FLOCKED a clown show a clown show created by a couple of birds to rattle your cage. This Mexican-American collaboration is a wordless show about the boundaries that separate us all. TimeOut NY as "Must See Show" Fall 2011!
"Audience laughter was frequent, loud, and sustained." -John Towson, All Fall Down
"While on the surface Flocked looks simple and sweet - nothing more than a mime about birds – it’s actually a complex bit of theatre which highlights basic human (and presumably bird) themes with humor and finesse." -Karen Tortora-Lee The Happiest Medium
Enter a world created by sound, emotion and physical comedy to meet Pepper y Chula, two birds who are neighbors and—like their compatriots in Mexico and the United States—eye each other with fear, competition and withering stereotypes. This dark comedy becomes hilarious when they are forced to sort out their pecking order, their boundaries and the truth. Can anything make these caged birds sing together?
About Audrey:
About Gaby:
“The hilarious Audrey Crabtree you won’t soon forget.”—Nytheatre.com
Audrey Crabtree and Gabriela Muñoz met at the NY Clown Theatre Festival in 2010 and bonded over a month of traveling and working with compromised communities in Mexico. It was there that they began developing and showcasing excerpts from Flocked. They are joined in this New York and World premiere by the international clown-star Hilary Chaplain as director. Audrey, Gabriela and an amazing team are also co-creating the Mexico City Festival de Clown Teatro in March 2012. Find out more about their work at: Connect2clowns.
Icetacles: The Last Chance of a Lifetime Written in collaboration with the performers. The films “Ice Castles,” “The Cutting Edge” and “Rocky” collide on skates, featuring music from Rocky and the 1980's.
Written in Collaboration and Performed by:
Lynn Berg, Audrey Crabtree, Jonathan Kaplan, Jeff Seal, and Shawn Wickens.
Additional choreography by Ronald Hoffman
The films “Ice Castles,” “The Cutting Edge” and “Rocky” collide on skates. When a has-been coach brings two sightless skaters together to win the big competition we learn that sometimes the one you love is the person you hate the most and winning is all that really matters. The creators of Bouffon Glass Menajoree bring you this blind parody on wheels. Icetacles uses clown/bouffon, video, animation and puppetry and simulated ice skating on roller skates to parody the American Sports movie, the American romantic comedy idea that love begins by people hating each other.
These piece started after Lynn gave me a birthday present of roller skates and lessons from Crazy Legs. For me working on this show and also as inspiration were s well fond memories of Skateland in Raytown, MO.
Bouffon Glass Menajoree This award winning interactive play had runs in Brooklyn, NYC, Minnesota, the Catskills and Dublin Ireland. We hoping to remount it summer 2011. Let us know if we should head your way.
Written by the performers Lynn Berg, Audrey Crabtree, and Aimee German with director Eric Davis.
“Genius” - CultureBot
Gentlemen callers beware: The Wingfields plume their nest with broken glass, twisted morals, and perverted minds. Each night a new audience member will get to play the role of Jim, the gentlemen caller. Tom, Amanda and Laura claim no responsibility for hurt feelings or offended sentiments. These deformed anti-clowns subversively take the piss out of everyone and everything. Why would anyone do this to an American Masterpiece!?!
“Delicious!” - NYTheatre.com
"The hilarious Audrey Crabtree plays Laura indelibly. It will be a long time (read: NEVER) before I will be able to enjoy this great American play without being reminded of the battered, bruised, out-of-her-mind-psychotic Laura." -NYTheater.com
"Bouffon Glass Menajoree is a black mass at the altar of a sacred American theater text" -TimeOut NY
WINNERS OF
Outstanding Production of a Play, 2007
Also nominated for:
Outstanding Original Short Script
Outstanding Ensemble
Outstanding Director
"Crabtree’s bitchy, improvised outbursts are not only hilarious, but finally empower Laura after 60 years of onstage rejection." — Garrett Eisler, TimeOut NY
"Perfect theatrical storm... extremely funny breaking up the audience and in effect creating a new genre of American comedic condescension."
- Larry Litt
New York Theater Wire
“Nothing short of brilliant!” - MNArtists.org
PAST PERFORMANCES
*Dublin International Fringe Festival -Sponsored Performance
"This is a company that truly takes risks." -NY Theater.com
.
