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c{space

Soul’D Out at c{space

July 27, 2010 By Dayton Most Metro 1 Comment

On Wednesday July 28, 2010, some more awesomeness will be happening at c{space… welcome to Soul’D Out!

The event is presented by The Tap Factor ― a new local professional company that offers free dance lessons and community outreach ― in collaboration with The Dayton Playhouse. It will kick off with a pre-show at 7 p.m., featuring live interactive poetry by Robert Paschell, a puppet show, photography by Sarah Babcock, massages by April Kline and other massage therapists, face painting by Jenny Allen Popp, a silent auction, and food and drinks donated by local vendors. The main show will begin at 8 p.m. with an on-stage jam session and performances. An after-show beginning at approximately 9:30 p.m. will conclude the evening with a dance party.

Soul’D Out will help The Tap Factor keep tap dancing and community outreach alive in Dayton following disbandment of Rhythm in Shoes, a Dayton-based performance ensemble that played traditional Appalachian music and performed urban dance styles for 23 years. To purchase tickets for the event, call the Dayton Playhouse at 937-424-8477 between 2 and 5 p.m. Tickets also can be purchased at the door if available. Admission is $20 for seats and $12 for standing room.

“This is the perfect chance to introduce our visitors to what makes the arts scene in Dayton so distinctive and allows for further discovery of the city’s untapped artistic potential,” said Christopher Erk, the event’s organizer and founder of The Tap Factor.

Along with Christopher Erk and The Tap Factor, participating artists include:

• Drummer David Bush, who has performed with Grammy-winning and Grammy-nominated artists from diverse musical styles;
• The Dayton Tap Dance Company, a senior dance ensemble;
• Zoot Theater Company, Dayton’s original puppet and mask company;
• Deron “DB” Bell, a renowned musician and current director of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company;
• Shaw Pong Liu of Boston, a violinist and operations manager for Dayton’s Blue Sky Project;
• Anthony Russo of St. Louis, a member of the traveling dance workshop Tap the Map;
• Jumaane Taylor of Chicago, a member of the Chicago-based tap group M.A.D.D. Rhythms Inc. and a faculty    member of the workshop Tap the Map (see video below);
• students from Stivers School for the Arts and Wright State University; and
• other very special, surprise guests.

“This is an event that extends beyond age and language barriers,” Erk said. “From the moment you walk into c{space, you will participate in a journey through an array of different experiences.”

According to Erk, the event is an opportunity to showcase local under-discovered talent. Anne Rasmussen, c{space’s operations director, said this is in perfect sync with c{space’s mission to encourage and support emerging local artists while helping improve the cultural vibrancy of downtown Dayton.

“This is going to be a performance of the likes people have never seen before,” Erk said. “It’s a rare opportunity to witness what happens when Dayton’s most talented entities get together under the same roof. We’re going to show everyone what Dayton has to offer.” Erk also would like to thank Wade Hamilton of the Dayton Playhouse for his guidance in developing the show.

Soul’D Out’s guest tap dancers will teach at Tap the Map, a workshop the following night, on Thursday, July 29 from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at Jeanette Popp School of Dance, 7762 Waynetown Blvd. Tickets cost $75. Participants can bring their Soul’D Out ticket stub for a $5 rebate upon registration. For more details on Tap the Map, go to www.tapontour.com.

Jumaane Taylor: “Ile Ife”

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: c{space, Soul'D Out, The Tap Factor

No Stress Fest this weekend at c{space

June 8, 2010 By Juliet Fromholt Leave a Comment

This weekend marks the first-ever No Stress Fest at c{space (20 North Jefferson Street) in Downtown Dayton.  This two-day festival features 26 local and national bands.  South Carolina punk band, The Independents will headline Friday night of the festival with Cincinnati’s The Dopamines headlining Saturday’s show.  Local bands on the bill include 8-bit Revival, Akillis Green, Rad Company, Marijuana Johnson and many more.  The show is 18 and up, and doors open at 6pm each night.  Tickets are $10 per day in advance or $15 at the door.  You can also get a two-day pass in advance for $15.  For a complete lineup and information on advance tickets, visit c{space’s website.

Filed Under: Dayton Music Tagged With: bands, c{space, Dayton Music, Things to Do

AIN’T THAT GOOD NEWS…?

June 8, 2010 By Dayton Most Metro 5 Comments

The Bengson's performing on the rooftop terrace of Dayton's Firefly Building

The Bengson's performing on the rooftop terrace of Dayton's Firefly Building

…a butt-kicking, heart-breaking, raucous, Vaudevillian Cabaret!

What?

Yeah…I thought the same thing, the first time I was forcibly encouraged to attend a performance by Shaun & Abigail Bengson.  “What are we going to see again?  Who are these people? Can’t we just go to Chappy’s instead?”

Then, upon exiting the venue I asked…”What did I just see?  Who were those people?  When are they performing again? Is there a CD?”  The performance WAS heart-breaking, it WAS butt-kicking.  I fell in love with these performers, and the 20-some characters from around the world that they introduced me to that evening.

