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One man's trash is another's interactive stage prop

By Alison Cumbow

Friday, February 26, 2010

Ilan Azriel, the creator of tonight’s performance at the Lied Center, “The Aluminum Show,” got the idea for it while browsing a tool shop in Tel Aviv, Israel. He pulled a tool off a shelf, and it fell on the floor. As it fell, the tool, an aluminum air duct piping, moved in a slinky-type motion. As Azriel watched it move, he pictured it in a much bigger form, with lights, music and dancers. Tonight, his idea will be implemented as part of its first tour of the United States when it makes a stop to perform at the Lied Center.

The Aluminum Show

What: An interactive performance similar to Blue Man Group and Stomp

Where: The Lied Center

When: 7:30 p.m. tonight

Cost: $12 for students and children; $24-28 for adults

“Ilan was always very creative, and looking for new ideas for new shows,” the U.S. producer of The Aluminum Show, David Azulay, said via telephone in Maryland. “He wanted to create something unique that no one had seen before.”

The 75-minute Aluminum Show is similar in genre to Blue Man Group in that it requires audience interaction, but Azulay said the content isn’t the same. The props are made of aluminum tubing, foil sheets and balloons — some of which the audience must pass around. Walls become animated, creatures transform and objects turn into dancers during the performance, according to a news release on the event.

Rachel Baram, CEO of Dollbeat Group, the production company that puts on the show, said the performance was compared to a theater spectacle.

“Ilan was inspired by the material,” she said, adding that the audience interaction part of the show came about after the company realized that the audience really wanted to touch and understand the material.

photo

Contributed photo

Dancers in "The Aluminum Show" during the 75-minute performance. The show will be at the Lied Center tonight at 7:30

“It’s a fun show,” Azulay said. “People have never seen anything like this.”

Kim Spencer, a pre-Pharmacy student from Overland Park and associate director of ticketing at the Lied Center, said the center had never had anything like The Aluminum Show before.

There are six dancers in the performance, and three prop operators who are also part of the show. All of the performers are from or live in Israel.

Azulay said the show had a successful five-week run in Atlantic City in 2008, which planted the seed for its first U.S. tour this year. The tour began in January in New York, performed a three-week stint in Charlotte, N.C., and traveled to Florida before its stop in Lawrence tonight.

“It’s something different,” Spencer said, adding that as of Thursday, about 1,200 tickets were sold, and the capacity for the show would be about 1,900.

The Lied Center Student Association will also accept canned goods tonight as a donation for a food drive that will benefit food pantries in Lawrence.

— Edited by Kate Larrabee

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