Free Immersive Pop Up Performances Transform Fort Greene

By: Sep. 17, 2019
Enter Your Email to Unlock This Article

Plus, get the best of BroadwayWorld delivered to your inbox, and unlimited access to our editorial content across the globe.




Existing user? Just click login.

Irondale Center, in association with Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble and Tours Soundpainting Orchestra (TSO) announce the U.S. Premiere of PoP Up: An Artistic Treasure Hunt. Over the course of three days this fall, October 4-6, audiences will engage in various treasure hunts and discover 15 site-specific performances via clues on a hand-painted map of Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Inspired by interviews with local Fort Greene residents and business owners, «PoP Up» will be performed by a collective of multidisciplinary performers in public spaces scattered around the neighborhood of inspiration. Starting location for each performance is secret and registered audience members will receive notification day before the show.

Developed over the past four years, «PoP Up» is designed to spark community connection, highlight the extraordinary within the ordinary, and shift perceptions. «PoP Up» is art in everyday places. Performances will pop-up on the street, in windows, parks, and plazas throughout the neighborhood-short apparitions of music, dance, theater and visual art inject a series of alternately playful, poetic or poignant performances. In developing the piece, the creative team conducted interviews with Fort Greene residents who were invited to share memories, dreams, rumors, anecdotes, stories and impressions.

Each «PoP Up» treasure hunt course is unique and leads to a different set of improvised and soundpainted performances, resulting in a completely new experience for every audience member. A soundpainter is a composer who guides a multidisciplinary group of artists (actors, dancers, and musicians) with a series of hand and body gestures, which the performers interpret to improvise in the moment. The gestural language is comprised of more than 1500 gestures, resulting in the creation of real-time compositions, with the composer responding to the performers to indicate what happens next. Strike Anywhere and the TSO are two of the top soundpainting ensembles in the world.

«PoP Up» blasts down the 4 walls of the theater and spills into the street. This unique collaboration with TSO has resulted in a performance that infuses joy, recognizes beauty in the quotidian, and celebrates the local community. We like to say that it's about affirming the importance of poetry in the everyday," says Leese Walker, Artistic Director of Strike Anywhere. "People today are isolated, catatonic, angry and scared. Our approach inspires connection through joy, wonder and whimsy. Coming across a string trio at the bus stop, witnessing a clown in a heap of clothing at the Laundromat, sweeping local residents into our "ephemeral choir"-these moments celebrate our shared humanity."

Leading up to the October premiere, Strike Anywhere will offer free community Soundpainting workshops on September 22 and 29 at Irondale Center. Anyone interested in getting involved is invited to register here: https://tinyurl.com/PopUpWkspBK. Workshop participants will be featured in the «PoP Up» finale. This event is part of the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Festival, as well as Brooklyn Falls for France, a cultural season organized by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and FACE Foundation in partnership with Brooklyn venues.

Pop Up: An Artistic Treasure Hunt will run October 4-6, 2019. Treasure Hunt and performances run approximately 105 minutes.

Friday and Saturday, October 4-5: 7:00 PM (Treasure Hunt Course A)

Sunday, October 6: 12:00PM (Treasure Hunt Course B) and 5:00 PM (Treasure Hunt Course C)

The treasure hunt starting point is secret and will be sent to registered audience members the day before. Performances take place across 15 locations across Fort Greene Brooklyn. Audiences are advised to wear comfortable walking shoes. Register at http://www.strikeanywhere.info/.

Directors: Leese Walker and Angélique Cormier

Cartographer and Game Master: Julien Rodriguez

Technical Director/Production Design: Steven Brenman

Costume Design: Sabine Solin & Emilie Cohuau

Education and Partnerships: Amanda Hinkle Wallace



Videos