The Dallas Theatre Center itself is no exception to the laws of gravity, but inside, on the stage from March 12-23, Avner the Eccentric will perform some pretty amazing feats in his comic one-man show, Exceptions To Gravity.

Exceptions To Gravity features Avner the Eccentric, a.k.a. Avner Eisenberg, dancing with a partner comprised of a pile of paper cups, lifting a ladder as though it were a feather, and playing with various domesticated animals manifested from cloth napkins.

Avner is a clown, mime, comedian and pioneer of the "new vaudeville" movement. He has charmed grown up and still growing audiences on international stages in festivals such as the Edinburgh Festival, The New York Clown Theatre Festival, the Hudson Clearwater Revival, the Israel Festival and he recently won a special jury award at the International Festival du Cirque in Monte Carlo.

In more theatrical venues, Avner co-starred on Broadway in the Lincoln Center production of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, and in the 1989 Broadway production of Ghetto. On film he portrayed The Jewel, a comic Holy Man, in The Jewel of the Nile, starring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas.

The popularity of circus and clown theatrical events have been growing steadily. Last year, The Invisible Circus was a huge success at DTC. Richard Hamburger, DTC artistic director, said, "Dallas audiences have responded enthusiastically to performances that have their basis in the sheer theatricality of the circus arts. Avner the Eccentric...continues the DTC tradition of streching imaginations while providing delightful entertainment for the whole family." For tickets or more information about Exceptions to Gravity, please refer to the Dallas Theatre Center regional listing on Playbill On-Line.

--By Blair Glaser