GAME ON
An Interactive Aerial Experience
GAME ON is an interactive aerial silks performance that examines fantasy vs reality. Guide three characters as they navigate a virtual world full of battles, new adventures, and powerful beings. In their quest for a new identity and a sense of purpose, their physical and virtual worlds become intrinsically intertwined. As they explore new facets of their beings the characters grow increasingly disconnected from the physical world, fragmented across planes of existence. Similar to a video game, the audience members will be invited to co-create the universe of the performance, thus influencing the characters’ destiny. With the audience as their guide, will the three characters find their way back to reality or will they get lost in their own virtual world forever?
This aerial dance spectacle displays humor, grace, and beauty. Performers will climb, dance, and fall through the air on fabric curtains. The movement, lighting, and music will explore all dimensions of space, horizontally and vertically, experimenting with archetypal figures, meanings and expectations.
Aerialists: Alice Demurtas, Astridur Olafsdottir, Lauren Charnow
Composer: Adam Switala
Lighting Design: Arnar Ingvarsson
Costumer: Harpa Einarsdottir
Stage Manager: Angie Diamantopoulou
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Meet the Cast
Lauren Charnow - Aerialist
Lauren Charnow is a born performer who grew up singing and dancing in her parent’s theater company in the United States. Lauren has studied circus arts and dance in New York City taking classes at Broadway Dance Center, Circus Warehouse and Steps. After attending Marymount Manhattan College in New York City to study acting she created her own circus performance troupe in upstate New York. She has studied circus arts at Circus Arts Institute in Atlanta, Georgia, NECCA in Vermont USA, and participated in the Caravan Social Circus Training Program studying in Le Plus Petit Cirque Du Monde in France, Ecole de Cirque de Bruxelles, Sorin Sirkus in Finland and CABUWAZI in Berlin. She has dedicated the past ten years of her life to teaching circus and exploring circus performance art. In Chicago she performed with the Comedy Dance Collective and in Aloft Circus Arts performances. Last year she performed Rebirth, an original aerial silks performance piece in the Reykjavik and Ludlow Fringe. Lauren is currently living in Reykjavik, where she teaches aerial silks classes at Kria Aerial Arts.
Alice Demurtas - Aerialist
Alice's performance journey did not begin until her high school years, when she was drawn into small-scale stage productions that encouraged her to experiment more with theatre and self-expression. It wasn't until recently, however, that Alice decided to expand her horizons and join mentor and friend Lauren Charnow on more experimental ventures. In 2019, after two years of pole fitness training, Alice began training aerial silks in Reykjavík. It was love at first wrap. Before the end of the year Alice had begun her journey as a silks instructor and performer, also joining Lauren Charnow as part of Charnow's performing company Kría Aerial Arts, which includes both aerial silks productions and clowning shows for children and young adults. During the summer of 2020, the duo presented their first joint performance called Rebirth—an aerial exploration of the past and the future, which was presented at Reykjavík Fringe Festival and Ludlow Fringe Festival.
Astridur Olafsdottir - Aerialist
Is a painter and performer living in Italy and Iceland. She graduated with a degree in Painting and took a Master in Visual Arts at the Academy of fine arts in Bologna, Italy. In the same city she has been exhibiting her Art in personals and collectives at “Gallery I Portici”, “Teatro Del Navile”, art gallery “Caffè degli Artisti”, the “Zoological Museum”, the “Academy of fine Arts”, “Sala Ovale of Loiano”, Association “Civico 32”, atelier “Cobalto Lab”, the “Medieval civic Museum of Bologna” and the “Musée de l’OHM”. She has also taken acting, singing and dancing classes and performed with drama and musical companies in many theaters in the Bologna area. In 2013 she started practicing Aerial silks at “Itc Teatro” and never stopped. Since then she has been performing on aerial silks shows mostly in a Circus tent based in San Lazzaro and toured around Italy in 2017 with the show “ChefSciò-CulInAria”, a Chef contest on silks. She has been working with children and teaching them both painting and acting techniques in different workshops. Both her passions for painting and aerial silks are today working together in an artistic project called “Panneggio” where she paints sculptures made of fabric, light and gravity. She is currently working in Reykjavik on her art and on artistic projects with Krìa Aerial Arts. astridurart.com Ig - Fb: @astridurart
Arnar Ingvarsson- Lighting Designer
Over the past 14 years Arnar has been working within the field of dramatic arts, both in theater,films and tv. His field of work has been very diverse in over a 100 projects, where he’s worked primarily as a lighting designer and technician, but also as a producer, actor, director and managing his own theater. Currently Arnar is working with a few theater groups on a regular basis, such as RaTaTam, The Eco-Chamber, Sólsetrið and Vinnslan. RaTaTam and The Eco-Chamber have been touring regularly the last couple of years, with Arnar as a lighting designer and a technician. Also Arnar is artistic director of Trufl. Trufl is a production company that specializes in spiritual experiences, ceremonies and sound healing.
Adam Switala - Composer
Adam Switala is a composer, musician, teacher, and researcher. Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Education, University of Iceland, member of the Advocacy Standing Committee of the International Society for Music Education (ISME). 2018-2020 he was a member of the Editorial Board of the ISME/Routledge book series "Specialist Themes in Music Education". 2017-2020 Board Member of the Polish Music Council, 2017-2018 President of the Polish Association for Music Education. Adam has worked as guest lecturer with students of Music, Arts and Education departments of renowned universities in Iceland, Poland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, UK, and Estonia. His professional record includes notable cooperations with theatrical directors, actors, dance and performance artists, more than 20 theatres, educational and art institutions, in several European countries and the USA, including "ZachÄ™ta" National Gallery of Art (Warsaw), HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), Ufer_studios (Berlin), fabrik Potsdam (Potsdam), MUCEM (Marseille), Together in the UK (London), Nowy Teatr (Warsaw), Reykjavik Ensemble International Theatre Company (Reykjavik), European Solidarity Centre (GdaÅ„sk), Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle (Warsaw), National Fryderyk Chopin Institute (Warsaw), Polish Radio… and many more. The core of his composer’s work is exploring music as a specific experience of time. Investigating the phenomena of improvisation in performative arts, he was part of many educational projects, facilitating workshops for children and adults, amateurs, professional artists and teachers. Trained facilitator of Rod Paton’s Lifemusic method (Lifemusic CIC, UK). As classical, folk and jazz music interpreter, cross-genre improviser and band member, he has given concerts during numerous venues and festivals and received prestigious awards. www.adamswitala.com