SANTA BARBARA'S PROBOSCIS THEATER COMPANY BRINGS NEW ORIGINAL SHOW TO HOLLYWOOD FRINGE
La La La Strada
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Jeff Mills
(805) 453-8242 or [email protected]
Listing: Theater
Start: NOW through June 27, 2015
La La La Strada
A musical carnival play about Federico Fellini and his iconic film La Strada!
Fact Sheet and Schedule
WHO: Proboscis Theater Company, Jeff Mills Producer
WHAT: La La La Strada- co-devised, written and directed by Jeff Mills
WHEN: JUNE 7-27, 2015
LA Premiere!!
Sunday June 07 2015, 3:30 PM | 75 mins | preview
Friday June 19 2015, 10:00 PM | 75 mins
Sunday June 21 2015, 1:30 PM | 75 mins
Friday June 26 2015, 11:30 PM | 75 mins
Saturday June 27 2015, 5:00 PM | 75 mins
WHERE: All performances will be at the Actors Company (The Other Space Theater) 916 N. Formosa Ave. Hollywood CA.
TICKETS: $18 General; $15 Students and Seniors
Theater News! Santa Barbara theater company Proboscis travels south to Hollywood to participate in the Hollywood Fringe. They bring their Indy Award winning show to Hollywood for its LA Premiere. Artistic Director Jeff Mills (Professor of Theater at UCSB) first developed La La La Strada (a play about Fellini and the making of La Strada) as a class project at UC Santa Barbara. After the first iteration, he decided that the subject matter was worth further exploration so he hired professional actors, choreographers and musicians to develop the play into a full length production. La La La Strada had its world premiere at the first annual FELLINI FEST in Santa Barbara in February 2015. See more details below.
“I realized that the cinema offered this miraculous double feature: you tell a story and while you are doing so you are living another one yourself, an adventurous one with people as extraordinary as those in the film you are making.”— Federico Fellini
Proboscis Theater Company Presents
La La La Strada
Conceived, written and directed by Jeff Mills. Co-devised by the company. Original score written and played live by Jim Connolly. Puppet Designed by Christina McCarthy. Lights designed by Erin Davison. Fellini is a puppet in crisis! When he tries to direct La Strada, his actors, lovers and critics become his puppeteers. A delightful and provocative look at the making of Fellini’s iconic film.
La La La Strada- Sunday June 7 @ 3:30pm
Friday June 19 @ 10pm
Sunday June 21 @ 1:30pm
Friday June 26 @ 11:30pm
Saturday June 27 @ 5pm
“It may be worth seeing La La La Strada more than once to fully appreciate the extent of its artistry. The cumulative impact of the ensemble is quite seamless; together the actors weave a total — and totally bizarre — world.” – Charles Donelan, Santa Barbara Independent.
La La La Strada, Proboscis Theater Company’s second ground-breaking production, is a carnival-esque play starring six actors, a musician and a puppet. Join us as we explore the making of Federico Fellini’s 1953 masterpiece La Strada, a beautiful and heartbreaking film about a brutish circus strong man and his naive assistant Gelsomina.
La Strada is one of the most beloved films of the twentieth century and Fellini is one of the most enigmatic and celebrated artists of all time. The character of Fellini will be portrayed by a Bunraku style puppet. We see him first walking the tight rope, beguiling the audience with fantastical stories about his life, his art and the golden age of modernist Italian cinema. He extolls the virtues of being an auteur and takes for granted the privileges of his own genius. He boasts about reducing his actors to mere puppets and how they love him for it.
But while he attempts to direct his actors they begin to challenge him. Especially Giulietta, his wife. They question his artistic process and admonish him for abandoning his principles. They call him a misogynist, an opportunist and he is forced to defend his obsessions and his right to project his own dreams on the big screen, to objectify and sexualize his female actors, to exalt the grotesque and estrange the normal. As Fellini’s crisis comes to a climax, the audience must face their own prejudices about art, beauty and personal expression. Will Fellini be destroyed by his own decadence or will his creative DNA live forever in a magical double-helix of celluloid and images? However the story ends, the audience will surely have an unforgettable theatrical experience!
