for now
Lyrical and inventive. A gentle spectacle made of the most mundane of materials. On a few small, carefully crafted stages, puppeteers Sarolta Cump, Audrey Delgado, Harvey Rabbit and Asaf Zulah investigate the private, the interior and its recesses and explore the public, the exterior and the unsaid while a soundscape by Matt:Matt and Melody Jones, emanating from a variety of handmade instruments, evolves, collapses and recovers itself. As in her previous works such as killing mom, HOP and the sand child as well as her design and mask work with San Francisco’s Theatre of Yugen, Max and nimble-works create a complete world that is both meditative and beguiling.
Biographies
Max (Visual Designer/Director) is a lighting and set designer, production manager, mask maker and puppeteer (using materials as varied as fire, cloth, metal, papier-mache, plastic, leaves and glass). She has worked with artists such as Keith Hennessy/Circo Zero, Dance Brigade, Maxine Moerman, Spinning Yarns Dance Collective, Jess Curtis/Gravity, Courage Group, Alma Esperanza Cunningham, Veronica Combs/Liquid Fire, Christy Funch, Dance Ceres, Jo Kreiter/Flyaway Productions and Stephen Pelton. Her puppet work has been seen on both American coats and in japan, Germany; France and Poland. Original works include killing mom, Sweet Meat, on the ether: stories of flight, HOP and see things thru as well as the sand child, a solo shadow puppet show based on the short novel by Tahar ben Jelloun, created as an AIRspace resident at the Jon Sims Center. A member of Theatre of Yugen’s performance ensemble, Max’s set design for Yugen’s frankenstein was nominated for a Bay Area Theater Critic’s Circle Award.
While still in high school, Matt:Matt (iud:gid) (Sound Designer/Musician) lucked his way into an eight year Sound Engineering position at the Florida State University School of Music. Under the watchful eye of the sound guru and poet Ken Beattie, he grew an understanding of the synesthetic properties of the inverse law and the Zen of nomenclature. His sonic journey has allowed him to design, work with and engineer for countless personalities. Notables include artists such as Circo Zero, Paul Drescher, Jay Cloidt, Amy X. Neuburg, Fred Frith, Zaccho Dance Theater, Sarah Shelton Mann, Margaret Jenkins, Mastadon, Dashboard Confessional, Hank Williams III, Micheal Moore, Garrson Keillor and countless others. In his spare time he eats, shits and bleeds music, creating mixes uses various processes (digital and analogue) and conjures up third eye visions of robot anarchy.
Sarolta Jane Cump (Lead Puppeteer) was born in Chicago in 1970 and makes the city of San Francisco, Alta California, her home. A filmaker who creates visually arresting documentations of little heard public histories, herstories and mysteries, her work is often found drifting into other mediums. In the realm of theater, she has conspired with Max as lead puppeteer in HOP and produced and projected images onto her set for Erik Ehn and Theatre of Yugen’s smash hit frankenstein. She received her MFA in film and video production from York University in Toronto and completed the short experimental documentary California is an Island.
Audrey Delgado (Puppeteer) has been shifting through various puppet sizes, shapes and ‘s’ cities for the last 10 years. From life size figures in Seattle to the smaller sort in San Diego, to for now, her second puppet experience in San Francisco, Audrey continues to investigate objects and other ‘inanimate’ things onstage and in the act of creation.
Since birth, Melody Jones (Musician) has been teetering toward fully embracing the song inherent in us all. The year 1996 brought her up to speed with the reality of rock-n-roll bass with her first all-girl band, Tri Mi Pi. Since then, she has been in several bands, ranging from national touring act Mira (Projekt Records) to playing with singer/songwriters, on her own material (to be realeased) and for several off-shoot recording projects with Trust Weiness/A Low Cost Affordable Heating Plan (available on iTunes NOW!). Melody Jones encourages harmonious robot de-botury.
Harvey Rabbit (Puppeteer) has an MFA from the Experimental Performance Institute and is a graduate of the San Francisco Clown Conservatory. Jazz singer, writer and lyricist, she has been a participating Artist in Residence at the CESTA 2007 Waste Festival in Tabor, Czech Republic. Her one-woman show Madge’s Box achieved great success in the 2008 San Francisco Fringe Festival. She is also a founding member of San Francisco’s Team Lexington Productions. You can find her at harveyrabbit.com. Harvey is thrilled to be here for now.
Asaf Zulah (Puppeteer) started his career as an animator and puppeteer in the 80s with the stop motion films he produced in his early childhood using his first access to the new wonder of video. In 2001, after officially studying art, animation and design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Asaf moved to San Francisco to put those skills to the most unexpected use: he found a home at CELLspace, an artist collective in the Mision District, where he helped run the media lab and got friendly with the ever present puppeteer community. His interest in performing arts continued developing through his residency at radical events space station40, where he helped dress, produce and perform multiple shows, from his own spoken word rants and live music projects to the marching drum and flag corps Dance Dance Insurrection and other radical street theater productions.