TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

by Gretchen Elizabeth Smith

 

Presented as part of the Festival of Independent Theatres

At the Bath House Cultural Center

July 7  -  July 27, 2001

 

Directed and choreographed

by Sara Romersberger

 

Featuring:

Mary-Margaret Pyeatt

Paul Womack

Anna Brownsted

John Athas

 

 Stage Manager: Andrew Messer

Sound Design: Curtis Craig

Costume Design: Terri Ferguson

Props Coordinator: Tish Mussey-Hitt

 

 

Tripping the Light Fantastic is a collection of four 10-minute plays held together by the theme of intimate relationships enacted through ballroom dances. 

 

In "The History of the Tango," a college professor lecturing on the origins of the dance finds himself in a demonstration with a mysterious woman who seduces him with the rhythms of the tango.

 

"A Waltz for Four Feet" explores the notion of leading, not only within the dance – performed here by two actresses - but within relationships as well.

 

Two men demonstrate the "Fox Trot."  One is all flash and no substance until the other shows him how to focus on his steps and his partner and fall into the dance...and perhaps into intimacy.

 

"Strip Polka" brings a polka dancing couple onto center stage in the midst of an Oktoberfest nightmare.  The impulse to loosen their lederhosen - and their inhibitions - leads to a funny, sexy, unexpected exploration of polka rhythms.