Blackbird
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The SF Bay Guardian calls solo performer Seth Eisen “a sly, vigorous, soulful performer,” and Blackbird, “a completely unexpected journey through some vibrant underground queer history.” Brian Freeman (Pomo Afro Homos) directs this musical evening of mimicry, bigotry, puppetry, and faggotry. The Pansy Craze sensation of the 1930’s swept the nation delivering queer cabaret in all its splendor. Led by La Malin, the creator of the movement, you’re serenaded into a falsetto spell and taken on an illicit journey that stitches together outrageous songs and stories about the struggles and triumphs of seven Queer artists who found radical ways to counter the severe repression of their eras. Join Danny Kaye, Klaus Nomi, Issan Dorsey, Sylvester, Brazil’s Ney Matogroso and Azis of Bulgaria, as they share their own extraordinary stories. With generous support from The San Francisco Arts Commission, Zellerbach Family Foundation, Eye Zen Art is a fiscally sponsored project of CounterPulse.
Biographies Seth Eisen’s (writer/performer) work is a hybrid of contemporary performance: Butoh, puppetry, physical theater, clowning, drag, and performance art. As a visual artist he works with the forms of installation, video, book arts, fetish object and costume. His layered aesthetic communicates across multiple genres, blurring boundaries and expanding dialogues between various disciplines. Seth has been performing, exhibiting, curating and collaborating with various artists in the Bay Area since 1994. In 1998 he developed the company Eye Zen Art producing performances and installations featured at The Oakland Museum of California, Theater Artaud, Zeum, Yerba Buena Center, SOMARTS, Theater of Yugen, and CounterPulse. He has performed as a member of several Butoh companies including Harupin–Ha, and Ink Boat from 1994-1999. Since 2000 he has been performing and creating visuals with Keith Hennessy and the acclaimed contemporary circus company Circo Zero in the US and Europe. Seth was a collaborator/ performer in Sol niger which won two Izzies and the recent revival of How to Die/ American Tweaker, in which he appears as the Ghost of Sylvester. Brian Freeman (director) has directed solo shows by Paul Flores, Robert Karimi, Regie Cabico, Jerry Quickley, Wayne Harris, Diane Ferlatte, Marijo, Wayne Corbett, Canyon Sam; experimental works with Bill T. Jones, Cultural Odyssey & Pomo Afro Homos (co-founder); and plays with the Mark Taper Forum, Joseph Papp Public Theater, the Theater Offensive and others. A playwright, director, and performance artist, he was Resident Artist/Director, Blacksmyths Theater Lab at Center Theater Group, LA. His play CIVIL SEX, about the late Civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, was produced by Berkeley Repertory Theater, the NY Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, Thick Description, San Francisco and Woolly Mammoth Theater in Washington, D.C. Awards include a CA Arts Council Playwriting Fellowship, the CalArts Alpert Award in Theater and a NY Dance and Performance “Bessie” award. Sean Feit (musical director) is a classically trained composer and multi-instrumentalist (piano, violin, voice, all strings). He studied music composition at CA Institute of the Arts (BFA, 1993), focusing on Renaissance polyphonic vocal music and Cornell University (Graduate Fellowship, 95-96). He co-directed RUJEKO Performance Collaboration with Keren Abrams from 1997-2005 and produced six full-length pieces integrating site-specific movement, live music, improvisation and spoken word. In addition to solo and directing work, Sean has danced or made music with Scott Wells, Angus Balbernie, the Bodycartography Project, Seth Eisen, AVK Productions, and Leslie Seiters Little Known Dance Theater. Currently Sean is a member of Keith Hennessy’s critically acclaimed company, Circo Zero, working in SF and France. His music for Circo Zero’s Sol niger won an Izzie Award in 2009 for best musical composition. This event received a Creating Queer Community Commission from Queer Cultural Center funded through the San Francisco Foundation. |
