Once Again, Maelstrom Collaborative Arts Reinvents Itself

Thu 10/8-Sun 11/1

There’s probably no local performing ensemble more adept at transforming itself than Maelstrom Collaborative Arts, nee Theater Ninjas. Beginning life as a relatively normal theater doing adventurous scripts in borrowed locations, it started to morph from scripted productions to fluid, interactive situational evenings, and then, moving finally into its own space in Gordon Square, it acquired a new name and a focus on cross-disciplinary artistic collaborations.

Now, thanks to the pandemic, MCA has reinvented itself again.

“With 2020 in upside down world, we’ve been responding swiftly and immediately to several pandemics (COVID, the enduring legacy of racism in America) and we’ve done that by SCRAPPING OUR ENTIRE SEASON, and instead starting a new format of making socially relevant and physically distant performance & art, including our most recent Storefront Window Residencies, which supports artists of all backgrounds to express themselves in a safe and meaningful way,” says Marcia Custer, the theater’s “connectivity director” and herself a performance artist.

Those Storefront Window Residencies were a series of weekends when pairs of artists installed art and did periodic live performances in Maelstrom’s window while viewers could gather to watch on the sidewalk.

And now it’s created ANOTHER new thing called The Wandering, which they describes as “an immersive, interactive pseudo-performance to be experienced by one person at a time.” Executive Artistic Director Jeremy Paul has worked with a creative team of 32 dancers, painters, filmmakers, installation artists, writers, musicians and performers to “construct a gallery of dream-spaces that tell the story of a group of strangers brought together under mysterious circumstances.”

“This show is coming out of our desire to make work where we could physically separate artists and audiences,” says Paul. “We take the ongoing pandemic very seriously and first and foremost want to keep our artist and audience community safe. At the same time, we are at our core an arts company that champions work that exists in time and space.”

Prospective audience members sign up for a time slot to be the only visitor (there can be two if they are from the same household) to view the installations as well as live elements and changes in the environment that take place during the one-hour time slot. Visitors will be required to wear a mask.

“Our compromise is a kind of art gallery that is structured in a theatrical way, almost like a theme park ride or haunted house,” says Paul. “We’re working with over 30 artists to lead the audience through a shared dreamscape that explores themes of connection/disconnection, individualism vs. collectivism, resilience, mourning, and use of artistic metaphor to reframe our lives.”

The Wandering runs from Thursday, October 8 through Sunday, November 1. Time slots are available on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are $25. Go here to purchase them and claim a slot.

maelstromcollaborativearts

Cleveland, OH 44102

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