Who Could Be Blue with Premium Season Tickets?

Premium Season Ticket Holders have been attending receptions prior to their Blue Man Group performances all week as an added benefit of their Kimberly-Clark Broadway Across America - Season Ticket Package. Who could be blue with five great Broadway titles and extra perks like this!

Here's a sneak peek of the festivities in the Kimberly-Clark Theater.



 

There’s Still Time for Broadway Season Tickets!

Mamma Mia! was the official start to the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center’s 10^th Anniversary Season this past August, but believe it or not, the 2012/13 Kimberly-Clark Broadway Across America – Fox Cities Season Ticket Package has yet to begin.

This season’s Broadway package includes tickets to Blue Man Group (October 9-14), Elf the Musical (November 13-18), Catch Me If You Can (December 18-23), The Addams Family (February 26-March 3) and War Horse (June 25-30). You can even add tickets to Disney’s The Lion King (April 9-May 5), all in one easy purchase!

Many of the Center’s Kimberly-Clark Broadway Across America– Season Ticket Holders upgrade their packages to Premium status with preferred seating locations and even more great benefits. The kick-off Premium Season Ticket Holder Party is a favorite. With show inspired décor, light hors d’oeuvres and complimentary drinks, it’s a great way to launch a season of Broadway’s best. 

Check out some photos from previous Premium Season Ticket Holder parties!

Parisian Fare before Les Misérables

Exploring the Island before South Pacific

Just imagine what we’ll dream up for the Blue Man Group
Premium Season Ticket Holder Party!

If you’re interested in becoming a Season Ticket Holder, visit foxcitiespac.com or speak to a ticket agent today at (920) 730-3760.

Seeing Blue at the Fox Cities P.A.C.

No one knows how to make a more inspired mess than Blue Man Group. Whether they’re beating on drums and generating a kaleidoscopic spray of airborne paint, or catching flying gumballs with their mouths and spewing the paint onto canvases, or feasting on Twinkies, or chomping out a Cap’n Crunch symphony, the bald-and-blue characters approach each messy, noisy enterprise with the expertise and determination of children. And the audience responds with unadulterated, uncomplicated, grin-inducing joy; with howls of laughter and childlike wonder and delight. You might say that Blue Man Group is child’s play for adults.

            

At first glance, the stage may look like a mess. But looking closer, it’s far from one. Don’t confuse child’s play with childishness.

“We have things that we think about, and they express themselves in these weird ways,” says Phil Stanton, co-founder of Blue Man Group with Matt Goldman and Chris Wink. “A lot of what we do is colorful, and kids enjoy it, and adults are entertained by it, whether they get the idea behind it or not. We’re usually looking at things from the point of community or relationships. We’re trying to say something about the power of a group. That’s why there are three Blue Men; three is the smallest number that makes up a group.”

Goldman adds, “Preserving a childlike wonder is definitely one of the things behind what we do. We believe that we’re all creative beings, and creativity can look a lot of different ways. We’re trying to get to an ecstatic, euphoric, emotional place. We surf many different interests – science and art and music and spectacle and reading and math and technology. Why can’t people be fascinated and entertained by all of these things?”

At a Blue Man Group theatrical show there is, indeed, something on the bill to fascinate and entertain everyone. It’s vaudeville for the twenty-first century: instead of an array of comedians and singers and monologists and dog acts and jugglers sharing a bill, the Blue Men – abetted by a few musicians – offer an array of wildly imaginative flights of fancy, ranging from primitive to sophisticated, in a variety show quite unlike any other.

“We have so many different influences,” says Stanton. “Vaudeville, of course. The Marx Brothers. Buster Keaton. Punk rock. Kodo drummers. Butoh dance. Ultraman, who was a Japanese super hero. It’s all somewhere deep in our DNA.”

Says Goldman, “I don’t like to name influences because the list is too vast. Our influences are almost everything we’ve ever been exposed to. Bugs Bunny is just as big an influence on me as the Marx Brothers.”

