If I were going to be in SF in May, I'd be there.
Naked Empire Bouffon Company
Artistic Director, Nathaniel Justiniano, is offering his weekend long
Bouffon Intensive May 13-15, 2011.
Register: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/169878.
“The work of bouffon satisfies my greatest desires of the theatre. As
a performer it demands an intense athleticism and availability to
one’s wildest imagination. As audience to it I have found a way to
both laugh at myself and check my apathy at the door. As a citizen I
am consistently impressed by how much of the ‘unsayable’ the bouffon
is allowed to say and by how well people hear it. The space is
electrified by the presence of the bouffon, making each moment
potentially and hilariously explosive or deadly silent. No one is
safe.”
This intensive is a crash course in bouffon performance with the only
company this side of the Mississippi exclusively dedicated to the
research and performance of bouffon.
What you’ll be learning and practicing:
* Finding your personal bouffon
* Entering into and creating within a state of ecstatic play
* Choral, movement-based improvization
* Mercurial acting techniques for shape-shifting between
characters of heightened text and grace to those of base, groveling
goblin prophets
* Audacious and confrontational status play with the audience
* Wielding stillness and silence like a scapel
* Parodying social maladies and hypocrisies
* Ramshackle techniques for on-the-fly costume creation
You do not need to have previous experience in this form of theatre,
nor in performance at all. This is, however, an athletic, intensely
physical form of theatre that demands the in-the-moment engagement of
your intellect and perverse imagination. If this resonates with you,
we would love to see you here.
Bouffon Intensive with Nathaniel Justiniano
Friday, May 13th 6p – 10p
Saturday, May 14th 10a – 10p
Sunday, May 15th 12p – 6p
Price: $175 (before May 1st), $200 (after May 1st)
Register: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/169878
Location:
Main Street Theatre
915 Cayuga Ave
San Francisco, CA 94112
(5 minutes from: Balboa Park BART, Muni J, K, 14, 49)
About the teacher:
Nathaniel Justiniano has been a professional actor and director for
over 10 years. In 2007 he co-created Pax Americana, a satire of war
as seen through the lens of United States history and EUOI!, a bouffon
experiment in ecstatic ritual, inspired by the research of
anthropologist, Barbara Ehrenreich. He has performed with The
Thrillpeddlers in their mega-hit, Pearls Over Shanghai, as well as
with the SF Buffoons in their productions of The Hasheesh Eater and
Spunk, a satire of gold rush-era San Francisco. In 2009 he led the
creation of Naked Empire's debut production, Shame! as a DIY Artist-in-
Residence at the recently-closed Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory, formerly
one of San Francisco’s most popular centers for queer and activist
performance. His most recent work, Cousin Cruelty's Compulsion,
addresses violence in society and was the subject of a feature column
in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He teaches workshops in bouffon,
commedia dell’arte, and mask performance and serves as the Director of
Physical Comedy for the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival as well as a
guest teacher of physical theatre at Sacramento City College. He
holds an MFA in Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre from Dell’Arte
International School of Physical Theatre.
We have emerged from our two week casting process with a trio of actors for
Conversation Storm that I am incredibly excited about. Here they are:
Jeff Dinnell (Alec)Jeff Dinnell is a transplant from Santa Cruz, California, where he was a fixture of the local stage and television scene. For five years he hosted a live half-hour talk show covering the local arts. Favorite stage roles include DEFENDANT in David Mamet's ROMANCE and TOM in Adam Bock's FIVE FLIGHTS
Steve Robertson (Godfrey)Steve Robertson is from St. Louis, Missouri and a graduate of the theater department at
the University of Missouri in Columbia. Some stage work includes the role of Jerry in
Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story and Vice Principal Panch in 25th Annual Putnam County
Spelling Bee. He is thrilled to be working with the talented people of Uranium Madhouse.
John Ruby (Hugh) 
John Ruby is from Pewaukee, Wisconsin and is a graduate of Northwestern University. His film credits include You, Me and Dupree, Ricky,and Touch. He has also made appearances on the television shows The Event, Cougar Town, and Perfect Couples. His theater credits include The Sting and Heaven Can Wait. www.johnruby.com
A big Uranium Madhouse welcome to all!
Jeff, Cesar, and John join my longtime student Yolanda Seabourne, who is the sole actor in Charles Mee's
The House of Cards, which will play on a double bill with
Conversation Storm.
Yolanda SeabourneBy day, Yolanda watches funny home videos from a show you grew up watching. By night, she watches plays and studies acting with Andrew Utter. When actually acting and not watching, Yolanda has appeared in productions of Hay Fever, The Bald Soprano, and The House of Bernarda Alba.
Uranium Madhouse's Fantastic Four will ROCK YOU, this June, at Hollywood's El Centro theater. Brace yourself! RAWRRRR!