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THEATER SOU grad Thomas dazzles with Quixotic Comment By Alec Dickinson For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By Alec Dickinson For the Tidings Posted Apr. 16, 2015 at 7:53 PM By Alec Dickinson For the Tidings Posted Apr. 16, 2015 at 7:53 PM » Social News When art fusion troupe Quixotic wowed audiences at the Historic Ashland Armory on Easter Sunday, April 5, there was a lot riding on the show for owner and executive producer Mica Thomas: It was a chance to showcase his art in front of the community that launched his career. Thomas, originally from Homer, Alaska, spent four years in Ashland completing his degree in theatrical lighting design in the late '90s and early 2000s before completing a master of arts in lighting design at Penn State. It’s a career that has now supported him for a decade and has carried him to far flung places around the globe. While Thomas has welcomed the success of his art fusion troupe, it’s not an outcome he could have foreseen in 2006 when he joined founder Anthony Magliano a year into Quixotic’s mercurial evolution. “When Quixotic first started, we’d go into these abandoned buildings and set up a stage and lights and it was very haphazard. We’d spend more time shoveling bird poop off the floor than actually working on the show. So eventually we thought ‘maybe we should go into a theater that’s actually made for this’. That way we spend less time patching up walls, getting air conditioning set up, and running cords across the alley to find power and all those other crazy things you have to do when you are in an abandoned building.” Thomas says at the outset the project didn’t always involve artists in the traditional sense of the word. The company initially selected disparate professionals, sometimes architects with horn players, or engineers with opera singers, to create the basic art performance. They would then add other creative elements including music, animation, projection, and movement. He says there is value in the lack of expectation the different skill sets brought to live theater. “You take people who have kind of different experiences that aren’t performance-based, and they don’t have any preconceived notion of what it should be. So you ask someone who hasn’t ever done something before ‘how would you do it?’ And they have some weird angle on it and different direction to go that started to spark some cool ideas. We did the pairings to get people out of their comfort zone and make them think in different ways.” During the first few years the company produced only one show per year, but it was soon being invited to perform at events and productions became more regular. Thomas and Magliano formed a nonprofit and procured their own space to fine-tune their look and brand. Thomas says having their own theater has allowed them to experiment in ways they could not otherwise have done. In its current incarnation, Quixotic operates a theater school in Kansas City, tours the United States, and performs globally multiple times each year. The troupe incorporates live music, digital sound and projection, dance, and aerial acrobatics to dazzling effect. He says the variety of types of performance the troupe undertakes can make logistics challenging. “We have an amazing collaborative team of visual artists, of choreographers, musicians, scenic designers, lighting and costume designers to create these shows, and pretty much every single show is different in some way. But to do that, we have about 16 people on the road, plus lights, projectors, gear. It can be challenging.” He says the troupe will sometimes arrive to find a structure that is not capable of supporting the overhead aerial equipment or lighting. The company’s use of digital projections can cause outdoor venues to be difficult. “The outdoor festival world is interesting to navigate. When you are setting up lights you have to do that stuff at night. There’s been more times than I can count when we’re trying to get all the projections lined up and focuses and the sun’s coming up and you are trying to get it all before you can’t see it anymore.” Despite logistical challenges, it has been a big couple of years for Quixotic. They have performed in Haiti, Oman, India and even entertained the King of Bahrain. Last year they were invited to perform for TED Talks in Long Beach. “It was amazing. The people in the audience, the people you get to meet … it seemed very backwards. Movie stars were praising the performers and they were all a little confused, because they were like, ‘wait, we admire you.’ But these people that you would normally be intimidated by are there being welcoming and approachable and they would come talk to you and have real conversations.” Earlier this year, they were invited to perform with Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas for the charity event One Drop. The event raised more than $6 million dollars for an international clean drinking water project. Thomas says working with the iconic theatre troupe was a dream, as was “getting to play with all their awesome awesome toys.” Quixotic is currently taking a break in Ashland before performing in San Francisco. Thomas says the group has some of its biggest performances booked for this summer, including a show at Red Rocks amphitheater in Colorado. He says the evolution of the project has been somewhat wild and unpredictable, but he says that fits the name. “Quixotic means ‘the unattainable dream.’ But we came across a branch definition one time that said ‘organized chaos.’ And that’s what it feels like most of the time. It’s always pushing, always searching, and it’s never static in its development, in its artistic expression. You just know you’re on the path to something. It fits who we are and how we operate.”  Alec Dickinson is a freelance writer. By Alec Dickinson For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By Alec Dickinson For the Tidings Posted Apr. 16, 2015 at 7:53 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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