Announcing: "Street. Art. Prophets."

Artwork by Michael Mahaffey

Street. Art. Prophets. 

A collection of 5-short plays. 

Written by Katherine Harroff, Melissa Coleman-Reed, Delia Knight and Wind Dell Woods based off of interviews with the Graffiti Artist Community of California. 

Directed by Katherine Harroff, Samantha Ginn, Melissa Coleman-Reed, Shaun Tuazon, and Adam Parker.  

Choreographed by Blythe Barton and Michael Mizerany. 

Opening Night: November 29th 2012, Show Runs: November 29th-December 15th, 2012.

 An artist’s desire to tap into creative outlets is a hunger that must be satisfied.  Despite family hardships, financial difficulties, gang violence, cops, or access to resources, the voice of the artist will be heard one way or another no matter the outcome. Street.Art.Prophets. is a collection of 5 short pieces featuring stories that reflect exactly that: the drive of an artist to make art, and what limits they will surpass to succeed in their calling.  Circle Circle dot dot Company members and San Diego Playwrights Katherine Harroff, Melissa Coleman-Reed, Delia Knight, and Wind Woods reached out to the Graffiti community to learn the first-hand experiences of California artists who have taken to the streets to awaken their aesthetic visions, whatever they may be.   Together the short plays encompass an evening of live Theatre that will give our audiences a glimpse into the poetry, whimsy, dance, danger, and delight of the life of a Street Artist.

"As we launch into our second year of existence with Street. Art. Prophets.Circle Circle dot dot is excited to explore a new formula of story-telling with this collection of short works.  We are also thrilled to invite outside San Diego Playwrights to experience Community-Based Theatre development.  With this model we were able to reach out to more community members and share a broader perspective of the lives of Graffiti Artists." - Katherine Harroff, Street. Art. Prophets. Playwright, Director, and Artistic Director of Circle Circle dot dot. 

*Adult themes, and language are used in this production. 

The Cast of STREET. ART. PROPHETS. includes:

Patrick Kelly* (Various Roles) 

Brian Burke (Various Roles)

Justin Warren Martin* (Various Roles)

Sophia Ethridge (Various Roles)

Soroya Rowley* (Various roles)

The Design Team for STREET. ART. PROPHETS. includes:
Areta MacKelvie
(Scenic Design)
Bonnie Breckenridge
(Light Design)
Katherine Harroff* & Soroya Rowley*
(Costume Design)
Evan Kendig*
(Sound Design)
Patrick Kelly*/ Brendan Cavalier*
(Props and Set Dressing)


 

The Crew for STREET. ART. PROPHETS. includes:
Crystal Brandon
(Stage Manager)

Jon Huckaby

(Assistant Stage Manager)

Patrick Kelly*

(Technical Director)
Brendan Cavalier*
(Managing Director)

*Company Members of Circle Circle dot dot

HOW TO BUY TICKETS: Tickets for Street. Art. Prophets. are available only at www.circle2dot2.com (you can find the ticketing page HERE) before the show, or by e-mailing circle@circle2dot2.com for reservations. 

Tickets may also be purchased one hour prior to each performance.   

Groups of ten people or more may purchase tickets for $10 before the day of the performance. 

Student/Senior/Military/Actors Alliance tickets are $15. General Admission is $20. Opening Night + Post-Show Reception $25.  


 

SHOWTIMES: Opening: November 29th.  Show Runs: November 30th-December 15th. Thursday-Saturday shows are @8:00pm.  Sunday shows are @4:00pm.  

Moving Forward

It's a little after mid-October and we are catching our breath.  MORP 2012 was a fabulous party and we were so lucky to share the fun with you.  You've probably seen all the ghastly zombies floating around social meda post-party thanks to the fantastic photography provided by Yonzon Photography and Rich Soublet Photography, but here are a few of our favsies:  

Utopia Pleneesha gave the most incredible/sexy Zombie Drag performance ever.  Photo by Yonzon Photography.  

