Monday, July 13, 1998
Swept up in the beat
ON-CAMPUS: The innovative theater experience of Stomp storms
into Los Angeles, bringing makeshift drums
and infectious dance rhythms
to entertain audiences
at UCLA’s Royce Hall
By Laura Noguera
Daily Bruin Staff
very year, a few thousand trash cans are imported into the
United States from Great Britain. These English trash cans
disembark in America, finding their way not into typical
households, but up on stage. The trash cans become instruments,
amplifying the rhythm for the uninhibited movements of Stomp
performers.
Stomp, the abstract percussion show opening at Royce Hall on
July 14, has built its success upon using ordinary household items
as instruments. In addition to trash cans, the cast pulls music out
of plungers, matchbooks and even the proverbial kitchen sink. There
are no limitations when considering which objects make it onto
stage.
"We find ways to get sound out of things that you might not
think have a good sound," says Seth Ullian, a three-year Stomp
performer. "(Stomp is the) kind of music we can coax out of
household objects."
Some of Stomp’s cast members make frequent visits to the
junkyard to have first pick on potential props. Drumsticks in hand,
the performers test the junk, beating it to find the sharp or dull
sounds they seek. When they find the sound they like, that piece of
junk transforms into Stomp’s version of a drum, propped onto stage
walls.
"It’s just like when you are shopping for a cymbal," says Morris
Anthony, Stomp performer of three years. "You go to a music store,
and you hit every cymbal in the place."
Stomp’s approach to representing each character also sets the
show apart from other theater productions. Performers do not act as
certain characters on stage, they are themselves, free to do as
their personality wills them.
"(Stomp) chooses the people in the show because of who they
are," Anthony says. "Audiences find people they relate to in the
show. You’re not forced to choose to like or dislike a
character."
Although the entire cast is involved in the stage movements and
themes, most performers began with either percussion or dance
backgrounds and still prefer to identify themselves as one or the
other.
"I’m not a dancer," Anthony says. "You don’t want to put me in a
tutu and pay money to see me."
During auditions, Anthony was unaware of Stomp’s choreographic
demands and credits his involvement to his own naivete. However,
Anthony and the other performers learned the essential Stomp
elements, resulting in the combination that makes the
percussion-entangled melodies and choreography famous.
The talented percussionists particularly enjoy being in the
spotlight throughout the show, especially during their feature
segments. During one routine, drummers play a wall grid of drums
while dangling from cables.
"It’s the closest thing to playing a drum set," Anthony says. "A
drummer’s biggest complaint is we’re always in the back … Now
we’re not."
Stomp’s unconventional style provokes very different reactions
from audiences, causing many uncertainties about their reception
within Los Angeles’ theater-going crowd. Although Ullian has never
performed Stomp in Los Angeles, he characterizes Angelenos as a
"cool as a cucumber audience" and hopes for the best.
Previously, other Stomp tours have found Los Angeles to be a
sold-out, "stompin’" crowd. Anthony hopes reactions will be
similar, as audience enthusiasm contributes to the excitement.
"I imagine it’s going to be just wild," Anthony says.
Performers vouch for the importance of approval as they perform,
playing up the program’s crisp execution to awe those in
attendance. Attitudes of performers and spectators differ every
night, making Stomp an engaging show for the first or fifth
time.
"(My favorite segment) changes every night," Ullian says.
"Sometimes I’ll be really into something like one of the more
technical numbers … or I’ll like doing ‘matches’. It depends on
what the audiences are like."
In the Los Angeles performance, the Stomp cast certainly will
utilize an assortment of off-the-wall items to wow audiences,
including long poles resembling Q-tips. Anthony finds pounding on
kitchen sinks intriguing, while Ullian professes that toilet
plungers are the most bizarre object in the show.
"The plungers pretty much sound like you would expect them to,"
Ullian says.
To a Stomp performer, this seems simple enough, but for most
audiences, plunger noises are unfamiliar outside the rest room.
This adds to the public’s fascination with the show’s delivery.
Stomp players desire to make memorable first impressions, infecting
the audience with a case of Stomp-mania.
"The first time I saw Stomp I was blown away," Ullian says.
"What a great way to get out one’s aggression and have a good time,
jumping around the stage and beating on garbage cans."
Stomp will perform at Royce Hall July 14 through Aug. 2. For
more information, call (310) 825-2101.Photos courtesy of TMG
Stomp, a show created in Brighton, England, in the summer of
1991,
will be performed at Royce Hall.
Percussionist Morris Anthony is a performer in Stomp.