DETRITUS This bouffon show was developed in Collaboration with The Combustables, Ten Directions, director, and the performers. Workshopped and performed in 2009.
Special thanks to Giovanni Fusetti whose workshop began the process.
Five creatures from the underworld bring back to the surface what you thought you’d disposed of forever. Inspired by New York’s trash, these grotesques and bouffons will keep you laughing, even as the terrifying facts about waste spill into your laps.
Special thanks to Giovanni Fusetti, whose workshop on Clown, bouffon and grotesque jump started the process.
This collaborative project involved a lot of fascinating and heartbreaking research on our society, it's excess and waste and the people that are left behind. Below are some of the things that have stuck in my mind.
Trips to the salvage yard, the composting center, and
Also look here for greener ways to dispose of items.
DETRITUS is made possible in part with the public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO- CVR Charlie Victor Romeo-this award-winning docu-drama was developed in collaboration in 1999 at Collective: Unconscious. I was a co-collaborator and performed with the show through 2002.
The original cast and collaborators from CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO have been awarded 2000 Drama Desk Awards for Best Unique Theatrical Experience and Outstanding Sound Design and the 2000 New York International Fringe Festival awards for Overall Excellence in Drama and Outstanding Sound Design. Recently CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO was awarded theBackstage West Garland Award for Best Sound Design 2002.
Postcard desgin by Bob Berger
CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO (CVR) is a live performance documentary derived entirely from the "Black Box" transcripts of six major airline emergencies. Allowing the audience into the tension-filled cockpit so factual flights in distress, CVR is a fascinating portrait of the psychology of crisis and a testament to the ability to live to the last second of life. What is going on up there behind the door in the front of the airplane? Who are these people we trust our lives to, and what do they really do when things go horribly wrong?
"The actors are splendid, projecting a variety of human responses to terror. They make you wonder what you're made of yourself -- and make you grateful for the ground under your feet.”
- Bruce Weber, NY Times
Ollie Wyman, Michael Bruno, Stuart Rudin, and Audrey Crabtree.
Patrick Daniels, Audrey Crabtree, Irving Gregory
CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO opened in the fall of 1999 at the Collective: Unconscious Theater in the heart of New York's Lower East Side's thriving artistic community. Due to the overwhelming response from the press, aviation community and the general public, CVR extended five times in an entirely sold-out eight-month run.
Sound design: Jamie Mereness
Current run directed by: Patrick Daniels
Bouffon
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Graspy McTakeItAll can't stop her hands. Just like you she is consumed with feelings of greed, need, with a love of secrecy. She likes to assist Scatman in any of his escapades.
Graspy is very focused on pointing out the greed in others and society. Unfortunately she often ends up defeating her own purpose, consumed by her own greed. With only 5 fingers left she better get things under control!
Graspy is a fan of religion, crunk music and extreme exaggeration. She is know to have passionate affairs with bags of oversized potato chips, and prefers to sleep in your lap.
Below is a photo from Bouffon Medicine show II @ 3rd Ward
Click the photo above to see a video clip of Graspy as the Irish orphan PattieO'Pattycake.
Jeff Seal, Aimee German, Graspy, Scatman, and Ambrose Martos
Left below is Graspy with her buddy ScatMan. They are working on a new show about the history of America via religion
Here Graspy points out a 'land ho' after a long boat ride from England. She had to be kicked out for making outragous claims about the powers of her "God". Don't worry she didn't come empty handed she brought some infected blankets, shiny shiny objects and some new manners for the natives!
BOUFFON GLASS MENAJOREE This award winning interactive play had runs in Brooklyn, NYC, Minnesota, the Catskills and Dublin Ireland. We hoping to remount it summer 2011. Let us know if we should head your way.
Written by the performers Lynn Berg, Audrey Crabtree, and Aimee German with director Eric Davis.
“Genius” - CultureBot
Gentlemen callers beware: The Wingfields plume their nest with broken glass, twisted morals, and perverted minds. Each night a new audience member will get to play the role of Jim, the gentlemen caller. Tom, Amanda and Laura claim no responsibility for hurt feelings or offended sentiments. These deformed anti-clowns subversively take the piss out of everyone and everything. Why would anyone do this to an American Masterpiece!?!
