NANDA: Original Theatre Show Fusing Story-Telling with High-Energy Live Performance
Published on Thu, Sep 8, 2011Read More Seattle-entertainment
“They’re funny, smooth, and daredevilishly inventive” –The Seattle Times
“Putting the Fizz in Physical” –Seattle Weekly
Seattle, Wash. – The juggling, tumbling, balancing “acrobaticalists” of the high-energy live performance group NANDA return to Seattle for the first feature length run of their latest show, “The Jacket”. This show is an original theatre piece that fuses the timeless traditions of circus and vaudeville with Ninja acrobatics, digital animation, and cinematography. From October 6-23, audiences of all ages will bear witness to the eye-bending, physical feats of NANDA at the Broadway Performance Hall in Seattle’s Capitol Hill.
NANDA is a four-man performing arts group hailing from Port Townsend, WA, a city in which the Mayor has proclaimed them cultural ambassadors. Friends from the diapers days, brothers Tomoki Sage (26) and Kiyota Sage (29), Chen Pollina (25), and Misha Fradin (26) make up the cast of this highly acclaimed entertainment group; but the friendship circle does not stop there. “We all started hanging out when we were one, two, three, and four years old,” Daniel Milholland (26), NANDA Manager and friend from the early Port Townsend days commented. “Port Townsend is a small town and our parents are all friends. Television was a rare luxury in our collective lives, so we had to get creative at a young age to entertain ourselves.” Enter, NANDA. The word “Nanda” is a Japanese colloquialism that is best translated as an expression of surprise. "We chose to call ourselves Nanda because wanted a name that would give us permission to dabble in any art form,” NANDA member Tomoki Sage explains.
Since its inception, NANDA has taken the show to stages all across the West Coast, including the Cama-i Dance Festival in Northern Alaska, El Centro Cultural in Mazunte Mexico, Oregon Country Fair, Bumbershoot, and multiple turns at Seattle’s popular Moisture Festival. Garnering rave reviews like “they’re funny, smooth, and daredevilishly inventive” (The Seattle Times) and “It’s really fun to watch handsome, smart, talented and buff young men mime their way through an abstract fantasy story with acrobatics and juggling” (Port Townsend Leader), NANDA is on an upward trajectory toward their ultimate destination: to translate “The Jacket” to other languages and tour it internationally.
Think of the story of the jacket as a legend. It has been finessed and improved, and the October production boasts new material and production elements never seen before. In addition to the physical skill and engaging storyline, NANDA’s production brings a unique scenic design predominately articulated through a series of video vignettes and digital animations projected on stage in time to a completely original score. Milholland explains that the video projections “are mostly transitional between acts, while we do a set or costume change, so the energy of the show is really consistent for the entire performance hour. We are very excited to debut these video segments for this October run. They’re all new; we worked with Sam Force from Flying Circle F Productions to help with shooting the new video, and it’s really kicked the show’s production value up quite a few notches.”
“Putting the Fizz in Physical” –Seattle Weekly
Seattle, Wash. – The juggling, tumbling, balancing “acrobaticalists” of the high-energy live performance group NANDA return to Seattle for the first feature length run of their latest show, “The Jacket”. This show is an original theatre piece that fuses the timeless traditions of circus and vaudeville with Ninja acrobatics, digital animation, and cinematography. From October 6-23, audiences of all ages will bear witness to the eye-bending, physical feats of NANDA at the Broadway Performance Hall in Seattle’s Capitol Hill.
NANDA is a four-man performing arts group hailing from Port Townsend, WA, a city in which the Mayor has proclaimed them cultural ambassadors. Friends from the diapers days, brothers Tomoki Sage (26) and Kiyota Sage (29), Chen Pollina (25), and Misha Fradin (26) make up the cast of this highly acclaimed entertainment group; but the friendship circle does not stop there. “We all started hanging out when we were one, two, three, and four years old,” Daniel Milholland (26), NANDA Manager and friend from the early Port Townsend days commented. “Port Townsend is a small town and our parents are all friends. Television was a rare luxury in our collective lives, so we had to get creative at a young age to entertain ourselves.” Enter, NANDA. The word “Nanda” is a Japanese colloquialism that is best translated as an expression of surprise. "We chose to call ourselves Nanda because wanted a name that would give us permission to dabble in any art form,” NANDA member Tomoki Sage explains.
Since its inception, NANDA has taken the show to stages all across the West Coast, including the Cama-i Dance Festival in Northern Alaska, El Centro Cultural in Mazunte Mexico, Oregon Country Fair, Bumbershoot, and multiple turns at Seattle’s popular Moisture Festival. Garnering rave reviews like “they’re funny, smooth, and daredevilishly inventive” (The Seattle Times) and “It’s really fun to watch handsome, smart, talented and buff young men mime their way through an abstract fantasy story with acrobatics and juggling” (Port Townsend Leader), NANDA is on an upward trajectory toward their ultimate destination: to translate “The Jacket” to other languages and tour it internationally.
Think of the story of the jacket as a legend. It has been finessed and improved, and the October production boasts new material and production elements never seen before. In addition to the physical skill and engaging storyline, NANDA’s production brings a unique scenic design predominately articulated through a series of video vignettes and digital animations projected on stage in time to a completely original score. Milholland explains that the video projections “are mostly transitional between acts, while we do a set or costume change, so the energy of the show is really consistent for the entire performance hour. We are very excited to debut these video segments for this October run. They’re all new; we worked with Sam Force from Flying Circle F Productions to help with shooting the new video, and it’s really kicked the show’s production value up quite a few notches.”
