Accompanied by an original score composed and performed by University of Colorado at Boulder music students, an innovative California-based troupe will stage a theater production on stilts in the campus's new black-box theater.
The Carpetbag Brigade Physical Theater Company, a touring ensemble based in Oakland, Calif., will present "The Vanishing Point" at 8 p.m. on Sunday, April 15, in the black-box theater in CU-Boulder's state-of-the-art ATLAS building. ATLAS, which stands for Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society, is located in the center of campus northeast of the University Memorial Center.
Admission to the performance is free and open to the public.
CU-Boulder students enrolled in a class called "Composing at the Computer" will write and perform the music for the upcoming show, which the Carpetbag Brigade describes as "a spectacular and dreamlike physical poem composed around themes of evolution, extinction and the riddle of grief underlying history."
Michael Theodore, an associate professor of music who teaches the class, said students in his class jumped at the opportunity to compose a score for a theater troupe that has earned critical acclaim around the world.
"My classes always involve projects with performance goals, but this is a very special collaboration," Theodore said. "The opportunity to work with the Carpetbag Brigade arose and we decided to adapt our class project to this dramatic and innovative dance, theater and music production."
Theodore is teaching "Composing at the Computer" for the first time this semester. The new class explores both improvisational and compositional techniques for creating music with computers.
"Students come away from the class being able to produce work for distribution on the Web or on CD, as well as being able to perform electronic music for live audiences," he said.
CU-Boulder undergraduate and graduate students will perform original music for the Carpetbag Brigade performance with acoustic instruments and computers. The Carpetbag Brigade's members will perform on stilts in elaborate costumes and makeup in movements that merge acrobatic prowess with modern dance and Butoh, a performance art featuring white body make-up that first emerged in post-World War II Japan.
The troupe, founded in Arizona in 1998, has performed before crowds from British Columbia to Bogot谩, Colombia. Directed by Jay Ruby and Kristen Greco, the group performs indoors and outdoors and is known for fostering a sense of intimacy, poetic dialogue and mythic imagery to its work.
Visit to learn more about the CU-Boulder College of Music and to read about the ATLAS Institute. For more information about the Carpetbag Brigade, go to .