Mission

Idiot String is a collaborative ensemble theatre company devoted to inciting delight and activating meaningful human connection through public performance, audience interaction, and play. We engage audiences with entertaining performance-based projects that incite delight and spontaneous community wherever we appear. Whether performing in a theatre, on the street, or in the open air, Idiot String creates opportunities for joyful shared experience and participatory fun.

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Biographies

Joan Howard (Co-Founder)

Joan is a physical theatre performer and clown. She plays Thumper of the Samuel Peaches Peripatetic Players, and is one-half of the acrobatic clown duo Max & Antoinette, who have appeared at San Francisco Theater Pub and the foolsFURY Factory Parts Festival. Joan is co-director of a new social clowning program called ClownCorps, and feels particularly fortunate to visit hospitals with the Medical Clown Project. She has taught the next generation of professional clowns at San Francisco Circus Center’s Clown Conservatory, has performed with We Players and foolsFURY, and has presented original performances at Physical Theatre Salon at Main Street, LEVYSalon, Barbary Coast Amusements, Literary Clown Foolery, The Clown Cabaret, and Ei8ht. In 2010, she co-founded Main Street Theatre in San Francisco’s Excelsior district, an alternative performance venue dedicated to physical theatre and the variety arts. Joan studied clowning and pedagogy with Giovanni Fusetti of Helikos, is a graduate of Flying Actor Studio’s Physical Theatre Conservatory, and holds a BFA in Sculpture/Performance Art from California College of Arts & Crafts. 

Rebecca Longworth (Co-Founder)

Rebecca is a theatre maker dedicated to creating original ensemble performance and rich audience experiences. She co-creates and directs each of the Samuel Peaches Peripatetic Players’s productions, and devises original performance with the Hatch Collective. Other directing credits include New Conservatory Theatre Center, Ragged Wing Ensemble, SF Theatre Pub, Boxcar Theatre, Theatre Q, Dragon Productions, El Gato Family Theatre and Jump! Theatre, where she served as artistic director for four years. Rebecca has performed with Ragged Wing Ensemble, We Players, and FoolsFURY, and has also designed motion graphics and projections for Jump! Theatre, Crowded Fire, Custom Made Theatre, and Shotgun Players. Rebecca teaches acting and theater-making to students of all ages throughout the Bay Area, including workshops and residencies with Berkeley Rep, TheatreWorks, and San Francisco Opera Guild. She holds an MA in Text & Performance Studies from King’s College/R.A.D.A. and is a member of the 2009 Lincoln Center Directors Lab.