Touchstone Theatre will present "Live From The Edge," an evening filled with "the best of" from visiting ensemble Universes, a band of poets from New York who have created their own brand of fusion theatre. Performances will take place Saturday, March 13 at 8pm, Sunday, March 14 at 2pm, and Monday, March 15 at 8pm with a talkback following each performance with the artists.
Advance tickets are available through lvartsboxoffice.org, touchstone.org or by calling 610-867-1689; tickets will also be available at the Touchstone box office one hour prior to each performance.
Tickets are $25 or $15 for students and seniors. Group rates available. Ensemble members Steven Sapp, Mildred Ruiz, Gamal Abdel Chasten, and "Ninja" utilize each person's unique realms of performance and life experience. They draw from Jazz, Spanish Boleros, Gospel, the Blues, Hip-Hop, and more to create an exuberant, insightful, and eloquent evening's entertainment. Touchstone is able to present Universes as part of a unique touring circuit specifically for ensemble theater presenters and funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts; the circuit also includes partner ensembles: Sandglass Theater of Putney, Vermont, and HartBeat Theatre of Hartford, Connecticut. Universes tours world-wide; in the past year alone they have been to eleven cities in the states including the Encuentros Festival in Columbia; they are currently traveling to New Orleans to research a new show, before heading to the Northeast.
"Touchstone was drawn to the way the Universes' ensemble remains true to each individual's voice while still cultivating an identifiable collective one. This gift allows the audience to experience theatrically how communication and understanding across cultures can be beautiful and fruitful. Best of all they do this via an energetic, entertaining show - "stomp for the larynx" as described by the LA Times," explains Lisa Jordan, Touchstone's Producing Director. Ensemble member Bill George adds, "We were struck not only by their humanity, but by their precision and attention to craft - they bring a remarkable attention to nuance and detail in their music and dance that one associates with the spirit of poetry.""Live From The Edge" will give Lehigh Valley residents an overview of Universes' distinct performance style, as it contains elements of their entire body of work. While the company's source of inspiration is particular to where they grew up and how they grew up speaking, singing and dancing, their stage work is accessible to people from all backgrounds and ages.
Celebrating nearly 30 years, Touchstone Theatre produces and presents both original and 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.