Our photobooth was super spooky thanks to the artwork of the incredibly sexy Michael Mahaffey.  (Pictured with Company member Sam Ginn).  Photo by Rich Soublet. 

Everyone had spectacularly unique zombie costumes.  Adam Parker, director for our upcoming production of "Street. Art. Prophets." was a Zombie Pooh.  Photo by Yonzon Photography.

Our Zombie Court winners were beauties.  Photo by Yonzon Photograpy.  

 And Circle Circle dot dot managed to survive our second-annual Morp.  Photo by Rich Soublet Photography.  

We are so fortunate to have such creative and spirited fans to support our efforts.  

But just like *that* we are already in rehearsals for our next show. "Street. Art. Prophets." is a collection of five short pieces written by Artistic Director Kathering Harroff, Company member Melissa Coleman-Reed, and invited guest Playwrights Wind Woods, and Delia Knight.  We each went out into the community to interview 5 different artists who vary greatly in their perspectives and histories of the field and now we are putting together a piece full of whimsy, dance, music, poetry, and a whole lot of compelling visual art.  We are thrilled by the pieces that the playwrights created and our first week of rehearsals have been fabulous.  We will be giving you a WHOLE lot more information in the coming weeks, and we hope you'll join us at the show.  It's going to be something very special that you will not want to miss.  Opening November 29th at the 10th Ave. Theatre!  

Check out our work-in-progress but pretty spectacular poster art for the show thus far by one of the artists of the piece, Michael Mahaffey!:  

More soon sweet friends of Circle.  Lot's more soon.  

10 Reasons to come to MORP

If you had any doubt about wanting to come to MORP 2012 here are 10 reasons you should get you booty to the party tomorrow night!

1) You get to dress up like a Zombie!

And not just any Zombie, the weirdest most creative zombie you can think of.  Bring us your zombie Jesus, zombie butterfly, zombie banana! Bring it on errbody!  We are having a costume contest to determine the best overall zombie, the best couple, the funniest zombie and the best celebrity zombie. You do not HAVE to dress up, you will not be turned away at the door if you don't, but you could win some really fabulous prizes including tickets to local theatre companies (Old Globe, Cygnet, Diversionary) Tickets to other San Diego entertainment (Comedy Shows, Museums), dinning certificates and more, so why wouldn't you want to?  

The Emperor Zombie crown that could be yours!

2) Booze!

A single ticket ($25) Gets you 1 free drink. If you find a date ($50 for a couple) you each get 2 free drinks! And you can always buy more for super cheap.  We are getting beer from Stone Brewing and Karl Strauss.  The wine will be a potpourri of local favorites. For those of you who really like to party and support local art we also have the All You Can Drink George A. Romero ticket for $100, what a steal!

oh that demon liquor so good for rotting bones

3) Free food!

We will have delicious eats from Luigi's Pizza, Pannikin Café, Eclipse Chocolate and Caffé Calabria!  Thanks to our sponsors all snakes will be free!

yummmm!!!

4) Free photos!

We will have several professional photographers snapping shots of you in your fabulous costumes.  You will also have the opportunity for a private photo shoot with the amazing Rich Soublet against our one-of-a-kind Zombie-fied backdrop created by Michael Mahaffey! 

Rich's handy work from MORP 2011 for our friends Anya and Beau

5) Comedy!

He's back! Our favorite Master of Ceremonies Julio Jacobo will be bringing the funny as host for the evening.

Zombie of Cerermnies Julio Jacobo

6) Drag Performance!

Utopia Pleneesha is Performing couple numbers and she is fierce. 

The Incomparable Utopia

7) Live Music!

Damn Riot is playing! They are a little bit rock, a little bit pop and a whole lot of awesome. You will want to dance.

Damn Riot! These kid's are fun!

8) More Performance!

You can expect to see Soroya, Katie, Patrick, Justin and Sam do something hilarious and musical our Zombie Themed Cabaret Acts!

