Having a ‘Blast!’

Young Chang

If you’re having a hard time imagining a football halftime show

onstage, cast member Deborah Barrigan suggests imagining everything

intensified tenfold.

Critics have opted for a series of words to describe the Tony

Award-winning show “Blast!” because the production just isn’t containable

as a form of dance, theater, music or any other traditional genre.

Some have called it a “visual and aural juggernaut,” a “celebration of

movement and music” and “indeed a blast.”

Barrigan starts by comparing the show, which will receive its West

Coast debut at Segerstrom Hall on Thursday through Jan. 6, to a halftime

show.

“It takes your average marching band that people always see on

football fields and puts it onstage,” she said about the show, which

follows an art form created from the tradition of outdoor pageantry. “It

ups the level of music by 10, ups the level of choreography by 10.”

Musicians spin in cartwheels while playing their instruments. Trumpet

players are lowered from the ceiling while tooting their horns.

Percussionists spin in gravity machines while playing the drums, and

baton twirlers twirl everything from flag poles to sabers to

glow-in-the-dark sticks.

“You just give them all different types of equipment to throw them up

onstage,” Barrigan said.

“Blast!” comes from the drum corps Star of Indiana, which placed in

the top 10 corps at the Drum Corps International World Championships in

the mid-1980s. The Star of Indiana became the world champions 10 years

ago, and artistic director James Mason has been shaping the corps into a

theatrical show since.

Kelly Early, a graphic designer for the Orange County Performing Arts

Center who describes herself as an “ex-band-geek,” says it’s about time

someone made an art form out of outdoor pageantry.

“It’s something that I did as a kid, so the fact that they’ve brought

it to the stage seems like a natural progression of things,” said Early,

who was a member of the color guard in high school and marched with the

Sacramento Freelancers drum and bugle corps when she was 16.

The 27-year-old has seen parts of “Blast!,” as recorded on the Public

Broadcasting Service, and raves that the mixing of horns, drums,

pageantry and theatrics is “brilliant.”

The 48-member cast is split into three groups -- the brass players,

percussionists and visual ensembles. Each performer is required to be

both athletic and musical, and most of them are in their early 20s.

There isn’t really a plot to “Blast!,” but one consistent theme would

be performing based on a color.

The first act focuses on colder hues, such as blues and purples, and

performers act out pieces symbolizing emotions such as loss. A piece

called “Appalachian Spring” focuses on the color green. Act two features

the warmer colors, such as yellows and oranges. The show’s entire color

wheel includes about eight different hues, performed with about 15

musical selections.

Barrigan, a 32-year-old from Virginia, joined the visual portion of

the show last summer while working in an entirely different career. Her

role in “Blast!” is as a dancer.

“It’s lyrical dance, not classical ballet, but lyrical with technical

ballet training,” she said.

Barrigan started twirling a baton when she was 5. While working in

marketing and communications last summer, she learned of “Blast!” and

auditioned.

“It just seemed like the perfect thing to do -- to incorporate the

dance I enjoy and baton twirling,” Barrigan said.

She’s been on tour with the production since August and has been

moving through the country for 18 weeks now. There isn’t a lot of

rehearsal time between performances, but once in a while the cast

re-groups to finetune their precision and technique.

“It’s a lively, energetic show,” she said. “And the audience has been

so receptive because they’ve never seen anything like this.”

FYI

* WHAT: “Blast!”

* WHEN: Dec. 27 through Jan.6. Show times are 8 p.m. Thursday through

Dec. 29 and Jan. 1-5; 2 p.m. Dec. 28-30 and Jan. 5-6; and 7:30 p.m. Dec.

30 and Jan. 6.

* WHERE: Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive,

Costa Mesa

* COST: $22-$57

* CALL: (714) 556-2787