TITLE OF SHOW: Cloud Stones

LENGTH OF SHOW: 80-minutes

INTERMISSION none required

THEME [describe in one sentence]: A mood, an atmosphere explored to honour the environment from a very personal point of view which creates a human universality.

CONTENT [brief description]: Using their now acclaimed technique of overlaying theatre and dance pieces simultaneously, Robert Greenwood [actor] and Dana Luebke [dancer] trace multi-layered, cloud-like images, visual, vocal, physical and emotional, on an environment of white silk that stir haunting memories in the audience. Characters and dances float in and out of the silks, swathed in white, blue-tinted leotards that become as much a screen for the projections of clouds and stones as do the three horizontal, stage-wide silks. This is a true mood piece. There is no plot. There is no character development. There is no logical sequence of events. The entire piece is held together by floating images and an electronic sound score composed by Peter D’Amico and the jazz violin of Karl Roth. The show is similar to the experience of laying on the ground on a summer’s day and watching the clouds drift overhead, creating faces and images out of their shapes.

GOAL [the purpose of this show]: To make people think about their own, individual relationship to the environment and to the world.

POINT OF VIEW OF ARTISTS : To reflect on the environment from purely personal points of view in such a way that they conjure up universal experiences in all people. The show is dedicated to Gro Harlem Brundtland, who was at the time, Prime Minister of Norway, and who has since been responsible for the United Nations’ study on the environment, OUR COMMON FUTURE, and coined the phrase, “sustainable development”.

PRESENTATION [skills used to present show]: Across the entire stage, three pieces of white, scarf-silk are stretched at varying levels, like clouds across a sky, and, from above, two more silks loop through the horizontal ones. On these, four slide-projectors keep up a constant movement of hundreds of images of clouds and stones. Through, under and around the silks, Bob and Dana move, Bob creating numerous characters that have a definite relationship to the environment, and Dana slashing, drifting, floating and hurling himself through the images like a kinetic projection screen, tearing the images and making them ripple, contort and fly over the abstractions of his movement choices. It is a totally haunting presentation that leaves everything up to the individual audience member to search his or her own experiences and soul.

TARGET AUDIENCE: Festival and Adult audiences, PG-13. Adult audiences have found this show a puzzlement in terms of logic, but it is not to be perceived in a logical way. It is merely to be experienced and left to digest. Audiences have left the theatre quietly, in reverence, smiling, feeling good, thinking, musing to themselves, arguing over what it all meant, often remembering experiences of their own that they had forgotten. Those are the kinds of reactions that the piece was created to stimulate.

CAST: Robert Greenwood (actor) and [Mr.] Dana Luebke (dancer-actor)

LANGUAGE IN WHICH SHOW IS PERFORMED: English

PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS AVAILABLE:
Poster blanks
Coloured slides
Black and White photos
Preview articles
Reviews
Magazine articles

WHERE SHOW HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY PERFORMED OR WORLD PREMIERE, ETC.: This show was premiered in Calgary during Sun.Ergos’ subscription seasons. It has also been performed at the McLennan Community College, Ball Performing Arts Center, Waco, Texas, and at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho, as the premiere event of the Student Union Performing Arts Series.

REFERENCES FOR SHOW:

  • Terrisa J. Mabrey, Sculptor, Kempner, Texas

  • Joseph L. Kagle,Jr., Director, TheArtCenter, Waco, Texas

  • Student Activities Director, TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY, Lubbuck, Texas

  • Dick Foose, Consultant, ALBERTA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, Professional Arts Groups, Edmonton, Alberta

  • Sheila Rayer, President, CALGARY REGION ARTS FOUNDATION, Calgary, Alberta

  • George L. Palmer, Director-Designer, Calgary, Alberta

WORDS WHICH HAVE BEEN USED TO DESCRIBE THE SHOW:
quality, professional, skilled, remarkable, memorable, multi-layered masterpiece, fascinating, polished, performance-art, entrancing, brave, new, technically sure, pared, innovative, striking, effective

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR MATERIALS, PLEASE CONTACT:
Administrative Assistant
Sun.Ergos, A Company of Theatre and Dance
130 Sunset Way
Priddis, Alberta, CANADA T0L 1W0

TEL 403-931-1527 TOLL FREE 1-800-743-3351
FAX 403-931-1534
e-mail: waltermoke@sunergos.com