An array of rainbow leotards, black Jabbawockeez-esque masks and neon traffic-worker vests combined into a colorful explosion at Café Club Surreal this weekend.

The performers demonstrated that the event was anything but reserved. The avant-garde café stood out among the other events during this weekend’s CRAVE Arts Festival.

The Café Surreal performance is one of many events during the CRAVE Arts Festival, which ran Friday and Saturday and focused on the multiple facets of contemporary art in the Syracuse area. The inaugural CRAVE Festival was inspired by a similar arts festival in Seattle, Wash., called ArtsCrush. With the creator of the Seattle festival, Sam Read, at the helm, events like spoken-word poetry shows, visual art exhibits and music concerts took place in various locations across Syracuse. All were accessible by the Connective Corridor.

During the show, aerialists, acrobats and actors in costumes — ranging from quirky Playboy bunnies to nature-inspired bodysuits — adopted their characters’ personalities and interacted with other performers. In addition, a large TV with various digital graphics and art played in the background of the looming aerial rig in the center of the plaza.

Café Surreal performers took the stage Friday evening for the CRAVE Arts Festival, but the Saturday evening performance was cancelled due to rain.

Corinne Tyo, a production coordinator at SU Arts Engage who helped plan the production, described the scene at Café Surreal as avant-garde characters that walked in and out of the setup of bright red tables and chairs in the AXA plaza during the show.

“Picture your normal nightclub cafe,” said Tyo, a recent Syracuse University graduate. “You have the music, you have the food, the drinks, the coffee, that sort of scenario. Except with this it’s sort of obscure. There’s something a little off.

“The big thing I took away from planning this show that I think applies to the rest of the festival as well is that technology is ever-changing,” Tyo said. “It’s the job of the art world to transcend that and almost be ahead of the technology.”

Café Surreal is run by SU Arts Engage with help from two local companies: CirqOvation and the Building Company. SU Arts Engage, a campus-based performing arts organization, brought artists from the two companies, as well as students from the College of Visual and Performing Arts drama department to participate in this interactive show. SU students involved with the show had several weeks to rehearse their roles, although some characters had already been developed and built upon for several years.

“You develop a character and how they move and talk, but then you just got to work with what the other actors are giving you and what the audience is giving you,” said Keith Caram, junior acting major and performer in the show.

Leah Slater, a senior acting major and performer, said the show is 95 percent improvisation and 5 percent work from rehearsal. The characters mostly interacted with one another through physical and verbal interactions along the sides of the cafe tables, although occasionally the characters meandered through the thick of the audience.

Audience members talked mostly among themselves while admiring each performer’s unique costume, which came from VPA assistant drama professor Stephen Cross, as well as through the actors’ own sources. But there was also some tension between the audience and performers.

“At first I thought the whole thing was kind of weird,” said audience member Christopher Rivera, a sophomore English and textual studies major. “But then I began to understand how the show was getting at both the simplicity and randomness that art comes from.”

At one point, junior acting major and performer Tyler Wiseman pushed the limits of the audience’s comfort when he stepped out in a chrome Daft Punk-esque mask and simply stood and stared at the people around him. One audience member called this experience “really disturbing,” Wiseman said.

“At least five or six different people would be like, ‘Can he see us?’ ‘I think so,’” Wiseman said.

Later on, audience members began dancing with hula-hoops, posing with characters for photos and practicing yoga with various actors in the show. As the night wound down and the wind picked up, the actors did their best to keep the audience’s spirits up as people flowed in and out of the plaza. Ultimately, seats began emptying out 90 minutes into the two-hour show.

Tyo, however, said she had an overall positive feeling about the effect of this show in Syracuse, since it was unlike most shows performed in Syracuse.

Said Tyo: “This is the type of entertainment that you can’t ignore or pull away from. It’s so intriguing and so interactive that you want to be a part of it. It’s time for this kind of thing in Syracuse.”

Published on September 23, 2013 at 12:21 am

Contact Margaret: mglin@syr.edu