Strike Anywhere to present "Same River"

Lewisburg. -- The Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble will present "Same River," a multimedia exploration of Marcellus Shale hydrofracturing, in February at Bucknell University.

Admission is free to both performances, scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 2, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 3, at 2 p.m. in the Harvey M. Powers Theatre of Coleman Hall.

The New York City-based collective Strike Anywhere blends music, modern dance, physical theater and video and visual art to explore the topic of hydrofracking. During the fall semester, Bucknell students conducted a series of interviews with Pennsylvania residents whose lives have been directly impacted by fracking.

Strike Anywhere will weave the collected first-person accounts into the "Same River" presentations, each of which will be followed by a town-hall style discussion.

Prior to each performance, a pre-show art installation will feature artwork made by local community members and students. The art-making sessions, which are open to the public, will be held Friday, Jan. 18, from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Bucknell Theatre Design Studio in Coleman Hall, and Saturday, Jan. 26, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the newly opened CommUnity Zone on Market Street in Lewisburg, next to the Campus Theatre.

Local artist Nancy Cleaver and Bucknell scenographer Elaine Williams will lead each community art-making session, with participants creating artwork on the topic, "Clean Water: Who Needs It?"

The "Same River" project and its related activities are sponsored by the Place Studies Initiative of the Bucknell University Environmental Center, the Residential Colleges, and the Department of Theatre and Dance.

Established in 1997 by artistic/producing director, Leese Walker, the Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble began to develop "Same River" in July 2010 as part of the North American Cultural Laboratory's Catskill Festival of New Theater. The company met with activists, scientists, farmers and politicians in the rural towns of Sullivan County, N.Y., where natural gas drilling was taking place.

The company tours to places affected by shale-gas drilling and performs residencies with continued community research at each site in order to customize the show. "Same River" seeks to draw connections, to give voice to multiple viewpoints and to acknowledge that we are all downstream, that the earth's water supply is all the same river. The title of the show echoes a quote attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, "You can't step into the same river twice."

Strike Anywhere has been featured at Roundabout's American Airlines Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Irondale Center, and on Radio France, N.P.R., German Public Radio and U.S. television.