a look inside the stage

the most recent production of The Stage took place during the halloween weekend and it rocked.

never been to one at the Oakland? care to see what takes place?

"just get up there" is the main vibe behind the stage, as eloquently described in this week's interview with Sherry Linkon on her program at wysu.

This last stage had a ton of different acts - 17 to be exact - from music to comedy to magic to live painting to a fashion show and a costume competition. for 5 bucks you get all that grassroots culture and talent, free food, and a gallery opening - mixed into a single night.

this post will share a few photos, and 8 movies from a variety of acts that night.

first off, in the gallery was the artwork of Jason VanHoose who assembled a collection of paintings, sculpture, and other mixed media. the buff was in this room too. This piece on its side, was composed of nails, bottles, horse hair, dog bones, and chains (in no particular order).


at some point in the night was the the costume contest,


and a shot taken at the end of the fashion show,


and a gorilla playing with the Realtime Digimob.


As you go through the next set of videos, check out the dude painting throughout. That's Jess Adkins taking this, a blank canvas . . .


. . . and transforming it 3 hours later into a work of art. Go to the end of this post to see the end result.

the night started out with this duo, who moved into a Radiohead cover.



Then this family of brothers got on stage, with this Elvis song performed among the others . . .



YSU's award winning professor Dr. Ray taught us some science about the atmosphere, inserting some infomation about silicon and an implicit boob joke.



then another band, picture progressing top right . . .



this next act had a tuba, a trumpet, and a handsaw all on stage at once. I love this video and the energy at all extremes of the picture.



then a costume contest, and standing on top of someone laying on a bed of nails



Eventually a truly wicked fashion show by Ohio Vintage took place, with awesome live music by Starfish on the Battlefield.



And finally the Realtime Digimob in all its glory:



as promised, here is the final piece by Jess Adkins after paining for 3 hours.


whew! was a night. well, when the next one is going to take place, all you peeps from northeast ohio can come and join in the fun.