NACL PRESENTS
FESTUS
Welcome to FESTUS, a joyful, hands-on theatrical experience from Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble.
FESTUS invites you to step into a colorful, interactive world — solve puzzles, play games, respond to prompts — then watch your ideas come to life on stage that same day!
In this live, in-the-moment “lab,” your contributions are the inspiration for a 45–50 minute “Soundpainted” performance. Guided by certified Soundpainter, Leese Walker, the interdisciplinary ensemble transforms your stories into music, movement, and spontaneous theater using Soundpainting, the universal multidisciplinary sign language for composing live performance in real time.
It's playful. It's surprising. It's art in the making. Come be part of the experiment—and see what you create!
About the Artists
Since 1997, Strike Anywhere has been creating nuanced and polished improvisations with its collective of world-class jazz musicians, dancers and actors. Strike Anywhere's primary compositional tool is Soundpainting - a sign language for live composition, invented by composer Walter Thompson in 1974, that allows a conductor to sculpt a composition in real-time with improvising performers.
Strike Anywhere is the preeminent Soundpainting ensemble in the U.S. and has performed and taught in over 200 venues in 16 states and 8 countries.
Strike Anywhere production POP UP in Fort Greene, Brooklyn in 2019