Upstart theater group revives the Atomic Age with ‘Invasion’ performance, fundraiser

BY VICTOR HOFF

If you haven’t yet heard of Circle Circle dot dot, don’t feel bad. You’ve only missed out on some of the most exciting community-based theater to emerge in San Diego in the last year. The good news, however, is that this small band of ‘art-makers,’ with their eclectic approach to live performance, will be performing Sunday, Sept. 9 at the Ion Theater on 3704 6^th Avenue in “INVASION: Aliens, Robots and Outer Space- Science Fiction Classics from the Golden Age of Radio” a two-performance fundraiser to help generate revenue for their upcoming 2012/2013 season.

LGBT Weekly caught up with the troupe’s artistic director, Katie Harroff. We had to ask: Will resistance be futile?

LGBT Weekly:

Tell us a little bit about Circle Circle dot dot. You’re relative pups on the San Diego theater scene; and yet you have a very unique mission statement that has already gotten you noticed by some of San Diego’s best entertainment press. What’s been the secret to your success in creating buzz?

Katie Harroff

Sure. The way that it works is that artists conduct workshops or interviews with different members of different communities to gather information with the intention of creating an original play.  This play should be enlightening and informative, but also wildly entertaining.  The purpose of the play is to help mend gaps in communication and bring people closer together.  This style of art-making is limited in San Diego [so I] decided to start [Circle Circle dot dot] with a handful of creative, forward-thinking, incredibly talented art-makers.  The attention that we are getting as a company can be attributed to their talent, and the wonderful communities we’ve already taken the time to collaborate with and their brave decisions to share their stories with us.

Your company is a collaborative/community effort focused on original writing and yet for your fundraiser you’ve plucked pieces that have been time-tested. Was there anything collaborative or communal about these choices?

Ray Bradbury’s work in literature as well as all of the writers we are featuring in the piece, (Robert Sheckley, Ernest Kinoy, Geoff Lefferts, Sherman H. Dryer and Robert Weenolsen), were great community artists who created these pieces to make a commentary on American life, all work that fits into our mission.  However, as an entertaining fundraiser-reading we will be indulging in the kitsch of the classic sci-fi era- as some of the words and ideas have become antiquated.  While Circle has its own company members, we are always looking to build relationships that we can learn from with fellow art-makers in San Diego so that our mainstage productions remain fresh with unique styles of art-creating.

What’s the gayest thing about Circle Circle dot dot?

We’re pretty gay.  Besides the fact that I am openly bisexual and two of company members are gay, Circle Circle dot dot identifies itself as a GLBT activist in our community and we hope to continue to create pieces (like “The Deconstruction of a Drag Queen”) that can represent the queer community and help break down some of the intolerances in our society with our art.  In our first show of our 2012/2013 season titled “Street Art Prophets,” we will be featuring stories from the local street artist Michael Mahaffey who just so happens to be an incredibly hot gay man.  His artwork was featured as the poster image of “Deconstruction of a Drag Queen.”

For more information on Circle Circle dot dot, or to purchase advance tickets for this Sunday’s production of ‘Invasion,’ you can visit the group’s Web site at circle2dot2.com