The University of Illinois theatre department's production of "Airness" at Fat City Bar and Grill follows several air guitarists on the competition circuit as they try to reach the pinnacle of self-expression – "airness."
The theatre department created posters for the characters of the air guitar competitors.
Photos by Lili Federico, design by Avery Tang, collage by Fred Zwicky
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A group of nerds playing air guitar competes in bars across the country, seeking the pinnacle of self-expression that the competitors call "airness."
A play of the same name follows their journey and will be performed by theatre students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. "Airness" will be performed at Fat City Bar and Grill, 505 S. Chestnut St., Champaign, on Feb. 29-March 2.
"This play is crammed with rock and roll. The play is fast and funny and loud. It's so much fun," said Jordan Coughtry, a theatre studies professor and the director of "Airness."
The comedy follows five friends from different cities who support each other on the air guitar competition circuit. They encounter a newcomer to the competition, Nina, who plays a real guitar in a band.
"They're a bunch of nerds. They geek out about this stuff, like professional wrestling or Comic-Con. These people are not ashamed of what they love, and they get to experience the full power of that love for this niche thing," Coughtry said. "Nina enters the competition and she's a little judgy about it. They take it all very seriously. The story is her hero's journey. She makes friends and has a secret she has to work through."
The play by Chelsea Marcantel won the 2018 M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award given by the American Theatre Critics Association. It is based on a documentary about an international air guitar competition in Finland, Coughtry said.
The rules for air guitar are very specific. Competitors must "play" a guitar and it must be invisible. They can't, for example, pretend to play a broom as a guitar. They perform to one minute of a recorded track, not to live music.
"When you don't have a real guitar, you have to do other things. It's not just hitting the right notes with your fingers; it's using your entire body," Coughtry said. "It's an art form."
One of the lines in the show is: "It's pretend, but it's serious pretend."
Sophomore theatre student Jazmin Wilkins plays guitar, as does her character Nina.
"Air guitar is way more difficult than people think," Wilkins said. "If you're miming, it's boring, but if you put your whole body into it, it creates a world completely different than sitting down with an actual guitar and plucking out notes. Performing this killer riff requires your whole body to tell the story. Our bodies are what make the music because we have no instrument."
The music in the show is eclectic and includes The Ramones, Billy Idol, Chuck Berry, Bon Jovi, The Donnas, Joe Satriani and Joan Jett.
"I'm a big music girl so I really enjoy the music in the show. But I also enjoy how everybody makes mistakes and you still want to root for them. Nina makes a lot of bad choices throughout the show, but she ends up finding herself and finding friends and a lovely relationship, and she gets so much more out of it than she intended to," Wilkins said.
Coughtry said he sees the play as an allegory for pushing past your limits and making yourself vulnerable.
"There's incredible freedom on the other side where you're no longer worried about what other people think, or looking silly or looking cool or doing it right or wrong. You enter a place of self-expression that's beyond any of those obstacles - airness," he said.
