BRING TOUCHSTONE TO YOUR AUDIENCE
Adult
Productions -
Tempest
Walden
Chirstmas City Follies
Youth
and Family Productions -
Don Quixote: La Aventura
Comienza
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
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
DON QUIXOTE
La Aventura Comienza/The Adventure Begins
Click the image below to view a scene from Don Quixote. You
will need Quicktime to view this video clip. For a free download
of Quicktime, click here.
Bring
an inspiring, and imaginative adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes' world
famous comic classic to your stage! Featuring Touchstone's trademark physical
theatre, puppetry small to
gigante (from hand puppets to 14ft tall puppets), and audience participation,
this bilingual production engages and entertains
all ages with its broad comedy and fast moving plot.
"This
is a story about a knight and a faithful squire. Join us as
we go back through time in the 15th century for an action-packed show!
See Don Quixote battle windmills and go after his dreams!" Quotes
from Donegan Elementary School, Bethlehem, PA
For more information,
please call 610-867-1689 or email
Bill George
Don
Quixote Study Guide I
Don
Quixote Technical Rider
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
Tales from the Middle East
Click
the image below to see a scene from Tales from the Middle East.
You will need Quicktime
to view this video clip. For a free
download of Quicktime, click here.
An original Touchstone Theatre Production, written by Touchstone Ensemble Member and Education Coordinator, Vicki Graff (The Talisman, the Fairy Tale Life of Hans Christian Andersen), Tales follows a middle school girl, Shari, on her return from the Middle East, her concerns over entering a new school, making friends, and adapting to the American Culture as she returns home from several years in a foreign land. To her surprise, stories of her life abroad, stories of the lives of her classmates, stories from the traditions of the East aid in bridging the gap between peoples East and West. A delightful and touching tale of friendship and acceptance.
If you would
like to consider Touchstone as part of your theatrical season, please
contact Bill George. Or call
us at: 610-867-1689.
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.