           

The Blue Man is a combination of hero and trickster, clown and scientist, innocent and super hero. When speaking about their creation, Goldman and Stanton sometimes refer to him as a singular being, and sometimes refer to him in the plural. 

“For metaphor purposes, we often talk about them as ‘three as one,’” says Stanton. “But they’re actually different. We try to create character differences, and sometimes that’s what leads to the comedy. In the scene with the gumballs and marshmallows, they’re three very distinct characters. There’s the one that catches the marshmallows; he seems kind of nervous, like he’s not sure it’s going right. The guy that’s catching the gumballs seems more confident, like he’s got some kind of prowess and knows that the outcome will be good. And then you’ve got the guy in the center, who’s a little bit of a trickster. He’s not telling either one of them everything; he’s got a few secrets up his sleeve. So there sometimes is a difference in the characters – and sometimes there isn’t.” 

Goldman adds, “A lot of people think that being bald and blue is putting on a mask of sorts. We consider it the opposite, that we’re taking off the mask. Once you strip away the hair, the skin tone, the gender, the ears, and have no particular style of clothing, what’s left? It’s really the rawest, purest form of what’s essentially human. We’ve found that for the first third or first half of the show, audiences think they’re looking at these very strange, unusual beings. But somewhere in there – and I see this over and over – it suddenly dawns on them that they’re actually watching themselves. And then the question becomes – and I go back and forth on this myself – are we watching three different beings with three different personalities, or are we watching one being that’s been split into three? I like to live in the ambiguity of it.”

The Blue Man uses every facet of his being to engage the audience in situations and ideas and behavior and sights and sounds that intrigue him. And he does so without ever speaking.

“Talking is so limiting,” says Goldman. “We talked once, and it was painful. It was horrible. But we don’t think of the Blue Man as a mute. We think of him as someone who has chosen not to say anything.”

           

The show is not without words. LED screens display a series of messages designed to make the audience laugh and think. An authoritative, other-worldly voice wittily explains the intricacies of modern plumbing and choreography and technology. But more often than not, words are unnecessary. When the Blue Men are playing their unique polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, pipes – instruments of their own making – or fiercely pounding on drums, words would just intrude on the giddiness being felt throughout the theater.

           

But even when the audience is in a heightened state of exhilaration, the Blue Men are often teaching them something – even if the audience is unaware of it. Take, for instance, one of their most famous pieces, beating paint-covered drums, which never fail to rev up the crowd. What audiences likely aren’t aware of is that they’re being given a lesson in synesthesia, a mixing of the senses. The great choreographer George Balanchine was famous for saying, “See the music and hear the dancing.” That’s synesthesia. So is seeing the sounds of the drums and feeling the colors of the paint.

“The paint on the drums for us is a visual representation of the music,” says Puck Quinn, creative director of character development and appearances. “We want to create a visceral experience. We want you to feel it in your gut. That’s why we have as big a drum as we can find. Because that drum will literally vibrate your viscera, your guts will resonate.” 

Connecting to the audience and creating a community within the walls of the theater is what matters most to Blue Man Group.

“The relationship with the audience is everything,” says Goldman. “Because at the end of the day, the Blue Man is really just trying to connect. He knows, whether intellectually or on a gut level, that in order to get to that ecstatic, heightened moment, he’s got to connect with these strangers. That’s why the Blue Man is so respectful of the audience. That’s why he wants to gain their trust. It’s all about the connection.”

People sitting in the front rows immediately feel a part of the proceedings, as they are given slickers to protect their clothes from paint and other possible splatterings. The Blue Men also make an enormous amount of eye contact with the audience, both from the stage and by interacting with them. Most famously, a woman from the audience is chosen to join them onstage for "The Feast," and share in a repast of Twinkies. What follows is spontaneous – as is the selection of the woman.

