Independent Voices Festival Kicks Off Next Week

will host its annual performing arts festival – the Independent Voices Festival – starting next week, Tuesday, Jan. 3 through Jan. 22 at the newly-renovated 208 DeKalb Street location.

According to a release issued by Iron Age Theatre, the festival spotlights performers who deserve an encore performance or who want to bring new work to the stage. The Centre Theater also offers opportunities for new performers to explore professional productions. The three week-long festival highlights more than three premieres and performances from many genres’ including theater, movement, music and puppetry.

The 2012 Independent Voices Festival includes 15 performances of ten different productions to begin the new year. This year the festival spotlights works about American history, a bilingual play, dramatized Irish stories and contemporary theater.

“Our core identity at the Centre Theater is to enhance the cultural life of Norristown beyond our own work. This festival helps us to collaborate with many artists and bring support to emerging artists from our entire region,” said Fran Doyle, Executive Director of The Centre Theater.

Josh Hitchen's will open the festival with his one man interpretation of Stoker's Dracula. Exciting, entertaining and haunting, this adaption of the classic vampire tale plays Jan. 6 and 8.

Sue Gidding's production of Brilliant Traces, featuring Victoria Rose Bonito and Michael Parducci will be performed Thursday, Jan. 12 and Friday, Jan. 13. Brilliant Traces, by Cindy Lou Johnson, is a one-act play about a bride running away from her wedding who somehow finds her way to the home of Alaskan recluse Henry Harry. At its heart, the play deals with self-identity, isolation and ultimately the search to find someone out there to connect to. The play is both raw and poetic – intriguing to see how these people unfold.

The second weekend of the festival also spotlights a one person production – She Moved Through the Fair. This magical, critically-acclaimed dramatization of the stories of Edna O’Brien illuminates the romantic life of a contemporary Irishwoman with bittersweet, often comic tales of coming of age, illicit love affairs gone wrong, an unforgettable plan for revenge, and its surprising aftermath. It was first performed at the West End Theatre in New York in the Artists of Tomorrow Festival and subsequently had productions at the Way Off Broadway Theater in Houston and the Capital Fringe Festival in D.C.

Continuing the solo performances will be FESTUS The Three Legged Wonder Dog, a fascinating piece about disability and diversity told triumphantly with puppetry by Dominic Skudera. 

Closing the festival will be Sojourner, featuring Zuhairah McGill. McGill's performance about Sojourner Truth details her long-suffering life and parallels the history of slavery in America.

On Jan. 16, Iron Age Theatre will be reprising its production of Citizen Paine.

The festival also includes two special events. Saturday, Jan. 7 is WALLA FEST, the new music event housed at the Centre Theater. This evening of rock features two headliners – Satellite Hearts and the Jawnettes.

The festival will also bring Walking Fish Theater’s Un Viaje-a, a new holiday themed bilingual play perfect for the growing Latino community in Norristown. The festival also includes “From the Heavens” on Jan. 21.

“We are working with each of the participating companies to continue our collaborative spirit” said Doyle. “our continued effort to revitalize Norristown is at the core of the festival.”

There will be performances every weekend in the Centre Theater’s 4^th floor space Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15. Most performance times are 60 to 75 minutes long. Tickets can be purchased by visiting the Centre Theater's website and checking the posted calendar for performances and times, at thecentretheater.ticketleap.com or by calling the Centre Theater at 610-279-1013.

The Centre Theater is in the Montgomery County Cultural Center at 208 DeKalb Street. It is easily reached via routes 202, I-76, I-476 and Ridge Pike. There is plenty of free parking and the theater is one block from the Norristown Transportation Center on the Manayunk/Norristown line.