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Originally published January 11, 2008 in The Washington Post
Celebrating Visual Appeal One thing the organizers of QuestFest won't ever have to worry about is a writers' strike. That's because the two-week celebration of visual theater, which opens Monday at four Maryland venues, is about pictures rather than words. Bringing together troupes from around the world, the festival offers a lineup of stories told through mime, dance, sign language, puppetry, animation and the circus arts. Anything, in the words of founder and director Tim McCarty, based on a "series of images coming at you" rather than lines of spoken dialogue. Which is not to say that all the performances take place in silence. McCarty -- a 21-year veteran of Gallaudet University's Model Secondary School for the Deaf, the last eight of which were spent as artistic director of the school's performing arts program -- is quick to note that some shows do incorporate what he calls "vocalization." Still, what defines visual theater is its emphasis on imagery. Think of it, McCarty says, as if you are "watching a movie with the sound turned off." In fact, McCarty himself comes across sounding more like a filmmaker than a theater director when discussing his own work, an adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland" (Thursday at 10:30 and 8; Jan. 18 and 19 at 8; and Jan. 20 at 2 at Towson University Center for the Arts). Such terms as "frame," "cutting away," "long shot" and "close-up" demonstrate a way of storytelling more dependent on the eye than the ear.
QUESTFEST Monday through Jan. 27. Round House Theatre, Baltimore Theatre Project, Creative Alliance at the Patterson and Towson University. Complete schedule at http://www.questfest.org or 410-539-3091. For tickets, 410-704-2787. $8-$20; festival pass $40-$60. |
According to McCarty, that will never be truer than when the Hong Kong-based Theatre of the Silence brings "Creation" to Silver Spring's Round House Theatre (Jan. 18 at 10:30 and 8) and Towson University Center for the Arts (Jan. 24 and 26 at 8, Jan. 27 at 1). The story of the universe's origins, he says, lends itself naturally to wordless movement. Still, when McCarty describes the production as "a story of the Big Bang," his double entendre seems wonderfully appropriate, if not entirely intentional.
