by Amica Hunter,
They/Them

The Rogue Festival is almost here! Here is another of several official Rogue Performer Preview articles that will be going up between now and March 3. You will be able to find all of them, along with a preview article about the Festival itself, in our Rogue Festival category and you can find more info on our Rogue Festival event page over on KRL News and Reviews. Tickets for the Rogue Festival can be purchased on their website and you can find this year’s schedule.

When I started making this show, I wasn’t entirely sure what it was about, or why I was making it, only that I was intensely interested in the subject matter and excited to get an audience interested in it as well. Many aspects of this show are new for me as an artist, and that has been exhilarating … and terrifying. It’s been a truly wild period of time. I’ve been experiencing the familiar ups and downs of building a show from scratch, combined with the new freedom and frustrations that come with being a solo creator.

This will be my first true full-length solo show, and while I have plenty of experience devising, producing, touring, and performing, I have had the luxury and honor of doing most of that work alongside my comedy partner of the last ten years. Now that I’m cut loose to wear all of those hats by myself, I find myself missing the aspects of creative partnership that I took for granted, while also enjoying the freedom to expand and explore into any direction I want to go. In this case, I am most excited to approach the audience in a direct conversational way, and to use storytelling in addition to physicality to demonstrate different concepts, ideas, and personal anecdotes.

Anatomica is a show based around a simple question. What would it be like to inhabit a radically different body than the one you are in? How would it feel to exist as an animal that seems incomprehensibly alien to our human experience? Would it be better? Worse? The same? This show is an exercise in coming to terms with chronic pain through escapism and collective imagination. I hope to bring an absurd and whimsical humor to this piece that will leave audiences feeling charmed, disoriented, and tickled.

In this piece I will finally get to unleash my unhinged observations, opinions, and interpretations on the world through humorous anecdotes, dance, and puppetry. Anatomica will be a combination of movement, personal storytelling, speculation, and prop play that will explore and share a passion for the existence of ALL life forms on earth, as well as acknowledge the grotesque horror of being alive in an imperfect and painful vessel. Whether I’m handing out ibuprofen to the audience or playing out Amelia Earhart’s last moments with a Barbie doll, I promise this show will keep your attention pinched tight in it’s vice-like claw.

My comfortable comedic style of storytelling combined with my clown-trained lack of “fourth wall” makes for an intimate experience wherein the audience can relax into a cozy living-room feeling environment while I gradually increase the strangeness and intricacy of what they are watching. I have a habit of trying to fit too many ideas into each show that I build, and while this isn’t an inherently bad thing, it does mean that I never feel personally satisfied by the depth achieved in any one arena. If it were up to me, this show would be a series with more than just an hour. But, I promise I will keep it to fifty-minutes for this run!

Amica Hunter’s Anatomica will play five shows during Fresno’s Rogue Festival at Dianna’s Studio of Dance located at 826 N Fulton St – FriMar/3 7:00 pm , SatMar/4 3:30 pm , SunMar/5 2:00 pm , Fri/Mar/10 10:00 pm, and Sat/Mar/11 6:30 pm

Tickets available at roguefestival.ticketleap.com/amicahunter

If you love local theatre, be sure to check out Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast, which features mysteries read by local actors. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and also on podbean.

Check out more theatre reviews & other local entertainment articles in our Arts & Entertainment section. You can also find more theatre coming up on KRL’s Local Theatre event page.