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Raising TENT Revival, on the Hill
BY MEGAN GRUMBLING
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For the last three weeks, Munjoy Hill has been harboring an eccentric theater group called TENT, which has been quietly creating an original performance, from scrap, just for Portland. This show, KG: Life in a Tin Can, is billed as an exploration of John Cage, Russian submarines, and faith, and is said to star "interactive ICBMs, pop stars at the bottom of the sea, and a lonely tin can." As a verb, "tent" can mean "to reside for the time being." As a noun, in this case, TENT is an international crew of virtuoso actor-designer-craftspersons. They banded together at the California Institute of the Arts, in Valencia, as a collaboration of artists aiming to create interactive, community-building theater. Three years later, they continue to hole up in various places to — as they put it — "provide shelter for" challenging, ensemble-based, and site-specific live performances. This is Portland’s second go at being a specific site for TENT. Last August, the group hunkered down on the Hill to help fix up the St. Lawrence and to stage Oh Sweet Captain, or, The Ahab Stomp ("organically grown" from Moby Dick). Back again this August (many members are shacked up with Munjoy Hill’s Tony Award–winning theatrical designer Chris Ackerlind), TENT promises to act as translators of our old stories and myths, to ground them in our particular place in time, and to reveal just how to fit John Cage, ballistic missiles, and our seaside setting under one tent. KG: Life in a Tin Can runs August 25-27, at the St. Lawrence, "sharply at 8." For tickets call (207) 775-5568 x103, visit www.stlawrencearts.org, or stop by Bull Moose.
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