"Blast!" blows into Saroyan Theatre Tuesday

By Kirstie Hettinga
The Collegian

According to Wes Bullock, who has been a cast member of “Blast!” since day one, the show is a “marching band on steroids without woodwinds.”

“Blast!” evolved from Star of Indiana, a drum and bugle corps. Bullock is the last man standing from the original group, which he said was an amateur-level drum corps.

“We became disillusioned with doing a 10 and a half minute show on a football field,” Bullock said.

Bullock said the director, James Mason, believed the group had skills that were marketable to more than a drum corps crowd. “He felt we were training people at a high enough level that others needed to see it,” Bullock said.

“Blast!” premiered in the United States in August 2000 after touring in London and won a Tony Award for “Best Special Theatrical Event.”

“Blast!” was also recognized with an Emmy for “Best Choreography.”

Bullock is a conductor and performance supervisor for the show. “Blast!” has a 35 member cast and uses a range of instruments including piccolos and trumpets. But they also use ratchets and granite blocks as instruments.

“Our shtick is that we play music and dance to it simultaneously,” Bullock said.

Bullock said “Blast!” is loosely based on the color wheel and explores the emotions connected to colors and said an example of this would be a trumpet lament in “Blue.”

“It’s really about taking an emotional journey with us,” Bullock said, “It’s a family show, there’s no naked mud wrestling.”

Bullock said what is different about “Blast!” is its lack of plot and text, “It’s a visual poem,” he said.

“Blast!” will perform in the Saroyan Theatre March 14 and 15.

“Our job is to pick up the audience and deposit them two hours later, better for it,” Bullock said.

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