A note from Kevin Joyce . . .

Magic, fantasy, terror, and adventure: what's not to love?

The Grimms' tales have a deep, archetypal resonance in Western culture. They are ideal source materials for a show that seeks to inspire our collective sense of wonder, appreciation for mystery and the imagination_s capacity for creative solutions. And make fun of gross monsters and stupid princes.

For UMO, long accustomed to creating and directing our own material, having a minimal set (or none at all), and several months to develop a new work, Expressions has been an invigorating new model. Fortunately, we have been in great hands.

Overall, our job was to bring UMO's brand of storytelling and theatricality to Eddie Levi Lee's wonderful writing and directing, Regan's sense of design , and Tim's illumination,and to discover the treasures possible in the alchemy of styles and material. What resulted was a weave of story elements, inspired by various Grimm tales, following central character Princess Felaline (a name invented by my four-year old niece) on her heroic, questing journey through adventures, strange encounters, and grave dangers.

It has been a pleasure and an honor to work with all the individuals involved in creating this piece. We hope you enjoy the results.

Sincerely,

Kevin Joyce
UMO Ensemble

"Genuinely real and affecting performances brilliantly created...a delightful excursion into unfamiliar territory for the company and their audiences." Seattle Weekly

"A little-fractured-fairy tale, Monty-Python-meets-Maurice-Sendak-in-wonderland magic...a condensed stream of irreverence and awe." The Seattle Times

"Expressions of the Spirit restores the old enchantment to fairy tales. . . a compelling journey. . . the bold poetry of each creation is a rich pleasure worth savoring." seattle.sidewalk.com

"Part whimsy, part circus, part body politic. . . You can spot an UMO show a mile away, and it's always a welcome sight." The Stranger

Fractious Fairy Tales
by John Longenbaugh

UMO and the Empty Space produce a stunning collaboration for all ages.

Once upon a time there lived a very wonderful theater troupe called the UMO Ensemble that hadn't a home of its own. The actors were all immensely talented and intelligent and charismatic, and they all lived in a very artistic and semi-communal style on Vashon Island, but every year they spent a lot of their time on the road touring as a strange collection of buffoons, clowns, and trapeze artists far away from their island because no local theaters, frankly, quite knew what to do with them. But then one day the man who ran one of these venues offered them a place to do what they did so well, but with one condition: They must collaborate on a work that was designed for all ages, that was narrative-based, and that wouldn't scare off any of the sort of people who might find their more sophisticated work off-putting. They agreed to do so, and with the help of the jolly white-haired theater director they set to work.

Or at least that's my version of the events. If you want to see for yourself what the end of this story really looks like, you've got to get over to the Empty Space as soon as you can and see Expressions of the Spirit: Tales from the Brothers Grimm. Co-created with the Space's artistic director, Eddie Levi Lee, this is a piece that manages to be cheerfully mainstream while staying true to the experimental tastes of the troupe.

The plot is a clever blending of several traditional fairy tales into a piece that owes as much to adult academics (Bruno Bettelheim, Joseph Campbell . . . ) as to the original Grimm stories. The Princess Felaline (Martha Enson) is the youngest, and seemingly the least promising, of the daughters of an aged king. While her sisters flawlessly perform the dances at court, she galumphs clumsily about, filled with more enthusiasm than ability. But, like Shakespeare's Cordelia, she clearly loves her father more than her sisters do. When the king becomes ill, he sends his offspring out into the world via a trail of three airborne feathers to find a cure. Her sisters go spinning off, but poor Felaline's feather falls to the ground and stays there. Her explorations, however, soon reveal a secret world underground, and so she's off on a quest that seems to open up a whole batch of new questions for every answer she finds.

While the company has stayed true to its source material and stated aim of producing a show for the entire family, this isn't traditional children's theater. In most productions for kids, a certain broadness of acting style is pretty much inevitable, as emotion and motivation are "explained" to those not deemed mature enough to get things on the first go-round. But Enson and the rest of the company give performances genuinely real and affecting. When Felaline, for example, is enchanted into loving an exceptionally craven and stupid prince (Kevin Joyce, in one of several pristine comic roles), it's clear from her behavior that prying love out of a reluctant heart is a painful process, spell or no spell.

