Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host: Ira Glass, Monica Bill Barnes, Anna Bass

Ira Glass is famous for his distinctive radio voice and as a master storyteller – but can he do meaningful and expressive jazz hands? Even the most devoted listeners of Glass’s wildly successful radio program and podcast, This American Life, couldn’t confirm his skills in this area … until now: Ira Glass is coming to Melbourne with a contemporary dance production.

The show explores what happens when you combine live radio and contemporary dance – two forms that, as Glass himself has said, ‘have no business being on stage together’. In collaboration with two extraordinary dancers, Anna Bass and Monica Bill Barnes (who has been called the ‘Tina Fey of dance’), the performance includes radio interviews restaged as dance pieces, alongside stories from the lives of the three performers.

The collaboration was borne of a shared style and artistic approach. ‘Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass are such funny, human-scale, relatable sorts of performers,’ Glass has said. ‘Their sensibility somehow matches a lot of what we do on the radio show.’

Join us for a funny, moving and highly original performance featuring an icon of contemporary American storytelling.

Presented by the Wheeler Centre and Arts Centre Melbourne.

Note: there are two performances of this event. To view the event page for the Friday 15 July performance, click here.