Don’t miss the final Art Olympic Theatre main event of this year! On Saturday June 21st, Art Olympics will be taking over Market Square (Downtown Pittsburgh) for an evening event featuring three teams of Pittsburgh artists competing to win the title of “Masters of Art Olympic Theatre.” The theme for the event is “Neighborhood Challenge.” Artist Joshua Space’s team will be representing Soho Pittsburgh. ElizabethKeating and her team will be representing Brookline. Scott Andrew and company will be representing Lawrenceville. The event begins with a concert by local Jazz band Opek at 6 PM. At 6:30 PM the opening ceremony for Art Olympic Theatre begins. Opek will continue to play throughout the evening providing a soundtrack to accompany the action of Art Olympics. For those over 21, Penn Brewery will be providing beverages. For the first time ever, this installment of Art Olympics is FREE! (Thanks to The Sprout Fund and The Three Rivers Arts Festival)
For those new to the event, Art Olympic Theatre was inspired in part by the IRON CHEF cooking show. I wanted to produce a show in Pittsburgh for a live audience featuring Pittsburgh artists. For each event I pick three team leaders. The team leaders are asked to assemble a team of four people (total) to compete over two hours to build winning sculptures out of piles of junk. The junk is unveiled to the groups at the beginning of the event. Each team must follow basic rules of the contest. Teams are also allowed to bring in one suitcase of materials. (One person from the group must carry it in without dragging or dropping it.) Teams are judged on the following criteria: 1. Creative use of materials provided. 2. Performance element during 2 hours of building time. 3. Aesthetic value of the final piece. 4. How teams follow their artist statements. (read at the beginning of the event.
The judges for the June 21st event are Al Hoff (Pittsburgh City Paper), Kurt Shaw (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review), Laura Domencic (Pittsburgh Center for the Arts) and Jeff Inscho (Mattress Factory). The emcees for the event are Tom Sarver and Mike Cuccaro.