“The choice is made completely in the moment,” says Stanton. “You can kind of tell that the woman has suspended her disbelief, that she really buys into the character and is reacting to him. When we go into the audience and look into someone’s eyes, and we see both joy and a little fear, it means she’s not hiding, she’s not guarding herself. That’s what we’re looking for. It’s intangible. We want somebody who’s going to be really lively and free to react to things in real time. We don’t want someone who’s going to go up there and try to act.” 

For Goldman, Stanton and Wink, the entire show is a build up to the breathtaking finale, which unites the audience in a magical way.

“It’s all about the connection,” says Stanton. “And we also wanted to make a statement about how important the live experience is. Even though technology has made it so that we don’t have to have that live experience, there’s something about our humanity that will always need it.”

Be part of the live experience with Blue Man Group October 9-14 at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center. Tickets are on sale now at foxcitiespac.com! 

© 2010 Blue Man Group

Coloring the World Blue: The History of Blue Man Group

Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton and Chris Wink are entrepreneurs who created and oversee a global enterprise that has brought joy to more than 17 million people. They are also innovators, educators, artists, and contemporary comedians, known collectively as the founders and originators of Blue Man Group. That these three bald and blue characters would become a cultural phenomenon – let alone the foundation for a most dynamic and successful artistic organization – is an idea that was all but unimaginable when these inscrutable beings first emerged, walking the streets of New York.

“We weren’t really goal-oriented,” says Stanton. “When we started walking around the city, we did it because we wanted to see how people reacted. And being bald and blue was our social life. We didn’t want to go to bars and be part of a singles scene, a drinking scene. We wanted our social life to be somehow creative, and this was a lot of fun. We knew we would eventually do some kind of performance, but we never envisioned a commercial theater run.”

           

Photo Credit: (c)Paul Kolnik

Blue Man Group’s wildly popular, always evolving theater piece has been a mainstay in New York, Boston and Chicago for years. Now touring the country for the first time, there are also productions in Las Vegas and Orlando, and there are or have been productions in Tokyo and numerous European cities.

The show is an absurd and wondrous blend of music, painting, science and technology, as the Blue Men silently engage in a variety of set pieces that run the gamut from primitive and childlike to witty and sophisticated. And the character has been the springboard for numerous additional ventures, including a rock tour, a museum exhibition, a 3D movie and a school.

“It’s all about creativity and innovation,” says Puck Quinn, creative director of character development and appearances. “If someone asks, ‘What does Blue Man Group do?,’ my answer is simple: ‘We innovate.’”

Everything begins with the Blue Man, and although he’s been around for more than two decades, his founders still can’t entirely explain where he came from. Like the character himself, his origin is enigmatic.

“There really isn’t an explanation,” says Goldman. “Chris dug up a picture that he drew when he was five years old, and it had three blue men in it. And I had a thing in my wallet for years with a blue tribe in South America. I don’t know why it was there; I never put pictures in my wallet. We think the Blue Man has always been here. The best answer is that we found each other.”

The impulse for going bald and blue emerged, in part, when the three longtime friends observed a clash of cultures on a New York sidewalk that no one else noticed.

“We saw three punk rockers – giant Mohawks, safety pins in the cheekbone area, leather and chains – walk between three other gentlemen who were dressed in Armani suits and carrying alligator briefcases,” says Goldman. “These six guys didn’t even blink, and the people around them didn’t even blink. And we turned to each other and said, ‘If that scene didn’t even get one iota of consciousness put to it, what human imagery possibly could?'”

Eventually, an image began to emerge.

“We thought, ‘What would surprise people?'” says Stanton. “‘What’s going to catch someone’s eye and make them think?’ We thought that if we created a bald and blue character, that image would have the ability to surprise and spark some thought for a long time.”

           

Goldman adds, “The first time we got bald and blue, we knew instantly it was something very special. And it was so freeing, because it wasn’t us. Our own egos were gone.”

Eager to see an end to the 1980s, they carried around a coffin and staged a “Funeral for the ’80s” in Central Park – two years before the decade ended.

