An Oakland Performing Arts Collective
First I will give some background on the art piece, Running Fence by Christo and Jean Claude, and then I will get into how we acquired a piece this fabric and how we are using it in Ship of Fools Act II: The Terrible Beast. First, what the running fence is…. Christo and Jeanne-Claude Running [...]
A new character is introduced in Act II Ship of Fools! A condemned clown, Auguste. I won’t give away too much about this character and how he fits in to the scheme of things with the other comedia del arte characters, Harlequin, Pierrot and Columbine, but let’s just say that this new character is in [...]
Act II of Ship of Fools focuses on the fools encountering a terrible beast, but what does it look like? There are many precedents for sea monsters from all over the world; the leviathan, the kraken, the loch ness monster…. Lets take a look at a few for some inspiration. Maybe our terrible beast will [...]
The three main characters of The Ship of Fools comment, critique and at times disrupt the story as it moves along. They also manipulate the Fools, be they in mask or puppet form. These roles are modeled after 3 archetypal characters from Commedia dell’arte, an Italian theatrical style that began in the 1500s and, “was [...]
I find it most efficient to recycle old materials and use up stuff laying around the house when constructing something new. This cuts down on things sitting in storage and gives new life to something I may have been reluctant to get rid of but would never use the same way again. I often find [...]
The minions, modeled after angler fish, are the most frightful creatures in the depths of the ocean. In our story, it is at these incredible depths wherein lies the lair of the Sea Witch. The minions, illuminated only by their phosphorescence, are the Sea Witch’s most faithful companions. From my practical perspective as creator, these [...]
…and that is pretty close to how many tentacles we made! Think about it: anemone, squid, octopus…. You do the math, he he he. The weeks leading up the the June performance of A Murmured Tale prompted the laborious project of the sewing of hundreds (and hundreds!) of tentacles, scales and more. These glittery fabrics [...]