Ahoy, mateys! It’s time for Shiver We Timbers! — A Peripatetic Pick-Ye-Own Pirate Adventure, touring Bay Area parks and public spaces July 7 through August 12. Set your course to the Peripatetic Players’ website for more info, and come aboard for a swashbuckling adventure!
At the invitation of the Port Costa Conservation Society, Idiot String is beginning an artistic residency in Port Costa. We’re thrilled to be deepening our relationship to this magical town by spending more creative time there, finding inspiration in the history and landscape, and activating spaces inside the historic Port Costa School with rehearsals, workshops and other activities. While there, we’ll be developing new plays for site-specific performances in Port Costa and for touring on our mobile stage; and will begin to offer occasional education programs — in the hopes that they’ll become regular education offerings — as early as fall 2018.
The East Bay Fund for Artists at the East Bay Community Foundation has awarded us a matching grant to fund the creation of a new play in Port Costa that will premiere in 2019. In order to receive this funding, we need to raise $4,000 from individual donors before July 15, 2018. Donate today to help us create this new play!
We’ve been visiting Port Costa with the Peripatetic Players each year since their inception in 2014, and have always been thrilled at the warm welcome we’ve received there from locals and visitors alike. The Burlington Hotel and Bull Valley Roadhouse have helped to keep us fed and housed; Wendy Addison and her magical shop, Theatre Of Dreams, is a true inspiration (and creative consultant to Elixir of Life); and the dedicated folks at the Port Costa Conservation Society have made the Port Costa School a delightful stop on each of our tours. Throughout 2017 we also developed (the entirely fictional play) Elixir Of Life with inspirations from Port Costa and the surrounding area — including bona-fide history as well as tall tales and the general feeling of what it’s like to live in a small community.
Meanwhile, enjoy these photos from some recent exploratory days in Port Costa…
We’re thrilled to announce that the East Bay Fund for Artists at the East Bay Community Foundation has awarded Idiot String a matching grant to support the development of a new site-specific play in Port Costa — part of our residency hosted by the Port Costa Conservation Society — that will premiere in 2019.
It’s a challenge grant, so we need your help! We have until July 15 to raise $4000 in individual donations, to match EBFA’s pledge.
Your donation will support us today, and commission a new play for next year!
Idiot String has been awarded a 2018 CA$H Creates grant from Theatre Bay Area!
This funding will help increase our capacity by hiring a publicist to promote the Peripatetic Players’ 2018 Bay Area Parks Summer Tour, and Idiot String’s upcoming residency in Port Costa. We’re working with consultant Jonathan White to help increase our exposure in the local media.
Thank you Theatre Bay Area for believing in us!
On September 30, we accepted the invitation of artist Bethany Carlson Mann to present excerpts from Elixir of Life at the opening of Bethany’s art show, Fairytales for Feral Children, now on exhibit at the Burlington Hotel.
Serena Morelli photographed the event — enjoy! — and don’t forget… Elixir of Life starts October 20!
Happening just a moment from this writing, the Peripatetic Players will conclude their 2016 tour of Shakespeare or Space Wars with a weekend-long mini-festival in Port Costa, Flux Fest ’16. We’re just pleased as punch that the Players are now officially fictionally Port Costa’s resident traveling troupe of thespians, and we’re looking forward to creating all kinds of lore and faux ephemera to document our years in that fantastic hamlet.
Here’s a collage from last fall’s performance of Romeo & Juliet in Port Costa, featuring Reece Santos’s fabulous painted proscenium in the alleyway of the Bull Valley Roadhouse:
On November 8, 2014, the Samuel Peaches Peripatetic Players debuted a new performance: their impromtu version of Romeo & Juliet! Read all about it at the Aesop Amuck blog…
Source: The Peripatetic Players perform Shakespeare!
Aesop Amuck opens this Saturday, August 1 at DeFremery Park in Oakland — then we travel to seven more parks and public spaces throughout the Bay Area until August 23.
Come along and join the fun! All shows are free of charge — though donations are gratefully accepted!
Enjoy this video the Samuel Peaches Peripatetic Players created for their Kickstarter campaign:
For Hatch, I created a site-specific solo piece called City Creature on the Cascades based on City Creature research and musings. It was created and staged on February 28, 2015 at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland. Enjoy photos and what I could re-create of the script at the link to the Hatch Performance Collective’s website.
Idiot String 