9) Art Drawing!

You could win a one-of-a-kind art piece made by a CCdd company member or other local artist! The amazing Michael Mahaffey taught us a thing or two last week and helped us to create some bad ass zombie themed art for you all! 

10) It's for the kids

US! CCdd. The self-proclaimed misfits of the theatre world!  Every one of our plays is a world premiere piece based off of interviews with a unique community.  We are a daring bunch of precocious little tikes that like to get down and dirty- but we can't do it without you.  All proceeds from MORP will go to fund our 2012-2013 season.  These projects will include:

• Street. Art. Prophets.- 5 short plays created from interviews with Local San Diego Graffiti Artists.  Opening this November at the 10th Avenue Theatre.
• Love Collaborations- With the success of our 'Love Roulette' event last year, we will be developing a more fully developed version for a limited run in February.  
• Derby Girls Production - Our next original production this season will be about Derby Girls!  We don't have a title yet, but it's going to rock!
• San Diego Fringe Festival- Never heard of it? Oh ya that's because we are helping to launch it with the local nonprofit contACT Arts! A Fringe Festival in San Diego! A unique opportunity to see original theatre from all over the world!  This pilot festival will take place July 5^th-7^th 2013.
• New York Fringe Festival- Our last piece Deconstruction of a Drag Queen was selected for the New York Fringe Festival 2013!  This means we will be remounting our glittery baby for a brief reprise in San Diego before we cart her off in August to the big apple!

And there you have it 10 reasons to come to MORP 2012 this Saturday. We promise this will be a Zombie Affair to Remember! 

Behind-the-scenes Zombie Commercial Shoot

MORP 2012: A Zombie Affair to Remember is only 8 DAYS AWAY!  We have been working our butts off to make sure that this is the single most incredible Halloween party on the PLANET!  We've got live acts- (Cabaret, bands, AMAZING Zombie Drag performances), we've got AWESOME costume prizes in several categories, we've got booze, and good eats, and a whole lote more.  You DO NOT want to miss it!  Our new location- Queen Bees Arts and Cultural Center- in awesome North Park, is absolutely perfect for this event and we promise that we're going to do it up and down right.  So get those tickets HERE today!  

Speaking of working our Circle Circle butts off, earlier this week we all got together to shoot our epic 3-part Zombie Morp commercial that we will be releasing soon, and here are some of the behind-the-scene pictures of the fun:  

 

Sam and Evan are the hard-working team behind the filming and editing.  They did a great job!

Melissa is a genious and helped out with all the Zombie make up.  Everyone looked amazing.  Check 'em out:

Circle Circle dot dot is hungry for BRAAAIINS!  Come join us on October 13th!  We promise you a great time!  

Eat Me, Drink Me

This week wonderful Company member Melissa Coleman-Reed shares her adventure this summer with the World Renowned Siti Company in New York:

 Twyla Tharp once said:

Qoute posted on the orange reminder bulletin board at Saratoga

But this summer, I did run away. Sort of. I packed my best stretch pants and tank tops and tabi socks. I left San Diego to make some art and learn more about where sit-stand-flail-fight-soar-see as an artist in the world. I had the pleasure and privilege of attending the 20th anniversary of SITI Company’s summer intensive held in Saratoga Springs, New York. This phenomenal program offers 60 artists (be they actors, writers, directors, musicians...) one of those delicious, rare, once-in-a-lifetime experiences that are often hard to put into words, once you return home to your family and friends.

