Dance On Bones
by Dr. Dave White, directed by Dr. Matt Saltzberg
Come join the Larry D. Clark Summer Repertory Theatre and our company of actors and musicians for Dance on Bones an experience built with – and not just for – the audience.
Dance on Bones is a theatre-jazz odyssey. Inspired by “bones recordings,” or the process of smuggling illegal music in Soviet times by carving banned jazz or recordings of American music onto used X-ray slides. Dance on Bones uses this idea as an entry point to a world where jazz is valuable enough to risk life and freedom for, but it just might be the key to saving humanity.
Dr. Dave Whites’s plays have been seen in theatres in the U.S., Russia, and Uzbekistan, where Dance on Bones was a featured play in 2014’s Ilkhom Theatre Festival of American Culture. Dave has had the honor of having one of his plays banned by a U.S. Embassy from an international production, having his work presented in a theatre where dogs searched the building for bombs before the production, and having a U.S. production censored by Wal-Mart. Dave is currently a Professor of Playwriting at Towson University in Maryland, but grew up in Missouri, where he loves to return each summer, and received his Ph.D. in Theatre at MU in 2005.
A theatre experience unlike any other, Dance on Bones creates a futuristic world infused by jazz, creation myths, and a planet at war with its people. A company of nine mid-Missouri actors and musicians will spin music and stories of a city where sea levels are rising, trees are important, and music fills the air. As Dr. Matt Saltzberg, director, states, “Dance on Bones is about the spirit of humanity that jazz captures…Jazz is the creative process incarnate.”
MU Theatre’s new venue, Studio 4, located in the former McKee Gymnasium at 672 Hitt St, will be transformed into an environment to immerse the audience, surrounding them with the words, music, and movement portraying a world very much like our own, where environmental changes have gone beyond the tipping point. When asked how this production will connect with audiences in Columbia, Dave White, playwright, notes that, “People here in the Missouri are connected to both the legacy of jazz and the ecological changes we’re seeing around us.”
Whereas most theatre has the possibility of each performance being different, Dance on Bones pushes this concept to the extreme and the production will be presented in a spontaneous order for each performance, which means that you’ll probably want to see it more than once. This unique immersive theatre experience will be a great way to cool off with theatre and jazz during a hot, Missouri summer.
Studio 4, 672 Hitt St. 7:00 pm: June 27 – 30 • 2:00 pm: June 30, July 1 • 10:00 pm: June 28
General Admission Tickets $16 Group discounts available, please call.
BOX OFFICE: Rhynsburger Theatre Lobby 2p-5p, Mon-Fri and one hour before performance.
(573) 882-PLAY(7529) or online: theatre.missouri.edu
EARLY BIRD DISCOUNTS): $2 discount on tickets purchased one week or more ahead of show at box office. Early Bird discount is not available online or by phone. Group discounts available only at the Rhynsburger box office, please call (573) 882-PLAY (7529).