STREB to Present FORCES! at SLAM, 4/4-28

STREB, New York's Own Action Heroes spring into action with latest edition of their acclaimed, crowd-pleasing show Forces! at SLAM (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics), their Williamsburg playground, April 4-28, 2013. SLAM is located at 51 North 1st St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Elizabeth Streb and her Extreme Action Company have teamed with theater luminaries to give Action a voice and story in Forces! It's the theater of flight and impact, physics and courage, powered by pure adrenaline. Forces! is co-directed by RoBert Woodruff (Dog Days, ART). The sinuous music is provided by longtime Streb collaborator, David Van Tieghem. The show features a book by Jim Lewis (Fela!) and projection design by Wendell Harrington (Grey Gardens) and Erik Pearson. Spatial Rift video design is by Aaron Henderson. Robert Wierzel (Fela!) is the lighting designer and costume design is by Andrea Lauer (Bring It On, American Idiot).

The non-stop action includes Fly, in which a dancer is harnessed into a giant spinning claw that has a hefty counterweight at its opposite end. The company helps the dancer in the claw gain velocity while attempting not to get clocked by either end of it in the process. In Crush, a steel beam descends from the ceiling like an elegant shark; it spins at greater speeds while the dancers perform any number of remarkable moves with it and avoid its deadly, fleeting embrace.

Artificial Gravity features a spinning floor with which the dancers negotiate winning combinations and attempt not to get hurled into space. In Spatial Rift, the dancers don harnesses and navigate a wall with such grace that we wonder who's vertical here, the dancers or the audience? This white wall becomes a steep hill for Solar Winds and the dancers scramble, surf and ski all over the surface of this brand new planet.

Invisible Forces contains the Whizzing Gizmo, a gorgeous hunk of metal like a huge hamster wheel, 12 feet in diameter and weighing 3500 pounds. STREB raises the stakes for the performers with this constantly spinning, specially-created funhouse ride. No seat belts allowed. Forces! is an onstage Action Adventure for the whole family. You are so close to the ingenious hardware, the risk and sweat, you can feel its heft and heat.

Adults $25, Seniors (over 62) and Children (under 12) $15. For tickets, visit www.streb.org or call 866-811-4111. Performances: Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays at 7:30pm Saturdays at 3 & 7:30pm, Sundays at 3pm. Running time: 90 minutes, 1 intermission.

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