MEDIA CONTACT: Judy Moore at 847-491-4819 or jkm229@northwestern.edu

April 26, 2005

'Plot Twists' Combines Art Performances

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University will present “Plot Twists: Transforming Literature into Physical Performance” at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 28.

“Plot Twists” is a stage presentation that combines dance, theatre and literature, featuring two critically-acclaimed Chicago companies -- 500 Clown and The Seldoms. They will perform excerpts from their longer works.

The free event will be held in the University’s Marjorie Ward Marshall Dance Center’s Ballroom Studio Theatre, 10 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston campus. It will be followed by a discussion with the artists about transforming literature into physical performance. Dance historian and choreographer Rebecca Rossen will moderate.

Vital contributors to Chicago’s dance and theater communities, both 500 Clown and The Seldoms create visceral and physically-demanding works that cross boundaries between media.

The 500 Clown theatre company uses circus arts, improvisation and action-based performance to produce theatre that catapults the performers into extreme physical and emotional risk. It will perform excerpts from “Frankenstein.” Three clowns will conspire to tell the tale of Mary Shelley’s classic novel. In typical 500 Clown style, the task proves too much for them and the themes of the book emerge in the interaction between the clowns onstage. The work shifts the audience from passive to active observers and creates a charged environment that celebrates the unpredictable power of the moment.

The Seldoms will perform excerpts from their 1999 work “Here,” a danced meditation on living in harmony with nature set to a woven collage of texts from Thoreau, Faulkner, Goethe and C. S. Lewis. An interdisciplinary performance group that brings together dance, performance art, sound, visual art, architecture, film and video, The Seldoms integrate the central languages of these disciplines to create highly visual, complex movement narratives.

The April 28 performance is co-sponsored by Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Science, and the department of English, department of theatre, Dance Program and Theatre and Drama Program. Admission is free. Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. For information, call (773) 680-0800 or (847) 491-3147.