BWW Interviews: THE INNER JOURNEY: MIME, MUSIC, STORY

A Grammy-nominated musician and a world-renowned mime artist each stand out in the Tucson arts community. Together, they're an event not to be missed at the Stevie Eller Dance Theatre this weekend.

"Enrique "Hank" Feldman is composing music to Rick Wamer's mime narratives that range from the rustic West to images of life; from comedy to drama. The evening titled The Inner Journey promises mystery, meaning, mischief and unexpected fun. (Also appearing in three performances is Tucson mime artist and teacher Lorie Heald.)

"We have built this show to draw audiences into our journey," says Rick. "The music and the movement are intimate; it's like we are nose to nose with the audience."

"We breathe together and when Rick moves and I make music, every individual in the house moves with us," adds Enrique.

Rick continues, "Spoken text theatre puts too much emphasis on the text without enough of the play relying on the drama in the very sinews and fibers of the actor herself. I am so about a theater of the actor not so much the reiteration of the playwright's work. I can read the play, but I come to the theatre to be taken on a body centered journey where the actor is the tour guide and the body owns the preeminence of knowing long before the mind can comprehend, construct a thought, and utter it in speech. That speech, will either confirm or deny (betray) what the body knows. Or the body showing its knowledge first will betray the truth or confirm the truth of the utterance to follow. That is my theater. It's also the core of my acting technique."

During the course of the performance Rick and Enrique will wrestle with a balloon, consider the meaning of the universe and take their audience to many other places in the world of their imagination.

Enrique's music for The Inner Journey samples jazz, classical, and Latin with references to folk and pop as it moves with Rick's incomparable ability to say so much without speaking.

TICKETS AND MORE INFORMATION: Stevie Eller Dance Theatre, University of Arizona, Tucson. Tickets $25/$20 Friday, May 23, 7: 30 pm Saturday, May 24, 2 and 7:30 pm, Sunday, May 25, 2 pm. 520-818-8403 wamermime.com

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