BRING TOUCHSTONE TO YOUR AUDIENCE
Adult
Productions -
Tempest
Walden
Christmas City Follies
Youth
and Family Productions -
DaPooch
To
bring a Touchstone production to your
venue, contact Touring Manager
Bill George
TOUCHSTONE ON TOUR presents:
The Tempest
An irreverent take on Prospero and his magical island
(3 Actors, 10 Characters, and 1 Disembodied Spirit)
''The Tempest,'' …is a perfect vehicle for Touchstone Theatre's kind of physical theater… charming, imaginative and full of artful stage illusions…a fast-flowing pageant. The action has been condensed to 90 minutes, and by focusing on Prospero and his relationships, the plot just sails along. This is a plot-driven story, peppered with sprites, monsters, supernatural storms, uncanny coincidences and magic. The cast members effortlessly morph into one personality after another, playing out their destinies on a simple stage filled with inventive, poetic and minimalist stage props.” –Myra Outwater, The Morning Call
Photo Copyright H.Scott Heist
Touchstone’s latest touring creation is a blend of their modern movement-theatre techniques (made famous through the teachings of Jacque Lecoq) brought to the Renaissance brilliance of Shakespeare’s final and perhaps most perfect Romance. This ninety minute blast of magical dramatic action, comedic interlude and dazzling poetry is a true crowd pleaser in perfect Shakespearean fashion.
Touchstone Theatre’s production is part of
Shakespeare for a New Generation, a national program
of the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest.
In Two Acts
A one-person dramatic performance with flautist
It being over 150 years since Henry, aged 27, retreated to the woods “to settle himself, and work,” the causes of his concerns are still very much with us, and in many cases, have only waxed more grievous. The voice you hear on the stage is not only his or that of the actor; it is, perhaps, the everlasting and innocent soul of humanity itself —longing for truth, freedom, beauty, Life.
Mr. George – one of Pennsylvania’s finest theatre artists, recipient of the coveted Fringe First Award for outstanding new works at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland, awarded the 1995 Pennsylvania Solo Theatre Artist Fellowship, Founder and Ensemble Member of Touchstone Theatre, Bethlehem, PA – has created this exquisite adaptation of Henry David Thoreau’s classic, Walden, to tour colleges, high schools and theatre-art venues. The full-length evening work features Thoreau’s text mounted in a frame of gestural simplicity and direct address. It is the story of an innocent soul, troubled by his times, who retreats to the woods to understand the full meaning and test the validity of the many assumptions about living that society takes for granted. While there he has many adventures and natural encounters and is, in one sense, adopted by the “spirits” of Nature. Learning through his encounter with a mischievous and elusive loon, HD slowly comes to understand the ultimate frustration
and joy of his quest.
Walden Video
I
Walden Technical Rider
Walden Sample Flyer I
Walden Sample Press Release
Walden Sample Poster I
Walden Sample Program
In Two Acts
Vaudevillian Holiday Hijinx
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Welcome to Christmas City Follies. For this spectacular holiday season, Touchstone brings you some old friends, like the Pajama Sisters, the Old Guy, and the Shopping Cart Ballet. And this year we will answer the burning questions that most occupy everyone’s mind—what is Mrs. Clause really like, will there ever be world peace, and if you can’t be in the Christmas City this season, where is the next best place to be...
The popular Christmas
City Follies wraps music, wit,
silliness and dazzling performances into a
variety act package that serenades
your imagination and delights your senses.
Welcome to “America’s Christmas City”
—at least that’s what Bethlehem proclaimed
itself to be in the 1970’s to
celebrate its Moravian roots and
to boost tourism. The Touchstone’s
Christmas City Follies takes off on
both of these identity claims in a
joyful collection of frivolity,
such as a shopping cart ballet
scored to Nutcracker Suite, and scrappy poignancy, in a homeless man telling the nativity tale with props pulled from his cart. Fresh off our tour to Gettysburg, Pa (the next best place to be at Christmas), Follies is friendly entertainment with all the warmth of family combined with the joy of opening beautifully wrapped performances.
Technical requirements depend on the nature of the engagement, please contact J.P. Jordan for further technical details.
Copyright H.Scott Heist
WHERE WE'VE BEEN LATELY
The Baltimore Theatre Project, Baltimore, MD
The Ko Festival, Amherst, MA
New
York City Parks, City Parks Foundation
Adams
County Arts Council, Gettysburg, PA
International Puppet Biennial Festival, Caguas, Puerto Rico
Bethlehem Township Recreation Center
Reading Public Museum
Mayfair Festival of the Arts
Saints Simon & Jude School, Bethlehem
Bucks County Free Library, Levittown
The National Theatre, Washington, DC
Mauch Chunk Opera House, Jim Thorpe, PA
Union Township Elementary School, Milford, NJ
Mosser Elementary School, Allentown
The Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ
Resica Elementary School, Stroudsburg, PA
Agere Systems, Allentown, PA
Millersville University, PA
Dante Hall Theatre of the Arts, Atlantic City, New Jersey
Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Bloomsburg, PA
DaPooch
The Story of Poochie's Three Hundred and Seventy Second Birthday AND How the Hunga Munga Munga SAVED HIS LIFE!.
Join master story teller and Touchstone co-founder, Bill George, in the amusing and thrilling tale of Poochie's eventful birthday, how the animals helped him, and how, sometimes, what you fear most can be your salvation. With music, audience participation, and lots of joyful silliness. (Pre-K through 3rd. Grade)
Check out a clip here!
For more information,
please call 610-867-1689 or email
Bill George
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
"An
audacious company....
internationally renowned for its wittily eclectic staging techniques."
Bob Mondello, City Paper, Washington, D.C.
"Pure
Magic!"
Myra Outwater, The Morning Call
"Intellectually
stimulating and a quintessential display of physical theatre."
Roy Fulner, The Reporter, Lansdale, PA
"What
you see at Touchstone, you won't see anywhere else. It's such a refreshing
change from the ordinary."
Kenneth Sawyers, Audience Member
"Touchstone
Theatre touches lives in ways you will never imagine - I saw it in the
children and adult faces."
Sue Williams, Adams County Arts Council
"When
300 people come marching down Fourth Street behind that iconic figure
of idealism, Don Quixote, astride a rag-tag wooden horse and clad in glorious
regalia, this little town of Bethlehem indeed becomes an enchanted place."
Kerri Allen, American Theatre
"A
Comic Strip drives past the easy laugh and leaves theatre goers
rethinking their own views of what's funny and what life is all about."
Cara Hungerford, Audience Member
"A
Tack-Sharp Cosmic Family Circus."
Geoff Gehman, The Morning Call
All Youth and Family performances include:
· A post-show Q&A and demonstration with the actors,
· A studyguide to help teachers integrate the performance into their curriculum,
· Posters and a press release to build excitement in your audience,
· Discounts for multiple performances at your venue.
Touchstone
also offers workshops to foster the creativity of your students or community
including. Some of our workshop topics include:
· The gestural technique of Jacques Lecoq
· The organic theatre process, including ensemble building and
collective creativity
· Mime and pantomime techniques
· Playwriting
· Bullying
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
Touchstone
Theatre was selected for inclusion in the Pennsylvania Performing Arts
on Tour Roster. Funding may be available to support performance engagements
with presenters in DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, OH, PA,VA, WV and the U.S. Virgin
Islands. Please visit www.pennpat.org.
Touchstone
Theatre is also in the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) Arts in
Education Roster. For funding information, please contact the Pennsylvania
Council on the Arts, Arts in Education Division: 717-787-6883 or visit
www.pacouncilonthearts.org.