(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- The Mason Gross School of the Arts Dance Department is set to host San Francisco-based dance-theater innovator Joe Goode and his company in the critically acclaimed Hush from Wednesday, February 10 to Saturday, February 13, 2016, at the Victoria J. Mastrobuono Theater. Performances are at 7:30pm.
Goode, a Bessie Award winner and a Guggenheim Fellow, has said that he was drawn to shaping six characters loosely inspired by the lives of “ordinary folks who might have experienced being ‘hushed’ or of ‘hushing’ themselves.”
The driving question: What do we feel and experience when we don’t meet society’s expectations of “appropriate” behavior? Goode and his creative team fueled Hush’s narrative by speaking to LGBTQIA young adults who have encountered ostracism or bullying, elderly men and women feeling marginalized by a youth-obsessed culture, women who have been sexually assaulted, as well as people with Parkinson’s disease burdened by a sense of isolation. The result: a production melding theater, dance, and an original score, composed and performed by Ben Juodvalkis. Hush also features a collaboration with sound-effects artist Sudhu Tewari, who composes a sonic environment from ambient sound and appears onstage.
Hush runs 7:30pm from February 10 to 13, 2016, at the Victoria J. Mastrobuono Theater. Tickets are $15 for the general public, $10 for Rutgers alumni and employees and seniors, and only $5 for students with valid ID. The student price is available through the ticket office during weekdays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturdays from noon to 5:30 p.m. The Victoria J. Mastrobuono Theater is in the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center, 85 George Street (between Route 18 and Ryders Lane), on the Douglass Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in New Brunswick. For more information about any Mason Gross event, visit www.masongross.rutgers.edu or call the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center ticket office at 848-932-7511.
In addition, JGPG will host a lecture-demonstration on Hush at the Victoria J. Mastrobuono Theater on Wednesday, February 10, from 12:35 to 1:55 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Mason Gross students, who recently trained with JCPG member Melecio Estrella, will perform the ensemble’s dance-theater work Rambler April 20-24 at the DancePlus Spring concert. Faculty member Jeff Friedman, who enjoys a long association with Goode, will direct.
Hush is part of the Mason Gross Presents Series, sponsored by the Mason Gross Dean’s Office. Please note that Hush contains reference to a sexual assault which may be triggering to some survivors.
