Peripatetic Players Announce Pirate-Themed Summer Tour

Idiot String (Founding Producers Joan Howard and Rebecca Longworth) announced today that their fifth annual summer touring production will be a pirate-themed, participatory play entitled Shiver We Timbers! A Peripatetic Pick-Yer-Own Pirate Adventure. The touring show will be performed by Idiot String's dedicated troupe, the Samuel Peaches Peripatetic Players. Shiver We Timbers! will perform on Saturdays and Sundays from July 7 - August 12, 2018 at parks and public spaces throughout the Bay Area; the tour will visit San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Niles (Fremont), Pleasanton and Port Costa. For more information about the performance schedule and venues, visit http://peripateticplayers.org/schedule.

Shiver We Timbers! is devised by the ensemble and directed by Rebecca Longworth, with Music Direction by Casey Robbins. The cast includes Sam Bertken, Paul Collins, Joan Howard, Casey Robbins and Marlene Yarosh.

"The Peripatetic Players are inconsolably elated to be adventuring on the high seas this summer," said Founding Producer Rebecca Longworth. "Meekins was relieved to learn that we wouldn't have to meet any real pirates, though. We're looking forward to a mash-up of pirate myths and we hope to unearth some treasure!"

The creative team also includes Maya Herbsman (Assistant Director), Joan Howard (Visual Design Lead & FluxWagon Designer), Megan Hillard (Scenic Painter) and Addie McDowell (Costume Designer).

Shiver We Timbers! will be performed on FluxWagon, The Peripatetic Players' folding mobile stage that is set up by the ensemble shortly before each show. As with previous Peripatetic Players productions, the Players will playfully interact with the audience before, during and after their show. Shiver We Timbers!, based on pirate stories from history, pop culture, and myth, features a structure inspired by "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, and original songs as well as new takes on traditional sea shanties. The adventure begins when the Players set theatrical sail on the high seas, but when they can't decide what course to take, it's up to the audience to weigh in. The audience is asked to "choose their own adventure" at key points in the narrative, which will alter the story and outcome -- sometimes resulting in the epic demise of one or all Players, or the audience themselves. And like a choose-your-own adventure book, the story can pick up again at a different spot to keep the fun going.

Samuel Peaches Peripatetic Players are: Samuel Peaches (Casey Robbins), Princess Gwen (Marlene Yarosh), Guy Hank (Paul Collins), Thumper (Joan Howard), Meekins (Sam Bertken), and Madame Directrix (Rebecca Longworth, who also directs). Shiver We Timbers! is presented in association with San Francisco Recreation and Parks and Berkeley Parks and Recreation. The production is made possible by the generous sponsorship of Niles Main Street Association, Oakland Dept of Parks, Recreation and Youth Development, Port Costa Conservation Society, Downtown San Mateo Association, Santa Clara City Library and the City of Pleasanton.

Idiot String is sponsored by Independent Arts and Media, with support from Theatre Bay Area CA$H Creates. The company's annual summer tours with the Peripatetic Players are made possible through individual donations made either online or in person at each show. The East Bay Fund For Artists at the East Bay Community Foundation is matching gifts made to Idiot String through July 15, 2018. More information on supporting Idiot String and the Peripatetic Players can be found online at https://peripateticplayers.org/donatepp or by calling 510-542-9009.

JOAN HOWARD is a physical theatre performer, slapstick acrobat, and clown. She is also a builder and artist who creates objects that partner with performers, including FluxWagon, Idiot String's folding mobile stage. Outside her work with Idiot String, Joan is one-half of the acrobatic clown duo Max & Antoinette, who have performed around San Francisco at SF Theatre Pub and FURYFactory, and internationally at the Bali Spirit Festival. Joan teaches physical comedy at San Francisco Circus Center's Clown Conservatory, clowns with the Medical Clown Project, and works with Bay Area Children's Theatre as both props designer and slapstick choreographer. She is a graduate of Flying Actor Studio's Physical Theatre Conservatory and holds a BFA in Sculpture / Performance Art from California College of Arts & Crafts. She is devoted to inciting delight and provoking meaningful human interaction through play.

REBECCA LONGWORTH is a theatre maker dedicated to original ensemble performance. She is the director of Idiot String's Elixir of Life and each of the Peripatetic Players' shows, and also creates original performance with the Hatch Collective. Other directing credits include New Conservatory Theatre Center, Ragged Wing Ensemble, SF Theatre Pub, Boxcar Theatre, Theatre Q, Dragon Productions, El Gato Family Theatre and Jump! Theatre, where she served as artistic director for four years. Rebecca has performed with Ragged Wing Ensemble, We Players, and FoolsFURY, and has also designed motion graphics and projections for Jump! Theatre, Crowded Fire, Custom Made Theatre, and Shotgun Players. Rebecca holds an MA in Text & Performance Studies from King's College/R.A.D.A. and is a member of the 2009 Lincoln Center Directors Lab.

The Samuel Peaches Peripatetic Players arrived in the Bay Area in Fall, 2013, with a trunkload of tall tales of world travel, and their own wacky versions of popular stories. Since then they have performed at theatres, schools, parks, and public spaces around the Bay Area, usually aboard FluxWagon, their folding mobile stage. More information about the Peripatetic Players is available online at http://peripateticplayers.org/history-of-sppp or by calling 510-542-9009.

Idiot String was co-founded by Joan Howard and Rebecca Longworth in 2013. The company's first production, O Best Beloved, featured an eccentric group of actor-characters who would become the Samuel Peaches Peripatetic Players. O Best Beloved premiered at the 2013 San Francisco Fringe Festival and went on to tour Bay Area parks and public spaces during the summer of 2014 with FluxWagon. Idiot String's next productions, also starring the Peripatetic Players and touring the Bay Area with FluxWagon, were Aesop Amuck (2015) and Shakespeare or Space Wars (2016 and 2017). In 2017 Idiot String premiered a new play, Elixir of Life - an ensemble-devised play based on apocryphal stories of a travelling snake-oil seller. Elixir of Life also toured Bay Area Parks, with an immersive design that placed the audience in a fictional late-Victorian town named Port Promise. Shiver We Timbers! runs about 60 minutes, pending the adventures chosen. More information is available online at http://peripateticplayers.org/schedule

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