rebecca Farr
A&E Editor
The flooded streets of the Keene State campus sailed students, faculty and members of the Keene community to the Redfern Arts Center 2013-14 Season Kick-off Party.
Last Thursday, September 12, the busy reception area was adorned with old-fashioned costumes and puppets hanging from the ceiling.
A few birds and a dog dressed like Sherlock Holmes floated around the lobby.
A member of the Redfern Arts Center, Marilyn Robbins, has lived in Keene for just about 40 years now.
Robbins said she has been coming to the Redfern for many years and “is always entertained.”
Contributed Photo: The Pilobolus Dance Theater, famous for performing at the Academy Awards and the Olympics, returns to KSC on Oct. 15. This time with KSC alum Shawn Ahern.
“They [the Redfern] really do serve the community,” she said, “We’re so lucky in Keene, there are so many places to see and participate in music. I don’t know too many other communities like that.”
Moving from the lobby to the Alumni Recital Hall, Andrew Harris, Dean of Arts and Humanities, welcomed the audience to the exciting preview of what is up and coming at the Redfern.
Shortly after, the Director of the Redfern, Shannon Mayers, addressed the audience.
“We are the arts center for all of the Monadnock community,” she said, “We have a wonderful and diverse season this year.”
The first performance of the evening was by Sandglass Theater.
The Sandglass Theater is a public theater out of Putney, Vt. The group was founded in Germany in 1982 and moved to Putney in ’86.
Founders Eric Bass and Ines Zeller Bass had friends in Vermont and made the move. Administrator of the theater, Kirk Murphy was also in attendance.
Murphy was a part of the music department at Antioch University and branched off into puppetry.
He interned with the Sandglass and eventually became one of their own.
The puppet theater is a returner to the Redfern. This time, bringing “D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks.”
Murphy explained that each puppeteer plays a caregiver and each puppet is in a different stage of Dementia.
The elderly puppets are in wheelchairs, which are composed of “a hybrid of baby strollers and crutches,” Murphy said.
One of the two excerpts was of Zeller Bass, puppeteer of the elderly character Rose.
Murphy, the caregiver, brought Rose a drink and she began to reminisce of her dancing days.
On a small rant, it was quickly brought back to Rose’s attention that she was thirsty—even though she had just had a drink.
Her caregiver became just a bit frustrated, but not nearly as much as Rose was when she was informed that she had already had a drink.
The next performance was Falling Under—a dance choreographed by KSC senior Gabriella Pacheco.
She and two fellow dancers, Jordann Cardinal and Lara Underkoffler, performed an interpretive-seeming dance.
The dancers were reaching for something, but what?
They had amazing balance yet the dance seemed to be a portrayal of, perhaps, a lack of balance in the world.
Following this routine were two faculty members of the music department, the newly welcomed Daniel Carberg and José Lezcano.
Carberg was the tenor and Lezcano on guitar.
Their pieces revealed a love song, “Boy loves girl and girl has better things to do,” Carberg said.
The last performance was by Matthew Janczewski’s Arena Dances.
Janczewski, said their work on “The Main Street Dance Project” represents what can happen to a small town—do we know how to connect with people face to face?
“Does the local Main Street still exist?” He asked. “I go home to Illinois and say, ‘what happened to my hometown?’”
The performance began with just one dancer on stage but soon enough the rest of the Arena Dance crew stormed the stage.
The group of five dancers—Kimmie Allen, Sarah Baumert, Elise Erickson, Dustin Haug and Timmy Wagner—were on one stage, but the relationships between each of them seemed to alter throughout the performance.
Helping each other up, then pushing one another down, they slowly trailed around each other, weaved through one another, with a bold message yet with such gentle and natural movements.
Toward the end of their show, all but two fled the stage.
With the spotlight on them, a woman explained the capabilities of Facebook.
As she described the social networking website, a man behind her seemed to be mocking her explanations.
“You can find out someone’s relationship status,” she said, and he was behind her pretending to take her hand in proposal.
She said, “You can look at their pictures and see if they like cats,” as her comrade swiveled through her feet like a cat would.
While these performances mirrored a few select events, what else can the Keene community expect from the Redfern? A whole lot.
KSC can also look forward to a collaboration of the KSC Chamber Singers, the Community Chamber Singers and a German Community Choir who will arrive to Keene on October 4.
From the Pilobolus Dance Theater (including KSC alum Shawn Ahern), to the Debo Band—a former performer at the popular music festival Bonaroo—to Cirque Alfonse and the Sandglass Theater, the Redfern Arts Center at Brickyard Pond has these and several various, traveling acts to offer.
With some returners and some new to the KSC campus, the Redferm anticipates their arrival.
To add to the mix, five local restaurants are partnered with the Redfern.
Elm City Brewery, McCue’s Billiards and Sports Lounge, Nicola’s Trattoria, The Pub and Ramunto’s Brick Oven Pizza are offering a ten percent discount for Redfern ticket holders on the night of each visiting artists’ performance.
Rebecca Farr can be contacted at
rfarr@keene-equinox.com