Almanac Dance Circus Theatre to Open Touchstone's 37th Season with Seafarers & Acrobats

Touchstone Theatre opens its 2017-18 season with Philadelphia-based Almanac Dance Circus Theatre in their genre-defying physical theatre masterwork Leaps of Faith & Other Mistakes. The show plays September 28-October 1.

A blend of jaw-dropping ensemble acrobatics, dance, theatre, and live, original music, Leaps of Faith weaves an absurd and intimate tapestry of sublime human idiocy. Four strangers find each other in a world of weirdos; together, with their trusty sofa as a portal for exploration, they set out on the high seas and leave the world of normalcy behind. But all is not as they imagined it would be, and the audience is left contemplating what we do when we find ourselves lost at sea. The show runs 80 minutes and will include a brief post-performance talk-back with the performers.

Leaps of Faith premiered in 2015; Almanac recently revisited and revised the show for performance this September in Philadelphia's Fringe Arts Festival. "Our concerns, as millennial citizens in a darkening world, have shifted seismically since we first made this work," says Almanac co-founder Ben Grinberg, in regard to the play's themes. "The decisions we make collectively seem, to me at least, a lot less certain to lead to a greater good than they did when we first started creating this piece in 2014. Is it better to flee a world that you see changing for the worse? Or is it better to stay and fight?"

Founded in 2013 and hailed as "The little dance theatre troupe that could" by Philadelphia's City Paper, Almanac's company members are Philadelphia-trained physical performers with a mission to present performance "at the edge of what is possible, through playful honesty." Their work has been presented at fringe festivals, street fairs, elementary school assemblies, and private performances across eleven states; they also pursue educational work with K-12 and college students.

On display in the Touchstone Gallery, an exhibit of glass artwork and photography titled "exiSt - exit" accompanies the show, created by Draga Šušanj, a Catskill, NY-based studio artist whose work has been exhibited throughout the United States as well as in her hometown of Belgrade, Serbia. Her work is in Permanent Collections of the Museum of American Glass (NJ) and MOMA. Šušanj's bicultural experiences inform her project based environmental practice. Her careful and joyous approach is evident in her work's lush colors and intricate designs, all inspired by natural forms and surfaces.

Touchstone's season is supported locally by season sponsor RCN. WDIY provides media sponsorship and Working Dog Press provides print sponsorship.

Leaps of Faith & Other Mistakes plays September 28-October 1, 2017, Thursday through Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm. Tickets are $25 for adults / $15 for students and seniors, with group rates available on request. On Thursday, Touchstone offers a pay-what-you-will ticket option at the door, allowing walkup patrons to name their own ticket price. Advance tickets may be purchased at 610.867.1689 or online at www.touchstone.org. The Touchstone Café is open one hour before show time and will remain open after the show, with pastries and gourmet coffee by Nazca K-Fé Premium Peruvian Coffee available for purchase.

Founded in 1981, Touchstone Theatre produces and presents both original and re-imagined classic productions, with a dedication to the renewal of theatre as a vital art form. Touchstone works to foster collaboration on a local and national level through educational and youth empowerment programs, using theatre as a community-building tool. Visit us on the web at www.touchstone.org.

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