Mixed Media
We love it when we can address the interests of a number of readers with a single article. To wit, the Pangea World Theater in Minneapolis, USA is hosting Ways of Knowing..., a multi-disciplinary, improvisational performance work that includes photography, storytelling, poetry, dance, and music (both live and recorded). The show opens for a 3-night engagement on 2 November.
Though this particular show is about memory and African American history, the evolving group has mounted other productions in the past, including, for example, a show addressing environmental issues, and will continue to explore other creative modes in the future.
Beverly Cottman, one of the 9 members in the current troupe, tells us that the process of collaboration and of mutual learning was more important to the group than the product or the final outcome. Says Beverly, "We find places where our different disciplines intersect, and that's where we improvise and broaden our outlook from there." That's why she calls the artists' learning process the "primary topic" of the show, while the description listed in the brochure is secondary.
The full cast includes Beverly and husband Bill Cottman, Steve Hirsh, Tom Kanthak, Mankwe Ndosi, Michael O'Brien, J. Otis Powell!, and Roxane Wallace. Kenna-Camara Sarge's choreography is also featured, though she is not in the production itself. Ways of Knowing... closes on 4 November.
31 October 2006