Taking their floating house on tour

Change of State Performance Project arrives at the Union

By: Matt Erhmann

Posted: 4/23/09

The UWM campus has had a mind blowing roster of acts, performers and shows over the past few months, and as the semester wraps up it will play host to another highly regarded piece of theatre. Joining past acts is the Change of State Performance Project from Oakland, CA. Landing on April 22 at 1:00 pm, their latest original play, Take This House (And Float It Away) will be performed in its entirety at the UWM Union. Tickets are free and the performance is open to the public.

The original play follows the lives of a fictional Sacramento, CA couple living in a geographical hot spot guarded by a series of levees that protect the white collar town from the flooding hazards of nearby major rivers. An eye-opening look at what would happen if not the poor communities of New Orleans were ravaged but the high class areas of wealthy California, the play has been touring the Midwest since the beginning of April.

The focal point of the story, Stu and Marlene, attempt to ignore the painful reality that their idyllic bubble of a lifestyle is ending as the levees break and their town is submerged. Engaging in any distractions they can muster while the lives they thought were solid as steel are torn down in front of them, the audience is forced to cast a suspecting eye inward at the absurdities of complacency in day to day life and how to validate their own sense of self preservation.

The Change of State Performance Project first launched in 2005 as the brainchild of
Andrea del Moral and K. Qilo Matzen. According to website ChangeofState.org, the group has performed several original pieces of art including Abaft and Pask (by Lisa Fay), and Shoestrings Attached since inception. Utilizing a combination of dance, art pieces, words and movements, each performance gives life to a pointed topic and twists perception into a brand new experience for the audience.

Opening act Hoprock takes the audience on a seven minute journey with the use of a brand new instrument branded the 'udderbot'. The poetic performance uses both images and sounds to branch off varying narratives and bring them back together in the end.

The spring semester is coming to a close and until fall brings a new school year, the opportunities to experience high art at the UWM campus will be few and far between. A Wednesday afternoon spent with the Change of State Performance Project comes highly recommended.