Event

Speak Easy

Artifact Dance Project presents Speak Easy, choreographed and directed by co-artistic director Ashley Bowman collaborating with composer Chris Black (founder of Chamberlab) to create a unique show set in the Prohibition Era of the 1920s. Naïm Amor, a French-born, Tucson-based musician and composer, contributes several tunes, creating an interesting balance of musical styles and sounds. Bowman and Black, both recipients of the prestigious Buffalo Exchange Arts Award, come together to co-create an entertaining, distinctive and stylized show. ADP Music Director Ben Nisbet coordinates a band of eight musicians from the Tucson Community, lending his own talents as a violinist. ADP's resident lighting designer, Don Fox, creates dramatic atmospheres that evolve and reflect the diversity of each scene.

Speak Easy offers a glimpse into the underground culture of illicit liquor sales in New York City nightclubs through the eyes of American female journalist for The New Yorker Magazine Lois Long (danced by Shelly Hawkins) and founding editor Harold Ross (danced by Jeff Bacigalupo). A fictional love story develops between Ross and Long as they experience excitement of the night and realities of the day. Ross hires Lois to review nightly escapades of drinking, dancing, and socializing. Her encounters with bootleggers, flappers, vaudeville stars, and music legends are danced by ADP's cast of twelve professional dancers known for their technical abilities fused with sophisticated acting.

Speak Easy will transport the audience back in time through the art of dance, music and a good old-fashioned love story.