Occasionally the narrative slows the actors down. This is a group used to getting from Point A to Point H or K in one fluid movement, and the necessity of trekking along a plot line seems almost a burden on its mercurial talents. There's also less of the entirely inspired theatrical trickery that is the group's trademark, though a collection of cantankerous crows from whom Felaline must steal an enchanted cloak is brilliantly created from a trio of umbrellas.

It is a great pleasure to see the normally penurious UMO treated to Regan Haines' elaborate and exotic costumes and set, the latter centering around a huge moving platform that doubles as all the high places (throne rooms and bejeweled mountains) and low places (tunnels and forest caves) featured in a typical fairy tale. Haines has a clear affinity for the group's sly nonsense and fluid movement, especially with his series of masks for the lemurlike Under-dwellers and three bothersome giants who almost stomp poor Felaline quite flat. UMO member Joyce's musical contributions to the evening, which range from nonsense ditties to haunting choral pieces, show that this performer's talent for song is becoming increasingly ambitious and effective.

While troupe members Janet McAlpin (as a series of kindly advisers to the princess), Esther Edelman (as a splendid Wicked Witch who outdoes Snow White's), and Bradley McDevitt (in a variety of smaller roles) all contribute mightily to the show, the more traditional form of the narrative makes stars out of Enson and Joyce, whose broad range of comedy and pathos are the heart of the show. In some ways, this more conventional approach to theater is a gravitational tonic for a company that tends occasionally to drift into the outer orbits of experimentation. And while this show isn't as unexpected or transcendent as the troupe's original material, it's a delightful excursion into unfamiliar territory for the Space, the company, and their audiences.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Friday, January 15, 1999

UMO's 'Spirit' an inspiration for everyone

By JOE ADCOCK
THEATER CRITIC

UMO Ensemble: wispy, arty, new agey, whales, dreams. The Empty Space Theatre: hard-edged, zany, irreverent, a sweat sock with a happy face drawn on it represents the ghost of Hamlet's father.

These two companies have very different images, auras and reputations.

"I admit that," says Space artistic director Eddie Levi Lee. "Normally I hate performance art that is all pretentious concept and no stories and characters. Sometimes it's supposed to be funny. But it isn't.

"However -- when I saw UMO work, and when I worked with them, I had this gut instinct: these guys are different. They really are talented. They're smart. They are good musicians. They are funny."

And so, "Expressions of the Spirit," which opens Wednesday at the Space, written and directed by Lee, devised in collabortion with, and performed by, UMO.

The show's title refers to the original name used by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm for their celebrated 1812 collection of fairy tales.

"But 'Expressions of the Spirit' is definitely not a stage adaptation of some fairy tales," Lee says. "I guess you could say it was 'inspired by' some of the Grimm tales. A good and simple princess has two obnoxious sisters. Their father, the king, is sick. Whichever daughter can save him inherits his kingdom. Yes, you know how it ends as soon as you hear the set-up. The fun lies in how we get from beginning to end."

The journey involves crafty subterranean creatures, violent giants, three crows, a stupid prince, a witch and a demon with golden hair. Settings includes castles, a cave and a mountain of jewels.

Lee worked with UMO a couple of years ago in "Fool's Passion," a holiday production at St. Mark's Cathedral. "I was a creature with claws, a sort of Santa with claws," Lee recalls. "The UMO folks were in their buffoon costumes. And then they were completely naked. The music was wonderful. Then last year I saw their 'Body Inheritance.' Their style is not my characteristic style. But I wanted to work with them."

Lee offers his assurance that at no time during "Expressions of the Spirit" are the UMO players naked. "This is something that the whole family can enjoy together," he says.

"Expressions" previews tonight through Tuesday. It runs through Feb. 13. The Space is at 3509 Fremont Ave. N. Tickets are $14 for previews, $16-$25 for the regular run, pay what you can Feb. 10; 206-547-7500. For original article see http://www.seattlep-i.com/theater/thea15.html

More press:

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 22 Jan. 99

Seattle Times, review 22 Jan. 99

Seattle Weekly, review 28 Jan. 99

Seattle Weekly, 30 Dec. 99