ABOUT US
“The type of theatre they are creating requires a high level of trust between performers, some of whom had never met before rehearsals began, and that trust was evident. I also saw in the ensemble passion, commitment to the work and an onstage chemistry that cannot be simulated.”
It is the mission of Wandering Aesthetics to transform our community by strengthening human connection, empathy, and intellectual discourse through storytelling, live performance, classes, and other high-quality cultural encounters.
Dreamt into being on the mountains of Appalachia, where the company’s founders, Benjamin Rexroad and Kyle Jozsa, completed a thru-hike of the 2,185.9-mile Appalachian Trail, Wandering Aesthetics rose, like an overused cliche, from the ashes of Heads Up Productions. Beginning the organization as an Akron-based storytelling theatre company bent on exploring our American roots and identity through the lens of narrative, we endeavored to build community through person-to-person contact, connecting disparate "tribes" through our performances, and investigating the human link in our diverse cultural heritage.
Known for our investigation into the art of storytelling and the ever-changing dynamics between performer and audience, we craft our performances from scratch. Even during our extended rehearsal processes, Wandering Aesthetics engages the community through a series of reoccurring events and classes. These include: Youth Classes, Adult Classes, Full Circle Storytelling (an event for community storytellers), The Electric Pressure Cooker Cabaret, and Bigger Than a Breadbox, (a variety show), one of the 2015 Knight Arts Challenge Winners. Most recently, Wandering Aesthetics, along with Gum-Dip Theatre and Dunamis Theatre opened the Akron Center for Art, Music & Performance, a space dedicated towards the development of performing artists.