Stomp   9/1/2000
San Francisco Playhouse, Seat: n.a.

Have you ever made music with a kitchen pot, a metal pipe, an old tire, or another object that is not usually considered a musical instrument? Then you have something in common with two British musicians who turned their talent and interest in making musical instruments out of ordinary objects into one of the most popular shows of our time.

As young men growing up in England, Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas performed rhythms on hubcaps, brooms, metal pipes, and anything else that would make an interesting sound. Soon they started "stomping" on the streets of Brighton, England, where they attracted large crowds at their performances. Street performances are not unusual in England. Performers have been entertaining on the streets there since the Middle Ages, when entertainers erected stages at village fairs or along the street to perform for the crowd. This form of entertaining is called "busking," and those who perform on the streets are "buskers."

In the mid-1980s, Cresswell and McNicholas joined with other performers who shared their fascination with this form of musical expression to make television commercials, recordings, and other shows using their unique style. In 1991, after ten years of collaborating, Cresswell and McNicholas created Stomp, an unusual show combining their use of everyday objects in nontraditional ways with movement, dance, and comedy. Stomp has no message, no plot, and is void of any dialogue between the actors. Instead, it delivers a powerful dose of sound—organized noise—using pipes, brooms, old sinks, lighters, garbage pails, and lids to create the extraordinary. The sounds are at times raucous and at other times delicate.

The show is fast-moving and full of energy. It is filled with humor, conveyed to the audience through movement, facial expressions, and sound. The performers’ movements are well choreographed as they perform on instruments and dance across the stage.

Soon after its opening to rave reviews in Edinburg, England, Stomp received numerous awards. The producers organized other casts of performers to appear in countries throughout the world. The American cast opened in New York City in February 1994. Various groups of performers take Stomp on the road, entertaining audiences in many cities in the United States and Canada.

Stomp’s cast members rarely stand perfectly still when they perform. They are always in motion, sweeping floors, swinging from high above the stage as they perform rhythms on hubcaps and other objects, and playing on each other’s instruments as they move from one section of the stage to another. Their movements and execution of various rhythms draw much laughter and applause from the audience.

Most musical groups travel with a certain number of guitars, keyboards, drums, and other instruments. Stomp’s inventory of instruments is most unusual. In a three-week period, a cast will go through the following objects: 84 brooms, 50 trash can lids, 36 poles, 36 fifty-gallon oil cans, 72 drum sticks, 25 bananas, 5 boxes of ballpoint pens, 48 boxes of matches, and much more. Can you figure out why they would need so many drumsticks?

Now it’s time for you to Stomp. Find a stick or a pencil. Tap the stick on several different surfaces and listen to the difference in sound or timbre. Now create a rhythm and use the stick on the best-sounding surfaces to play your rhythm. Ask a friend to find a different sized stick and find other surfaces. Have a conversation with your friend using only your sticks. Vary the dynamics of your performance. Then move as you perform. Videotape your performance. Critique the video and make whatever changes you think are needed. Are you ready to join the cast of Stomp?

Although STOMP doesn't have a narrative in the manner of a traditional play, it does take the audience on a journey. After the opening sequence, which introduces the audience to the ensemble, one of the performers leads the audience in a very simple clap and response session. As the performance progresses, both the rhythms and the instruments become more complex.

At the end of the evening, the audience and performers collaborate on much more complicated rhythms--rhythms which might not have been possible earlier in the course of the performance. The audience has learned to listen on STOMP's wavelength, finding music and pleasure in what was once noise and confusion.

This new level of sensitivity continues after the house lights have come up and the audience has exited; street noises, the steps of passers-by, and the sounds of cars and busses passing all combine to create and continue the presence of stomp and their rhythm of life.

WHAT IS STOMP?

What does the word STOMP make you think of? It is very difficult to classify the show STOMP. Do you put it under the heading of theater, dance, music or performance art?

STOMP is performed in theaters, but it is not a play, musical, or opera. It is not theater in the traditional sense of the word. There is no speech, dialogue or plot. However, it does have two characteristics of traditional theater: mime and characterization. Each performer has an individual character which is distinct from the others. These characters are brought out through the mime and dance in the show.

STOMP started out as two "buskers" on the streets of Brighton. Busking is the British term for a street performance where people are encouraged to stop, listen and watch. It is a very old custom, dating back to booth theaters erected at village fairs in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The street busker of today also echoes back to the wandering minstrel of the medieval fair. Thus, it seems that STOMP's roots are in theatre, but can it really be called "theater"?

The entire show is highly choreographed, interweaving dance into all of its aspects. In STOMP, there is a symbiotic relationship between dance and music. The music is created within the dance, but the dance itself is dependent on the music for its rhythm and character. STOMP shows a true marriage of movement and music, where both create and enhance each other.

STOMP, however, cannot be described purely as a "dance," for dance is only one of the three elements which are combined to create the show - music, theater and dance. The marriage of these three elements, means that even though STOMP does not contain the traditional features, it does create an interesting and innovative show. It breaks all customary boundaries of the performing arts by inviting the audience to participate in the show, not only demonstrating that anyone has the ability to STOMP, but also encouraging us to take what we have learned about sound and rhythm and apply it to our own everyday lives.

The ideas behind STOMP- of finding music in noises which we usually try to block out and ignore - are not traditional ideas. Often, when a show defies all customary conceptions of music, dance and theatre or combines and alters the concepts in a new and unusual way, people categorize the piece as "performance art."

Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, the creators of STOMP, reject the idea that the show is performance art. Performance art often has the connotation that it is a performer or a group trying to make a political statement through the piece. STOMP makes no such claim; it is the exploration of rhythm in everyday things. To quote Luke, "at the end of the day, STOMP is what it is." There are no hidden meanings, it's just entertainment.