Ira Glass brings Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host to Mesa Arts Center 10/11

Radio host Ira Glass of This American Life collaborates with dancers Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass in Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host, a hilarious and quirky pairing of dance and radio, which will be performed in Mesa Arts Center's Ikeda Theater on October 11 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are available at the Mesa Arts Center Box Office, mesaartscenter.com, or at 480-644-6500.

As the title indicates, the show is in three acts. Act one is about the job of being a performer. Act two: falling in love and what it means to stay in love. Act three: nothing lasts forever. "People who like This American Life will probably like this," says Glass "because it's just like the radio show, um, if you picture dancing during all the stories."

Glass has worked with Monica Bill Barnes & Company to invent a show that combines two art forms that - as Glass puts it - "have no business being together - dance and radio." One is all words and no visuals. One is all visuals and no words. The result is a funny, lively and heartfelt evening of dance and stories that has brought down the house wherever it's been performed, starting with its first test run at Carnegie Hall.

The show includes radio interviews restaged as dance pieces, plus stories from the lives of each of the three performers. "What makes it work is a shared sensibility," Glass says. "As dancers, Monica and Anna are these amazingly relatable and funny storytellers without words." Bass notes, "I think it's still blowing Ira's mind to see some of the radio pieces remade this way, with props and costume changes and lighting cues." Barnes adds, "combining these art forms has led to a show that's unlike anything I've ever choreographed before."

Glass is the creator and host of WBEZ Chicago's public radio show This American Life, which is distributed by Public Radio International and heard on over 500 public radio stations; its podcast most weeks is the most popular podcast in America. Monica Bill Barnes & Company is a contemporary American dance company with the mission to celebrate individuality, humor and the innate theatricality of everyday life. The company has performed in over thirty venues in New York City including New York City Center, The Joyce Theater, Joe's Pub and Upright Citizens Brigade, and out of town venues including Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, The American Dance Festival and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Mesa Arts Center is located at One East Main Street in downtown Mesa. Tickets are available through the Mesa Arts Center Box Office at MesaArtsCenter.com or by calling 480-644-6500.