Trapped in airports for over 24 hours, my tabi (and a few pints of beer) kept me company

The daily breakdown at Saratoga goes something like this: Mornings of hard-core training in Suzuki and Viewpoints. Afternoons of classes in dramaturgy, speaking, movement and... dun-dun-dun... Composition. Evenings of symposiums led by Anne Bogart, the SITI Company and this year, members of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Breakfast-Lunch-Dinner-SoftServe-BadCoffee-and-WineWineWine all matched with beautiful conversations as you begin to grow amazing relationships while training/brain-storming/performing with incredible people. Some of which, time will reveal, will become lifelong friends and loves. All the while with Stravinsky and The Rite of Spring (our focus and inspiration for the workshop)  pounding/crashing/ swirling everywhere. On your lips-in your ears-all inside your bones. I’ve often been asked about my experience since my home-coming in August, but I tend to mostly start & stop and splutter & gush and ramble & ramble about what it feels like to live for a month, as I like on say, on Planet SITI (which is not at all like Planet Terror... although some days...some nights... things can get a little bit wild, a little bit dicey).

Mr Igor Stravinsky - The focus of SITI Company's and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company's 2013 Collaboration

One of the gifts you do get from being in this month-long whirlwind are the revelations -- maybe not the biblical kind but...  the lessons you learned, the things that have inspired and changed you in bits or tons, sometimes they don’t show themselves immediately. Instead, they start to unfold, unravel from within, through the passing months. One of the things that keeps sticking out in my mind mostly, right now, as we here at Circle Circle work to develop our next piece, Street Art Prophets, is the phrase “the call to adventure.”  This phrase was talked about quite often as we worked to build our weekly group compositions in Saratoga.

 In life, each of us are the hero or heroine of our own experience. You are sometimes presented with these opportunities to step outside your everyday world. Venture to some new corner of life you’ve yet to explore. Learn something, perhaps. Lose something, perhaps. Gain something, certainly. Then come on home and share what you have learned with the people you love most. Do you say yes to this adventure?? Are you Alice and do you nibble that little cake that says, “Eat Me” or drink that little vial of potion that says, “Drink Me.” Are you Neo and do you pop that red pill?  Are you willing to see what happens if you live just a little bit on the edge of your everyday life?

Photo taken from a Graffiti Adventure & DopeTankMonster

We here at Circle tend to eat that cake - and- drink that potion (and in many forms) and happily. In “popping that pill,” we are hope for some phenomenal, new magical journey. And in keeping with this theme of answering the call to adventure - after our mega-successful Love Roulette fundraiser, Katie asked me if I would like to write for our next show. I lept at the chance. We have just had the initial reading of the first drafts of scripts by writers, Wind Woods, Delia Knight, Katie Harroff and me. After hearing each piece, I really believe our show will invite you, the audience, to answer that call. To go to a place that is fraught with beauty & trouble, poetry & heat, darkness & dreaming, discovery & choreography, and static & romance.

Feeling the lovelove.

Through our interview style that we use to connect with our chosen community for each project,  I have had some fantastic and frightening adventures with a small cluster of graffiti artists who live here in San Diego. I am struck by how readily --The Call-- pulsates in each of them. Compelling them to make art religiously, through tagging with paint or stickers or stencils or even removable pieces. They keep their eyes open. They are always listening. They see new places in the world to Put Up, to leave their mark. To Write. To Tag. They are willing to go to places where most people won’t. Sometimes in the dead of night. Sometimes to alleys or rooftops, to towers or under bridges or hell, even literally, underground. There is a daring to live, to be seen, to express. Put up your name or colors or your picture or your shape. Let people see you, meet you, in their world, as they drive to work or walk to the gym or go shopping or eat at Pinkberry.

There is a huge sensibility of daring, to be mighty in that briefest moment that it takes for you to leave your mark. I believe nearly every artist I know, in each of their varying crafts, strives for such freedom and such cojones. I am so excited for you to join us in November for the next leg of Circle Circle dot dot’s journey, as we show you a peep hole into the lives of these Street Artists who I know, have shown me a new way to work, to be in the world.

Now, in the words of Mr Kushner
as we excitedly dive into creating our next show:

 “Greetings Prophet...

The Great Work Begins 
The Messenger has arrived.”

or in our case Prophets & Messengers, plural.

Out of the light.

-Melissa Coleman-Reed