Hit The Lights! Co. to Workshop Shadow Puppet Musical ISLA at Mayo Street Arts

Hit The Lights! Co. will workshop their original shadow puppet musical ISLA at Mayo Street Arts in Portland, Maine, with two public performances on Saturday, August 24th (2pm and 7pm) followed by a panel with immigrant and artist communities discussing themes explored in the piece. In ISLA, three sisters escape from their island and embark on a journey to redefine the meaning of home. Inspired by the family history of Co-Artistic Director Samantha Blain, ISLA investigates the harsh realities of political refugees, the love of family, Cuban mythology, and the spirit of sisterhood. Mixing shadow puppetry, live-action, poetry, an original live score, and recorded audio interviews of the original sisters, ISLA blends magical realism and documentary theater to explore the experiences of being torn from one's home and the journey to create another.

HIT THE LIGHTS! CO. is an award-winning ensemble born from an artistic agreement to create and perform stories through collaborative non-hierarchy. The core HTL! company is comprised of four multidisciplinary artists who write, perform, puppet, direct and produce the work as a collective. Hit The Lights! follows the motto 'Less Talk, More Rock.' This motto drives the creative process, culminating in work that is hyper-theatrical in nature: performers multitask onstage in real-time to create the technical, musical, and narrative components of a story simultaneously. Believing that motion, color, sound, and atmosphere are more evocative and experiential than spoken text, a heavy emphasis is placed on dialogue-less, action-oriented storytelling. Consequently, this allows the work to connect with audience members of varying theatrical experience, physical ability, cultural background, and age. Cast and crew includes: Samantha Blain, Mikayla Stanley, Claron Hayden, Casey Scott Leach, Matthew Wills, Erica Knight, Tiffany Iris, and Daniela Delahuerta.

Past highlights include: DUNGEON (Audience Pick of the Fringe at the Cincinnati Fringe and Editors Pick at the Minnesota Fringe), WHALES (nominated for three New York Innovative Theater Awards including Outstanding Innovative Design, Outstanding Original Music, and Outstanding Premiere Production of a Play, as well as Artist Pick and Venue Award Minnesota Fringe), an original site-specific immersive theater experience in collaboration with the Know Theatre of Cincinnati THE OTHER RHINE, developing original shadow puppets for Vogue Magazine's March 2021 cover shoot featuring GIGI HADID, a live cinematic puppet adaptation of Gimlet Media's hit podcast The Habitat, a collaboration with New York Botanical Garden's Spooky Pumpkin Nights; a live music video for Grammy Award-nominated Sammy Miller and the Congregation, and being nominated for an Off-Broadway Alliance Award for "Best Family Show" for their theatrical adaptation of the book TASTE THE CLOUDS, commissioned by New York City Children's Theater. HTL!'s Off-Broadway credits include performances at Little Island, APAC, Dixon Place, La MaMa ETC, New Victory Theater Lab Works, The Flea Theater, Franklin Stage Company, New School College of Performing Arts and Ars Nova, where they were Company-In-Residence in 2018 and 2019.

More HTL! Info: www.hitthelights.org

Ticket Link: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/mayostreetarts/1302943/r/htl

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