FIDDLER'S CAVE to Receive World Premiere at Festival of Independent Theatres

Street performer and movement theatre artist Dustin Curry will present the world premiere of the wordless storytelling play "Fiddler's Cave" at this year's Festival of Independent Theatres (FIT). The play, inspired by Ozark Mountain folklore, tells the tale of a lonely fiddle player who finds himself lost and abandoned deep in a cave, with no memory of how he arrived there. Through music, clowning and a bit of theatrical magic, the Fiddler must search his past for answers in order to find a way home.

The Festival of Independent Theatres runs July 14 through August 5 at the Bath House Cultural Center (521 E. Lawther Drive, Dallas, TX 75218). Single tickets and festival passes begin at $18 and are available now by going online to www.festivalofindependenttheatres.org, by calling the box office at 1-800-617-6904 (Tuesday-Saturday 12-8 p.m., Sunday 12-5 p.m.), or at the box office 45 minutes prior to curtain. The full festival schedule, including exact performance dates and times for "Fiddler's Cave" is also available online.

"The show was conceived from my nostalgia for the Ozark National Forest, where I often visited while growing up and where my father still works for the U.S. Forest Service," said Curry. "I've applied the storytelling techniques of clowns such as Bill Irwin in New York and Slava Polunin in Russia to the folklore of my home state and created a show that will be crazy fun, bittersweet and maybe even a little bit spooky."

In addition to tracing the roots of Ozark Mountain folklore to find inspiration for the play, "Fiddler's Cave" is also unique in that Curry has been granted special permission from the University of Arkansas to use selections from its Ozark Folksong Collection. Originally recorded and compiled between 1949 and 1965, this is the largest and most complete collection of traditional music and associated materials from Arkansas and the Ozarks in the Nation and features audio recordings of songs, oral histories, anecdotes, and tales from over 700 performers.

"I want to bring Dallas audiences a taste of the rich legends of my home state, but with my own brand of clowning and storytelling," said Curry. "Working with the Ozark Folksong Collection has helped me add another layer to the piece that makes it uniquely Arkansan."

Curry's last one-man show, "Mister Gremory's Caravan of Curiosities," premiered at the Kansas City Fringe Festival in 2011 before receiving a commission from Southeastern Oklahoma State University to redevelop the show for the 2012 Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival. In 2016, he collaborated with Prism Movement Theatre to create "A Very Merry Clown Double Header" at the Margo Jones Theatre in Dallas.

"Fiddler's Cave" is created and performed by Dustin Curry, directed by B.J. Cleveland and produced by Curry in association with Theatre at Southeastern. The play features music from the Ozark Folksong Collection, with additional music by Kevin MacLeod. For more information about this show, visit www.dustincurry.com

PERFORMANCE DATES/TIMES:

Saturday, July 22 at 8:00 p.m. (with L.I.P. Service Productions, "Tommy Cain")

Sunday, July 23 at 5:00 p.m. (with The Basement, "The Caveman Play")

Saturday, July 29 at 8:00 p.m. (with Echo Theatre, "Trace of Arc")

Sunday, July 30 at 2:00 p.m. (with The Basement, "The Caveman Play")

Thursday, August 3 at 8:00 p.m. (with Bootstraps Comedy Theater, "The Boxer")

Saturday, August 5 at 2:00 p.m. (with Audacity Theatre Lab, "The Great Dictator")

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