The word "theater" brings to mind something along the lines of overacted Shakespeare or a high school play for most people, but Austin's Fusebox Festival is far more adventurous than that. Exploring the cutting edge, Fusebox is the type of experimental theater that expands the definition of what art and performance is.
Founded by Ron Berry in 2003, Fusebox has grown to include visual arts, dance, film, nontraditional theater, and even some music. From April 21 to May 1, Fusebox's stages will host an eclectic variety of performances from over 450 individual artists and around forty performance groups, including Austin's own Rude Mechanicals (see Accent's interview with Rude Mechanicals on the next page).
Berry says he founded the Fusebox festival out of a desire to start a dialogue among local, national and international artists for their contemporary work and to inspire new ideas for theater. The festival also helps artists connect with each other and serves as a launching pad for future endeavors spawned through these connections.
Many of the shows and performances are fairly far removed from what is traditionally called "theater," and involve strange concepts and audience participation.
One of the those shows is Blender Love. It involves a live seance to channel the memories of broken appliances brought in by audience members.
Another is WeeTube by Theater Replacement where the performers watch a YouTube video and then perform the comments for the video in different settings.
Rubber Rep will perform a person's life told through only the physical sensations that person has experienced. The person whose life is told can be anyone the group interviews and selects during the Fusebox Festival.
Even the more straightforward pieces are astoundingly unusual and experimental. The press release for This From Cloudland by Kristen Kosmas with Physical Plant describes it as: "Thirty-five hundred feet directly below the world's only known micro-nation, two young lovers are holding themselves hostage while someone falls off a high wire and someone else has their head stuck in the mouth of a bear."
Berry's favorite experimental theater moment at the festival was a piece for two people called Etiquette. A person would sign up for a thirty-minute slot, sit at a coffee shop with another person and be told what to say through headphones as they talk to the other person. It let the volunteer be the audience as well as part of the performance.
"It really struck me as a meaningful altering experience that's the sort of the promise of a new performance; it offers unexpected exciting experiences. It changed the way I looked at this person and thought about them," Berry said.
Hardly "normal" and definitely entertaining, the Fusebox Festival 2010 promises to deliver excitement and a new way to look at the world.
Wristbands are on sale now through the Fusebox website and performances will be held at over 10 unique Austin venues.
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