“We also walked around the streets or into bars; we were really interested in being a little provocative,” Goldman said.

The traits of the Blue Man developed gradually.

“There was something about him that seemed timeless, and something that seemed a little bit futuristic,” says Stanton. “He seemed to have the ability to be beautiful and comic at the same time. I’m not even sure we thought about that at first. It was really intuitive. We were trying to create a character that somehow represented humanity, but was able to be outside of humanity and look at it at the same time. We wanted to make a statement about community, about the power of a group, as opposed to the American individualist mentality. We thought the character would express community through something tribal, and drumming seemed the way to go. Chris had trained as a drummer, and I was from a really musical background. We wanted to draw from our own interests and backgrounds, and bring them into some kind of performance. We wanted to express something about the process, or the impulse to create.”

They built drums and instruments made of polyvinyl chloride – or PVC – pipes. They caught thrown objects with their mouths, and learned how to make things squirt out of their chests. Not all their experiments were successful. “We tried these hats that had tape recorders in them,” says Goldman. “They were called ‘Read Your Mind’ hats.” An acquaintance complimented them for their bravery.

           

They continued to develop material for three years, performing in downtown clubs and event spaces.

“We wanted to do work that had never been seen onstage before,” says Goldman.

Their shows were fresh and funny, exhilarating and experimental, but they were uncertain how long they could continue; they often paid out more than they took in on a gig. But in 1991, they were invited to perform at La MaMa, the prestigious off-off-Broadway theater. The show created a buzz, and that summer Blue Man Group took part in Lincoln Center’s Serious Fun Festival. In the fall they moved off-Broadway to the Astor Place Theater, where they remain to this day.

Two decades later, Goldman, Stanton and Wink are still tinkering with, refining, and updating the show. Each additional production, including the tour, provides an opportunity for new material, and even the New York show is refreshed from time to time.

“Sometimes we just see something that we think is really cool, and we’ll try and see how we can make it theatrical,” says Stanton.

The success of the show has enabled Blue Man Group’s founders to do what they most enjoy: innovate, create, and inspire. Among their many enterprises are CDs and DVDs; toy development; and the Megastar World Tour, their take on what a rock concert should be.

“It plays around with all the trappings of the big arena concert,” says Quinn, “All the things we do that we don’t even think about – waving your hands in the air and bopping your head and dancing in your seat. We’re poking fun at all those little actions. But at the same time, we’re trying to put on the best rock concert there is, with all the stuff we want to see.”

A 3-D movie, scheduled to premiere in 2011, is a 3-D live-action comedy, in which the Blue Men journey through the human brain.

“We avoided the movie genre for years, because we’re live performers,” says Quinn. “But 3-D movies are really interesting to us. We’re about visceral experiences, about breaking the fourth wall and reaching across the plane and touching people. That’s what we want to do with this film.”

With the Boston Children’s Museum and JBL they developed an interactive exhibition called "Making Waves," which is touring the country.

“We wanted to create something that would be as close to letting kids up onstage as possible,” says Quinn. “What we’re really doing is discussing sound waves, and how sound works. The exhibition deals primarily with sound and music.”

           

Perhaps their most ambitious and far-reaching endeavor is the Blue School, a charter school for children ages 2 to 7.

“Several things went into starting a school,” says Stanton. “There was the fact that we were having children, and we wanted to create a great place for them to learn. We see a real need to change education to include things like our relationships and our emotional life, and understanding how the brain works. We want to be part of the national and international dialogue. From the very beginning, there’s been an education element in our theatrical show. We’ve tried to find ways to make science theatrical. And I think that if you look at the Blue Man character, there’s a nice continuity there. The Blue Man is a learner. He’s always trying to figure something out, or to learn something about us, or about technology. He’s always trying to express something about the creative impulse. And that’s what the goals of the school are: to help create healthy and strong relationships and community, to help us to continue to be excited and have fun learning, to bring creativity to everything. And we’re not just talking about painting and music and the lively arts. We’re talking about business. We’re living in a world where we have to educate people very differently than we have in the past.”

