Attack Theatre causes “Incident[s] in the Strip”

Attack Theatre

Pittsburgh Opera’s Headquarters

Nov. 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21

8 p.m.

Student… Attack Theatre

Pittsburgh Opera’s Headquarters

Nov. 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21

8 p.m.

Student tickets are $15 at the door, or visit www.proartstickets.org or call 412-394-3353.

Most theaters have a percussionist, and some companies might even incorporate that percussionist into a production.

But only Attack Theatre would put a percussionist on a skateboard and send him careening onto the stage the way it does in its latest dance production, “Incident[s] in the Strip.”

Producing artistic director Peter Kope said the mobile musician jumpstarts the show.

“What we’re playing with is the idea that every incident in your life changes things,” Kope said. “Everything that happens to you changes how you do the next thing. The entrance of the skateboarding percussionist changes the world [of the performance] as the first incident. It has a madcap-y sensibility to it.”

The incidents that shape the plot are not accidents but rather, daily occurrences that range from waiting for the bus to being asked for spare change.

The dance-theater production plays with the effects of chance occurrences, as well as memory.

The second act largely responds to the first, drawing upon and playing with the audience’s memories and recollections of act one.

“As the show progresses, material is picked up and integrated into what’s going on,” music director and composer Dave Eggar said. “The basic material of the first act keeps getting invaded and developed by the various incidents that happen.”

Eggar said Attack Theatre collaborated with the opera before sharing a space with it, most recently in “Eugene Onegin” in October.

“We like to embrace an eclectic palate of music. Each of the incidents has a different stylistic theme, which gets picked up and integrates wider and wider range of styles,” Eggar said. “It’s a pretty rocking show — lot of intense and exciting groove-based music and cool things with live sampling.”

In act two, the audience and performers switch roles — spatially, anyway.

Theatergoers won’t have to get up and dance, but after intermission, they will find themselves sitting where the stage previously existed, as dancers cavort through where the seats used to exist.

Kope said this shift explores the experience of being an audience member vs. being the performer.

The show also reflects the company’s transition to its new home, hence the incorporation of the location into the performance’s title.

“We’re using live music, dance and lighting to create an event that is in some ways our response to being in the Strip [District]” Kope said. “The Strip is the kind of place that allows for a lot of imagining.”

The production explores the idea that “everybody uses the Strip as a playground, but there are people who live there and people who go to work there every day,” Kope said. “A window pulls back across from a bar patio where you’re having a beer, and it’s somebody’s gorgeous apartment. It’s so cool.

“There’s that saying about everyone being connected by six degrees of separation, but with Pittsburgh it’s more like one degree,” he said.

The theater company realized how desperately it needed a permanent studio space when preparations for one performance found the members rehearsing at five locations over a two-day period.

After that, they decided to settle down.

Kope said that to some extent, the mobility of the performance made it somewhat beneficial.

“Moving around isn’t that awful for us. It’s very reenergizing. When you’re comfortable someplace, it’s time to move on,” he said.

Eggar discussed the ways in which the production integrates the aspects of music and dance to craft a commentary on the performance’s themes.

“There’s a lot of interesting commentary. For example, with the music, all of act one is amplified and beautifully scored. In act two, [the musicians play] on the stage with instruments and found objects,” he said.

Eggar said he hopes “Incident[s] in the Strip” will pleasantly surprise the audience.

“There’s a very fun flavor. It’s kind of hard to explain, but there are some very cool surprises,” he said.