer Assistant Director / Dramaturg: Galen Treuer Set and Lighting Designer Paul Whitaker Sound Designer Guy Messenger Costume Designer Anna Lee Stage Manager Stacy Davis Spensley Assistant Stage Manager Alexandra Gowdy-Jaehnig

THE HAPPY SHOW (PREMIERE: THE BEDLAM THEATRE, 2010)

Live Action Set — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:50:28 GMT

Why are we happy? What makes us happy? And how can we stay in this intangible state of being? Exploring these questions, Live Action Set installs its latest innovative theatrical experience throughout the nooks and crannies of the Bedlam Theatre. A show that is nearly impossible to experience the same way twice, audience members choose-their-own-adventure to follow a troupe of happy-makers performing the ancient Ritual of Happiness, a buffet of large spectacles and intimate sideshows exploring the ephemeral state of happiness. Full of whimsy, poetry, surprise, eccentricity and, above all, happiness, The Happy Show features song, dance, sunsets, picnics, detailed explanations, lightening bugs, and if you are lucky an opera for two or an encounter with the king of all dogs.

Cast:Noah Bremer, Brant Miller, Emily King, Isabel Nelson, and Diogo Lopes Ensemble Cast:Lisa Bol, Mark Benzel, Holly Brimhall, Noah Coon, Alicia Dansby, Amelia English, L. J. Johnson, Katie Jorgenson, Andy Langenfeld, Many Langenfeld, Ryan Lear, Nick Marcoullier, Rachel Petrie, Matt Riggs, Blythe Riske, Mike Rylander, and Allison Witham Director:Ryan Underbakke Additional Direction:Matt Spring and Galen Treuer Consigliere / Stage Manager:Matt Spring Production Manager:Katherine Clanton Technical Director:Mark Ruark Additional Sound Designers:Kalen Keir and Zeina Khalife Video Elements:Joshuah Nelson House Manager:Kristin Campbell

image: The core cast rehearsing The Lord of The Rings trateau style!

Desiderare: desire the undesirable

Live Action Set — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:33:17 GMT

A passionate and provocative event of theatre and dance, Desiderare: desire the undesirable explores the act of wanting what we don't have and wanting those things we wish we didn't. Critically acclaimed experimental theatre company, Live Action Set, collaborates with Robert Rosen, co-founder of the Tony Award-winning Theatre de la Jeune Lune, to create this physical new work about desire, transgression, and what happens between realization, repression, and expression. Presented by The Red Eye as part of the New Works 4 Weeks festival, with additional support from the Jerome Foundation.

image: Desiderare: desire the undesirable (image by Eric Melzer)

image: Noah Bremer and Galen Treuer in Desiderare: desire the undesirable (image by Eric Melzer)

The Percussionist

Live Action Set — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:43:41 GMT

"The Percussionist" is an exciting collaboration with Spaghetti Western String Co., hailed as "the hippest string quartet in town" (Star Tribune), created as part of the Momentum: New Dance Series. This project is commissioned by the Walker Art Center and Southern Theater, and will feature guest artists and the musicians as characters alongside the performers of Live Action Set. The show delves into the dark themes of revenge, capital punishment, and explores society's perception of normalcy.

image: Production still from The Percussionist

image: From the Percussionist

image: From the Percussionist

image: From the Percussionist

Before Dark

Live Action Set — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:22:55 GMT

Before Dark by The Live Action Set Premiered August 2004 (MN Fringe Festival) at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage. Also performed September 2004 at the Mounds Theatre. The creators of the 2003 MN Fringe Festival hits EXPOSURE, SIX STEPS, and VOICE-IN-HEAD, bring you . . . BEFORE DARK. Prolific Russian director Sascha Undine creates a world where stories are told through movement and music, using a talented cast of local multi-disciplinary performers. In this world of circumstance, a pirate, a postman, a bandito, and a cello-playing working mom find themselves precariously balanced on the edge of sanity. Drawing on his love for Dostoevsky and the Russian Clown, Undine and cast create characters that reflect different aspects of the human condition -- from virtuous to foibled, from revolutionary to self-obsessed.

Zombies On Ice

Live Action Set — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:19:46 GMT

Presented as part of the Soap Factory's Art Shanty Project, we explored the genre of zombie films and the phenomenon that surrounds Zombie-ism. With a cast of roughly 20 actor/dancers, we created a site-specific performance that used the perspective of horizontal distance that can only be captured on a frozen lake.

Please Don't Blow Up Mr. Boban

Live Action Set — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 02:50:35 GMT

"Please Don't Blow Up Mr. Boban" is a highly visual and physical clown show that is the story of Mr. Boban, his war-torn bistro, and the struggle to keep his lights on. Based on an English newspaper article about where to eat in a war zone, this collaboration between Live Action Set and UK theatre director Jon Ferguson, is comic, tragic and hard to forget. "Please Don't Blow Up Mr. Boban" features seven highly skilled physical performers, including Noah Bremer, Robert Haarman, Megan Odell, Kari Kelly, Kimberly Richardson, Galen Treuer and Vanessa Voskuil. Set and Lighting Design by Mark Ruark. Sound Design by DJ Bach and Rebecca Disrud. Directed by Jon Ferguson. The piece was created and presented with support from the Minnesota State Arts Board (Artist Initiative Grant, Noah Bremer) and The Soap Factory (residency and original performance space).

image: Noah Bremer in Please Don't Blow Up Mr. Boban

Hello Remember Me

Live Action Set — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 05:30:57 GMT

This collaboration haunted the Southern Theater's lobby during the first weekend of Best Feet Forward 2005, a dance series that highlights Twin Cities dance. "Hello Remember Me" recalled the immigrant community that was originally served by The Southern Theatre, built in 1910 as a Swedish language playhouse. It addressed the challenges of performing in a lobby. Altering the experience of the audience without impeding their ability to enjoy intermission by discussing, get food, finding the bathroom was the goal. This was accomplished by installing six performers in relatively fixed locations with an improvisational score to explore.

image: Vanessa Voskuil in Hello Remember Me