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Bill Coleman & Mark Shaub: The Brothers Plaid and Gordon Monahan: Sauerkraut Synthesizer

January 8, 2015 @ 8PM

Gordon Best Theatre, 216 Hunter St. W

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Tickets:

$25 / $15 students, underwaged
Available at the door or in advance from the Market Hall box office: www.markethall.org or 705-749-1146.

 FAQ: Why has Public Energy just added this show to the season?

Bill Coleman is our artist-in-residence from January 3 to 8, working on a new dance project, called Dollhouse, with audio artist Gordon Monahan. read more about Dollhouse

This show is a way of inspiring Bill and Gordon in the new creation, which has a lot of comic elments, and allows us to draw attention to the new work, which is seeking production partners to underwrite its creation.

All proceeds from the January 8 event will go toward the creation of Dollhouse and its presentation in Public Energy’s 2015-16 season.

The Brothers Plaid

Created and performed by Bill Coleman and Mark Shaub

Undoubtedly the funniest act in Canadian dance, The Brothers Plaid is something of a Canadian dance cult classic, first performed in 1984. Bill and Mark are dancers of the highest order, having performed for some of the greatest Canadian and American choreographers, but for the Bros Plaid they adopt a Buster Keaton meets Laurel and Hardy by way of Gene Kelly shtick to portray a pair of pipe smoking, tap dancing RV salesmen from the U.S. Midwest.

Bill Coleman describes the origins of The Brothers Plaid:

“It was the first piece I ever made. I was working in Charlottetown and there were a lot of American tourists. I grew up in the U.K., so seeing all these people in Winnebagos, wearing plaid, was fascinating. I was newly from the U.K. and I bought hibachis and teen burgers, fascinated with all this North American stuff. With my friend Mark we wrote this sort of rap song and we played two tourists, and I tap danced. Mark knew how to drum, so he would drum on his snare and we would do this piece. For some reason The Brothers Plaid keeps getting done. It’s just something that stuck with us. Mark, who became a Canada Council officer and works with Cirque du Soleil, finally quit dancing – but we’ll still get together and do it every now and then. The last time was in Toronto in 2010.”

Sauerkraut Synthesizer

Created and performed by Gordon Monahan

Gordon will bring us a live performance demonstration of how fruits and vegetables become voltage input controllers for a software-based audio “Sauerkraut Synthesizer.”

Gordon Monahan is the recipient of a 2013 Governor-General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts. His works for piano, loudspeakers, video, kinetic sculpture, and computer-controlled sound environments span various genres from avant-garde concert music to multi-media installation and sound art. As a composer and sound artist, he juxtaposes the quantitative and qualitative aspects of natural acoustical phenomena with elements of media technology, environment, architecture, popular culture, and live performance.

Thank You!

Public Energy gratefully acknowledges the generous support of our 2023-24 Season Funders and Sponsors.

Season Sponsors & Funders

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Accessibility Sponsor

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