String Theory on a new thread at the Broad Stage
String Theory, a Los Angeles-based hybrid performance act that combines dance and a kind of sonic sculpture, has little to do with the field of particle physics that gives it its name. However, the two disparate entities do have one striking thing in common — most people have no idea how to explain either one.
There’s no “one-liner elevator speech,” as one of its dancers put it. “It just is,” said another.
Even Dale Franzen, artistic director of the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, can’t quite categorize the root genre of the show.
“I don’t know what to call it, they don’t know what to call it,” she said. “It’s String Theory; it’s its own genre.”
Which might be why she has brought it back again. Audience members were “flabbergasted,” she said, when String Theory first performed at the Broad two years ago on Valentine’s Day. This Saturday, String Theory will reprise that performance — but, because of the protean nature of the show and its creators, it will be an entirely new experience. New movement, new arrangements, a spectacular that has been unwound and rewoven again.
For most performance acts, changing venues means readjusting sound levels, maybe redoing some blocking. But for String Theory, moving from one stage to another means physically transforming both show and space.
For String Theory to work, every venue must be transformed into a massive instrument, a room-sized harp. Strings for that harp will stretch from a 6-foot resonator on the Broad stage, for example, all the way to the balcony ledge. At every venue, that distance is different and sometimes those strings can stretch to almost 1,000 feet — and remain perfectly playable. The harp has been re-created at the Kodak Theatre, Getty Center, L.A. Convention Center and Walt Disney Concert Hall, among other venues.
But the giant harp is just the beginning.
String Theory is a fusion of dance, sculpture and music. It’s no accident that its three co-founders are each specialists in one of those fields. Holly Rothschild is a trained dancer; her husband, Luke Rothschild, is a sculptor and rock musician; and Joseph Harvey is a classically trained cellist. In 2002, they teamed up to form String Theory, recruiting collaborators from their respective spheres.
The score is defiantly eclectic, jumping from 15th century Spanish Renaissance to pop to modern rock to electronica. And don’t overlook the multimedia video elements playing in the background.
But the best part is the custom-made instruments, like that harp. In addition to cello, violin, guitar, saxophone, flute, keys, bass, drums and sampler, String Theory performers play on purely invented creations such as the skirt harp, a tutu-shaped instrument with massive poles shooting out from the dancer’s waist. Another musician plays a theremin on stilts.
“It almost has to be seen,” said Alesia Young, one of the dancers and harpists. “You do it a disservice by finding language to describe it. It’s an experience.”
Where String Theory breaks from particle physics is in accessibility. Despite its myriad influences and alternately alien and retro aesthetic, the show, Luke and Holly Rothschild insist, isn’t some rarefied, self-important, art-for-art’s-sake showcase. It is, in their words, “apolitical, utilitarian and blue-collar.”
Neither of the Rothschilds are precious about the show, which they treat as roll-up-your-sleeves work. “I’ve never played a show clean in my life, because I’m so dirty from the setup and from hauling pig iron and sandbags and drilling,” Holly said. “I’ve always slapped on the foundation over a bunch of dirt.”
According to Luke, their goal is to “communicate pleasure and create something beautiful.”
String Theory also engages in educational outreach, and Luke works with the others to score movies.
For Franzen, all of this fit right into her mission at the Broad, which is to promote Los Angeles-based artists who are embracing the unique. When she asked Luke and Holly to re-create their show from two years ago, the vaguely love-themed “14 Lengths of Desire,” for the Broad’s new season, they began deconstructing; Holly, who also directs and dances in the performance, took out old pieces, developed three new dance numbers and worked with a collaborator to add new video elements. It’s safe to say that what they’re bringing on Saturday has never been seen before.
“They’re kind of like a big secret in L.A.,” Franzen said. “The rest of the world doesn’t know about them yet, and they should.”
String Theory
Where: Broad Stage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Price: a few tickets available at $47 and $60
Info: (310) 434-3200; https://www.thebroadstage.com
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