Jeff Mills (conceiver, decider, co-conspirator) is an actor, movement artist, director, teacher and musician. He holds an MFA from the National Theatre Conservatory in Denver, CO and is best known for his work with the award winning BOXTALES Theatre Company in Santa Barbara. As a core member of BOXTALES, Jeff co-created ten original works in as many years including his direction of OM: An Indian Tale of Good and Evil (The Ramayana) and his portrayal of Odysseus in The Odyssey. Jeff and BOXALES have toured their innovative theater for young audiences throughout the U.S. and in Mexico. Nationally and internationally, Jeff has performed with the Denver Center Theater Company, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, American Folklore Theater, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Door Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Shakespeare Festival, Wooden O Theater, the International City Theater, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Pominencer Census (Munich,) the Estudia Busqueda de Pantomima Teatro (Guanajuato, MX) Theater Mitu/Visthar Center (Bangalore, India) and the National Theater of China (Beijing.) In Santa Barbara Jeff has acted and/or directed with several companies including PCPA Theaterfest, Shakespeare Santa Barbara, Lit Moon Theater, Speaking of Stories, Genesis West, Dramatic Women,, Santa Barbara City College, and the Santa Barbara Summer Solstice. In 2004 Jeff appeared on a 40 foot video screen as Tristan in Bill Viola’s and Peter Sellars’ production of the opera Tristan and Isolde which was performed at the Opera National in Paris, the Disney Hall in Los Angeles, and the Lincoln Center in New York. Other favorite roles include Macbeth, Hamlet and Carlotta in the Cherry Orchard. His directing credits include The Arabian Nights by Mary Zimmerman, Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, Trojan Women, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Midsummer Nights Dream, The Tempest and Comedy of Errors. Since founding Proboscis Jeff conceived and directed Piezoelectric Love: The (half) Life of Marie Curie and produces a radio variety program called Live from the Piano Kitchen. Jeff currently teaches movement and acting at the University of California Santa Barbara.
Jim Connolly (music maker, co-conspirator) is a composer songwriter and performer living in Santa Barbara, California. He writes music for The Gove County Philharmonic, The Gove County String Quartet and Lit Moon Theatre and Toy Shop Ghost. He has composed for choir, musical saw, five string violin, string quartet and various chamber ensembles. He plays the double bass, saw, banjo, piano and sings. He attended New England Conservatory. Jim has received seven Independent Theater Awards, numerous commissions, grants, ASCAP Plus Awards and has been listed as one of the twenty-five most intriguing people in Santa Barbara Magazine. He has released four recordings of original music. He has worked with Nate Birkey, Gilles Apap, Van Dyke Parks, Jeff Kaiser, Brad Dutz, Headless Household, Jeff Bridges, Vinny Golia, Eugene Chadbourne, Glen Philips, Anna Abbey and his brother Kevin Connolly. He has composed dozens of scores for Lit Moon Theater Company productions and created music for four UCSB Theater productions including Piezoelectric Love: The Half Life of Marie Curie and Eurydice.
Christina McCarthy (puppet maker, movement shaper, co-conspirator) is a multi –disciplined artist who has created puppets, masks and choreography for both local theater groups, and dance companies in Santa Barbara in addition to teaching dance and aerial arts, choreographing and mentoring at UCSB. Her choreography, ranging from musical theater to classical concert dance, and her visual art have been seen in over fifty productions. She has done three collaborations with the Jazz and Percussion Ensembles in UCSB Music Department. This summer marks the third year she will be an artist in residence on a collaborative theater project with colleague Michael Morgan that combined a cast of UCSB students and troubled youth from the Santa Barbara community to stage a version of Homer’s The Odyssey.
