basic north, a performance in three directions

premiered at The Southern Theater
June 28 - July 8, 2012

A fusion of neutral mask technique, European clown and modern dance, "Basic North" is told in three intertwining parts: Quiet Heart, Start Select, and Without Wax. Stylistically guided by one principle: no bullshit, the troupe explores a new kind of narrative and connection with audience.

Program Notes

Words from Noah Bremer,
Director of Quiet Heart

Good evening and welcome. Creating new work has been an adventure while juggling so many other responsibilities during this hectic period of my life. This acknowledgment of being “busy” has certainly seeped its way into the creative process as fodder for asking the questions, “What would I do in an alternate reality? What would happen if reality could bend and I peek into the other? And if I had a zipper in my skin that when pulled released my soul, how would I communicate?” Quiet Heart intends to peel back the wallpaper of everyday life to reveal what is beautiful, strange and possible in the realm of the imagination. Through the lens of a quiet person’s interactions, thoughts and feelings are conveyed in unique ways that lend insight to what lies beneath the surface of who we are and allows the soul to emerge.

Words from Emily King and Ryan Underbakke,
Co-Directors of Start Select

We are the first gaming generation. We began playing Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt on our neighbor’s NES and over the years have watched our pixelated sprites grow into artistic masterpieces that are almost human. But “artistic masterpiece” is relative and where we began our journey into the world of 8-bit.
While we grew up with puzzle games like Tetris and platformers like Donky Kong, we also played Final Fantasy where characters took an epic journey akin to such classics as The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, or Metroid in which you save the world as a bad-ass hero only to find in the end that your hero has been a heroine all along. These games were created with a base of six colors: red, blue, yellow, green, cyan, and magenta, and scored with only the beep and bloops available on the 8-bit computer chip. Despite these limitations, millions of people across the world dove into these alternate universes finding empathy with characters who, in spite of being comprised of many tiny squares, were so much like them (or who they wished they could be).
We’ve created Start Select as an ode to the 8-bit, a celebration of movement, color, nostalgia, and beautiful music. From beeps and bloops come playful, complex, dark, and affecting melodies that transport and move us, much like the games that we so fondly remember them by.

Words from Dario Tangelson,
Director of Without Wax

Without Wax is an invisible extreme sport, an internal high wire act, a latent explosion of fireworks. Its style demands an impossible task from the performers: to do nothing and be present at the same time. Their simple, intimate communication should transcend their extreme economy of expression to allow for a deep, shared experience between audience and performers. As an almost impossible task, it borders the absurd, a place of energized possibility beyond automatic expressive responses and acquired mutual expectations. For this exchange to become manifest, something equally impossible is demanded of the audience: to do nothing and be present at the same time.

"There''s a winning sense of spontaneity and creative evolution whirring from within this work's core"
-Caroline palmer, Star Tribune

on stage

Crane Adams ........................ performer, Without Wax
Noah Bremer ........................ performer, Quiet Heart and Without Wax
Joanna Harmon ................... performer, Without Wax
Emily King ............................. performer, Start Select
Dustin Maxwell ..................... performer, Start Select
Skyler Nowinski .................... performer, Without Wax
Tyler Olsen ............................ performer, Without Wax
Stephanie Shirek .................. performer, Start Select
Katelyn Skelley ..................... performer, Without Wax

off stage

Dario Tangelson ................... director, Without Wax
Noah Bremer ........................ director, Quiet Heart
Emily King ............................. co-director/choreograhper, Start Select
Ryan Underbakke ................ co-director/choreograhper, Start Select
Ben Gansky ............................ production stage manager
Lindsay Woolward ............... technical director
William Harmon ................... lighting designer
Mandi Johnson ...................... costume designer
Joanna Harmon .................... marketing designer
Anna Hickey........................... production assistant
Eva Mohn .............................. artistic consultant, Quiet Heart
Anna Reichert ....................... creative developer, Without Wax
Megan Odell ......................... creative developer, Without Wax