Mistrusting Paradise? Our plum trees and feral cats are confused. Our wall furnace is asking questions. It's dry shirt-sleeve weather in February, when in Sebastopol it should be rainy and chill. What gives? Well, can't help but think "climate change" and expect the worst for the human race. And with the rumbles of election time, it's hard to frolic out into the spring. But let us not hold back from stepping out into the day, breathing in the air, and saying "Ye gods, what a gorgeous day!" We need those in-drawn praises of life to hold through the dark times. More and more, I hold the irrational thought that we have to feel the spring before it's willing to come. Co-Creation... Our reading and performance tour of Co-Creation continues on. See the calendar to the right, and join us. Email us about hosting us in your living room, coffee house, arts center, gallery, or wherever you can assemble fifteen friends. Late June in Denver/Boulder, late summer or early fall in the Midwest and East, most any time in the greater Bay Area. Our Duo Show...  First draft is finished, and we start rehearsals this week. First showings late summer. It might even have a title by then. Several old pieces are incorporated in it, including "Freeway," which has reappeared in several shows, but now revisited in a new context. More as we go. Strange Evolution... How things catch fire. In 2003 I created a solo story-telling show, Survival Tips for the Plague Years. I played a couple of performances in Sebastopol, adapted it to radio, then canned it. It seemed to have strong audience response, maybe too strong: several friends found it highly depressing, especially one story, "Galahad's Fool." For all practical purposes, it was dead meat. Recently, a friend who makes puppet films sent me a first-draft script for comment. It was on the theme of St. Joan, and as a framing device he used a filmmaker struggling to cope with that theme. Later, he went a different direction, but the spark struck. Now, I'm launched into work on a novel about an artist wrestling with a Sir Galahad journey, both of them on their quests for the Holy Grail, whatever they conceive it to be. Damned thing about novels: there are so many words. Sometimes an idea lies fallow until someone empties the slop bucket, and suddenly it's the magic catalyst. Right now what's emerging is a big, messy tsunami, but a very personal one. We'll see. At Play... Our daughter Johanna and her mate have just bought a 14th Century stone mill house in Tuscany, and now launched into the process of making it their own. Our son is beginning work illustrating a fantasy graphic novel to be serialized on the Web. We gave readings of Co-Creation this month for the San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers Guild and the Sonoma County Pagan Network — diverse audiences indeed — and performed short sketches for a local Valentine's "Love Salon" cabaret and for Arcata Playhouse in Professor Willikers’ Puppet Slam, a thorougly jovial affair. We're not wild social beings, but gradually we've evolved a bit more contact with the rest of humanity. We attend a periodic poetry salon and Shakespeare reading group, quarterly meetings of the SF Bay Puppetry Guild, a small full moon circle, Sunday morning coffee at Hard Core Espresso, and recently lots of friends' parties, which have resulted in both of us gaining five pounds, despite faithful trips to the gym. Life is good. Peace and joy— Conrad Bishop |
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Featured this Month... {with a bonus} |
Descent of the Goddess Inanna—
 A full-length DVD of our 2007 staging.
The Queen of Heaven and Earth begins a fateful descent to meet her sister, Queen of the Underworld, as a New Jersey wedding photographer finds her images turning into nightmares. Based on 5,000-year-old Sumerian myths, this dramatic revisioning features compelling music, masks & puppets, and the dazzling richness, humor and erotic imagery of the ancient texts. It's $16.95 plus shipping. Order through our website. * * * Bonus: Order Inanna this month through our website and receive a free 72-minute CD of Diana's Gifts — six of our favorite audio-dramas, the most "visual" of all our dramatic work. |
Saturday, March 3 7:00 pm House Concert - Los Angeles, CA Sunday, March 4 2:00 pm House Concert - Long Beach, CA Friday, March 5 8:00 pm House Concert - Van Nuys, CA Saturday, March 10 6:45 pm House Concert - Menlo Park, CA Monday, March 12 7:00 pm Arcata Playhouse - Arcata, CA Free. Thursday, April 5 7:00 pm Pegasus Theater, Monte Rio, CA Free. Thursday, April 12 7:00 pm The Imaginists, Santa Rosa, CA Free. Wednesday, April 18 7:00 pm Main Stage West, Sebastopol, CA Free. — more to come — [ Email us for info on hosting a reading] and performing a short sketch as part of An Evening of Puppet Obsession 6:00 pm, Sunday, April 1st The Garage, 975 Howard St., SF |
Enter the Labyrinth... ... of our website. Many treasures. To mention a few: - All 92 episodes of our radio series Hitchhiking off the Map for free listening (See "Media").
- Full scripts of 29 of our original plays for free online reading (See "Print").
- Photos, reviews, video samplers, and a chronicle of 38 years of work (See "Stage/Chronicle").
- Our library of play anthologies, CDs and DVDs for sale (See "Media" and "Print").
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