Attack Theatre levels up the creativity with special interactive, sensory-friendly performance
Pittsburgh Union Progress - Attack Theatre has created a special performance this Sunday that promises to level up participants’ imaginations as they move, play and create stories.
“Imagination Station: Game On” will create a “a vibrant world inspired by the magic of video games” from 2 to 3 p.m. at the company’s Lawrenceville studios.
The free interactive and sensory-friendly performance is part of its ongoing partnership with Azure Family Concerts and Autism Pittsburgh that has been in the works since this summer, according to co-founder Peter Kope.
The groups have worked together since 2022, and Kope said Attack Theatre holds space for and works together to prepare each performance.
“Research shows that creative movement and rhythm offer tangible benefits to children on the autism spectrum, including improved motor function, body awareness, enhanced nonverbal communication and strengthened social engagement,” a news release on the performance stated. “Dance therapies often help children with autism develop their sense of self and others through mirroring, synchronization and play.”
This past weekend 15 families came to a workshop and helped prototype the programming, the second such addition to the partnership. “It’s part of our education outreach,” Kope explained. “We develop strategies of engaging the audience. It was very well received.”
He said Azure suggested the video game theme, and the space will become a full studio version of a video game for Sunday’s performance. The theme revolves around how video games level up, meaning you have to complete one part before moving on.
“Dancers will leap, slide and power up through a pixelated playground of movement, stories and surprise characters — think bouncing rings of steel, epic quests and even a blue boss monster made of collapsible tubes,” according to the release. “In this joy-filled experience, the body becomes the ultimate controller as performers create music in motion through a series of short movement-driven ‘game levels.’ ”
Kope will host the one-hour performance and explained that each component has a physical dance based on movement that the audience must successfully complete before moving on to the next dance. “Each of these challenges and adventures are really achievable and interactive and silly and fun and are able to be participated in or watched as the audience wants,” he said. “Once the audience has completed the activity, then the dancers respond. You sit down and watch us dance.”
The performance has five levels, starting with the entrance. Each family will create “bendable buddies” from pipe cleaners that become characters in the game. Then they create a dance together, Kope said.
Next is a movement activity — more of an obstacle course — where participants roll dice and become a character on a board game, moving a certain way from point A to point B to complete a task. It’s a guessing game involving briefcases and scarves, he added.
After that level three has dances that involve crawling through fabric tubes, then level four includes a complicated Rube Goldbergian movement machine that the audience has to solve and assemble. The dancers are the cogs in the machine, Kope said. Level five will be a giant dance party, using those scarves found earlier.
Three dancers will perform to recorded music, with some possible additional Attack Theatre dancers and Azure Family Concerts people to be added as preparations finalize for the performance. No lighting changes are included in it.
Kope said Attack Theatre will have fidget toys for the children, and bean bags, benches and foam pads will be placed in the studio in addition to the seating there for comfort, according to Attack Theatre’s website. Azure Family Concerts staff and volunteers will be on hand, and a breakout room is provided in Attack Theatre’s second studio space for anyone who needs to press pause.
“Azure has always worked together with us on making certain that there are alternative spaces for quiet time and less sensory overload areas,” Kope said. “That is where Azure has really guided us and told us what those spaces should and could be.”
He said Attack Theatre has learned how to craft these performances, and the two collaborating groups have trusted it on the programming.
“We spent a lot of time over the years really in the education sphere, both learning and leading in our activities and developing programs that take advantage of the desire for movement that we all have and how to control that, harness it, give it an outlet appropriate for any given situation,” Kope said. “It’s been pretty great with this collaboration with these events.”
Founded in 1994 by Michele de la Reza and Kope as a collaboration between two dancers and a city, Attack Theatre fuses modern dance, original live music and interdisciplinary art forms to create engaging dance performances, according to the release. “We create work at the intersection of art and community, resulting in productions that are personal, authentic, welcoming and fearless.”
The 2025-26 season marks Attack Theatre’s 30th anniversary, and Kope said this Sunday’s performance is part of that celebration.
Registration is suggested because of limited studio space. Free tickets are available at attacktheatre.com/game-on.