One year after multi-hyphenate #TCTheater artist Emily Michaels King's stunning solo piece
Star Keeper, which I called "her greatest work yet," she returns to
her 2019 Minnesota Fringe show Magic Girl, the show that she says "started it all." In some ways
Magic Girl is a more innocent show than
Star Keeper; she merely alludes to the childhood trauma that the latter show dives deep into. But we still see the bright bubbly child learn to hide her light in response to the darkness of the world, until she comes back again at the end. The show is funny, heart-breaking, relatable, and joyful, and will make you want to hug your inner child. As with all of Emily's work, the show is very thoughtfully constructed, very detailed, very carefully choreographed not just in the movement and dance but also in the structure of the show, including sound and lights (the former by Emily herself, the latter by Karin Olsen). The night I attended, there was a technical issue that stopped the show for several minutes near its conclusion, but when it resolved, she very gracefully brought us back to where we were and picked up where she left off. As an audience member, you feel safe in her hands, as she is in ours. Emily is truly a one-of-a-kind performer, so raw and vulnerable and honest and fearless. There's really no one like her.
Just three more performances remain at Red Eye Theater!
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| the magic girl (Emily Michaels King, photo by Studio Aura) |
An EMK show defies description, but that's what I do here, so I'll give it a go. She combines movement, dance, spoken word, recorded voiceover, an expertly chosen soundtrack of music from John Denver to Tiffany to
Oklahoma that's seamlessly woven together, bold lighting effects, and boundless expression. In
Magic Girl, she tells the story of her childhood; we even hear the recorded voices of her parents talking about what she was like when she was little. She talks about making shows in her basement, her love of dance, and the ways that the world slowly dimmed her light. But the catharsis of this show is that through time, age, work, and art, she is able to reclaim it, to unite that free and happy little girl into her adult self. It's a beautiful thing to witness.
The large performance space at Red Eye is completely empty, with just a couple of microphone stands that Emily places on either side. She uses the microphones, and their long cords, as props, tools to tell the story. The stark lighting changes from total blackout to flashes of bright white or colored lights, with Emily shining a flashlight and a small rectangle panel of lights on herself, the space, and the audience. The sound, the lights, and the performance come together with such precision, and it's all really effective in creating emotion.
Experience the MAGIC that is Emily Michaels King, and maybe reclaim a little of the magic that resides in you. It may buried down deep after years of living in this harsh world, but it's there if you reach for it, and Emily shows us how.
