Greetings from The Carpetbag Brigade,
After a very active 2008, the company has been quiet for a period of several months, our main members pursuing individual projects across the globe. Director Jay Ruby has just finished attending the annual Association of Performing Arts Presenter’s conference in New York City, while Kristen Greco is studying with Nancy Stark Smith at Earthdance in Massachusetts. Daniel Davis is teaching stilts and Contact Improvisation in Santa Cruz, and Isabelle Kirouac is in West Africa researching a network of connections in the arts and culture.
This is a short catch-up email, with a few highlights from 2008 to share with you, and an appeal for your support. The company plans to create a northern California base for itself in 2009, and we want your help in realizing this goal.
House and Land
After every tour, The Carpetbag Brigade returns to California to a home that does not exist… Since we have left Arizona in 2003 we have primarily been a touring group, coming together for work and adventure but without a taproot or base. A real sense of home has been as elusive as we are ephemeral on tour. We are much like Odysseus going forth from one adventure to the next as a group. Our down time has often been more challenging than being on tour because we have not had a center to regenerate our energies in. Like Odysseus we begin to long for our own Ithaca…
History has seen many theater companies with more vision that capital. Many, like us, have subsisted from the money they make on performances to continue their work; but for any company’s work to evolve and leave a lasting impression in its wake it is fundamental for the work to have a taproot where it can nourish itself, where the performers can research their craft, where conferences and workshops can be held, where students can come to learn and where the nexus of a community dedicated to the intentions of theatrical craft can evolve.
We believe that a base -- housing and rehearsal space -- will allow us the ability to deepen and grow our work as nothing else can. If you would like to help, we encourage you to make a generous donation. If our work has inspired you, if you would like to help us realize our theatrical visions and dreams, we would love to add your contribution to our downpayment fund!
- All U.S. contributions tax-deductible.
- Donate $100 or more and receive two free Carpetbag Brigade T-Shirts and autographed posters
- Donate $250 or more: a complimentary DVD of our documentary on 2007's Monterrey, Mexico Project, We Arrive Like an Echo, plus the above
- Donate$1000 or more: a free pair of stilts fitted to the body of your choice plus the above
- Donate $50,000 and we will create a custom, site-specific performance for you
2008 Highlights
Before closing, here are a few words touching on our 2008 accomplishments, and a sense of what's in store for us in 2009.
Edinburgh Fringe Review
photo: Debbie Grant
The List Weekly
Glasgow and Edinburgh Events Guide
14 August 2008
Kirstin Innes
Awe inspiring spectacle on stilts
***** (Five Stars)
The Vanishing Point is sheer delight. The stilt walkers, commun-icating to each other through some sort of primeval whale song, trace a pattern of evolution from dinosaur-like creatures and sexually charged tribal people to, briefly, dead-eyed office workers. Even on stilts, their floor work and gymnastic feats are lucid and nuanced, working with the lure of myth to inspire proper, Old Testament-style awe.
More Fringe Reviews | New Photo Galleries
The year began with a research process in Arcata to deepen and grow our current indoor physical theater piece,You Don't Know Jack. Later in the year the show was to garner wildly mixed reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe: audiences seemed fascinated, repelled and shaken. We were pleased with the intensity of the responses, and hope to work more on the piece in the future.
Director Jay Ruby taught workshops in Austria, Scotland, Greece, Oakland and Portland, and -- with Paul Weir and Nadia Hagen of Flam Chen Pyrotechnic Theater -- created the final installment of the Whizzbang project in Nanaimo, BC Canada.
The highlight of the year was the company's expedition to Ireland and the UK. At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival we performed with our full North American palette of performers from Canada, Mexico and the U.S. The Vanishing Point, Mudfire and You Don't Know Jack were presented a total of 49 times in heavy rotation for three weeks, overcoming challenges brought on by rain and performer visas...
Upcoming 2009 Workshops
- Glasgow, Scotland – Stilt Asanas and The Pillars of Spectacle.
February 15 – March 4. Contact JL Cassells: jl@brightnightinternational.com - Bay Area, California – Stilt Asanas and The Pillars of Spectacle.
Mid May through June. Details forthcoming. - Portland, Oregon – Stilt Asanas.
March 13-15, 2009. Contact Jacob Mooney: daimondjake@gmail.com - Prescott, Arizona - Skitmercial Intensive for
Tsunami on the Square, March 24-26. Contact Megan
Buchanan: mbuchanan@hotmail.com
- Prescott, Arizona – The Voice in Action.
March 28-29. Contact Delisa Myles: delisanest@animail.net - Tucson, Arizona - Stilts and Physical Theater Workshops
April 1–5. Co-produced by Flam Chen: details forthcoming.
For more information contact info@carpetbagbrigade.com or flamchen@yahoo.com - San Miguel de Allende, Mexico – The Voice in Action / Words from Water.
Date TBA (likely early May). Contact Elsanne : elsanne@angelguesthouses.com - Monterrey, Mexico – The Voice in Action.
Date TBA (likely early May).
Spring Tour Dates
- The Vanishing Point at the Barroquisimo Festival – Puebla, Mexico April 22-26
- Further tour dates in Mexico are still pending, we are also planning tours to Europe and South America over Summer and Fall as well as a retreat project in Canada. Details will be posted on the website as they become clear.
Our best to you,
Jay Ruby and The Carpetbag Brigade