Southern Theater Presents Penelope Freeh & Megan Mayer 6/17-19

Penelope Freeh's 2007 Minnesota Fringe Festival hit We'll Survive if We Don't Protect Ourselves gets new life at the Southern Theater June 17-19, 2010. The James Sewell Ballet dancer and artistic associate navigates between safety and danger in an environment of instability for a quartet of dancers: Christine Maginnis, Eddie Oroyan, Stephen Schroder and Freeh herself. Acts of daring in this tour de force reveal the human heart - opening, breaking, and breaking open. Musical selections include works by radical baroque composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Icelandic band Skárren ekkert, Philip Glass and Radiohead.

We'll Survive... was originally created specifically for the atrium of the Grain Belt Bottling House in Northeast Minneapolis. "There was a balcony from which the dancers hung, immediately setting up an element of danger," said Freeh. "I look forward to extracting the essential elements of the piece, placing them in the Southern and rediscovering the work's next evolution."

"I am thrilled to be sharing an evening [with] Megan," said Freeh. "Our work is compatible and yet utterly different. I think we both begin with a cerebral approach but then quickly slip into the tools of our craft: generating movement based on our concept, extracting character as appropriate and composing/directing on a macro level."

Drawing inspiration from photography and video, 2009 Momentum artist Megan Mayer's Premiere of We tried to throw the light incorporates a keen eye for detail and the sensibility that less is more. Using a tactile approach to choreography, interacting with and responding to architecture, light and inanimate objects, Mayer's newest creation investigates the unease and sense of discovering that accompany self-scrutiny. She is also working to reconfigure electric moments from ‘60s foreign films by way of The Lawrence Welk Show with wry humor, and skillfully mix an intimate onstage "family" of performers with technical, behind-the-scenes elements traditionally found offstage

Featuring a dynamic lineup of performing artists including Charles Campbell, Elliott Durko-Lynch, Annie Enneking and a bevy of surprise guests, Mayer has also been working with filmmaker Kevin Obsatz to design video projection elements which will provide another visual layer for the audience and complement the architecture of the Southern. The [subject to change] soundtrack includes performances by Arthur Lyman, Herb Alpert, Jackie Wilson, Del Shannon, Rebecca Pan, Sergio Mendes, Pierre Barouh and selections from a 1970s pizza parlor jukebox.

"I think our audiences will enjoy the tasty evening meal we have in store for them," said Mayer. "Penny and I share a fondness for specificity and detailed elements in our work, and employ strength and sensuality in the choreography within whatever performance space we are using. I sense we both have a purposeful approach to casting, in that our instincts draw us to a particular performer for the unique sensibility they will bring to the piece."

Performances: June 17-19, 2010
Thurs. at 7:30pm, Fri. and Sat. at 8pm
Tickets: $18
Southern Theater box office: 612.340.1725
1420 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55454
www.southerntheater.org