Don't Miss The Butterfly Garden: High-tech Theatre for Kids!
by eli
In addition to their outstanding concert and movie series, for the past several years the Ann Arbor Summer Festival has brought something different to town from far away; new kinds of theatrical experiences like Australia's Strange Fruit in 2007 or The Dream Engine from the UK in 2008. This year, the Summer Festival has brought Company T.P.O., a troupe from Italy that produces "Interactive theatre in immersive environments for children". Company T.P.O. is here in Ann Arbor through this Sunday, performing "The Butterfly Garden" (or Farfalle), a 45-minute show that blends engaging digital imagery and music with dance and audience involvement through the life cycle of a Butterfly. I took my family to see the first show earlier today, and we absolutely loved it... read more to find out about the show and how you can see it during its Ann Arbor run.
The performance takes place in the rehearsal room at the Power Center, and after removing our shoes, the audience is ushered into two seating areas on either side of a floor with two gently sloping fabric walls that serves as the projection surface for the interactive graphics. The show is beautifully designed, scored, and performed, and is just the right length for small kids, but the most amazing aspect of The Butterfly Garden is how naturally and seamlessly kids from the audience are drawn into the show. My kids weren't crazy about the thought that they might be asked to participate, and I wasn't sure how they would react if approached, but when one of the dancers extended her hand towards my 4-year-old girl, she took it and stepped right into the show and into character, stepping carefully onto projected cocoons, joining the dancer and 2 other kids under a gauzy tent to pretend to sleep inside a chrysalis. Even my 8-year-old son later wished he had been picked.
I've seen some pretty lame interpretive dance and heard some pretty forgettable electronic music in the past, but these performances by the two dancers in The Butterfly Garden were exciting, athletic and didn't take themselves too seriously, and the score is progressive, dynamic, and sets a range of moods throughout the show. The set and the props make very clever use of the projected images to fill the stage and the room with moving light and sound without taking away from the warm, human performances, and the combined experience of the music, the imagery and a very simple story makes for a rewarding theatrical experience that focuses on interactivity and immersion instead of spectacle and volume. The Butterfly Garden is an unmissable experience for kids from preschool on, and sets a high bar for what 21st century theatre can be.
Performances of The Butterfly Garden continue through this Sunday, and if you didn't get a chance to see the show, or want to go back for more time on the set, AADL will be offering four free opportunities to visit the world of the Butterfly Garden as an installation, without the performance, at 2:30 and 3:30 PM this Thursday and Saturday at the Power Center.
Thanks to the Summer Festival for bringing another outstanding experience to our community!
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