Spark the Arts

SPARK THE ARTS is our monthly showcase for art and performance, in a cool, coffeehouse environment. We've had everything from original music, to stand-up comedy, short videos, dancers, magic shows, poetry readings, bizarre puppet performances, mariachi bands and banging rhythmically on garbage cans. If you can do it, we'd like to talk to you about putting it onstage! Check out some of our previous arts-sparking below...

In this scene from ALIEN: THE MUSICAL, a musical parody of the popular sci-fi/horror film, Valerie Suttenberg animates the title character, a larger-than-life puppet that she designed and co-constructed with the other students in the Levels Puppetry Workshop.

The cast of ALIEN: THE MUSICAL takes a well-deserved bow. L-R: Andray Shuriah, Lili Notovitz, Rachel Marks, Michael Levinson (with "alien-bursting-out-of-his-chest wound"), Jenna Hopp, Jane Coons, Valerie Suttenberg and Denysson Arboleda. Note the Alien eggs lining the front of the stage.

L-R: Leila Manion, Liz Tomazic, Barry Weil & Danielle Garcia perform a giant octopus for their undersea "blacklight" puppet epic, REEF MADNESS.

The Levels Improv Troupe is a regular part of SPARK, creating improv comedy with suggestions from the audience, similar to the TV show Whose Line is it Anyway. Some of the troupe can be seen in mid-performance above, L-R: Liel Klein, Yuval Ben-Hayun, Karishma Mansukhani and Joel Pyon.

Jane Coons gives an energetic performance of "Over the Moon," the performance piece from the musical RENT.

Mohit Mansukhani offers us a bit of Bach on the cello.

SPARK THE ARTS is also a perfect venue for stand-up comedy. Two frequent performers have been Casey Schwartz (left) and Brandon Greenspan (right)...

...and here's more stand-up, by Sam "Crazylegs" Feinsilver (l) and Lior Shahverdi (r).

Jessica Taffet (l) and Rebecca Gordon (r) perform a duet from Gilbert & Sullivan's THE MIKADO.

This was followed by Danielle Garcia (l) and Jessica Taffet (r) giving us their rendition of Akon & Snoop Dogg's "I Want to Love You" in grand operatic style.

SPARK features music performances of all kinds. Above, L-R: Michael Levinson, Ariel Heller-Sabet, Rachel Marks, Jane Coons and Scott Kipnis.

Check out an original SPARK THE ARTS performance by the band FAT FREE MILK on YOUTUBE:
YouTube: Fat Free Milk at Levels

...and here's a SPARK THE ARTS video project (check out the digital effects -- we can teach you how to do stuff just like this):
YouTube: Levels Playstation vs. Wii Video