PUSH Physical Theatre Returning to First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival, 9/17-28

Award-winning PUSH Physical Theatre returns to the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival (Thursday, September 17 - Saturday, September 26) for its fourth time in four years. PUSH will present three, all-ages performances at RAPA at School of the Arts' Allen Main Stage Theatre (45 Prince St.): Saturday, Sept. 19 at noon (no swears); Friday, Sept. 25 at 8:30 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 26 at 5 p.m. (some swears) Tickets are $18 and available now at rochesterfringe.com or 585-957-9837 (phone fees apply), or starting Sunday, Sept. 13 at the Fringe Box Office (corner of Main & Gibbs Sts.), or at the venue door one hour before show time. (PUSH tends to sell out, so advance sale is suggested).

"We've been doing Fringe since it began, and we love it," says PUSH Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director Darren Stevenson. "This is also our only Rochester show this year - our 15th anniversary - and we always look forward to performing for the warm, friends-and-family hometown crowd."

The hour-long performances will include a first look at the world premiere of PUSH Physical Theatre's Jekyll & Hyde at Blackfriars Theatre in January 2016 - PUSH's next local appearances. That full-length piece will depict the struggle between good and evil within one man while exploring the dark side within each of us.

New to most Rochester audiences will be a solo piece written by Stevenson many years ago. "The Chair" is an exploration of the human struggle to leave the familiar behind in order to grow, as well as to come to terms with not being able to control everything in our lives.

The company will also perform two audience favorites: "Red Ball" and "Galileo." The former uses iPads to create virtual onstage adventures for a red ball, and debuted in 2012 as part of PUSHinterPLAY of Art, Culture and Technology, funded by the Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation and created with RIT and NTID students.

"Galileo" was originally choreographed for composer Glenn McClure's oratorio, The Starry Messenger, and is a stunning homage to Galileo's discovery of the heliocentric universe. It debuted in 2003 with Rochester chamber choir Madrigalia, and was funded by a grant from the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester.

More about PUSH: PUSH Physical Theatre was founded in Rochester, NY in 2000 by husband-and-wife team, Darren and Heather Stevenson, with a mission to push the boundaries of conventional theatre. For 15 years, this talented group of performers has been inspiring awe and igniting emotion with physical illusions and gravity-defying, dance-infused, acrobatic high jinx. In addition to Darren and Heather, the current company also features veteran PUSHer Jonathan Lowery, former Cirque du Soleil performer Avi Pryntz-Nadworthy, and new member, Rochester's Katherine Marino. In addition to a busy touring schedule that continues to take them all over the U.S. and the world, these masters of physical storytelling were finalists on truTV's Fake Off in 2014 (Season One). They are also very involved in arts-in-education programs - often working with at-risk children - and run their own PUSH Pins Summer Camp, Teen Mentorship Project, and Summer Intensive, which attracts adult students from all over the world. In 2009, Darren and Heather received the Performing Artist of the Year Award from the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, as well as the Anton Germano Dance Award. The following year, they were invited to speak about PUSH's unique artistic process at TEDx Rochester. PUSH has been profiled on PBS and NPR, and is represented by Robin Klinger Entertainment. More information is available at www.pushtheatre.org.

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