Shaun & Abigail Bengson.  Performers like no other.  To be frank…you, yes YOU….have NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to miss their performances whenever their nomadic path winds through Southwest Ohio.  Sorry if that sounds too strong for a friendly little blog post, but I am forcibly encouraging you to attend a performance of AIN’T THAT GOOD NEWS by The Bengson’s at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival this week.

Shaun & Abigail Bengson's AIN'T THAT GOOD NEWS

"Not only a tremendous musical talent, but also a raw honesty and sincere righteousness." THE NEW YORK TIMES

Shaun McClain Bengson was a local boy.  Bellbrook.  You might’ve even seen him perform as a kid…BHS marching band & theater productions, Sinclair Jazz Combo, community theater groups. In 2001 he began to explore beyond the Miami Valley.  First he attended college at Indiana University (studied Ethnomusicology & Traditional Indiana Fiddling), then after graduation Shaun moved to New York City as a part of the city’s teaching fellows program.  He became a music teacher in NYC.  He was assigned to a school for special education students, in a unit for students with Autism.  It was in this unit where Shaun crafted programs such as “Little Kids Rock!” and then “The New Manhattan Music Project,” where his students wrote, produced & performed their own musicals.  It was at the performance of these musicals where Shaun found love.  In walks Abigail Nessen, out walks “The Bengson’s,” and a new band called the “Zombie Nationalists.”  They were engaged within two weeks and writing their first musical.

The couple is constantly touring.  They have traveled to South Africa, West Africa, El Salvador, Japan, Mexico, Europe as well as many areas of the U.S.  They perform while touring, but more importantly they connect to the people they encounter,  educating kids and talking with families.  They collect stories along the way.  These stories…NO…these people become the Bengson’s show.

The Bengson's in C{space 2009Those of you who attended last week’s production of RENT in C{space got just a glimpse of Shaun & Abigail.  Shaun led the rockin’ band, giving this version of RENT an instrumental style of it’s own.  Abigail portrayed “Mimi.”  Her Mimi was perhaps a tinge “Joplin-inspired.”  She took the dark role & gave it a fierce, hard edge that was probably more truthful to the character than “glam’d” for Broadway.

Currently they are touring with AIN’T THAT GOOD NEWS, finishing up a new album called THE PROOF, and writing their next show which is titled the same as the album.  The new show, which will employ a cast of 12 and an 8 piece band, will be developed through a residency in Vermont followed by an Off-Broadway run in 2011.

AIN’T THAT GOOD NEWS is described as

Shaun & Abigail Bengson…a raucous vaudevillian cabaret, full of roaring original music and impassioned characters. The Bengson duo evoke the quintessentially American stories of the immigrant and the outcast and play at the heart of the political struggles of our age through a melding of the musical forms of Tin Pan Alley, the Old South, German Weimar and rock and roll. The show is constantly evolving. As the Bengsons travel, they trade songs and drinks for new stories from the personal to the divine, and shift the work to reflect where they’ve been, and each new community they’re in. This work was made possible through support from the Puffin Foundation.

AIN’T THAT GOOD NEWS opened on Sunday night in the Cincinnati Fringe Festival.  You have three more chances to catch their show, so you will need to start making arrangements today. Hire a babysitter, make dinner reservations and ORDER YOUR TICKETS before they are gone!

AIN’T THAT GOOD NEWS @ The Cincinnati Fringe Festival

Wed. June 9 at 9:30p / Thurs. June 10 @ 8:45p / Sat. June 12 @ 9:00p

Venue: The Coffee Emporium, 110 E. Central Parkway, Cincinnati, Ohio

Tickets:  $12 online at www.cincyfringe.com/aint-that-good-news

More Info:  www.bengsons.com or email Shaun & Abigail at [email protected]

When you get the chance to meet Shaun & Abigail after the show, make sure you give them a hug for us…but be careful what you say…you never know, it might just make it into their next musical!

SA

Shane Anderson & David Brush work with locally based Encore Theater Company. ETC recently moved into the new arts collective space in the Oregon District, along with Zoot Theatre Co. & Rhythm in Shoes. Anderson, Brush & ETC are currently preparing for their upcoming Summer season of new musicals in downtown Dayton: Johnathan Larson’s RENT, [title of show] &Next Thing You Know (a developmental production of a new musical by NYC-based writing team of Salzman & Cunningham)

Filed Under: On Stage Dayton Tagged With: arts, c{space, Encore Theater Co.

Jonathan Larson’s RENT @ C{Space in Downtown Dayton

May 26, 2010 By Dayton Most Metro 32 Comments

Jonathan Larson's RENT at C{Space June 3-5 www.RENTdayton.org

Jonathan Larson's RENT at C{Space June 3-5 www.RENTdayton.org ~ Win Tickets Below!

