2009 Performances

HELP! HELP! I KNOW THIS TITLE IS LONG, BUT SOMEBODY’S TRYING TO KILL ME!

July 10 – 12 (Fri & Sat at 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m.)

an all-ages event created and performed by: Drew the Dramatic Fool (Drew Richardson)

directed by Avner Eisenberg (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.

Drew the Dramatic Fool reinvents the ancient art of brilliant bumbling. Inspired by a thousands-of-years old tradition of royal jesters, vaudeville eccentrics, silent film comedians, animated cartoons, theatrical clowns, and imperfect humans everywhere, Drew offers amusement relevant for today‘s audiences by giving them laughter built on a range of human emotions, from joy to fear to despair and back to joy again.

“If you like Bill Irwin, You have to see Drew the Dramatic Fool. He’s a world-class visual comedian.” —Charleston Gazette

And if you think you hate clowns….we dare you not to laugh, and welcome your rant at the discussion that follows every performance!


THE MISUNDERSTOOD BADGER

written and performed by: David Ferney

co-written and directed by Nick Trotter

An eccentric biologist goes off the deep end in his quest to explore the mysterious realm of the North American Badger (taxidea taxus). Part lecture and part free-association dream, The Misunderstood Badger is a solo comedy performed and written by actor David Ferney. The show probes deep within one individual’s struggle to balance his ties to the civilized world with his desire for the wild. Professor Harold Burrows is extremely passionate—you might even say obsessed—about his life long study of badgers. After living in the wild with a community of badgers for a year, he has returned to civilization to share his findings.

Using live music, projections, and mask performance, Ferney take us on a comedic journey to find the badger within.

In the heart of the 5-College area, are academics fair game?


BEYOND THE HIGH VALLEY a Quechua Story

SUNDAY, July 19 at 8 p.m. (One Performance Only)

performed by the METTAWEE RIVER THEATRE COMPANY under the direction of Ralph Lee

Our annual favorites with a piece drawn from the Quechua people, descendants of the Incas, who live in villages in the Andean highlands of Peru. As the story begins, a giant condor spies a young woman tending her family’s llamas in a meadow. He sweeps down from the sky, transforms into a dashing lover and then carries her off to a rocky crag. Her unlikely rescuer is a creature of dazzling ingenuity, a plucky little hummingbird.

A range of puppets and other visual elements realized on many different scales, are used to evoke the vast distances, radiant sky and rugged, vertical thrust of fierce and beautiful Peruvian terrain. Performed out under the stars within a landscape permeated with live music, song and a spirit of celebration.

OUT OF SIGHT

July 24 – 26 (Fri & Sat at 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m.)

A solo comedy that brings circus tricks, shadow puppets and a Jewish queer sensibility to questions of family loyalty and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
written and performed by:

SARA FELDER
Directed by David O’Connor
Shadow Puppets by Morgan FitzPatrick Andrews
Sound Design by Matthew Lorenz

Solo theater artist and world-class juggler, Sara Felder presents a bold new play about the art of seeing. In it, she tells and juggles the tale of a mother, nearly blind, and her adult lesbian daughter. The intimacy of the mother and daughter and their struggles over how they “see” each other and the world unfold as they try to bridge their differences. Felder’s solo comedy brings circus tricks, shadow puppets and a Jewish queer sensibility to questions of family loyalty and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Coming from different generations, the mother and daughter struggle with questions of justice in the Middle East. Coming of age during the Holocaust, the mother has a deep connection to Israel that she wants to pass on to her daughter. The daughter grew up in a more optimistic time, doing Israeli folk dancing and listening to her mother’s stories of an idealized Israel. Trying to understand her own vision of the world, the daughter recalls the moment during a college trip to Israel when she began questioning her mother’s framing of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Their generational differences about Israel and Palestine create a new kind of silence. Out of Sight explores the pain and complexity of silence in our most cherished relationships.

Sara’s unique integration of circus arts, shadow puppets and her own particular Jewish queer sensibility allows us to explore the big questions of our lives, laughing along the way as we recognize ourselves in her stories.

Has Felder has summoned the comic gods in her examination of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the nature of blindness and a mother-daughter relationship? Join us to find out!

WANT TO KNOW MORE? Visit www.sarafelder.com
To watch a dramatic clip from the show click HERE
To see her incredible juggling click HERE
Running time: 80 minutes. No intermission.

RED BASTARD

July 31 – August 2 (Fri & Sat at 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m.)

created and performed by:
ERIC DAVIS, Cirque de Soleil star

In this critically-acclaimed Bouffon show, Red Bastard unleashes a pompous theatrical master class. His mission: To charm, disarm, shock and seduce. His target: Pop culture, politics and you.

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”. An incredible mover, master of improvisation, and self proclaimed “provocateur”, Red Bastard covers every inch of the stage, moving his enormous red belly and ass with the grace of a nymph. Audiences should be prepared for anything to happen in this interactive show, in which Red Bastard converses with the audience, uncovering ridiculous and disturbing truths.

If clown is complete vulnerability, Red Bastard is its antithesis. With exquisite monstrosity, he employs charm and biting wit to playfully manipulate the audience. Lines will be crossed and laughs will be had. His bold wit and physical prowess have been lauded by critics and audiences alike. Marvel as this impish ton of fun mocks the institutions of theatre, education, American pop-culture and politics.

The Ko Festival says, you’ve been warned! Lines will be crossed and laughs will be had!

For more on the Red Bastard visit www.redbastard.com

For a completely immodest list of phenomenal press quotes click HERE

To see a video clip of the Red Bastard click HERE


2009 Workshops

DRAMATIC FOOLERY:The Paradox of Comic Acting

July 13 – 18

with Drew Richardson (Drew the Dramatic Fool)

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.

FINDING COMEDY IN A SERIOUS WORLD

July 20 – 25

with 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.


CREATING SOLO PERFORMANCE: Amusing the Muse

(or – The Art of Juggling the Truth)

July 27 – August 1

with 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 for a solo performance. Emphasize the use of performance to say something important, and, if we’re lucky, to amuse (or schmooze or cruise) the Muse.


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.