Tag: interactive theatre

Stop zombie-vampires

Rowan Jang provides an example of the zombie-vampires audiences can expect to encounter in The Zombie Syndrome: Dead in the Water. (photo by Emily Cooper Photography)

Last year, I was one of a group of “specialists” who gathered outside Trout Lake Community Centre to embark on our mission, which related to a downed alien spaceship. While the details of that mission must remain confidential, one aspect can be revealed – it was loads of fun. It was also a great cardio workout, not just because of the running from zombies, but the screaming, both from fear and excitement.

This year, the Virtual Stage is gathering teams (audiences) of 18 on Granville Island every 30 minutes from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. nightly until Oct. 31 to help find Special Forces operative Frank Johnson. As per the mission description, Johnson “was hunting down former government geneticist Mattias Van Cleave when he fell off the radar. Van Cleave, a suspected vampiric psychopath, is believed to be responsible for a string of recent murders, and the sudden appearance of zombie-vampire mutants across the Lower Mainland. The audience must determine Johnson’s whereabouts and ensure his mission to stop Van Cleave is completed at any cost.”

As with the four previous Zombie productions, The Zombie Syndrome: Dead in the Water makes use of the latest technology – this year, it’s Apple’s new location-based iBeacon.

“I am very interested in how emerging technologies can excite live audiences and breathe new life into theatre as an art form,” Virtual Stage artistic director, Zombies series creator and Jewish community member Andy Thompson told the Independent. “I am very narrative-driven as an artist, and the iBeacons have been a delightful tool in the creation of The Zombie Syndrome: Dead in the Water.”

The decision about what technology to use, Thompson said, “involves a process of questioning what is readily accessible and available, not only for myself as a producer, but also for today’s audiences. What is free within smartphones today? What is new and exciting? How can these gadgets drive a story forward? What can people afford? What can our company afford?

“I am also constantly imagining what the next big thing in technology might be, as well as its potential future societal impact,” he added. “My vision of concern for the future with ‘social media on steroids’ in my musical Broken Sex Doll is one example of this. I am also assessing what exciting new technologies are present today and how they may aid in live storytelling. In the particular instance of this show, the iBeacons roll out narrative content in a very interactive and engaging way as the audience moves from site to site.”

As the audience moves quickly along – both because they are “racing against the clock” and because there are scary things lurking in the dark – the possibility of an accident, miscue or technical glitch is much higher than for a standard production.

“We rehearse as many possibilities as we can,” said Thompson, “but the most important preparation we have is to be ready for anything: the ‘known unknowns,’ as Donald Rumsfeld might say. So far, the audiences have been completely surprising to us in how they navigate the problems we present to them. So, it is fresh and exciting every performance. The personalities of the individual audience members also greatly affect the flow and feel of each show. We did a lot of improvising in the rehearsal process so the actors are very prepared and on their toes.”

One unexpected moment – of which Thompson said “there have been many” – took place during last year’s mission, “when the entire site flooded on our closing performance at Trout Lake. We had about one hour to physically relocate most sites to higher ground, rehearse it in the new areas, and get as many technical elements in place as we could. We managed to pull off a derivative of the show, which was a miracle and a testament to our amazing crew and performers.”

As to what participants can expect this year, Thompson said, “Audiences will be traveling by sea at one point, which we are thrilled about. They will be confronted with a new breed of mutant zombie-vampires that cannot be killed. The iBeacon technical aspect to the show is also a Canadian theatre première, so people will be testing that tech out with their smartphones in a live entertainment environment like they have never done before. And yes, there might be running….”

For mission tickets, visit thevirtualstage.org/zombies. Participants should dress for the weather and moving quickly; the show is rated PG-13.

An aerobic experience

Daniel Brenner’s klezmer aerobics workout and performance was inspired by the Klezmorims. (photo from Daniel Brenner)

Rabbi Daniel Brenner – who grew up in the small Jewish community of Charlotte, N.C. – has come up with an aerobic workout set to klezmer music.

