The air around Danny Hoskins crackles with the contagious energy of someone who spends entire days brainstorming. He’s spent many of the summer days indoors. His “office” is a tiny, sunlit space that doubles as the Blackfriars Theatre box office, though he’s just as likely to camp out at a wobbly card table near the […]
PUSH Physical Theatre
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Blackfriars Theatre announces 2015-16 season
Blackfriars Theatre has announced its 2015-16 season, the first under new Artistic and Managing Director Danny Hoskins. John Haldoupis, who has operated as the theater’s artistic director for 35 years, will retire on June 30, at the end of the 2014-15 season. Hoskins will take over on July 1. Blackfriars will host a farewell event […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Recap: PUSH Physical Theatre in “Fake Off” finals
Rochester’s PUSH Physical Theatre nearly brought home the $100,000 jackpot in Monday night’s final episode of TruTV’s “Fake Off.” The show challenges performance groups to come up with the best “fakes” using a combination of illusion, theater, acrobatics, and black lighting. PUSH received a score of 28 out of 30 for their on-stage interpretation of […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
PUSH Physical Theatre
Darren and Heather Stevenson, co-producers of PUSH Physical Theatre, have been asked more than once whether they wanted their extreme-movement, physical performance company to appear on national television (“America’s Got Talent” has called several times). But this is the first time they’ve accepted. PUSH is currently appearing in the reality competition show “Fake Off,” a […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Casey reviews PUSH Physical Theatre and “Germination”
PUSH Physical Theatre is always entertaining, but it has deep ideas to communicate as well. Through movement, of course. The company’s new piece, “Strangers,” is still a work in progress. But judging from the excerpt the award-winning, Rochester-based group premiered at Fringe Festival on Saturday afternoon, it is going to be a work of powerful […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
DANCE: Pushing bodies, mining creativity
Nile Russell was one of 500 hopefuls when he auditioned for the award-winning, avant-garde dance company Pilobolus in 2009. He had been in New York City for a few years already, had danced with several small companies, and had started one of his own. He was looking for a new avenue for his creativity, a […]
Posted inMusic
CLASSICAL FEATURE: “Comala”
For many teenagers in Mexico, the book “Pedro Páramo” by Juan Rulfo is required reading. But for Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, the story became more than homework; it became an obsession. Over the years, he read and re-read it, until it became a part of his consciousness. Zohn-Muldoon has poured decades into his dream of creating an […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
DANCE PREVIEW: “Arc of Ages”
PUSH Physical Theatre’s new masterwork, “Arc of Ages,” embraces epic stories of Western civilization and explores basic human archetypes by depicting the legendary struggles of biblical characters. Dramatic, action-packed interpretations of Samson, Delilah, David, Bathsheba, and Job connect audiences to these characters’ flawed humanness, and to the continued relevance of their plights today. “What do […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Go ahead, push me
At a recent practice for PUSH Physical Theatre, Tom Ohl and Topher Holt made handstand pushups look like routine jumping jacks. Gravity never weighs PUSH performers down; the five-person troupe relies on it to carve an imaginary world out of the air around them. “There should be a sense for the audience that the air […]
