Garagepodge

What: A Gift for Planet BX63

When: 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday

Where: Steve and Jan Campbell’s garage

3612 33^rd Ave. NE, Minneapolis

Cost: Suggested donation of $5-$15

Steve and Jan Campbell don’t clean their garage often. And why should they? Besides the resting place for their two cars it doubles as a storage facility for bikes, ski equipment, shovels —all the excess possessions a family of four deems unworthy to sit in their living quarters.

But come this weekend the cars will be parked in the street and the floors swept as they welcome in Off Leash Area’s production of “A Gift for Planet BX63” for their second annual garage tour. An eclectic mix of theater and dance culminates in a visually focused materialism bashing fest.

“At first I was like, ‘I don’t know. Do we really want to do that much work to get the garage cleaned up?’” Jan Campbell said. “It was such a mess. It was a huge mess.”

A performance in a garage —theater without the theater — may imply a low-budget, ragtag affair. But that’s not what Off Leash has in mind. They’ll be hauling in a full-fledged, raised stage complete with lighting equipment and seating for the 40-plus expected attendees.

“It’s a magical transformation. It’s your garage, which you’re in every single day and then all of a sudden the lights come on and it’s a whole new universe,” Jan said.

The universe in which “Planet BX63” lies is one of fluid mobility and locomotion. This theater-dance hybrid is just as focused on the physical aesthetics of the piece as it is on the content. Not surprising considering it’s the brain/lovechild of Off Leash’s married co-artistic directors Paul Herwig, an actor, and Jennifer Ilse, a dancer.

“For us artistically, we found that happy little place between text, dance and theater where it all just works together perfectly,” Ilse said.

Throughout the 45-minute piece, the performers are constantly in motion, tactfully swaying and contorting their bodies as they move along a plot that warns the audience of the perils of commercialism.

An innocent, unnamed girl, played by Ilse, has her peaceful existence forever altered when a trans-dimensional space salesman, Herwig, comes and sells her something that she doesn’t need. And so begins the downward spiral into excessive materialism.

The garage tour will be using their semi-anti-capitalism punch to breed neighborhood camaraderie throughout Minneapolis, the suburbs and beyond.

“One of the points of it is going to neighborhoods and sprinkling our little sugar there. It’s great to be able to plant seeds and spur more community involvement.”

Jan has already seen her social network grow. “We’ve met people from up the street that we had been neighbors with for years and had never met. It really is a community-building endeavor.”

Though the production may not bring about a cultural shift away from loot piling, it just might get Boo Radley to step outside and mingle for a bit.