Blue Man Productions, the parent company that oversees all projects, employs several hundred people around the world. Goldman, Stanton, Wink and their staff pay the same attention to the details of their business as they do to the details of their art.

“From the beginning, we valued what went on offstage as much as what went on onstage,” says Stanton. “It’s important to us how people are treated. The creativity that goes into what happens offstage is viewed as part of what ends up onstage. We never separate the two. We always wanted to own our own show, and live with the decisions that we made, rather than hand all of that off to somebody else. We want to be responsible for what happens, and we wanted to make sure it was a life-long journey.”

Blue Man Group will be making the fall more colorful that usual at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center October 9-14, and tickets are on sale now. For details, visit foxcitiespac.com today!

(c) 2010 Blue Man Group

Last Chance for Christmas in July Savings!

Do you hear jingle bells? Your present arrived early at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center with Christmas in July!

For one week only July 18-25, save up to $60 on 2012/13 Broadway Season Tickets including Blue Man Group, Elf the Musical, Catch Me If You Can, The Addams Family and War Horse. Treat yourself to five amazing shows, and enjoy great seats and exclusive benefits throughout the year. Or, make it a six show package with Disney’s The Lion King. 

With one easy purchase, wrap up your tickets to the hottest Broadway shows by July 25!

Best Seats + Best Prices = Season Tickets

If you are thinking about becoming a Kimberly-Clark Broadway Across America – Fox Cities Season Ticket Holder, there’s no time like the present. It’s the easiest way to secure the best seats at the best prices to next year’s hottest shows in one simple purchase. Plus, you’ll enjoy great Broadway Season Ticket Holder benefits!   

SEATING
Become a Broadway Season Ticket Holder and seats you’ll love can be yours for every Broadway Series show.

SAVINGS
Season Tickets Holders take advantage of special package pricing and save up to 30% compared to buying each show separately.*

FLEXIBILITY
Can’t make your scheduled show? You can easily exchange your tickets for another performance of the same title.

PRIORITY ACCESS
Season Ticket Holders can order additional ticket now months before the general public, and you are among the first to know about new events.

SERVICE
Have you lost your tickets? Season Ticket Holders can request reprinted tickets free of charge.
 

UPGRADE TO PREMIUM SEATS

Premium Broadway Season Ticket Holders have access to coveted Orchestra Level and Dress Circle seating locations and enjoy the very best benefits including:

• An exclusive invitation to a Blue Man Group preshow party
• Special savings on show merchandise
• Premium parking pass
• Special offers from preferred restaurants
• New York concierge Ticketing Service to assist with purchasing tickets for shows on Broadway
• Complimentary Ticket Exchanges by Phone
• Complimentary Ticket Replacement by Phone

MAY BONUS:

The Fox CitiesP.A.C. is offering two great incentives if you become a Season Ticket Holder by May 31. First, take advantage of an optional payment plan and pay 50% now and 50% on June 29. Then, as you head to a show, enjoy complimentary preshow and intermission drinks with a guest pass to the exclusive Partners Lounge!

*Based on performance date, time, seating location and final single ticket prices.

Announcing Broadway-A-Day Sweepstakes Winners!

The Broadway-A-Day Sweepstakes has drawn to a close, and it's time to announce the winners! Seven lucky winners have been selected at random to receive a pair (2) tickets to the opening night performance indicated below. 

Congratulations!

Blue Man Group – Tiffany Miller

Elf – Jenissa Carlson

Catch Me If You Can – Toni Wheeler

The Addams Family – Dana Boettcher

War Horse – Travis Kocourek

Mamma Mia! – Kathy Cecil

Disney's The Lion King – Jennifer Jensen

Winners, be sure to check your email for details on how to claim your prize! 

 For the latest news and information from the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center:

"Like" the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center on Facebook

 Follow @FoxCitiesPAC on Twitter