“Delicious!” - NYTheatre.com
"The hilarious Audrey Crabtree plays Laura indelibly. It will be a long time (read: NEVER) before I will be able to enjoy this great American play without being reminded of the battered, bruised, out-of-her-mind-psychotic Laura."-NYTheater.com
"Bouffon Glass Menajoree is a black mass at the altar of a sacred American theater text" -TimeOut NY
WINNERS OF
Outstanding Production of a Play, 2007
Also nominated for:
Outstanding Original Short Script
Outstanding Ensemble
Outstanding Director
"Crabtree’s bitchy, improvised outbursts are not only hilarious, but finally empower Laura after 60 years of onstage rejection." — Garrett Eisler, TimeOut NY
"Perfect theatrical storm... extremely funny breaking up the audience and in effect creating a new genre of American comedic condescension."
- Larry Litt
New York Theater Wire
“Nothing short of brilliant!” - MNArtists.org
PAST PERFORMANCES
*Dublin International Fringe Festival -Sponsored Performance
"This is a company that truly takes risks." -NY Theater.com
.
DETRITUS This bouffon show was developed in Collaboration with The Combustables, Ten Directions, director, and the performers. Workshopped and performed in 2009.
Special thanks to Giovanni Fusetti whose workshop began the process.
Five creatures from the underworld bring back to the surface what you thought you’d disposed of forever. Inspired by New York’s trash, these grotesques and bouffons will keep you laughing, even as the terrifying facts about waste spill into your laps.
Special thanks to Giovanni Fusetti, whose workshop on Clown, bouffon and grotesque jump started the process.
This collaborative project involved a lot of fascinating and heartbreaking research on our society, it's excess and waste and the people that are left behind. Below are some of the things that have stuck in my mind.
Trips to the salvage yard, the composting center, and
Also look here for greener ways to dispose of items.
DETRITUS is made possible in part with the public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Clown
more...
BIG APPLE CIRCUS CLOWN CARE UNIT I have had the great pleasure to work with the Clown Care Unit since early 2008 doing rounds in hospitals in New York City and Yale as "Dr. Pepper".
I have had the great pleasure to work with the Clown Care Unit since early 2008 visiting hospitals in the New York City area as "Dr. Pepper". We work in teams of two so I have the opportunity to play with an amazing group of clowns. Our professional clowns specialize in music, juggling, plate spinning, magic, puppetry, dance, improvisation and of course, funny. Each day involves different challenges and rewards. We walk the halls of the hospitals and play with anyone who is game. That includes adults, hospital staff, medical staff and of course kids. We do rounds visiting clinics, waiting rooms, pre & post operation recovery, emergency, burn units and inpatient room visits. Depending on the hospital and diagnosis we can have long term relationships with kids and their families or see them one time. We come in to play, make them laugh, take some frustration away, offer distraction, and basically to engage with them in a positive way. It is a lot of fun!
Here is a video that is a nice example of our work:
The BAC clowns have a rigorous training in hygiene and hospital safety policies. Our program is funded in part by hospitals and private donations. To learn more about Clown Care or to make a tax-deductible donation, click here.
CONNECT 2 CLOWNS is a collaboration between and Audrey Crabtree and Gabriela Muñoz to further the artform of clown. See our blog for more info www.connect2clowns.blogspot.com
Connect 2 Clowns is a collaboration between and Audrey Crabtree and Gabriela Muñoz to further the artform of clown. They continue to offer workshops, develop and show material, work with marginalized communities and provide opportunities for clowns around the world to connect, share, and inspire one another.
We are currently working on a full length show for the NY Clown Theatre Festival.
And in development to develop the Festival de Clown & Theater de Mexico for 2012!
CLOWNS WITHOUT BORDERS-INDIA For 5 weeks Hilary Chaplian and I travelled in India working with NGOs doing shows and workshops for compromised communites. It was a journey of a lifetime! We teamed up with clowns we met there Ashwath Bhatt, Tapasya Dasgupta, and Kalyan Choudhury. Photos by Ira Chaplain!
NY CLOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL Since 2006 master teachers and performers from all over the world including to share their work including the US, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Catalonia, France, UK, Russia, Denmark, Italy, and Brazil.
