360 ALLSTARS

The 360 ALLSTARS promises to be a show unlike any other. With a collection of top-class performers from around the world the show will be appearing at the Lighthouse Theatre in Warrnambool and Capital Theatre in Bendigo at the end of this month. We caught up with the director and producer of the show, who also happens to be a performer and internationally renowned drummer, Gene Peterson.
Hi Gene, thanks so much for taking the time to chat to Forte, where abouts are you at the moment and what are you up to?
Currently I’m in Sydney. We’re in the middle of our national tour of 360 ALLSTARS, which is the first leg of our World Tour.
Could you please tell us a little bit about how your show varies from traditional circuses and performing arts?
Well the concept of the show is that we are replacing stereotype traditional circus art forms with urban performance styles. So instead of acrobats we have breakdancers, and instead of a juggler we have a basketball freestyler, and instead of a unicyclist we have a BMX flatlander, and so on. So essentially it’s more of an urban physical theatre piece based on the theme of reinventing a conventional circus.
And you’ll be performing as well, what’s your act and what does it involve?
My role in the show is making the live music. I play drums and keys and together with Sam Perry, who is an incredible vocalist, we use a loop station to record layer upon layer of music live and build the soundtrack for the show. There’s no limit on how many layers of music we can record, and through the use of effect pedals and synthesizers we are both able to manipulate the sounds we are creating to emulate all sorts of instruments and ensembles, and this allows us to produce quite an eclectic mix of music over the course of the performance.

How many years experience do you have drumming and what have been some of your career highlights?
I’ve been drumming for about 15 years now, and have been lucky enough to tour the world with a number of different productions and companies. A highlight would have to be performing on Broadway late last year with 360 ALLSTARS. We played 24 shows at the New Victory Theater which is the oldest operating theatre in New York and is right on Times Square, so it was very special to be there in such a majestic venue with so much history.
Your cast mates and yourself are all multi award winning and world renowned in your respective fields, could you tell us a bit about who is on board and where everyone is originally from?
Yeah the show really does boast a stellar international cast: Peter Sore is our BMX Flatlander and is the two-time World Champion from Hungary; Bboy Kareem is a World Champion breakdancer from San Francisco; Bboy Leerok is another World Champion breakdancer from New Zealand; Rashaun Daniels, AKA Basketballman, is one of the world’s greatest basketball freestylers, and he comes from New York; Rhys Miller is a phenomenally talented roue cyr artist from Brisbane; Sam Perry is an incredible live looping vocalist and beatboxer, hailing from the UK, and I’m the drummer!
We’re certainly very lucky to have such phenomenally talented artists who are also such awesome guys and a pleasure to tour with.
How and when did you all come together to form 360 ALLSTARS?
The show was created at the beginning of 2013 and everyone was hand-picked for the production, regardless of where they all hailed from. It made for a pretty exciting creative development period, with seven guys each at the top of their given fields, and from all corners of the globe with varying cultural backgrounds, all meeting each other for the first time with the common goal of putting together a killer show. It was amazing to see it all come to fruition so quickly, and especially to have the luxury of working with such extremely talented individuals, each of whom brought something new and exciting to the table.
When & Where: Ulambarra Theatre, Bendigo – April 28 & Lighthouse Theatre, Warrnambool – April 30
Photos by Alena Velikova and Conan Whitehouse