Creative Summit Combines Local Arts for COLLIDE Event

Creative Summit, a collective of arts organizations and artists in the Summit area, will present its first event on Saturday, July 27 from 5:00-7:00 pm. Collide is a one-night-only arts experience that combines the work of Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre, The Music Moment, the New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble, the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, and local musicians and artists. The evening, with participation from Civic Story, will include samples of all of these genres as the audience moves from studio to studio in the beautiful home of the NJDTE.

The Visual Arts Center of New Jersey will show several video pieces by artist Dana Levy. Dana Levy's videos fuse life and death. She confronts the natural world within museum exhibits, reminding us that a collection is a living thing and a museum is not a graveyard. Flying birds spin around the museum ceiling fan in Silent Among Us as their taxidermy counterparts stand in silence.The stillness of the museum is transformed into unpredictable chaos in The Wake, where Monarch butterflies escape their glass displays one-by-one, as if reawakening from an eternal slumber. In Dead World Order, the curator of Maison de l'Armateur in Le Havre, France, walks around and rearranges the display in the museum, cramped with artifacts of French colonialism.

New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble will perform excerpts from Warriors by Elizabeth Keoppen-Kaloseih, Former Associate Director of Parsons Dance Company and from Spheres by Nancy Turano, Artistic Director, New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble.

The Music Moment will host composer and performer Amish Darr, whose music is the sound of his sad soul that cries out for true love. It is the amalgamation of everything he has experienced in life. From heartbreak to spiritual ecstasy, thought-provoking powerful poetry decorated with eastern ragas and western melodies bound to take you on a journey you will never forget.

Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre will present Moment of Truth, a short play by Laura Ekstrand featuring Daria M. Sullivan and Stephanie Windland. Two best friends, seniors in high school who are receiving their college admissions responses, confront the role of race in the process and in their relationship. The play takes a look at how people who care about each other can have one of the most difficult conversations before us today.

At the culmination of the evening, all guests will move to a common space for a spontaneous drum circle where everyone's creativity will be celebrated.

Collide will be presented on Saturday, July 27 from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm at The New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble, 315b Springfield Avenue, Summit, NJ 07901. Tickets are $15 for students, $30 for seniors and $35 for general admission. Tickets are limited and are available online at https://collide.brownpapertickets.com or by phone at 1-800-838-3006.

For more information about Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre, in residence at Oakes Center, 120 Morris Avenue, Summit, NJ 07901, please call 908-514-9654, and visit www.DreamcatcherRep.org