Alverno Presents: The Hinterlands "The Radicalization Process"

March 31, 2016

Alverno Presents brings The Hinterlands The Radicalization Process to the Pitman Theatre on Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9 at 8:00 p.m.

The Hinterlands, formed in 2009, create genre-defying performances that uncover and celebrate American culture, both underground and mainstream. Their work ranges from immersive psychedelic Wild West shows to drive-in vaudeville shows to border-crossing street festivals. They have performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Charlestown Working Theatre in Boston, Legion Arts in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Shanghai Biennale, Cooking Fire Theatre Festival in Toronto, the Berlinale Forum Expanded in Berlin, and Alverno Presents.

With The Radicalization Process, two wildly different American entertainments are given The Hinterlands treatment — ‘method' based realism as it existed in the 1930s and the avant-garde happenings of the 1970s. Juxtaposing the hyper-realistic with the surreal, The Radicalization Process walks the edge between the rational and the ecstatic, asking how far we are willing to go for our beliefs, and is it far enough?

Audiences will begin the performance sifting through an archive of a forgotten revolutionary, navigating histories real and imagined, before making their way into the performance space - a safe-house within a house in 1970s Detroit. The Radicalization Process asks us to question our assumptions about what drives us to take action, how far is too far, and what role the imagination has in revolution.

This is the second-to-last performance for Alverno Presents. The fine arts series will come to an end when this season concludes on April 30.

Tickets are $25 and are available online at http://alvernopresents.alverno.edu or at the Alverno Presents box office at 414-382-6044. The box office is open Monday-Friday from noon to 6 p.m., and on the day of the performance from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.