upcoming shows

"BORDER CROSSING"
WHEN - Dates/Times: April 24 through May 4, 2008: Thur-Sat at 8pm, Sun at 2 p.m.
WHERE - at The Ritz Theatre, 345 13th Ave NE Minneapolis
TICKETS - Call the Ritz Box Office at 612-436-1129; for Information Call Off-Leash Area at 612-724-7372

"Rendon’s script, which is excerpted and adapted by this production, is loaded with rich detail... But the theater-makers keep an eye out for another border; that spot where a finely textured, impassioned political statement becomes heavy-handed and indulgent. For the better part of the show, they’re tackling difficult themes with honesty and admirable restraint...the show’s most vital, compelling element...the dancers Dana Buchwald, Erin Drummond, Zeb Henderson Shreve, and John Zeiler—move through the desert in relative silence with sharp, careful movements. Theirs is an elemental, primal performance, " Christy DeSmith - mnartists.org

"The program notes for Border Crossing, Off-Leash Area’s new work, state that “it is not our intention to create a political statement with Border Crossing, at our core not being a politically motivated company, although, as political people will tell you, everything’s political.”

I don’t think they achieved a non-political piece of theater. It is impossible to deal with such provocative subject matter and not have a political point of view. What they have achieved, however, is to create an ambitious, visually stunning epic that is emotionally compelling; and a complex, well-researched exploration of the topic of immigration... Ultimately, however, Border Crossing is a complex work of storytelling, full of discourse and imagery. The production asks more questions than it answers, but it addresses a very important political issue with empathy and grace." Sheila Regan, Education Coordinator for Teatro Del Pueblo for The Daily Planet
 
"Ever-present at the core of these divergent perspectives is the desert itself. Beautifully and inventively rendered through a shifting mass of six performers...Without being didactic, "Border Crossing" asks us to reflect on a situation that, as yet, doesn't have one." - Camille Lefevre, Star Tribune

"It's difficult to imagine any work about the U.S.-Mexico border and illegal immigration not being laden with considerable political baggage, but Off-Leash Area has managed the feat with Border Crossing...an occasionally evocative meditation...agitated and precise choreography... This is a work in search not of answers but of the intangible truths beneath the hard realities. Quite frequently it finds those elusive ghosts" - Quinton Skinner, City Pages
 
This activity is made possible, in part, by funds provided by the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council through an appropriation by the Minnesota Legislature. Marcie Rendon is a fiscal year 2008 recipient of a Cultural Community Partnership grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible in part by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Border Crossing is a story of a resilient little girl who traces her immigrant parents' footsteps across the Arizona/Mexico border, told through the voices of the desert itself. To tell this story, Off-Leash Area focuses on the heightened spirituality of the Sonoran Desert to highlight this human drama while simultaneously embracing the complexity of the current political debate. The award winning company uses its singular hybrid approach of fusing movement and interactive scenic elements to tell the story in a uniquely visual way, incorporating dance influenced by prayer and ritual, and puppetry that is constructed from the flotsam left behind by desperate peoples forced to search for a better life.

Along with text written by Anishinaabe playwright Marcie Rendon, and music composed by Ben Siems, Border Crossing is informed by stories from small-town Mexican citizens, Tucson snowbirds, Latino Border Patrolmen, and Native social workers told first hand to the artistic team while they were researching along the border last fall, thanks to a Minnesota State Arts Board Artists' Initiative Grant.

Off-Leash Area brings its sixteenth original work, Border Crossing, to the Ritz Theater. Opening April 24th in Northeast Minneapolis, this new work will include a cast of seventeen portraying the desert air, creatures, migrants and political and social voices that create the backdrop for a journey from Mexico into the southwestern United States. Border Crossing features two-time Ivey Award honorees Jennifer Ilse and Paul Herwig among a cast of seventeen dancers and actors, an original score by Ben Siems, and text by Jerome Fellow and Anishinaabe playwright Marcie Rendon.

"Any production by Off-Leash Area is an event: this group consistently pulls together extraordinary talents from all over town to produce performance that is dance, installation, theater, and concert in one" - Ann Klefstad, Editor of News & Features mnartists.org

For more on Off-Leash Area please visit www.offleasharea.org