2011 September in an invitation only- Amuse Bouche.
TheNew York Clown Theatre Festival is an annual celebration of the art of clown. Every fall the Brick Theater, Inc. presents the very best of clown performance from around the globe as well as hosting classes and workshops by world-renowned teachers. We host a bevy of outrageous events, including a massive pie fight, clown parade, and a clown funeral. The festival enters its 6th year this September 2011!
Kris Anton, Christopher Loar, Eric Davis, Audrey Crabtree- Photo by Bram Muller, 2006
Below is Robert Honeywell, 2010
Each year at the end of the festival we have a public funeral parade where we encourage the public to join in on our sorrow over the end of the festival.Here you see unknown clown, me and Lynn Berg, 2008.
DUOS AND TRIOS for CLOWN AND BOUFFON-Mexico City This is a workshop for Clowns and Bouffons working in Duos and Trios. I am really excited about it people are welcome to come with partners or we can mix it up. March 21, 22, 23 6-9pm @ Foro Shakespeare.
PARTICIPACIÓN DEL PÚBLICO: Tomaremos nuestro rendimientoescénico de lo ordinario a lo extraordinario mediante la participación de un público en múltiples niveles.
Practique ejercicios y técnicas para atrapar a su público y aprender a transformar y conectar con ellos a través de su presencia. Trabajaremos con técnicas que van desde la ruptura de la cuarta pared, dirigiéndonos directamente al público e interactuando, verbal y físicamente con este. Aprenderemos a leer a la audiencia y transformar sus límites de observador a participante. Sorpréndete a ti mismo y a otros soltando tus miedos y comprometiéndote con tus opciones creativas y originalidad personal.
CONNECTING POINTS-Mexico City This is a press and public meeting to discuss the work Gabriela Muñoz and I will be doing as well as the initiative to start a Mexican Clown Festival! Please help us spread the word! Monday March 14th, 5pm. 14 de Marzo 17 hrs
Este encuentro estará encabezado por Audrey Crabtree es co-fundadora y actualmente co-directora ejecutiva del Organismo Internacional NY CLOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL y Gabriela Muñoz (fundadora de Clown Me In) quienes próximamente comenzaran un Festival Internacional de Clown en el DF, así como otras actividades de Clown.
Cirko DeMente los invita al Encuentro de Clown “Conectando Puntos” donde tocaremos el tema del Clown Contemporáneo en México, de su alma y la resonancia de puntos internos en una consciencia libre de juicio, la del Clown.
Al final de este evento se abrirá a preguntas y respuestas!!
con un elenco fascinante:
Gaby Muñoz & Audrey Crabtree
Santi Malabari
Yan Costa
y Ricardo Zárraga
presentando (números y la varieté):
la Seño Atanasia (Darina Robles)
y su santidad Sor Rita (Adriana Moles)
Después de reir hasta caerte del asiento, levantate del suelo y a Bailar!!!
con la Sensacional Orquesta Camboyana de Sullivan
y el Dj Falso, cumbia de la buena y otras sabrosuras...
Costo: $100.00mn
SSSSIIIIIII!!! Varieté cirkera, más banda, más fiesta!!!!!!!!!!
e está en número en San Pedro de los Pinos, esquina con Calle 24, entre Periférico y Eje 5 Sur. Metro San Antonio Línea naranja.
NERDLESQUE: EPISODE III Put on your glasses and bow tie and join me for this night of comedy and burlesque. Saturday February 12th, 2011 at 11pm. At The Brick Theater in Brooklyn. $10
Do the sweet harmonies of Rockapella make your heart sing? Can you explain, at length, the shared linguistic roots of Elvish and Orcish? Do you know how to get the Babel fish? If so, four out of five exotic dancers agree—you need a monthly dose of NERDLESQUE.
On February 12, a jaw-droppingly hot bevy of geeks and other social misfits will once again explore the sexier side of nerd culture through the medium of burlesque. Power up your warp drive, hop into your TARDIS, leap aboard your Segway, and come experience the tantalizing geekfest that is NERDLESQUE.
BINDLESTIFF OPEN VARIETY STAGE I will be doing a new/old clown turn for Valentine's Day. Should be a super fun night of variety artists! Monday February 7th, 2011. Galapogos Art Space, Dumbo Brooklyn. Doors at 7 show at 8pm. Only $5!!
