A unique blend of art, music, and performance takes the stage in Mountain Home on Wednesday night as the Artrageous troupe opens the Arkansas State University-Mountain Home Performing Arts Series. The show begins at 7 p.m. at the Ed Coulter Performing Arts Center inside the Vada Sheid Community Development Center. Tickets are $30 for adults and $15 for students.
Presented by the Haley Cultural Arts Endowment, Artrageous is the creation of a group of performers who have worked together for more than four decades. According to the troupe’s history, the show began in 1980 as a street theater act in the Kitsilano neighborhood of Vancouver. Founders Daniel K. Moyer and Deborah B. Noble, who remain with the group, initially performed as clowns, jugglers, and puppeteers. One of their first efforts was children’s theater featuring Bunraku, a traditional Japanese puppet style that uses three people in black to operate a life-sized figure.
In the early days, the troupe experimented, teaching themselves new skills as they went. A turning point came after they relocated to New Mexico in a yellow school bus and suffered a devastating loss: a fire destroyed the hand-built mountain theater where they prepared for shows, along with more than 30 original puppets, props, and a printing press. Faced with this setback, the members transitioned to a band called The Pink Flamingos, despite limited musical backgrounds, and gained recognition as an interactive act for corporate events.
By 2014, the performers had combined their diverse talents—music, puppeteering, painting, and audience engagement—into a single production under the name Artrageous. Today, the troupe is based in Tijeras, New Mexico, and has performed over 3,000 shows across 49 states. Their high-energy acts include live painting demonstrations, with large canvases completed in minutes, as well as audience participation, a signature element still central to their performances.
Wednesday’s show promises to be no exception. Audience members can look forward to a costume contest, a painting giveaway, and complimentary activity kits for the first 100 attendees. Tickets are available online at thesheid.com, by phone at 870-508-6280, or at the box office starting an hour before the event.
The Performing Arts Series continues on Oct. 30 with a performance by the band Smash Mouth.