Carbondale's Thunder River Theatre Company celebrated the New Year with the unique piece, House of Venus. An immersive experience featuring fortune tellers, an altar to manifest your future, and a wide array of performers. KDNK reporter Lily Jones has more.
"Jeffries: My name is Sean Jeffries, and I am the Executive Director at Thunder River Theatre Company.
Moore: And my name is Missy Moore, and I'm the Artistic Director.
Jones: Thunder River Theatre Company, or TRTC, recently enjoyed two sold out nights of their House of Venus experience, bringing together aerialists, drag, mysticism, and feminine power to ring in 2024.
Jeffries: I want to say that this particular mix is pretty unique. We are
bringing such top tier talent together. To produce a night like this, it's
unique in a sense that we're able to do it now because normally when we have something of the scale, it has to be outside or something like that. So we're in the dead of winner, you know, being able to produce this has some unique factors, but a lot of these people are from here, which I think is so exciting.
Moore: You know, I think non for profit arts organizations sometimes can just like. We create what we create, you know. Thunder River Theatre does theatre. Sopris Soarers Mount Cirque does aerialists. So, to have a fusion of all of these creatives coming together and bringing their skill set to the forefront, I think really is unlike something Carbondale really will ever experience. From magic to mentalism to burlesque to spoken word. It really is a lovely fusion of artists.
Jones: While the theater was physically transformed in the short time between soul theaters, a Christmas story and opening night on the 29th of December, the idea has been in the works for quite a while.
Jeffries: The idea was over a year ago, Stacy from Mount Cirque came to us and was like, hey, what's your new year's plan? I'm looking for a
place to do a show and we already had a wonderful act in line for last year, but it got us talking and then we've start at when do we start sitting down in March or April of this year?
Moore: I think before then. It was about a year ago that I didn't a check on Professor Felix. Pretty much after Felix, that's when we brought Amy in. Amy Kimberly, who's the director of the piece.
Jones: Originally called House of Voodoo, the event was renamed but maintained an educational and culturally rich motif. For KDNK News, I'm Lily Jones."