On June 3rd Encore Theater Company will open it’s summer season of musicals with a show which has become a cornerstone for the musical theater world of the past decade and a half.  ETC will present Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway musical RENT in C{space on three evenings next week, and if you don’t plan ahead, you just might miss out this highly provocative production in a truly unique downtown venue (Saturday is nearly sold out & tickets are selling fast for the other performances).

The musical, which is based loosely on Puccini’s opera La Boheme, follows a year in the lives of seven friends living the disappearing Bohemian lifestyle in New York’s East Village.  AIDS and both it’s physical and emotional complications pervade these characters as they struggle to find their place in a quickly changing world.

Maureen & Joanne in RENT www.RENTdayton.org

We think of RENT as this iconic “rock opera” legend but what RENT was saying and how it was saying it was revolutionary in 1996 and the theater world has never been the same.  The number of doors RENT opened for new musical theatre writers was unprecedented.  Shows that have followed – like SPRING AWAKENING & 2010’s AMERICAN IDIOT (Yes, the GreenDay one) –  are indebted to Larson & his show for their success.  RENT’s influence is still profound in shows opening today, fourteen years after it quietly opened it’s Off-Broadway run the night after Larson died of an aortic aneurysm.

When talking with cast members of the show, it’s interesting, almost comical actually, to realize that for many of them, their first knowledge of this show was the 2005 film version.  As depressing as that is to this almost-40-year-old, who could’ve been in the original Broadway cast (if he could act & sing that is), it’s also refreshing.  This cast is approaching this material with such an infectious energy!  They are exploring the souls of these characters, but through a new point of view, in a very different world.

Drew Bown as "Roger" in RENT www.RENTdayton.org
“To be able to experience something so beyond myself in sharing with my fellow castmates and it’s viewers, the very real struggle that these characters live through has been life-changing.  This chance to live in love, to spread the message to carry on and be thankful every single day has been a gift.”

Drew Bowen, “Roger”

JJ Parkey as "Mark" in RENT www.RENTdayton.org
“Being a part of RENT is something deeply profound that I’ve strived for in my art and I finally have the chance to play my dream role.  I’ll carry with me the artistic lessons that I’ve learned from this production as I pursue my stage career.”

JJ Parkey, “Mark”

Since ETC carries as its mission the development and preservation of new musical theatre, it seemed only fitting that we honor Jonathon Larson – the pioneer who made our work and our mission possible.  Along with a unique group of collaborators including C}Space, Sinclair Community College Theatre Department, AIDS Resource Center of Ohio, and Project Runway Finalist Althea Harper, ETC invites you to rediscover why you fell in love with RENT all over again and see this generation-defining musical in a fresh innovative production against the backdrop of one of Downtown’s Dayton’s most unique spaces.

Maureen & Joanne in RENT www.RENTdayton.org

Jonathan Larson’s RENT will play June 3, 4 & 5 in downtown Dayton’s C{space at 7:30pm each evening. An additional 11:30pm performance will take place on Friday, June 4th. Tickets for the event are $15 in advance and $18 at the door.  You can order tickets by visiting www.RENTdayton.org

WIN TICKETS to RENT!

It’s easy!  Just COMMENT to this post before midnight Saturday, May 29th to be entered into a drawing to win a set of tickets to the Encore Theater Company production of RENT.  We will be giving away one set of tickets for each 7:30 performance (Thursday, Friday & Saturday, 1 winner per performance)…but you can help DOUBLE the number of tickets we will be giving away!  If 50 readers “SHARE” this post, by clicking the FACEBOOK SHARE BUTTON before midnight Saturday…we’ll give away two sets of tickets for each evening’s performance! Start Sharing!

Filed Under: On Stage Dayton, The Featured Articles Tagged With: c{space, Downtown Dayton, Encore Theater Co., Events, musical, RENT, Things to Do

DIY Dayton- A Benefit for Ladyfest Dayton 2010

April 1, 2010 By Dayton Most Metro Leave a Comment

c{space will be the venue for DIY Dayton, a fund raising event for Ladyfest Dayton 2010.  Over 25 music acts, vendors and artists are scheduled for the benefit on April 17 at 5 p.m.

lady

Cover charge is just $5.

For more information about LadyFest Dayton 2010, visit here.

LadyFest 2010 is Aug. 6-8.

Filed Under: Street-Level Art Tagged With: c{space, diy dayton, ladyfest

Monday Night Girl Fight Brings an All-Ages Show to C-Space

March 12, 2010 By Juliet Fromholt Leave a Comment

l_81c56c399f2e42c0ba3901c6e6c395f8Start your week off with some good old fashion rock and roll.  On Monday, March 15th, local ladies Jasper the Colossal will play host to national act The Dollyrots (Blackheart Records).  It’s all an all-ages show called Monday Night Girl Fight at C{Space (20 N. Jefferson St, Dayton, Ohio 45402) and will also feature music from Sucker Punch Sally and Misunderstood.  The doors open at 8pm, and entry is $5

Filed Under: Dayton Music Tagged With: all-ages, bands, c{space, Dayton Music, Things to Do

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