Come to Dumbo Brooklyn for a spectacular night of variety entertainment that will include much more than a simple song and dance. Hosted by Bindlestiff Family Cirkus co-founder Keith Nelson, Bindlestiffs Open Stage Variety Show is a non stop variety show experience that may include The Heavy Metal Magician, Kung Fu juggling, trained rats, clown bands, aerial artists, wire walkers, sword swallowers, stripping clowns, living cartoons, physical comedy, a cougar contortionist and a cowboy from the Bronx. Every show offers amazing sights, quirky surprises, and some of the best variety artists working New York and the world. Always entertaining.
CATHY COPPOLA Cathy Coppola is a feature film, a neo-realistic, comedic, character-driven narrative. I play an HR Director. Shot by the talented Marcin Kapron.
On set as Hr Director in Cathy Coppola. I had a blast playing this ironic character with a bit of physical comedy.
On set as Hr Director in Cathy Coppola. I had a blast playing this ironic character with a bit of physical comedy.
Director Stefanie Sparks won a Jerome Foundation grant for her film Cathy Coppola. A neo-realistic, comedic, character-driven narrative feature. The film will present a satirical look at class, ambition and the female experience as seen from the fringes of the contemporary American independent film world. Cathy Coppola will focus on primary character Cathy Klinkmans struggle to get her feature film made while suffering from a loss of confidence. After winning a film competition at North Seattle Community College, Cathy quickly makes her way to Los Angeles. She lands a job on a successful LA television show. She gets caught up in the fast-paced lifestyle of LA and gets fired from her job after just a few months, so she heads to New York and Film School. Five years later she receives her Masters degree from Columbia and is again on her way to the top. She eventually lands an interview with a renowned film producer. The interview goes well, but Cathy is surprised to discover that her job will be taking the producers dogs on the weekends, not assisting on a film as she had hoped. And so begins a long series of mishaps, until Cathy resorts to anything to get ahead, including posing as the illegitimate daughter of Francis Ford Coppola. Suddenly her world is occupied by industry people who cant get enough of her. But where will all this lead? Will Cathy make it in the world of independent film, or will her deception be her final undoing?
DEATH IS LAME A short film in post-production by Stephen Winter, award winning producer of Tarnation and New York, I Love You.
SCREWED This is a Webisode written, directed and starring Stefanie Sparks about a midwestern dancer trying to make it big in the city. I play the director of the Bushwick Ballet Board.
I play the director of the Bushwick Ballet Board in this series about Omaha transplant Lydia Lawrence. She attempts to force her way into the New York City dance world in Episode one she takes on the Black Swan.
Bushwick Ballet Board
BLEED A short film written and directed by Stefanie Sparks. Featured at film festivals spring 2011!
In this dark comedy I play Maggie, a disenchanted mid-western housewife and mother. Frustrated by her lottery addicted older husband, Maggie awakens to the possibility of love and freedom as her daughter Sloan enters into womanhood.
Mixed Media -Special Recognition for Comedy Short Form
Look for it in Film Festivals spring and summer 2011!
Performance Art
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The Living Newspaper- Weekly Weekly is part of a series of performanced by Liz Magic Laser commissioned by Forever & Today presented in partnership with The Swiss Institute exploring the manipulltion of political campaigns through the media. This was an intense live inter-active performance.
The Living Newspaper -Weekly, by Liz Magic Laser. Drawing from conventional theatrical, pyschology and cult techniques Laser directs a small troupe of performers to interact with a live audience. Weekly asks us to explore- and question- the strategies used by Political campaigns and media to sawy their audiences. Written in collaboration with the performers Audrey Crabtree, Ray Field and Lia Woertendyke.
Other collaborators include Project Advisor: RoseLee Goldberg, Founding Director and Curator of Performa; Producer: David Guinan, Director of Polemic Media; Videographer: Niknaz Tavakolian; Journalistic Dramaturge: Roman Léandre Schmidt of Courrier International; Resident Playwright: Hanna Novak; Costume Advisors: Zulema Griffin and Zuzka Kurtz; Production Assistant: Moriah Askenaizer; and Performing Production Assistant: Mallory Nezam.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 2012, 6-8PM
18 WOOSTER STREET, NYC (CANAL & GRAND STREETS)
SUBWAY: N / R / Q / 6 TO CANAL STREET
C
New York City Transit
to York Street
to High Street Brooklyn Bridge
