M.A. D. (Music Acting Dance) Theatre and Asher Dance Eclectic are the inventions of Elizabeth Robins-Edelson, who came to the Bay area in 1998 after having spent 15 years in New York, Fort Lauderdale and Atlanta as a dance/movement therapist — "which is like a psychotherapist, except I used movement as the mode of therapy." She was also a performer and choreographer who didn't want to lose touch with live theater, and when "someone gave me the idea to start a musical theater company … I said, you know, this is my opportunity to really do something that not a lot of people do. … specifically to do dance with people that use wheelchairs."
Her intentions have expanded: In the most recent Asher Dance Eclectic show, Fusion, at Ruth Eckerd Hall, the eight non-traditional performers included deaf and blind persons, along with those in wheelchairs. The audience response, says Robins-Edelson, was "fantastic, they loved it, they wanted more." The concert for this coming season is called White Hot Broadway; Asher also will continue to make guest appearances around the Bay area.
As for M.A.D. Theatre, Robins-Edelson says that it's mostly unrelated to her dance troupe, although occasionally there's crossover. The M.A.D. season this coming year — all presented most likely at Ybor City's Ritz Theatre — includes Reefer Madness!, The Life and The Full Monty. The runs are usually for three weekends, and amateur actors — as well as professionals — are welcome to audition. Robins-Edelson is no longer artistic director of M.A.D. — she gave up that title two seasons ago to Justyn Wade Dansby — but continues as director of dance and after-school enrichment.
And lest you think that M.A.D.'s shows are tame, note that Reefer Madness! — opening Sept. 5 — is a satire about law-abiding teenagers who sink into depravity under the influence of the evil weed. And earlier shows included Hair, Tommy and La Cage Aux Folles. In other words, M.A.D., like Asher Dance Eclectic, is out there on the edge. Along with all the best companies.
This article appears in Aug 29 – Sep 4, 2007.