Photo: “The Planet” from PUSH’s Galileo, credit: PUSH Physical Theatre
Three performances at SOTA before national DRACULA tour
PLUS: Three new PUSH performers make their stage debuts
Rochester, NY (July 25, 2018) – Rochester’s internationally renowned PUSH Physical Theatre returns to the seventh KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival (Wednesday, September 12 – Saturday, September 22) for its seventh year. PUSH will present three, all-ages performances at School of the Arts: Allen Main Stage Theatre (45 Prince St.): Saturday, Sept. 16 at 7 p.m.; Sunday, Sept. 17 at 8 p.m.; Thursday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m., and Saturday, Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $18 and available online at rochesterfringe.com, by phone at 585-957-9837 (phone fees apply), or in person starting Sunday, Sept. 10 at the Fringe Box Office (corner of Main & Gibbs Streets) or at the venue door one hour before show time (if tickets remain).
Before heading off on a national tour of PUSH Physical Theatre’s DRACULA, these masters of motion theatre will treat Fringe audiences to highlights from a stunning season that included world-premiere collaborations with the RPO and the Ying Quartet. Along with excerpts from those performances, PUSH will present fan favs from the award-winning company’s 18 years.
In addition, the Fringe performances will mark the PUSH stage debuts of three new company members: Lianne Hart, Ashley Jones, and Walker Robeson.
Lianne Hart, originally from Rochester, NY, received her training from Columbia College Chicago, graduating cum laude with a BA in Dance with a concentration in Choreography. Lianne has trained with various companies such as Giordano Dance Chicago, Japan Dance Now, Lucky Plush Productions, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, The Seldoms, Autumn Eckman, Randy Duncan, Reggie Wilson, and Peter Carpenter. Her choreographic work, “Wishful Thinking 2.0: An Informal Fallacy,” was selected to be a part of the Going Dutch Festival in Chicago in 2013. Lianne also premiered a solo piece, “#HerToo,” at SUNY Geneseo’s Dance Ensemble 50th Anniversary performance.
Ashley Jones is a physical performer, actor, and deviser. After earning his BA European Theatre Arts from Rose Bruford College, London and training in Physical Theatre at Academia Teatro Dimitri in Switzerland, he went on to train with Phillipe Gaulier and Angela De Castro in theatrical clowning, which has formed a large part of his solo practice. As a physical performer, Ashley has worked and trained with UK-based theatre companies Gecko Physical Theatre, Nonsuch Theatre, and Frantic Assembly. His recent credits include: The Party’s Over (2017), Eclipse (2017), The Russian Play (2017) and Into the Clouds (2018). As Artistic Director of Theatre Kinaesthetic, Ashley continues to develop and produce his own work exploring physical modalities within ensemble and devised performance. His credits with Theatre KinAesthetic include Rite of Passage (2015, 2016).
Walker Robeson was born and raised in Winona, Minnesota. He started training in traditional Japanese martial arts when he was five, and after competing internationally through his teenage years, found his way – largely by accident – to the stage. He holds a BA in Acting and Sculpture from St. Mary’s University of MN, and an MFA from The East 15 School of Acting in London. He has also trained at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, The Russian National Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS), and The National Centre for Circus Arts in London.
“All three performers have been training with us since our Summer Intensive in June, which attracts artists from all over the world,” explains PUSH Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director Darren Stevenson. “We’re very excited to introduce our new PUSHers to the hometown crowd before heading out on the road in October.”
More about PUSH: PUSH Physical Theatre was founded in Rochester, NY in 2000 by husband-and-wife team, Darren and Heather Stevenson, with a mission to push the boundaries of conventional theatre. For 18 years, these masters of motion have been inspiring awe and igniting emotion with physical illusions and gravity-defying, dance-infused, acrobatic high jinks. In addition to a busy touring schedule that continues to take them all over the U.S. and the world, PUSH were finalists on truTV’s Fake Off in 2014 (Season One), during which judge/Glee star Harry Shum, Jr. said: “You guys are superhuman!” They’re also very involved in arts-in-education programs and run their own PUSH Pins Summer Camp, Teen Training, and Summer Intensive for adult students from all over the world. Full-length works include PUSH’s Jekyll & Hyde, Dracula, Arc of Ages, as well as 2013’s choreography for composer Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated opera, Comala. In 2016, Zohn-Muldoon, fellow Eastman School of Music faculty and composer Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, PUSH, and many other Mexican and U.S. artists collaborated on a multi-media opera called Don’t Blame Anyone (No Se Culpe), for which they received the Lillian Fairchild Memorial Award from the University of Rochester. Many shorter works include “Red Ball,” a study of interplay between the real and virtual worlds using iPad technology, created in collaboration with RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf. Darren and Heather are recipients of both the Anton Germano Dance Award and the Performing Artist of the Year Award from the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester and have spoken about their unique artistic process at TEDx Rochester. More information is available at pushtheatre.org.
Media please note: High-resolution photos and more information are available at pushtheatre.org/#presspresenters, and interviews and photo/footage opportunities can be arranged.
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