Angela Olson, wanderlust
“Suitcases, backpacks, purses, and bicycle trailers will all be hollowed out and modified to house mini projectors which will project scenes of search and travel.”
wanderlust
wanderlust will be a one night event consisting of 15 performers traveling throughout the city, carrying with them symbols of travel and search. Over the course of one evening, the members of wanderlust will throughout 4 locations involved in the Northern Spark Nuit Blanche (central bridge underpass, Father Hennepin Bluffs Park, Stone Arch Bridge, and the Mill City silos) via diverse modes of travel such as cycling, walking, skateboarding, and carpooling. Along this journey, the members of wanderlust will carry various types of luggage that serve as mobile shadow theatres.
Suitcases, backpacks, purses, and bicycle trailers will all be hollowed out and modified to house mini projectors which will project scenes of search and travel. Some of the shadow theatres will also house more low-tech shadow projections using a simple light source and cutouts with simple motors that allow for small movement. Members of wanderlust will each carry and operate one of the shadow theatres from site to site. They will travel as a group unit and will wear reflective gear so that upon arrival they are easy to recognize. At each site, the wanderers will simply stop and observe the other performances/installations involved in the festival. Festivalgoers will be able to observe the wanderers observing the rest of the festival on their journey. Festivalgoers will witness the travel and search of the wanders as they seek to end their wanderlust.
Angela Olson
Angela Olson is a Minnesota native interested in art and community, and the intersection between low and high-tech forms. From 2007-2009 she worked at Open Eye Figure Theatre as a performer/puppeteer and puppet builder. She has also worked for In the Heart of the Beast Theatre as a teaching artist for the past year and performed in their 2010 winter show, La Befana. In 2010 Angela and collaborator Andrea Stuedel were awarded a Children’s Show Grant from the Jim Henson Foundation for their show balloon balloon balloon, balloon balloon, an interactive show they towed on bicycle from Minneapolis to Duluth. This year she was awarded a grant through the Jerome Foundation’s PuppetLAB for her show my beloved had turned and was gone which she wrote, constructed, and and puppeteered in at In the Heart of the Beast Theatre. She is currently working on a series of tiny mobile suitcase shows in an effort to sate her own wanderlust.