Genevieve Anderson (Filmmaker, Puppeteer, Dramaturge, Co-Conspirator) is an artist, filmmaker, and producer who has been working with puppets for almost 20 years. Her films have played at over a hundred festivals worldwide and have garnered awards in Berlin, Chicago Int’l, Seattle, Rhode Island, UNIMA, among others, and have been broadcast on IFC (US) and ARTE (France, Germany). Her puppetry has lead to work in commercials (Target), music videos (Paul Simon), and an album cover for celebrated jazz artist James Carney. She is the producer for acclaimed video artist Bill Viola and has produced projects for the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, the Saint Paul Cathedral, London and the Tate, New Doha International Airport, Qatar among numerous others. She holds a BFA in Theater Arts from UCSB and an MA in Critical Studies Film and Television from USC. She is a Rockefeller Media Arts Grant recipient and an Annenberg Fellow.
Blythe Foster (Co-conspirator) is thrilled to join this ensemble and to collaborate with Jeff Mills, again, having assistant directed his production of The Arabian Nights, last spring at UCSB. Blythe has worked as a professional actor at many Bay Area Theaters, including: American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Aurora Theatre Company, Shotgun Players, Marin Theatre Company, SF Playhouse, TheatreWorks, San Jose Repertory Theatre and foolsFURY. In New York, she performed at Classic Stage Company, The Lion at Theatre Row and The Theatre of the Riverside Church and worked with Anne Bogart, Kristin Linklater, Andrei Serban and Niky Wolcz, while pursuing an MFA in Acting at Columbia University. Blythe has trained with Gardzienice Theatre in Poland, apprenticed with Bread&Puppet Theater in Vermont and is currently a graduate student in the Theater and Dance Department at UCSB.
Erica Flor (Originator, Co-Conspiritor) is ecstatic to join such a talented group of artists. She is a recent graduate from UC Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Acting. When she is not working (and playing!) with her fellow Fellinis, she is developing her one-person show about a crazy countess. Past roles include Judith (Equivocation), Jane (‘Dentity Crisis), Lady Macduff/Young Siward/Witch (Macbeth), Bettie Rage (Life is a Drag), Young Woman (Can-Can), Aspera (Reverse Transcription), Nerissa (Merchant of Venice), Juliet (Measure for Measure), Antonio (The Tempest) Alex (Museum of Woman, Lead), Cupid (Cupid’s Arrow).
Dana Fox Ortner (Originator, Co-Conspiritor) is a recent graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara with a BFA in Acting and also works as a costume designer in Santa Barbara. She has recently been seen in The Arabian Nights, as Sympathy the Learned, Macbeth in the roll of Banquo, in Tennessee Williams’ I Never Get Dressed Till After Dark on Sundays as Jane, and in Christopher Durang’s For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls as Ginny.
Erin Elizabeth Davison (Manager, Illuminator, Co-conspiritor) A recent Graduate of UCSB’s Theater and Dance Bachelor of Arts Program in Directing, Erin comes to Santa Barbara from Salinas, California. Here, she finds herself exploring her love of directing, and she feels so blessed to have such wonderful and talented artists here to push her into the professional world. Her past accomplishments include Assistant Directing under Avila Reese for Frontera Sin Fin/Endless Border By Carlos Morton, Assistant Stage Managing and Mentoring for Michael Morgan’s The Odyssey Project, Stage Managing and Light Design for Mary Zimmerman’s The Arabian Nights at UCSB, and Directing two One-Acts last year within the department: Women in Heat by Rich Orloff and Auto-Erotic Misadventures by F.J. Hartland. She also at times dabbles in the role of actress, having most recently been seen in the 2014 Vagina Monologues with W.E.T.T, the Graduate Directed Winter One-Acts Festival as the Director in Tennessee Williams’ I Never Get Dressed til After Dark on Sundays as Mae in Reefer Madness and as The Girl Bad Idea Bear in Avenue Q! with Paperwing Theatre Company in Monterey. She looks forward this year to Stage Managing for the Santa Barbara Revels, directing the upcoming performance of Split Decisions by Zackery Alexander Humphreys with High Stakes Theatre Co., working with Jeff Mills, Christina McCarthy and a host of fabulous players on LaLaLaStrada, as Stage Manager and Lighting Designer.
La La La Strada- Fellini is a puppet in crisis! When he tries to direct La Strada, his actors, lovers and critics become his puppeteers. A delightful and provocative look at the making of Fellini’s iconic film.*
*Not recommended for children under the age of 17.
