The national tour of STOMP will make a return visit to the Performing Arts Center at Kent State University at Tuscarawas January 14 – 15, 2020 with both performances at 7:30 p.m.
From its beginnings as a street performance in the UK, STOMP has grown into an international sensation over the past 20 years, having performed in more than 50 countries and in front of more than 24 million people. Created by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, STOMP continues its phenomenal run with four global productions: the ongoing sell-out production at New York's Orpheum Theatre, a permanent London company, and North American and European tours. Throughout its life, the show has continued to change by creating new material; this year, it will incorporate two new pieces. It is safe to say you will never again look at supermarket carts or plumbing fixtures the same way… or paint cans, or kitchen sinks or…
The performers “make a rhythm out of anything we can get our hands on that makes a sound,” says co-founder/director Luke Cresswell. A unique combination of percussion, movement and visual comedy, STOMP has created its own inimitable, contemporary form of rhythmic expression: both household and industrial objects find new life as musical instruments in the hands of an idiosyncratic band of body percussionists. It is a journey through sound, a celebration of the everyday and a comic interplay of characters wordlessly communicating through dance and drum.
Synchronized stiff-bristle brooms become a sweeping orchestra, eight Zippo lighters flip open and closed to create a fiery fugue; wooden poles thump and clack in a rhythmic explosion. STOMP uses everything but conventional percussion instruments – dustbins, tea chests, radiator hoses, boots, hub caps – to fill the stage with a compelling and unique act that is often imitated but never duplicated.
Tickets for STOMP start at $45 and are on sale now at the Performing Arts Center box office, 330-308-6400 or online at www.kent.edu/tusc/pac. The box office is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The Performing Arts Center’s 2019-2020 Season is sponsored by Michael Taylor Insurance and Financial Incorporated, an Allstate Agency.
Free parking is available for all shows. Kent State Tuscarawas is located at 330 University Dr. N.E. in New Philadelphia.