WORKSHOPS
Would you like to stretch your creativity in a supportive environment? Immerse yourself in art? Meet a really interesting group of people, half of whom are local and half of whom come from all over the country?
Our master teachers
are adept at gearing their classes for participants of all levels of experience, whose ages have run from 18-85.
July 13 - 18
DRAMATIC FOOLERY: The Paradox of Comic Acting
with Drew Richardson
In an effort to provoke deeper laughter, it’s often the case that the more serious you are, the funnier you are. No irony, no wackiness, just you, trying your imperfect best in absurdly real situations. In this workshop, Drew will guide the participants with tragically comic exercises using clown, mask, and movement to express their own dramatic foolishness and then use what they learn to create character-based theatrical comedy. For people who don’t think they are funny, actors who want to be funnier, or anyone who wants to explore sincerely playful creative problem solving.
July 20 - 25
FINDING COMEDY IN A SERIOUS WORLD
with actor and writer David Ferney
An exploration of what is funny as a tool for creating new performance. Using clown, mask and absurdist theatre to find the comic in our often too serious world, Mr. Ferney will lead the class through an exploration of what is funny. Through exercises and explorations workshop participants will be encouraged to “find the funny” and develop a sense of play for creating interesting comic characters and generating new material.
July 27 - August 1
CREATING SOLO PERFORMANCE: Amusing the Muse (or - The Art of Juggling the Truth)
with world-renowned juggler & solo theater artist Sara Felder
A workshop on developing performance material from our own lives using objects, character work, monologues and humor. We will write, try on different performance styles, create images, play with objects, investigate characters, consider different narrative voices, find the humor in the pain (and vice versa) experiment, fail, laugh and surprise ourselves. Use this workshop to generate material towards a solo show, emphasize the use of performance to say something important, and, if we’re lucky, to amuse (or schmooze or cruise) the Muse.
Sara Felder
To download a workshop registration form
click HERE.
PERFORMANCES
July 10 - 12
FRi & SAT at 8 p.m., SUN at 4 p.m.
HELP! HELP! I KNOW THIS TITLE IS LONG, BUT SOMEBODY'S TRYING TO KILL ME!
with DREW THE DRAMATIC FOOL (Drew Richardson)
Directed by Avner Eisenberg
(aka Avner the Eccentric)
All the performers in this vaudeville variety show have been murdered – except for Drew the Dramatic Fool. Unfortunately for him, the show must go on, or he’s next. Drew attempts every act in the show, from juggling 36 balls to sawing a woman in half, in this comical examination of fears–fear of performing, fear of failure, and fear of death. When courage fails, the only answer is dramatic foolishness.
Tickets: $20/16 Students & Seniors.
July 17-19
FRi, SAT & at 8 p.m., SUN at 4 p.m.
THE MISUNDERSTOOD BADGER
David Ferney's new solo comedy about an eccentric biology professor, Dr. Harold Burrows PhD, who is the North American expert on badger behavior.
Directed by Nick Trotter
Tickets: $20/16 Students & Seniors.
July 19 at 8 p.m.
ONE SHOW ONLY!
BEYOND THE HIGH VALLEY
The Mettawee River Theatre Company's annual all-ages event, Based on a story from the Quecha people from the highlands of Peru and performed outdoors with giant puppets, masks, and live performers depicting humans and their relationship to animals and other natural elements, in a landscape permeated with music song and celebration
Tickets: $8 Adults/$5 Children
July 24-26
FRi & SAT at 8 p.m., SUN at 4 p.m.
OUT OF SIGHT
Written & performed by Sara Felder
Directed by David O’Connor
World-class juggler and theater artist, Sara Felder’s solo comedy brings circus skills, shadow puppets and a Jewish queer sensibility to questions of family loyalties and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Tickets: $20/16 Students & Seniors.
July 31 & August 1 & 2
FRi & SAT at 8 p.m., SUN at 4 p.m.
RED BASTARD
America's most critically acclaimed bouffon clown Eric Davis unleashes a pompous theatrical master class. His mission: To charm, disarm, shock and seduce. His target: pop culture, politics and you.
Tickets: $20/16 Students & Seniors.
Red Bastard
presents the
18th Annual
Each summer the Ko Festival is curated on a theme. Past seasons have included "Stories of Illness and Healing," "The Immigrant's Journey," and last summer's "FOOD." In a year when we all seem to need a good laugh, we gather to contemplate HUMOR.
We're starting out with a kind of performance that most people consider funny - clowning, unless you're like me and generally find that clowns want to make you run screaming from the room... Drew Richardson is the exception. His HELP! HELP! I KNOW THIS TITLE IS LONG, BUT SOMEBODY'S TRYING TO KILL ME! is one of the funniest pieces I've seen in years. The first time I saw it I really almost did get sick from laughing so hard.
Next up, David Ferney a long time member of the famed Dell'Arte Company of Blue Lake, CA will help us hold a mirror up to the all the academics in the Valley and see if their behavior can be a source of humor. Can we laugh at ourselves? In this parody of an academic lecture Ferney's masterful performance skills allow him to play both professor and his object of study THE MISUNDERSTOOD BADGER.
Our annual favorites the Mettawee River Theatre Company join us for a delightful all-ages event presented out under the stars with giant puppets, masks and music live performance. This year's offering, BEYOND THE HIGH VALLEY, is a Quechua story that features both humans and animals native to the highlands of Peru including llamas, a hummingbird, and a condor.
Can Sara Felder summon the comic gods in her examination of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the nature of blindness and a mother-daughter relationship? Felder's performances are evidence of comedy's subversive ability to take on the most challenging and intimate content. As one of America's best-loved Jewish lesbian juggling theater artists, Felder's OUT OF SIGHT uses her unique brand of radical circus theater to tell this story of love, loyalty and lemonade.
Eric Davis' RED BASTARD is pure id, slapped with a coat of red and pumped full of hot air! This half man/half demon from the subconscious comes to take the piss out of the audience by disguising himself as an elitist movement teacher instructing us in the “theater of life”. Be prepared. Anything can happen. Lines will be crossed and laughs will be had!
— Sabrina Hamilton
Artistic Director
LOGISTICS
THE BOX OFFICE OPENS JULY 5. Tel: (413) 542-3750.
Prior to that call (413) 427-6147 or click HERE to contact us via email.
All performances, except the Mettawee River Theatre Company's take place in the Holden Theatre on the Amherst College campus, which is located right behind the Admissions Office off of South Pleasant Street in Amherst, MA.
NEW! We are now offering a special package of tickets to summer season. Click HERE for more information.
TO JOIN THE MAILING LIST
Click HERE. Let us mail you a brochure, or you can ask to join our email list for weekly event reminders during our season.
INTERNSHIPS
Applications are no longer being accepted for 2009 festival. For further information click HERE.
"In the great variety of summer theater in this region, Ko Theater Works' five-week festival of performance art is unique. Here alone can we venture beyond the literal, lateral, plot-centered theater into worlds where the only certainty is surprise." -The Valley Advocate
KO THEATER WORKS IS PROUD TO BE A MEMBER OF THE
NETWORK OF ENSEMBLE THEATRES
Artiists Creating Theatre. Artists Creating a Community. Artists Creating a Movement.