Brenner graduated from the Reconstruction Rabbinical College which, at the time, was led by Rabbi Art Green. He began performing in 1987 with the late comic legend Chris Farley at the Ark Improvisational Theatre, and has been doing theatre ever since.

In rabbinical school, Brenner created the one-man-show Faster, Rabbi, Drill! Drill!, which won an All Out Arts New York playwriting award (2000). He also wrote a series of Chassidic folktales/plays for Philadelphia’s Theatre Ariel and has had a play produced by New York’s Vital Theatre, in addition to producing a handful of Purim shpiels. Today, he performs regularly with the band Midnight Nosh, on guitar, and lives with his wife Lisa and their three children in Montclair, N.J.

“Growing up, my home was a place that other people came to experience Judaism,” Brenner told the Independent. “There were no other Jewish families on my street, so my home was a site where many non-Jewish people experienced Judaism for the first time.”

photo - A big part of Daniel Brenner’s inspiration came from the Klezmorim’s Streets of Gold
A big part of Daniel Brenner’s inspiration came from the Klezmorim’s Streets of Gold. (photo from Daniel Brenner)

Brenner’s love of music came early on, as he listened to a mix of Shlomo Carlebach and contemporary American folk. In the 1980s, Brenner’s parents went to a Klezmorim concert and came home with their record Streets of Gold.

“I was ecstatic listening to the music,” said Brenner. “I couldn’t believe that we had music that had so much soul. As a kid, I was enthralled with Michael Jackson – music you can dance to. But, when I heard the Klezmorim, I was like, this music is just as good for dance. I loved it.”

While working out and listening to klezmer, Brenner thought of how amazing it would be to lead a class using this music. Originally, he thought of pairing it with Zumba, but then decided that klezmer aerobics would be the best fit.

As he worked on the idea, he realized this could be more than just another class. “I really tried to think of what story it wants to tell,” he said. “That really helped me get to the place where it was a full narrative, and a full show about the relationship between someone in the 1980s and someone in the 1880s.

“I thought about it in terms of the two great shifts in human past civilization, recent history – the shift away from agricultural, industrial, rural to urban that happened in the 1880s, and then also the 1980s, the shift between the industrial era and the digital era. I wanted the story that I told to be about that shift.”

Brenner started researching moves that would reflect, as closely as possible, the 1880 dance fashion. He discovered Steven Lee Weintraub, who teaches Jewish traditional dance, and engaged him in private lessons. Brenner videotaped these lessons and practised intensely to get a good handle on the movements and to effectively incorporate them into his repertoire.

“I told my beloved, I told her, keep in mind that I want to do this over the next decade, so she understands I’m definitely thinking long-term about what I want to do with the project,” he explained. “My goal really will be to work together with local klezmer bands in various places around the world to create an experience for people – to perform a show as a way to not only teach dance and tell the story, but as a way to connect people to the local klezmer scene who may not experience it otherwise.”

Brenner has created ’80s Klezmer Aerobics, a family-friendly, interactive dance-storytelling workout wherein “the 1880s meets the 1980s.” In the show, Brenner plays an aerobics instructor and leads an audience-participation workout, as he tells the story of a dancer, Levi, and his apprentice. The audience learns the traditional Old Badchen dances that Levi learns and creates when he runs off to Warsaw.

“I feel that the fun ’80s Klezmer Aerobics and the experience is going to be a draw for a lot of people,” he said. “Then, I also feel like giving people the opportunity to hear live klezmer music is a rare thing. In anyway I can, I want to help people dig the stuff I dug when I was a boy in N.C., putting that record on for the first time.”

In addition to the family-friendly version, Brenner has been considering splitting the experience into two parts – one as a matinée for the family and one in the evening, attracting a different crowd.

Since being performed last November, there have been a few shows in different venues so far. Brenner is working with some Canadian friends to create shows in Canada, having received a few inquiries about it from Jewish community centres.

“I’ve also heard from New York, Atlanta and North Carolina,” he said. “I hope to take it around the Jewish world.”

For more information, visit klezmeraerobics.com or check out Klezmer Aerobics’ Facebook page. There are also videos available on YouTube.

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.