Members of the Do Jump! company perform acrobatic feats
high above the stage.
By Anthony Bromberg
Daily Bruin Reporter
Stilt-walking, windless kite-flying, single-point trapeze,
double trapeze, a band, a choir, gymnastics, ballet in midair, a
black light, interactive ohhing and ahhing sing-along and a finale
with doors that has been known to change lives ““ these are
just some of the unusual things that finally found their way into
the usually more subdued world of theater.
The new show at Westwood’s own Geffen Playhouse has a name
just as unique as the show. It is called “Do Jump!” and
will soon be running on an intense eight-shows-a-week schedule.
“It’s a theatrical up,” said Gil Cates, the
Geffen’s producing director. “We call it
anti-gravitational theater. Theater should be surprising, fun,
thoughtful, magical, and “˜Do Jump!’ has all
that.”
“Do Jump!” has been imported to the Geffen from its
home in Portland, Ore., where the company performs regularly as
well as holds classes in arts such as trapeze, which are available
to the public and taught by many of the members of the show.
“Do Jump!” is approximately an hour-and-a-half show
that is more a series of intricate physically challenging scenes,
augmented by original mood music, than a traditional plot-based
play.
“What these people do is so completely different than what
anybody else does,” said Sy Parrish, the “Do
Jump!” assistant stage manager.
Enthusiasm seems to characterize everyone involved in the
production. They speak about it as though it were an exciting,
groundbreaking, hip thing that isn’t quite comprehensible
until it has been experienced. Unlike many groups that are on the
cutting edge, the members of “Do Jump!” have no desire
to keep it secret. They want the audience to experience the range
of emotions that drive the show on its different levels.
“There’s a lot of silliness, and then there’s
moments that are really gorgeous moments,” Parrish said.
 “Do Jump!”, a groundbreaking theatrical
performance which includes dance, original music and trapeze
artists, opens at the Geffen Playhouse tonight and will run through
Dec. 16. “Do Jump!” is headed by its creator and
director Robin Lane, an unassuming-looking woman with short gray
hair and energy and intensity to spare. Her dedication to both the
show and the classes seem to be the driving force behind the entire
“Do Jump!” enigma.
“Robin Lane is brilliant,” Parrish said. “You
show up at class and you don’t want to leave.”
As a show, “Do Jump!” is constantly evolving. It has
a solid core of material, but the little things are always getting
manipulated, according to Kelli Wilson a main company member.
“Its cool that Robin likes to take people’s special
talent and put it in the show,” Wilson said.
One thing for which “Do Jump!” is now having to
adjust is its current place of residence at the Geffen Playhouse.
The show, which has recently been on Broadway and at the Kennedy
Center, is designed for a much bigger space. As Parrish sits out in
seats that in a few days will be filled with an audience, two cast
members dressed in sweat pants glide around and off the front of
the stage on the double trapezes.
“We’re spending a lot of time making sure
they’re not going to bang into the wall,” she said.
As difficult as adjusting to the theater is the challenge of
performing eight shows a week. The company had to double their
numbers to be able to physically do it, according to Parrish.
“You get so exhausted you can barely hold on to the
trapeze for a second longer, but you have to,” Wilson said.
“As the fatigue level goes up so does the injury
level.”
The group has also brought a masseuse and acupuncturist to help
the jumpers adjust to the intense schedule.
The company sees itself as an enormous family, the members of
which embrace each other by being very personable and welcoming,
according to Wilson. As they all rush around the theater helping to
ready the show, each in their own unique way, everyone is full of
smiles and laughs. A few rows in front of Parrish, a man is on one
of the seats barking like a dog.
“It’s like that all the time,” Parrish said.
“I think the people are like the material we’re doing.
They’re beautiful, graceful people, but they’re like
animals basically.”
And there Parrish and Wilson seem to have unlocked much of the
“Do Jump!” success, in that people, whether in the
audience or on the stage, like to feel as if they are a part of
something, which allows them to escape into those realms of fantasy
even normal theater can’t always provide.
“It’s just a ball,” Wilson said.
“It’s so much fun to have the capacity inside yourself
to fly around.”
Either it is soaring over the audience, or walking feet above
everyone else on stilts, or flying a kite magnificently with no
wind in the room, it is this that the Geffen is counting on Los
Angeles audiences to embrace. This time of the year for the Geffen
has been traditionally one of experimental theater, according to
Cates.
“I love the circus “¦ Last year we had Ennio, who
worked with paper mache. One year we had “˜Peter and
Wendy.’ We’ve always had something interesting and
unexpected,” Cates said. “So the thought of having 10
people on stage doing things under one roof no one’s seen
before was just too much a joy to pass up.”
THEATER: “Do Jump!” opens tonight
at the Geffen Playhouse,
10886 Le Conte Ave., and will run through Dec. 16. Tickets are $28
to $30 for previews and $30 to $46 for regular shows, and can be
purchased at the box office or by calling (310) 208-5454.