Pointless Theatre, DC's premiere puppet spectacle company, is proud to finish off their 2015-2016 season with their newly reimagined production of Hugo Ball: a Dada puppet AdveNTurE!!/?1!!??.
Pointless Theatre transforms the Logan Fringe Arts Space into a Dada puppet spectacle using their signature blend of puppetry, theatre, dance, music, and the visual arts to tell the story of Hugo Ball, the founder of the Dada movement that smashed the boundaries of the art world and ushered in an epoch of avant-garde artists. Through Ball's story, the show explores themes of art, love, and faith, with an anarchic sense of humor. Hugo Ball won Best Experimental Show in the 2011 Fringe Festival. Five years later, the company is re-imagining this celebrated piece with a new staging by Matt Reckeweg, a fresh script by David Lloyd Olson, and brand new designs by Patti Kalil. Pointless' Dada adventure will coincide with the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Dada movement at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. We are delighted to return to the spirit of Dada," says Director Matt Reckeweg. "Even though 100 years have passed since the beginning of the movement, it feels just as relevant now as it did then."
An ensemble of ten performer-puppeteers presents Ball's life from his squalid childhood in Germany to his coming of age as an artist. Hugo Ball and cabaret artist Emmy Hennings fall in lust on the eve of World War I and flee to Zurich, Switzerland. They establish the Cabaret Voltaire and invite avant-garde artists from all over Europe to join them in creating what eventually becomes Dada. As World War I comes to an end, Dada and Ball's life appear to be spinning out of control. The performer-puppeteers switch from puppets to masks to musical instruments, playing more than fifty characters throughout the performance and providing cacophonous live musical accompaniment with original music by Aaron Bliden and sound design by Michael Winch.
Pointless Theatre will also be installing a gallery exhibition of visual art at the Logan Fringe Arts Space throughout the run of the show. The gallery will feature works in a variety of media created by the cast and creative team throughout the production process of Hugo Ball and inspired by Dada and the historical avant-garde.
Pointless Theatre was the 2014 recipient of the John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company, given by the
Helen Hayes Awards and theatreWashington. The production begins previews on April 15, opens April 21, and runs through May 14, 2016 at Capital Fringe's Trinidad Theatre at the Logan Fringe Arts Space (1358 Florida Ave, NE). This is a return to Fringe for Pointless, their second in the new Capital Fringe venue, just blocks away from H Street and Gallaudet University.
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