Latest in a series of posts on the Arts in Bethlehem 
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Touchstone Theatre
“An Imagined America”
April 9 and 10
selections from Kathy Lauer-Williams, “Curtain Rises: Touchstone reimagines ‘America’.” Bethlehem Press, April 2, 2021.
Touchstone Theatre of Bethlehem is introducing an experimental performance that combines a drag show and art installation and will be presented in person, but socially-distanced.
“An Imagined America” will be presented between 5 and 9:30 p.m. April 9 and 1 and 9:30 p.m. April 10, Fine Art Galleries, Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center, Allentown Arts Walk, 21 N. Seventh St., Allentown.
The performance is created by Adam Ercolani of Bethlehem. Ercolani is an apprentice at Touchstone Theatre and a 2021 candidate for a master’s degree in Moravian College’s MFA program. The play was written as part of Ercolani’s thesis.
The performance takes place over 45 minutes with just five guests allowed in the gallery at a time.
According to Ercolani, the show is “bringing history to life through a re-imagination of what America is, was, and can or may be.”
The show features performances by two regionally-known drag queens, Majestee Crowne Le’Vixenn of Reading and Rogue-Star Givenchy of Allentown.
“From the get-go, I knew I wanted this project to focus on the medium of drag performance since it provides a unique way to recontextualize the historical moments we’re looking at,” Ercolani says.
“Drag performers are notorious for their ability to capture a room and really kill it with what they’re bringing to the table,” says Ercolani.
The show is a performance piece and an art installation that is a study of human bias and behavior, says Ercolani.
“It’s a dissection of American identity: the good, the bad and the ugly,” Ercolani says. “Audiences and actors alike will be left asking themselves what exactly America is and what they want America to be.”
Ercolani envisions “An Imagined America” engaging Lehigh Valley audiences in a new way, and providing them with a new lens with which to view society.
He hopes the piece will help the community “understand the challenges those unlike them face, and perceive ways in which they feed into the system of which they are inherently a part.”
Tickets for “An Imagined America” are limited and there will be staggered entrance times for only five patrons at a time. Attendees are asked to arrive 15 minutes before their slotted entrance time. Masks are required. Part of the performance will take place in the gallery and part of it will take place just outside the gallery. In the event of rain, the full event will take place indoors. Tickets are free with donations accepted.
Tickets: www.touchstone.org, 610-867-1689
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