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0000017c-60f7-de77-ad7e-f3f739cf0000Arts & More airs Fridays at 7:50 a.m. and 4:20 p.m.Theme music: "Like A Beginner Again" by Dan Barry of Seas of Jupiter

"Maundy" Brings A Bit of the Experimental to the Theatre

Robbie Feinberg

Southwest Michigan has a large theatre scene, but if you want to find underground or experimental theatre, the options aren’t so plentiful. Western Michigan student Nicolas Thornton is trying to change that. On April 10th, his Metallic Mannequin theatre company will premiere “Maundy,” a performance that’s not quite a play but not a dance, either.

When you ask the cast and crew of "Maundy" to describe their show, the answers end up all over the place.

Here's director Nicolas Thornton: “It started as a lot of cue cards taped to my bedroom wall.”

Performer Natalie Burdick: “When he came to me, he had explored it more. And he came to me with this idea of a bucket and pennies and a game and I was so confused but really interested.”

Performer Nick Petrelli: "Well, the easiest way to describe it is just saying it's like a dance thing, almost. But also adding that it's not strictly dancing.”

Thornton, again: “Now, I would describe it as a couple caught at an intersection between love and anxiety and what transpires.”

The reason no one can quite agree is because “Maundy” is a movement piece. It’s a silent performance that tiptoes the line between acting and dance with a story that’s very much up to audience interpretation audience.

“Maundy” does have a rough outline, though. It’s an original piece by Thornton that shows a single romantic relationship, from the first meeting through all the joys and anxieties that follow.

Credit Robbie Fienberg
Nick Petrelli and Natalie Burdick in "Maundy"

  “I describe it as, if you could put a relationship into, if you could put a relationship into purely movement and watch the rough patches," explains Burdick. "Like the really gritty stuff and see it, you know, exemplified through movement and without words. That's what you'd be watching.”

It sounds a little confusing, but when you watch the performance, it makes sense. Silhouetted by a single spotlight, the two performers in “Maundy” float across the stage. They’re not doing pirouettes, though. The movements are less fancy.

It’s lot of running, jumping, hand-holding, even splashing water. Nick Petrelli says creating those movements was collaborative. It involved a lot of improvisation and trial and error before it felt natural.

"I believe it's important that the actions that the actors are doing are somewhat true to them," says Petrelli. "So I think that was Nic's idea in making us do all these improv exercise to find things we use to express certain things. So it would just feel more natural to us. And it would make a better piece."

Because these movements are so simple and symbolic, Thornton says, he can’t wait until he has an audience to interpret it in whatever way it can.

"This type of theatre is open for people to project their own experiences on to it," he says. "So the play isn't even really complete until the audience gets in and they're the kind of third factor. There's the story and the performers and the audience. They contribute so much to their own experience with it."

While Thornton says he loves the theatre scene in Kalamazoo, he wants more experimentation. That’s where "Maundy" comes in.

“I felt like it would be really interesting to see how the community responded," Thornton says. "I feel like there's a really young arts community and a young scene that goes to underground music, kind of Vine neighborhood crowd that I really hope to bring into this. Kalamazoo has so many different theatre audiences it serves. I feel like this college-aged generation hasn't found their theatre yet and to sustain what we're all doing in the theatre, we need to figure out how to appeal to that demographic." 

You can see “Maundy” beginning April 10th, 11th, 16th and 17th at 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. in the basement of Kalamazoo’s First Congregational Church.

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