A & E

When it comes to sets, Quantum Theatre productions can be divided into two categories, says Karla Boos, the company's artistic director.

"There are shows where people are amazed by our innovative design, and there are those where it looks like we did absolutely nothing."

Quantum's latest offering, "The Red Shoes," that opens tonight in the sanctuary of the Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church on the North Side, falls into the second category.

The sanctuary's century-old pews embrace the outward curve of the newly built stage as though they had always been paired together.

"It's meant to look like it's always been there," Boos says. "We didn't mean to have a set, but the proportions of a church are meant to (show) the pastor from the waist up, and we need to see feet."

It's just one of the minimalist aspects of "The Red Shoes" that Boos promises will be a humorous but subversive journey through Hans Christian Andersen's macabre cautionary tale about the perceived dangers of individuality and vanity.

"'The Red Shoes' is about a little girl who opens the Pandora's box of expression. It's about self and an artistic form, and the girl finds it's stronger than she is," Boos says.

"Looked at from the perspective of the artist, it is right and natural to submit to that need for expression."

Boos adapted Andersen's story into a drama that puts a group of flamenco artists in conflict with a group of what she calls clerical types who may have hired the performers to tell the story as part of their ministry.

Erika Cuenca, Andy Place, Jennifer Tober and Alexi Morrisey play the assemblage of characters on a ministerial mission.

"We are trying to tell the story from a perspective ... a specific religious perspective where (the young girl) is cautioned against the sin of vanity. Expressing oneself is a sin of vanity in this story -- in a certain rigid kind of Christianity," Boos says. "It is about a repressed group of people. But it is explored gently and with humor."

When the power of the red shoes seizes the young girl, she morphs into Carolina Loyola-Garcia, who interprets the role with a flamenco flair. She's backed up by guitarist JohnMarcinizyn and percussionist Luc Savage. Together they form the trio of flamenco performers with a perspective of their own.

"Flamenco is irrepressible," says Boos, who explains that the dance form began in Spain during the Inquisition as a method of coded communication and resistance. Boos had enjoyed watching flamenco on a trip to Spain and thought it the perfect method to convey the play's message to the audience.

To bring "The Red Shoes" to the stage, Boos recruited Loyola-Garcia, who is credited with Boos as the show's creator.

Now an East Liberty resident and professor of media arts at Robert Morris University, Loyola-Garcia began studying flamenco while she was growing up in Santiago, Chile.

"Flamenco is very beautiful because of its passion and artistry that can't be resisted," Loyola-Garcia says. "It's very honest and very true."

Loyola-Garcia has studied and performed flamenco for more than a dozen years. Since 2001, she has served as cofounder and co-director of the Centro Flamenco de Pittsburgh with Rocio Nogales.

But she doesn't consider herself a flamenco dancer.

"I'm a digital artist (who is) trying to incorporate it into my artistic practice," she says. Loyola-Garcia says her art, like flamenco is about political and social resistance.

There's a valid link between flamenco and the encounter between the artists and the preachers in "The Red Shoes," Loyola-Garcia says. "It is creativity, passion and desire against doctrine," she says.

If all of this sounds a bit obscure, mysterious or intriguing, you'll just have to come see the play, Boos says.

"There are layers to this and we are trying to make this clear," Boos says. "We mean to be clear enough but leave a lot of room for interpretation. We don't spell it out because these are undeniable forces and explanation shouldn't get in the way."

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